Underhill Trail to Fifteenmile Creek Hike

Overview

The Underhill Trail is the last hiking opportunity in the Mt. Hood National Forest as you go east on FR 44 towards Dufur. It is also one of the most remote and unused trails in the northern Oregon Cascades and arguably the best trail in that area that has never appeared in a guidebook - although it does appear on several maps. A plaque at the trailhead states that the 160 acres around the current small campground/picnic area was donated by Mrs. Adeline Underhill, the wife of Ned Underhill, who operated a small mill here during the Great Depression. The scouts from nearby Camp Baldwin have earned innumerable merit badges setting up a small trail system that, due to lack of boots on the ground, is going to seed in places. Most of the signage is down or blasted to pieces by target shooters. A short loop leads down and around Ramsey Creek, where you can find a collapsed old cabin. Then you can continue up the ridge on the Underhill Trail to descend into the next drainage, Fifteenmile Creek, through a lovely semi-open oak and ponderosa pine savanna blooming with wildflowers in the spring. If you are just doing the Underhill Trail, it is 5.6 miles round-trip. The loop option described allows more views, but it does cross a patch of private land on a county road (or rather a jeep track): keep strictly to the forest road in this section: it cuts about a mile off the total mileage. Walk down the slope from the campground past a hiker only sign. The trail veers to the right under ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, and grand fir. Descend to paved FR 4450 and cross. The trail drops, passes through some split-rail fencing, and reaches the Underhill-Old Cabin Trail North Junction. Go right here to make the west circuit of a loop – you’ll see the only signpost on the trail down to your left: this advertises the East Loop, which peters out in a meadow, and the Old Cabin Loop, which you’ll take on your return. Descend an old road bed. Soon you’ll pass a long series of steps, constructed by the Scouts, leading down. You can take

Trail Stats

Photos

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