Lindsey Ridge (not an official name but what I'm calling the ridge west of Lindsey Creek) appears on the 1963 Mt Hood National Forest map as the #412 trail. The trail marking subsequently disappears from the 1966 map never to grace a MHNF map again. A lost trail for sure and a ridge hike to boot - I like being up on the ridges. The central question is why was the trail dropped from the inventory?
#412 trail runs down the center of this 1963 MHNF map snippet. The #411 is Wyeth and the #413 is Defiance trail:
Originally the plan was to ascend Lindsey ridge but the lure of easy parking at Wyeth was too much - forget about having to negotiate Shellrock Mtn on the return, way too far in the future. So about 8:00AM I lit out from the Wyeth trailhead heading for the ridge top to connect with the #412. Wyeth is well graded with a couple of nice views along the way like this:
Apart from a single large stem laid across the trail early on, Wyeth trail was clear up until snow forced the snowshoes on at around 2500'. Not being able to follow the trail, from there I beelined up the hill and made the ridge top where an open area afforded many looks at familiar places. Like Defiance:
Hood - there was a dense haze Saturday that seemed to drain all the colors so I went the rest of the way:
After wandering around a bit on the plateau I took off down Lindsey Ridge. I had brought my ice ax just in case and on the way up the hill I recall asking myself why I brought the darn thing in the first place - going down the top part of Lindsey Ridge in the snow gave me my answer. There was about 2-3 inches of fresh soft snow on top of an icy layer. The soft part would ball up underneath the snowshoes making the crampons ineffective for traction - given the steepness of the slope, I got to practice my ice-ax self-arrest skills on several occasions. I got off track, lost the ridge and wound up in a gully, still in deep snow (you can see my departure from the ridge on the attached map) - got a little nervous but after taking a few deep breaths and counting to 10 or 15 I bounced from tree to tree back to the ridge where I found the snow had departed. With the snowshoes off and on the ridge I set about to explore the trail. I shortly came on some human activity, someone had carved out a bench with a chain saw.
From there the ridge was a marvel to hike. I have never seen such an easy unmaintained ridge trail. There is a dense canopy all the way down that has prevented any undergrowth - really amazing the long stretch of the ridge that can be freely hiked with no blowdown or brush to negotiate. Here are some samples:
Pretty much like this all the way down to I-84, simply wonderful, easy hiking. There were several viewpoints along the way with looks of Defiance and the Columbia, an unexpected treat as I thought I'd be in the trees the whole way.
View of the Columbia looking east from on a rocky ridge - the patch of rock in the center provided another viewpoint - some exposure there :
As I neared the end of the ridge, I took a side trip to Lindsey Creek to see if I could get a better angle on the falls I saw from the other side back in March. I made the creek and managed this pathetic little waterfall - of course, the main part of Lindsey Creek went around this:
I made my way downstream with my 30lb backpack and an ice ax that stuck 6 inches above my pack that had to grab every passing branch. I was just not attired for thrashing in a creek bed so I had started to climb out of the canyon when I saw the falls I was looking for - another crappy shot of this thing only this time from the west side of Lindsey Creek.
I think this falls comes in 2 parts with the top falls a slide and the other with a drop off. I passed a road on the way down that looks like it would get most of the way to the bottom of the falls - on some other day with a lighter pack.
Once on I-84 I now had to negotiate Shellrock Mountain to return to the Wyeth trailhead about 3 miles away. The bit of I-84 around Shellrock is about as unfriendly to foot traffic as can be - simply no room between you and the 70MPH+ traffic. Turns out there is a narrow path on top of the concrete retaining barricade that can be easily traveled. While you can almost reach out and touch passing 18 wheelers, I don't recommend it.
I did get a look at the old highway retaining wall, someone took great care in putting it together and nice that the freeway builders left it standing.
So the #412 trail is an absolute gem. I will be returning later this summer to explore the upper snow covered reaches of the trail. Safe to say, there is no need for a managed trail ever to be run along this ridge as nature has done that for us. I would rank this with Rudolph Spur in difficulty but easier to negotiate. Very little and easy to avoid exposure. Some good views.
Lacking any obvious reason, I can only speculate why it was removed from the MHNF trails inventory - maybe lack of parking but in 1963 I think you could pretty much park anywhere along the freeway, the trees are young, maybe a forest fire took out all the human constructed parts of the trail. Could be proximity to Wyeth and Defiance trails made this trail redundant in the eyes of FS management.
Around 13 miles ~4000' cumulative elevation.
