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SERVING DELICIOUS NEW YORK PIZZA
-BY THE SLICE AND BY THE WHOLE PIZZA PIE-
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ANY 18” LARGE OR
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686-9598
JAMES JOHNSON
T
The
Little Cowhorn
trail is a moderate
climb of about a mile,
first through a
30-year-old
tree plantation, and then
through a
1 FREE 12 OZ. SODA
1211 ALDER
ON CAMPUS NEXT TO SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
T r a d it i on a l
S p ec ia ls
by Owner and Chef Pismai
Snooze with furry friends at
Little Cowhorn Lookout.
he Willamette National Forest has
seen a lot of change since it was es-
tablished as the Cascade Forest
Reserve in 1893. Before the forest began a
massive industrial forestry program in the
1950s and ‘60s, the major mission of the
Forest Service was custodial: preventing
timber theft, building trails and fighting fire.
For a good part of the year, the only humans
to be found amidst a vast unbroken forest
were perched on lonely lookouts scattered
across dozens of panoramic vistas along the
spine of the Cascades. The Depression-era
Civilian Conservation Corps built most of
these structures, and by 1936 there were ap-
proximately 65 lookouts. One of the best
maintained is found atop Little Cowhorn
Mountain, east of Lowell.
This is a very complicated drive. Trust
me, you’ll want a Lowell or Middle Fork
District Map from the Forest Service head-
quarters on 7th and Pearl, or at the Lowell
Service Station in Lowell.
Directions: Take I-5 south from Eugene
for approximately 3 miles. Take the
Oakridge/Klamath Falls exit (Exit 188A).
Stay to the left onto Hwy. 58. Drive 58 for
approximately 13 miles and take the left
onto the Jasper-Lowell Road (next to the
white covered bridge). Drive through the
town of Lowell, following the signs for Fall
Creek (a left on West Boundary and a right
on Moss Street). A mile outside of Lowell,
you’ll come to a four-way intersection with
another covered bridge ahead. Take the right
onto Fall Creek Road. In a half-mile stay left
®
T a s t y Th ai K it c he n
Hut on the Summit
on North Shore Road (stay to the left at the
intersection in seven miles). This paved road
follows Fall Creek and turns into Forest
Service Road 18.
Do you have your map? OK. One mile
past the boundary of the Willamette
National Forest, just past the Dolly Varden
Campground, take a left onto FS 1817. In
4.5 miles take a left on FS 1818. In 1.5 miles,
take a right on FS 424. In 2.3 miles take a left
at the unsigned FS 1806. In less than a quar-
ter of a mile, take a right on FS 1817. Travel
about 1.5 more miles and find the trailhead
on the left-hand side of the road.
The Little Cowhorn trail is a moderate
climb of about a mile, first through a 30-
year-old tree plantation, and then through a
gorgeous forest of hulking Douglas fir and
hemlock. Towards the top you’ll encounter
a number of dramatic rock spires, where the
trail winds across a narrow ledge to Little
Cowhorn’s rocky summit at 4,200
feet.
The flat-roofed lookout hut at the summit
has been abandoned since the late ‘60s, and
it’s not a four-star hotel (a ragged notebook
perched on a square column that used to
house a sighting scope for fires provides ex-
tensive documentation of campers late-night
run ins with the lookout’s rodent popula-
tion). But it’ll keep you and a few friends
warm and dry, and on clear days you’ll wake
up to a gorgeous sunrise with good views of
the Three Sisters and the Willamette
Valley.
The days of free board on Little
Cowhorn, like so much else on the forest, are
about to change. The deteriorating age of the
lookout, compounded by frequent vandal-
ism, has obliged the Forest Service to plan
an ambitious restoration project. Upon com-
pletion, the renovated lookout will be placed
in the Willamette’s lookout rental program,
which will charge you $40 a night to stay.
The Middle Fork Ranger District is still ac-
cepting comments on this proposal, which
can be directed to recreation planner Tim
Bailey at 782-2283.
ew
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gorgeous forest
of hulking Douglas fir and hemlock.
JUNE 19, 2003 31