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  • Cache Meadow trails

    Many years ago I followed an overgrown trail from Shellrock Lake Trail to Cache Meadow. It started in the trees near the clearcut between Hideaway and Shellrock Lakes, close to Shellrock Lake. It went up the ridge, traveled across a flat area with many blowdowns, and ended in a corner of Cache Meadow. It was not much of a trail; I mostly followed the blazes. Any info about it?
    Cache Meadow trails
  • Re: Cache Meadow trails (#)
  • 5/13/07; 8:45:23 PM ¦ by Donovan
  • It shows on a few old maps.  You may have passed a junction with the trail heading south towards the divide between Hideaway and Cottonwood Meadows.  I have seen it on the Cache Meadows end.  Thanks for the tip on where to find it on the Shellrock end.  Last year I saw no evidence that anyone had been that way.  Does it stay out of the clearcut and in big timber all the way?
    • Re: Cache Meadow trails (#)
    • 5/15/07; 1:05:05 PM ¦ by Joe Keller
    • As I recall, it stayed just in the timber, never in the clearcut. It climbed fairly steeply from the Shellrock trail. There may have been an old trail marker post, but it is probably long gone.
      • Re: Cache Meadow trails (#)
      • 5/16/07; 1:54:27 PM ¦ by Tom Kloster
      • Thanks for posting this, Joe! I'll have to make a point of checking that out this summer. Here's my interpretation of a 1939 USFS map of this trail:

        http://www.splintercat.org/PortlandHikers/CacheShellrockTrail.jpg

        According to the old map, this is the original trail, and the route to Hideway Lake came later. Sometimes that can help in locating old alignments -- looking for a sharp bend or descent in the existing route, so I'll see if that can help me find your trail.

        Also up in that neck of the woods: a pretty little, two-step falls on the outlet stream from Hideway Lake, immediately below the Shellrock Trailhead. You can skitter down an old skid ditch leftover from the loggers on the trailhead side, or you can save your knees and shins by pushing through the young conifers along the road, directly across from the trail to Hideaway Lake, then curve around through an open forest of big trees and rhododendron to a softer approach to the falls. Here is the view from the trailhead side of the creek:

        http://www.splintercat.org/PortlandHikers/HideawayCreekFalls.jpg

        And here's the view from below the falls, as approached from the opposite side of the creek:

        http://www.splintercat.org/PortlandHikers/HideawayCreekLowerFalls.jpg

        I try not to call this "Hideaway Creek" or "Hideaway Falls", since there's already a creek and falls by that name in the Salmon River Canyon. "Hideway Lake Creek Falls" seems kind of awkward, too... so I've got no brilliant ideas on what to call this one!

        Tom
        • Re: Cache Meadow trails (#)
        • 5/16/07; 10:10:16 PM ¦ by Joe Keller
        • Thanks for the great pictures. I've heard the falls a few times, but have never taken the time to scramble down to them. Too many huckleberries to eat.

          If interested you could put your pictures on http://www.waterfallsnorthwest.com. They use Hideaway Lake Falls as the unofficial name.

          Joe
          • Re: Cache Meadow trails (#)
          • 5/17/07; 4:22:11 PM ¦ by Tom Kloster
          • Thanks, Joe - no huckleberries down there, but it's definitely where the mosquitos go to relax during the day..!

            I think Bryan added that listing after I sent him photos a couple of years ago, though he generally prefers to post his own images. I didn't realize that he'd gone with "Hideway Lake Falls", but that sounds good enough to me! My friend Greg Lief visited the falls with me in 2004, and later had one of his clients tell him that their family had camped at Hideaway Lake for many years, and had visited the falls, as well. Not too many undiscovered spots left in the MHNF!

            Tom