My objective today was to explore the East Fork South Fork McKenzie River. I didn’t have a whole lot of information about it. I did know that it would be twelve to thirteen miles with no less than 1750’ gain. That’s just calculating the starting and ending elevations without taking the ups and downs along the trail into consideration. What I didn’t know is how many ferns, salal, and other vegetation are intruding onto the trail. Walking through that got tedious really fast.

The good part is that the river, which looked like a creek to me, reminded me a lot of French Pete Creek. I love to see water tumbling though rocks. Like most creek trails, the trail doesn’t actually have a whole lot of creek access. Oh, there’s probably enough, but not as much as anyone in their right mind would prefer. The picture is from my lunch spot. A lot of the time when you get down to the creek, you’re just looking for a place to set up a tripod with a decent composition. Often that’s easier said than done. However, in that spot there was not only plenty of room for pictures, but even rocks perfectly placed for seating.

At some point I realized that not only was I not loving wading through vegetation in the trail, but my slow speed was going to make it difficult to finish before it got really late. If they ever brush out the trail I would consider returning to complete the entire distance, but for today I decided to turn around short of my goal. I was filthy by the time I returned to my car. Not only had all of that vegetation rubbed dirt onto my belt pack, backpack, camera, tripod, and clothes, but I discovered that I even had dirt and needles in my pockets.

Truncating my hike allowed me to finish my day at French Pete Creek. The scenery is similar to East Fork South Fork, but the trail sure was in better shape. I guess that’s what you get at a much more popular trail.