PSA: The blowdown maze on the Eagle Creek reroute cost me 4 extra hours
Headed out on the Eagle Creek trail near Cascade Locks last Saturday planning a simple 12 mile loop and hit a tangle of downed hemlocks around mile 5 that wasn't on any map or trip report I could find. I spent 4 hours crawling over and around maybe 30 fallen trees, lost the trail twice, and came out after dark with a dead headlamp. Does anyone know if that section is getting cleared this season, or should I just plan to bushwhack the ridge instead?
30 trees sounds like a lot but 4 hours? Even crawling over and around that many, that's like 8 minutes per tree. Something else must have slowed you down, maybe the losing the trail part ate most of that time. Maps and trip reports go stale fast out there so I wouldn't bail on the route just yet.