Snow on Saddle Mountain

By Peter Marsh
Astoria Review
Astoria, Oregon
May 2006

This Fall, teens have the opportunity to travel, live and work outdoors with new friends, camp out, get into shape, and earn a $1,000 stipend plus bonuses! Through Northwest Youth Corps, teens aged 16-19, can hike trails, cook on dutch ovens, sleep under the stars and wake up to the sunrise in some of the most beautiful parts of the Pacific Northwest.

The wet weekend of April 15-16 brought a late snow fall to the higher elevations of the Coast Range. When the skies cleared a couple of days later and I could still see snow on Saddle Mountain, so I decided to take a hike and get a closer look. There were several cars in the parking lot when I arrived, showing that I wasn’t the only one with time to spare mid-week, but it looked and felt like a warm spring day as I started up the trail.

After about a mile, I began looking for snow around every turn in the route, but instead came upon a group of youths rebuilding the trail. There appeared to be about a dozen people in a co-ed group with two leaders. It seemed early in the year for this kind of work, but they were making good progress with new foundations built under several washed-out sections, and new drainage ditches to protect the trail from running water.

Photo: A teenage trail-building team from Northwest Youth Corps gets down and dirty on the Saddle Mountain trail. PM Photo.

The need for this became apparent around the next corner, where I found a stream of water racing down the rocks and across the trail. A little further on I came upon the source -- a foot-deep snow bank rapidly melting in the 60-degree heat. There was more snow under the trees in the shade, and more above the tree line on the steep south-facing slope that leads to the summit.

Saddle Mountain is 3,283' high (1001 meters) and from the top four snow-capped volcanoes -- Mounts Rainier, St Helens, Adams and Hood were visible -- as well as the whole of the lower Columbia estuary. The hike up is 3 miles and 1600 feet of elevation -- and well worth the effort.

On the way down, I stopped to learn more about the trail builders. They were a team from Northwest Youth Corps, aged 16-19, on a five-week spring work program that rehabilitates trails in Oregon State Parks while developing job skills.

The group's website also claims “you will experience the challenge and simplicity of five weeks in the woods and learn how to pitch a tent, cook over a campfire, and stay dry in the rain.” The organization is based in Eugene and has served over 10,000 young people in the last 20 years.

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