TIMBERLINE TRAIL DEVASTATION ABOVE MUDDY FORK
by James Wilson
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ast September, over Labor Day weekend, the Pacific Northwest experienced an historic easterly windstorm that battered Oregon, driving devastating wildfires to surge through forests and communities across the state. At Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, a peak wind gust of 106 miles per hour was observed. All throughout the forests around the mountain the sustained winds felled trees, breaking them apart or tearing them loose from the earth, to scatter across the trails and roads throughout Mt. Hood National Forest. The Timberline National Historic Trail #600 encircles Mt. Hood, and in 42 miles takes hikers on a spectacular route through alpine meadows of lupine and paintbrush, stands of old growth forest, across numerous creeks rushing down from glaciers, past waterfalls, and by historic stone structures. One of the areas most impacted by last fall’s storm was the section of the Timberline Trail between the crossing of the Muddy Fork and Yocum Ridge. This area is a nexus of locations popular with day hikers: Ramona Falls, the views along Bald Mountain, and the trail towards McNeil Point. The 1.5 mile section formerly went through large, shaded oldgrowth forest, gently hugging the contours of the slope. In October of 2020 I returned to the trail after the storms to survey the damage. I had been through this area multiple times Above: panorama of Muddy Fork damage. Photo: James Wilson
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earlier in the summer on day long loops of the Timberline Trail, and this formerly pleasant section that would take 20–30 minutes took me over three hours to navigate. The windstorm shredded the old growth forest, snapping trees in half, ripping many out by the roots, scattering them across the forest like toothpicks. Long sections of the trail here are completely covered in stacks of trees, hundreds of feet of trail have been torn away by root wads spilling down the hillside. There is an incredible number of trees greater than 30 inches in diameter blocking the way. The vast extent of the damage is viewable on satellite imagery of the area taken one year apart. Already this spring, there have been two search and rescue operations extracting hikers from the area. The extent of the trail
