2B
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2021
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APPEAL TRIBUNE
Brush Creek
Continued from Page 1B
The ﬁrst part provides the most chal-
lenge, as there is no discernible trail un-
til the top of the ridge. This section of
the trail has been engulfed by waist-
high brush, whose clusters of branches I
had to pull apart to squeeze my way
through the shrubbery.
Along the entire trail there are sec-
tions of well-deﬁned path and sections
where it has completely worn away. This
ﬁrst half mile is hidden by heavy cea-
nothus. Snowbrush, as it’s known, is a
large shrub that grows quickly in ﬁre-
torn areas and remains green year-
round.
It isn’t easy to reach the ridge and
view, as the brush requires intense
bushwhacking to get through, a long, te-
dious process. We opted to start up the
hill about 100 feet from the original trail,
which took us meandering through
young conifers and signiﬁcantly less
snowbrush.
Eventually, the hiking became easier
and the views began to open up.
Why was the trail abandoned?
In the late 1900s, the Brush Creek
Trail was a well-established, if rarely
used pathway.
“It’s always been in this category of
being seldom used and seldom main-
tained. And, so, those folks that would
hike it were generally those that were
seeking greater solitude,” Kallio said.
Then in 2003, the B&B Complex, a
90,000 acre wildﬁre, torched the Jeﬀer-
son Wilderness, including sections of
the Brush Creek Trail. The forest burned
around the trail, leaving behind copious
amounts of debris, such as fallen trees,
and signiﬁcant damage to the trail itself.
According to Ian Reid, the Sisters
District Ranger for Deschutes National
Forest, the Forest Service restored the
trail after the ﬁre. However, a lack of
consistent use made it diﬃcult to main-
tain and the path was “swallowed up” by
snowbrush.
The brush led to a safety issue as peo-
ple began to get lost coming oﬀ the Pa-
ciﬁc Crest Trail. Particularly, as the
brush is most heavy on a series of rises,
which makes it impossible to see the
roadway or trailhead from the hill. For
anyone, except experienced route ﬁnd-
ers, losing your way through the brush is
easy.
“What happened was that people
would come oﬀ the top from the PCT
and would get lost in the ceanothus… it
was a major health and safety issue,”
Reid said.
Ultimately, the Forest Service made
the decision to abandon it in the 2010s.
Stunning views from the ridge
As the trail tracks along the ridge, the
brush mostly disappears. Hikers are left
with forest debris, such as old logs, and
panoramic views, that I found to be well
worth the slough.
Each direction oﬀers striking and ex-
pansive views of the wilderness. Green
ridges overlap in the distance. Formida-
ble, snowy mountains rise above the ho-
rizon, close enough to see the deﬁnition
in their rocky faces.
From the ridge, seven major moun-
tains are visible, including Mount
Washington and the Three Sisters. Sev-
eral minor peaks, such as Black Butte,
are also in view.
This view is one of the reasons Kallio
is ﬁghting to reestablish the trail. Since
he ﬁrst hiked it in the 1980s, the scenery
and relative solitude kept bringing him
back.
“The Brush Creek scenic vistas are
unmatched,” Kallio said.
To the left of the crest is a view of the
B & B Complex burn scar, with several
peaks rising behind it. Almost two dec-
ades after the ﬁre, the valley remains
devoid of much green, with only clusters
Greg Kallio walks along a section of the Brush Creek Trail
abandoned trails like Brush Creek. They
said it was a real problem,” Reid said.
The future of Brush Creek and
others
Snowbrush littered with fallen logs covers the hillside that Brush Creek begins
on. PHOTOS BY EDDY BINFORD-ROSS
of color dotting the landscape.
The hike continues along the ridge for
a while, with more stunning views. The
trail does disappear in places, but sim-
ply following the crest poses little diﬃ-
culty and eventually took us to a major
section of deﬁned trail.
Along the ridge signs of animal life
are prominent. In the patches of snow
that dotted the area, we saw deer tracks,
bear prints and scat.
The crest continues to narrow until
the end, when the conifers clear to re-
veal a snow-capped Mount Jeﬀerson
which, until then, had only been
glimpsed through the trees.
The mountain appears in shockingly
close proximity across a small expanse
of forest green interspersed with brown
splotches. Snow clings to the mountain-
side in the dips between ridges that re-
main bare this early in the fall.
After that, the trail starts oﬀ the other
side of the crest in a series of switch-
backs. They are in relatively good shape,
considering the lack of maintenance but
Reid believes some of them may have to
be rebuilt if the trail is opened again.
From there we trekked on a visible
path, through a hillside of red-leaved
plants. Then the trail dips down into a
wooded area and up a smaller ridge,
where Brush Creek merges with the
PCT.
The Fight to Restore
In the fall of 2018, Kallio began doing
volunteer trail work for the Forest Ser-
vice. At the same time, he started talk-
ing to people about the trail, which he
learned had been abandoned.
As someone who had been hiking the
trail for several decades and had fallen
in love with what the path oﬀered, Kallio
felt that letting it remain in a state of
Miller
Continued from Page 1B
annual, or $300 for a life membership.
Oregon Bass & Panﬁsh Club: The ﬁnal vax-or-mask
organization with in-person meetings on the list, it
meets at 7 p.m. on the third Thursday of the month in
Carvlin Hall, St. Philip Neri Catholic Church, 2408 SE
16th Ave., Portland.
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disrepair was a disservice.
“I gathered other interested people,
including Mark and Holly Scott, the
stewards of the Jeﬀerson Lake Trail, and
we formed a small group of experienced
trail people... we feel we have the capa-
bility of doing it,” Kallio said.
Kallio and his group want the Forest
Service to let them do the maintenance
work to reopen the trail.
But, the group can’t do anything until
the Forest Service gives them permis-
sion. And, in this case, it isn’t as simple
as the agency suddenly deciding to re-
open it. Because of the state of the trail,
Reid said there is both environmental
and legal work to do.
Earlier that decade, the agency had
begun a project, the Mount Jeﬀerson
trails environmental assessment, to
look into trails in the wilderness. Brush
Creek, abandoned by that time, was
part of it.
According to Reid, the project was
put on hold, so that focus could be
placed on starting the Central Cascades
Wilderness Permit System, the system
that now requires hikers to get a day or
overnight permit to enter the Jeﬀerson,
Three Sisters and Mount Washington
Wilderness areas in an eﬀort to control
crowding.
That left Brush Creek and several
other trails in a state of limbo.
“We know there is a need to address
those issues,” Reid said.
As a result, the future of Brush Creek
and others remains uncertain. Howev-
er, the state these trails are in now con-
tributes to an ongoing issue for search
and rescue teams, as people underesti-
mate the challenge that inconsistently
visible paths present to navigation.
“When I started as a ranger here, the
Sheriﬀ ’s Oﬃce pulled me aside to talk
about the safety problems with user and
While the only one on the list to meet outside of
Salem, it’s the largest group in the Paciﬁc Northwest
for non-competitive warmwater-ﬁshing enthusiasts.
And full disclosure, it’s my go-to group for infor-
mation about bass and panﬁsh hot spots and volun-
teer opportunities. Check it out online at https://
www.oregonbassandpanﬁshclub.com
Dues are $20 individual, $25 a family annually.
Willamette Valley Mushroom Society: The group is
taking a hybrid approach to group activities for those
who are wild about wild mushrooms.
Because of a severe case of “screen fatigue” among
members for the monthly Zoom ‘shroom meetings,
the society has opted for setting up members-only,
small-group mushroom hunts with masks and social
distancing required.
You may end up a fungal fanatic.
Check it out online at https:///www.wvmssa-
lem.org
Dues are $20 individual, $30 a family.
Salem Audubon Society: In-person monthly meet-
ings and group ﬁeld trips are suspended until Novem-
ber “at the earliest,” according to the chapter website.
But the monthly “Birder’s Night” presentations
with sharing of sightings by members are held via
Zoom at 6:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the
month.
And monthly online Birding Webinars (the re-
placement for the monthly meetings) are available
via links on the chapter website.
Check it out at https://salemaudubon.org
Several other forgotten trails track
through the eastern side of the Jeﬀer-
son, abandoned and overgrown as well.
These abandoned trails, along with
“unauthorized” user ones not created by
the Forest Service, are considered “so-
cial trails.” There are a few hundred
miles of these social trails within the
area of the permit system, including
Brush Creek. Some of these trails are
“attractive and sustainable,” with the
agency considering adding some to
their inventory, according to Reid.
“We certainly understand the desire
for folks to access their public lands and
wilderness,” Reid said.
However, before action is taken to in-
corporate any of these trails into the ex-
isting system, the Forest Service wants
to collect another year of permit data.
Their goal is to better understand use
trends and demand for trails in the area.
After that, there will be environmen-
tal impact studies, which will look at
how these trails might impact nature.
This process is necessary for Brush
Creek, as new trail construction will be
required.
Realistically, this process will take
several years. Work would likely not be-
gin on Brush Creek or the other forgot-
ten trails in the area until at least 2025,
if the Forest Service decides to revive
them.
A success story
While the task of restoring the Brush
Creek Trail may seem daunting, there is
reason for optimism.
To the north, the Jeﬀerson Lake Trail
was also in a state of disrepair and
abandoned by the Forest Service. But
Holly and Mark Scott, who are helping
Kallio now, were able to reopen it, mak-
ing it a unique pathway that accesses
less traveled parts of the Jeﬀerson Wil-
derness.
Kallio knows that it might take time,
but it’ll be worth it.
“Hopefully, we’ll have a favorable re-
ply at some point. But we’re patient, you
know, we’re going to keep at it. We know
that it’s not going to happen overnight,”
Kallio said.
Eddy Binford-Ross is the Outdoors In-
tern at the Statesman Journal. Contact
her at ebinfordross@statesmanjour-
nal.com or follow on Twitter @eddybin-
fordross.
Group trips, surveys and outings such as this previous
bird count at Minto-Brown Island Park in Salem are on
hold because of covid precautions for Salem Audubon
Society. HENRY MILLER / SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL
Membership is $43 individual, $58 a family annually
with snail-mail newsletters, or $35 and $50 with an
emailed version.
Tight lines and happy hunting.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Anyone who’s stood
next to me while I’m ﬂy casting has long known the life-
saving potential of social distancing.
Contact
Henry
via
email
at
HenryMil-
lerSJ@gmail.com