Yesterday I tried to take a few quick glances at the North Santiam above Detroit Lake. There are pullouts along SR 22, and it looked as though there might possibly be some good pictures down there, although it’s kind of hard to tell at 55 miles per hour. I was tempted to stop and check them out this morning, but I decided that I would be better off sticking to the plan and going to a few waterfalls and Marion Lake (hopefully before the sun was fully on the falls.)

I stopped to see two waterfalls before getting to the Marion Lake trailhead. The second was Gooch Falls, and let me tell you it’s pretty impressive.

There was an inmate work crew building a rail fence when I arrived at the trail head. You can’t beat that, either from their perspective or mine. From theirs, it’s a chance to get outside. From mine, how could me car be any more safe at a trailhead than on a day when there is a sheriff hanging around?

Personally, I didn’t think that the forest was anything close to exceptional. Perhaps I’m spoiled after getting to visit Pamelia yesterday. The forest at Marion pales in comparison. What this hike does have is a waterfall. Oh, and I suppose that most people would prefer this trail since, not only is Marion a much bigger lake, but you also get a bonus lake.

I started scrambling up the hill alongside the Marion Outlet Trail too soon. I stopped a couple of times to take a look behind me so that I would know what to expect on my way out. Then I ran into the real path to Marion Falls. At the beginning the path looks like a real trail, but then it gets fainter. It was always pretty easy to follow. Or maybe I should say it was easy to locate. Following is another story. Once you reach the brink of the falls the fun starts. It’s a steep scramble down to several viewpoints of the upper tier and lower viewpoints of both tiers.

My gamble paid off since I was just early enough to have the right light from two vantages. I didn’t bother to go any farther down because at that point the sun was lighting the next spot I would have shot from. Since I would have been looking right at the sun, and since there was also now a bright spot on the waterfall, I decided not to go through the trouble of scrambling any farther down. Instead I just stood there for a long time watching the water. I ended up looking at one particular spot for quite a while, and when I decided it was time to leave I looked up and the world was moving. Vertigo is not what I needed just in time to scramble back up the hill so I looked at the falls a little while longer.

On my way out I did some trail work. I removed some debris from the path, and I placed some sticks and branches at the edges to help outline the way. I also placed a big stick across the entrance to the side path so that people who intended on taking the Outlet Trail wouldn’t make a wrong turn.

Later in the day I met a couple of ladies who said they were looking for the waterfall. I gave them instructions on how to get there. They asked if I had seen the inmate crew. I mentioned having seen an unsupervised inmate crew in the past. They were surprised, but I figure that the inmates would have to be supremely stupid to mess up a good thing like that. Escaping would mean not only a longer sentence, but serving the entire thing behind walls. Besides, as I mentioned to the women, I’m paying a lot of money for the opportunity to be out in the woods.

Soon after I started my return from the lake I started to smell smoke. Camp fires are banned in the area, and there hasn’t been any lightning, so I wasn’t sure where it was coming from. As I hiked back downhill the smoke intensified. I stopped at the Detroit Ranger Station to ask if there was a controlled burn. The lady told me that there was one in the McKenzie district.