I was reviewing the current list of trails on the Mt Hood NF website - they recently re-did all their trail pages (I honestly think the old pages were more useful than the current format). I was comparing their list to the list we have on this site and found several trails that used to be listed which are no longer there. I'm wondering if they have quietly abandoned the trails or if they just have not gotten them added to the new site yet. Here are the trails I found missing from the current list:
- Anvil Lake
- Burnt Granite
- Cache Meadow
- Corral Springs - The FS cut this trail out a few years ago all the way down to the bottom
- Cottonwood Meadows
- Cripple Creek - The FS cut this trail out after the Riverside fire
- Double Peaks (they noted this one as needing to be rebuilt after the Lionshead fire)
- Gibson Lake
- Hawk Mountain - There has been work done on this trail after the Lionshead fire
- Horseshoe Saddle - this one seems odd because it is a tribute trail - the Rhondy trail - named for Howard Rondthaler who used to be a ranger for Mt Hood who advocated for trails
- Huxley Lake
- Mon-Olallie
- Mt Lowe - I guess this one is not surprising since they don't officially recognize the north end of Rho Ridge anymore
- Rho Creek
- Russ Lake
- Top Lake
I agree, the current format is pretty poor compared to the old. Was just up at Gibson and Horseshoe. Gibson is signed on the PTC side, but is virtually invisible at that point due to the fire. Mid-section it is in decent condition, WSR side it is still visible though looks like it needs some love. Horseshoe has been sporadically flagged with blue ribbon, with only a couple of short segments that have disappeared. All in all it is pretty easy to track.
Ras12
I went up Horseshoe to Ruddy Hill last year - it was relatively easy to follow but parts of it got obscured by all the fallen bark.
Hiked the PCT south of Breitenbush yesterday and ws shocked to see official trail signs on both ends of the Pyramid Butte trail. The trail from the north is difficult to follow in places. The trail from the south is easy to follow. The trail up the butte is mostly there, but faint in a few spots.
The 4220 road is a bit better in places but it is just as bad as it always was closer to the Breitenbush trailhead. They cut a HUGE swath of trees off that road. In some spots they re-gravelled the road and it is pretty good, but farther up they did nothing at all.
The new FS trails page is pretty weird. They list both trailhead and trails as a separate listing for some trails and only the trail for others. And the info for each of those listings is different. And in 2025 they only include written directions from Portland rather than a map link? And in some cases, like Memaloose Lake trail, the directions take you to the closed end of Memaloose Road which has been closed for 10 years. It's like they have an unpaid intern doing the work for them that is using copy and paste without knowing how to edit. Very disappointing but not surprising.
After spending a long time refreshing all the trail info pages here, I have a little bit of sympathy for anyone maintaining trail information. It is very hard to maintain a large cache of info, even if one is familiar with the area and trying to produce correct information. I checked and re-checked the info on the trail info pages here and I still made mistakes - but I hope I fixed all of them.
I think you are correct - they probably had some intern doing the work - it certainly was no one who had any familiarity whatsoever with the trails. And it doesn't appear it went thru any real proofreading or checking by anyone. I still don't understand why they had to upgrade - IMO it seems like a downgrade - and I'm sure they spent millions of dollars to do it.
Having done similar work with river guides, I too understand the difficulty getting everything right. That is why it imperative to have others available to proofread and, more importantly, have a process where input can be applied easily to keep guides current and accurate. Not sure that is in place with the FS.