[pct-l] Re: pct-l Digest, Vol 22, Issue 47

[chelin at teleport.com (Sharon & Chuck Chelin)]

Good evening, all you Eagle Creek aspirants,

I have hiked the Eagle-Benson Trail many times, both up and down, as part of
a death-march loop for training purposes.  The other part of the loop, after
going up Eagle-Benson, is a flat northerly stretch on the Plateau, then down
the Rucklel Creek Trail.  Many of you have hiked Eagle Creek as a PCT
alternate, and probably remember the impressive hills on either side.  Well
... Eagle-Benson goes right up there, averaging 25% grade from the bottom to
the top of the plateau, with the first two-thirds averaging 30%.  The net
gain in altitude shows to be 2,846 ft.  With the commonly loose and marblely
trail tread, it is very close to traction limit in some rather exposed
places.  I think snow on that trail would be enough to make a mountain goat
puke.  I have not seen the blow-downs, but they would probably be up higher
in the last third of the trail.  Rucklel Creek  Trail is almost as bad, but
it is mostly in the timber so if you fall there might be something to grab,
or smack into, before you break the sound barrier.

Steel-Eye


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Wayne Kraft" <waynekraft@verizon.net>
To: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 6:43 PM
Subject: [pct-l] Re: pct-l Digest, Vol 22, Issue 47


> Wandering Bob said:
>
>
> "The Eagle-Benson trail #434, encountered 1/2 mile north of Blue Grouse
> Camp,
> runs from the Eagle Creek Trail 440 up to the PCT on the Benson Plateau.
It
> is very steep, and if it's at all wet, it could be really nasty. I quote
> Shaffer's  OR/WA PCT Guidebook, page 186:
>
> 'Eagle-Benson Trail 434, which climbs steeply up to the PCT. This narrow
> footpath is not recommended by the authors , who believe it is too narrow
to
> be safely climbed or descended with a heavy pack. In places it is quite
easy
> for you to slip on loose gravel and then fall over a hundred foot cliff.'"
>
> Now, this just the sort of annoying or dangerous situation that would
cause
> me to abort the trip. Assuming that going back wasn't just as dangerous or
> annoying as going forward.  And assuming I survived long enough to
> appreciate that annoying or dangerous qualities encountered.  In that
case,
> I usually just sit down and sob quietly and wait for a responsible adult.
>
> I haven't actually walked this trail. Have you been on it, Bob? Or has
> anyone else?  I ask because the Guide also says that ECT is scary and
> dangerous and I don't think it is at all.  I have an old guide which
> describes the Ruckle Ridge use trail in much the same way as the above
> passage now describes the Eagle-Benson cutoff. It is my impression from
> other's accounts of it that Ruckle Ridge is pretty hairy.
>
> I am not available next weekend according to my wife, so my ECT hike will
> probably not happen until March.
>
> Wayne Kraft
>
>
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