Badger Creek Wilderness loop

By Susan Kelley - October 14, 2019

Cedar and Mt Hood-- bff

Back in July, we scheduled a Sunday run in Badger Creek Wilderness to pre-fatigue us for our long, day-off run the next Friday (Timberline Trail around Mt Hood!). We started at Gumjuwac trailhead right on Highway 35, with a big climb up to the saddle and Lookout Mountain.

Even though it was a perfect hiking weekend in summer, we only saw a handful of people—most of them at the top of Lookout, since there’s a nearby trailhead you can drive to for a nice three mile loop. It really feels like wilderness on the far side of Mt Hood.

The wild beauty of Mt Hood's east face

This is one of my favorite spots in Oregon because you have a great view of Mt Hood’s east (the opposite side from what we normally see from Portland) as well as Rainier, Adams, and St Helens to the north, and Jefferson, Washington, and the Three Sisters to the south. Even more astounding is the stark line where the thick, dark evergreen forests give way to the desert dust of Eastern Oregon.

GGW and GSPGW selfie with Mt Hood

From Lookout Mountain, we ran down the Divide Trail to the Badger Creek Cutoff Trail. The barely-there Badger Creek Cutoff Trail required some bushwhacking and creative trail-sighting to make it to the much-better-maintained Badger Creek Trail, which we took to Badger Lake. We had a rest at the lake for Cedar to do some swimming and stick-retrieving, and we saw hundreds of little brown and orange butterflies fluttering and landing on the shore.

Then we ascended the Divide Trail up to the Gumjuwac Saddle, to take Gumjuwac back down to the car. It was a beautiful day and our first time taking Cedar on this route. He had so much fun scrambling on the rocks, laying down in streams, and fetching sticks in the lake. And I found nearly as much delight in the few, tart, already-ripe huckleberries I found along the way!