![]() ![]() The above switchback was also built with the trail relocation project in 2008, and has barely survived five years of heavy travel from Angels Rest hikers. But with the heavy foot traffic on the Angels Rest Trail, the sheer volume of switchback cutting overwhelms the trail, turning well-designed turns into a muddy, sloping mess: Normally, this is manageable by simply blocking shortcuts to discourage the relatively small number of rogue hikers. Newbie hikers and kids can’t seem to resist cutting switchbacks. The upper trail includes several switchbacks, and these are traditionally the Achilles heel of any Gorge trail. While the new trail was built to a conventional width, the continued heavy, year-round crush of hikers has since “widened” this section to nearly double its original width in just five years: The following photo shows TKO volunteers constructing this new section in April 2008: Forest Service to simply bypass that segment with a new trail alignment. The section shown above devolved so badly that in 2008, the Trailkeepers of Oregon (TKO) worked with the U.S. Until a few years ago, the effects of hiking were on display to epic proportions along an upper section of trail, where an enormous mud pit formed as hikers continued to walk ever higher on the shoulders of the widening trail: While walking adjacent to the trail might work for the first few hikers along one of these sections, in the end, it just creates more mud during the wet season - and an even wider trail as hikers continue to push the edges of the trail outward. The scene below shows another example of winter hikers wearing down the edges of the formal trail in an effort to stay out of the mud: It’s a natural instinct, but one that the trails were never designed to accommodate. The hikers in the distance in the view above offer a clue as to how this happens: as trails widen from overuse, hikers start waking side-by-side. Here, winter hikers have worn the new path to the left of the main trail tread in an effort to avoid standing water and mud in the main trail, which has become trenched from overuse:įurther up the trail, the path has become so wide that the edges are almost hard to determine: Over time, this has left roots of trees clinging to edge of the cliffs below exposed and unlikely to survive, making the trees themselves less likely to survive.īeyond the Coopey Falls viewpoint, the trail reaches the first of many sections showing the impact of year-round hiking on the trail. The damage here is fairly obvious: the original trail hugged the vegetation line along the right, but the crush of hikers attempting to view the falls has stripped away both vegetation and soil on the left. This badly eroded spot is the overlook above Coopey Falls, along the lower trail: This threatens not only the tree but also the trail, as tree roots are critical in holding steep, loose Gorge slopes together in a climate where annual rainfall exceeds 100 inches per year. Over time, this could damage the roots of the tree in the above photo to a point where it cannot survive. Along the lower section, the once-narrow traverse across moss and fern-covered talus slopes has broken down, with the path now straddling trees (the original trail is the upper third of the tread): The gradual deterioration of this old trail takes many forms. The Angels Rest trailhead was expanded and improved in 2000 to include stone walls and trailhead signage in the style found elsewhere along the Historic Columbia River Highway Add the emergence of year-round hiking on our low-elevation trails in recent years, and the unfortunate result is one of the most rapidly deteriorating trails in our region. The Angels Rest trail also has the distinction of being among the most accessible to Portland, with a trailhead located at a freeway interchange 30 minutes from downtown, and with enough parking to supply a small army. The 1,600 elevation gain over 2.4 miles to the top of Angels Rest is within reach for most hikers, yet challenging enough to give any hiker a thrill when reaching the rocky, often blustery summit. Since the Multnomah Falls Fire of 1991, the hike has offered a close-up look at a recovering forest along the upper reaches of the trail. The trail has a lot to offer, with sweeping views of the Columbia River Gorge and a brief streamside section along Coopey Creek (which cascades over a pair of waterfalls below the trail). The (formerly skinny and shaggy) author on top of Angels Rest in 1981 and an older, wiser and (and much balder) version in 2013! ![]()
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