1.7 hr
Overview
A system of trails, now mainly used by mountain bikers, extends along Surveyors Ridge past Lookout Mountain. Much of the forest here has suffered from disease, and the trails require annual logging out, much of it done by the very active 44 Trails group. The north section of the Lookout Mountain Trail takes you along Eightmile Creek to the lush expanse of Eightmile Meadow. You can make a loop by taking the northern part of the Fifteenmile Trail past Eightmile Point and then descending to hike a little-traveled section of the Bennett Pass Road to rejoin the Lookout Mountain Trail. You’ll be skirting the Badger Creek Wilderness and are only likely to encounter a few mountain bikers. Late spring and early summer are fine times to visit as a display of wildflowers brightens up the trail verge in those months. Hike up into a disease-ravaged forest with a few scraggly looking conifers left standing. The understory is littered with fallen snags. Young larches and lodgepole pines have colonized the devastation, and along the trail verges, you’ll see wild strawberry, horkelia, yarrow, lupine, and Jacob’s ladder. Soon, however, you’re into a woodland dominated by Englemann spruce, and the trail reaches Eightmile Creek. The lush growth on the banks of the creek includes lupine, heliotrope, Solomon-plume, groundsel, bead lily, and vanilla leaf. Douglas-fir, mountain hemlock, and silver fir form part of the forest mix. A couple of big log sections serve as stools next to the clear running creek. From the stools, the trail winds up in a healthy silver fir/mountain hemlock forest before entering a zone of diseased woodland once more. The gradient levels in a stand of Engelmann spruce, and the trail veers right to pass below Eightmile Meadow. You can bushwhack a few yards to this lush boggy expanse which displays a variety of blooms in early summer, including bog orchids, lupine, arnica, mountain knotweed, and swamp onion. Earlier, marsh-marigolds will dominate the expanse. Drop to cross a small creek on a footbridge, and t
Trail Stats
0.0 km
510 m
0 m
0 m
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Photos
400px-EightmilePointLoopMap
400px-EightmilePointLoopMap
160px-Scarlet_gilia_%28Ipomopsis_aggregata%29%2C_FR_2730-230
160px-Scarlet_gilia_%28Ipomopsis_aggregata%29%2C_FR_2730-230
250px-Eightmile_Creek_from_the_Lookout_Mountain_Trail
250px-Eightmile_Creek_from_the_Lookout_Mountain_Trail
250px-Tawny_horkelia_%28Horkelia_fusca%29%2C_Lookout_Mountain_Trail
250px-Tawny_horkelia_%28Horkelia_fusca%29%2C_Lookout_Mountain_Trail
400px-Formations_near_Eightmile_Point%2C_Fifteenmile_Trail
400px-Formations_near_Eightmile_Point%2C_Fifteenmile_Trail