CRR trail

[Webmaster]

I'm not sure what to name this particular hike. It is a forest service road but i don't remember seeing the road's designation. The trail starts a little past the paved distant end of Mountainside drive in Crystal River Ranch. You park near the end of the road, walk past the gate and continue for a couple of hundred yards. You’ll see a pretty well weathered gravel and dirt roadway that turns to the right and heads up hill. You will continue up hill for a little over 2 hours. It takes me about 2.5 hours. A ways up there are spur roads heading off in other directions. About an hour and a half up, the trail transitions from an abandoned logging road to a foot trail. The trail is mostly through new growth forest, and there has been recent cutting at the lower level. The upper elevations show several nice views of the valley that is Greenwater, and once you get to the top you get one of the nicer views of Mt Rainier in the area. This trail is infrequently used and wildlife abounds in the area. I estimate the vertical gain at between 2,000 and 2,500 feet. It is a good work out and a fine way to spend most of a day.

http://explore-greenwater.com/pix/hike2.jpg

http://explore-greenwater.com/pix/hike3.jpg

http://explore-greenwater.com/pix/hike4.jpg

http://explore-greenwater.com/pix/hiketop.jpg

[bandit32]

The road is actually a Wayerhaeuser logging road. If you follow some of the other trails that tie in to the one you were on, and generally bear to the right going uphill, it will eventually take you to the FS 75 road in the vicinity of the couple year old clear cut.
Just after you went through the gate and crossed the creek, had you gone straight ahead instead of turning right and going uphill, you would have eventually tied in to the FS 73 road. From there you can jump onto the White River trail past Skookum Falls and eventually arrive at Buck Creek.
The trip to the 73 rd is fairly flat and takes about an hour to hour and a quarter. It is not marked but generally follows the river. I have run into mountain bikers and horses on the trail.
The trip to Buck Creek is also fairly level but watch out for slippery roots. It is about an hour and a half. There used to be a suspension bridge about half way up the trail which connects to the trails leading to Camp Sheppard and from there you can get to Noble Knob, Lost Lake, or Corral Pass and the Crest trail. I have been told this bridge was destroyed by the floods and I'm not sure what the future plan is for it. This section is not real good for horses, but I have run into them and mountain bikes as well. There are some really tricky parts to it for these two.
Hope this is of interest/value to someone. There are a lot of interesting and beautiful hikes around here, but most are for the summer and fall unless you really enjoy long snowshoe hikes and snow camping.

Bandit 32

[Webmaster]

Welcome Bandit32 and thanks for the post! Next trip up I will find the clearcut area you mentioned. The path following the river is my second most traveled path. I've come to call it sub-Skookum as it starts about 4 miles below the official start of the Skooum flats trail off of FS-73, which, as you mentioned, wanders all the way to MRNP. The sub-Skookum section is a nice hike with many cool viewpoints. Along the way you pass by a lightly used fish hatchery and also some property that was cleared out long ago for something but is now only a very large field surrounded by trees. This lower section transitions from clearcut and new growth to old and older growth in about the first half hour on the trail. There is a monstrous tree used as a bearing point at the transition between private forestry and forest service property

I'm devastated to read of the loss of that suspension bridge! The dang thing was about 20 feet over the water level. And its demise speaks to the monstrous amount of water that ravaged the area due to the recent rainstorm. There are a lot of repair items that will need to be addressed so that folks may continue to access and enjoy the areas next to the White river.

[Stretch]

Actually, the suspension bridge got taken out by some of the HUGE trees in the area. It is a sad loss, as I've used that bridge many, many times...

So sad.

[Webmaster]

This bridge?

http://explore-greenwater.com/pix/SkookBridge-Mid.jpg

[Stretch]

Yeah... I saw that pic on a different post... That is the one off of Skookum, right?

[Webmaster]

Yes. It is, or was called the Ranger Creek Connector Bridge. I'll dig through my photo collection and see if i have a 'before' pix. Hope the bridge is on the short list of repair projects!

[Stretch]

That one will probably take a while. I guess it depends on which branch has the ability and funds to fix that bridge...

[Webmaster]

Hmmmm. I'll stop by the FS office in Enumclaw and ask if there are any plans...

[leahtobin]

Hey, just wanted to give the community a bit of history as well as updates. The bridge is on the buck creek trail 1169, goes from the white river trail to the Skookum Flats trail. The bridge was engineered, funded and built by Camp Sheppard Staff in 1972-1973. The bridge was John and Tom Miner's Eagle Scout Project. We (Camp Sheppard) have all the old pictures of the building of the bridge, as well as many photos of the damage the bridge received. As for the future of the bridge; there is a fund set up at U.S. Bank under the "White River Bridge Project". We already have some of the needed supplies donated to rebuild. We have many volunteers who look forward to help re-build the beloved bridge, however we are waiting for the approval of the forest service.