2015 Road Trip: Part 30 (Mary's Peak)

Mary's Peak, OR
Day 46
5.29.15

For the first time in the history of this road trip, I am caught up with myself.  This post is being posted on the day that it happened.  Yay for having a bit of free time.

I went hiking for the first time in Oregon, and I chose Mary's Peak, which stands at 4098', the tallest in the Coastal Range.  This would be a cool hike because it was a) relatively close to my campsite and b) I could look east to see the Cascades and west to see the ocean.  The drive there actually took me through the same trees-down-everywhere forest road I came in a few days ago after the coast visit.

The main thoroughfare.

I drove to the north ridge trailhead, because that one was free, to be honest.  It had lots of switchbacks according to a map I saw online.  For those on the east coast, a switchback is a trail that goes an a gentle angle along the side of a slope, then turns around and does the same thing, and so on.  We don't have those in Maine.  But they are kinda nice.

The trail was very nice indeed, with a nice footbed covered in pine needles.  Not too many roots or rocks to trip on, so that helped progress go smoothly.

I began the switchbacks after not too long, and I for once really enjoyed the trail itself, as opposed to having "summit fever" as I just learned it's called.

I passed a few guys who I had seen start up a few minutes before me, and I saw a couple people coming down, but other than that, it was a low traffic day.  Until I got to this darn parking lot.  I tried to tell myself it wasn't there, and I couldn't have driven up.  Lots of people were here walking their dogs, which also made me angry.  I maintained a temper however, and no dogs were harmed.

I walked up the gated road that goes to the top for some government access to something...it was a fenced off area on top.

I think it's steep enough.

As I made it to the summit, I was a bit disappointed to see low clouds covering up the view west to the ocean.  There was a haze the east as well, and hence no views of the Cascades from this mountain.  But the low clouds were interesting over the hills to the west.

Again, I used my technique for getting the most horizon per megapixel. It also makes it way more interesting!

I sat and had a lunch with some flies that were buzzing around.  I did not share.  I needed those two sandwiches to fuel up for the descent.

Purdy meadow

I did not take pictures on the way down, because it looked a whole lot like the way up.  There were 14 switchbacks, so it made it easy to estimate where I was on the trail.  (They had a map on the kiosk at the base so I had that as reference on my camera.)

I didn't really know what the mileage was to begin with, as the website told me 6.2 but that was ambiguous as to if it was one-way or roundtrip. It turns out it was neither.  A quick image overlay and path tracing on Google Earth showed the distance to be 4.5 miles one-way.  This made a total of 9 miles.  And because of those beautiful switchbacks, I was able to complete it in 2:41.  They did a great job at making the trail a steady climb, if you see below on the elevation profile.

Hike Data
Miles hiked: 9.0
Time elapsed: 2.7 hours
Total ascent: 2630'

I would recommend this hike, though make sure you have blue skies forecasted, because I would guess that views of the Three Sisters and the ocean would be killer from here if there wasn't a haze.  Speaking of Sisters, I am hopefully headed up with Matt, a friend of Nora's, to hike North Sister this weekend.  We shall see how that goes.