Mother Lode Loop Hike

Overview

NOTICE: Trails in this area have been affected by the 2021 Bull Complex Fire. Please check current closures in the Clackamas River Ranger District before planning an outing. This remote loop begins at the Pansy Lake Trailhead and heads up over a pass and down into the forested bowl of Mother Lode Creek. Then it’s a hard slog on an abandoned trail up the Geronimo Ridge above the Welcome Lakes and then below the Bull of the Woods Lookout back to Pansy Lake. The southern part of this loop has been affected by two recent fires: the View Lake Fire Complex of 2010 to the east and the Mother Lode Fire of 2011 to the west. The area also attracted prospectors in the late 19th century and some mine relics can be seen at the site of the Geronimo Mine. WARNING: In order to complete this loop, you will need to use the Geronimo Trail, which ascends the east side of the Mother Lode basin. This trail has been abandoned by the Forest Service and can be difficult to follow in places. The trail begins across from the parking area, enters the Bull of the Woods Wilderness, goes up through old growth Douglas-fir, western hemlock, noble fir and silver fir, and crosses a few small creeks. Vine maple, rhododendron, and huckleberry predominate in the understory. At a switchback, you can take a spur leading steeply down to a secluded campsite. From here, you can head into the Pansy Basin’s big meadow, which glows golden in the fall below red vine maple bursts on the scree slopes above. Pansy Creek flows through a bog and down the west side of the basin, which attracts elk in the mornings and evenings. There is no easy bushwhack from here up to the lake, so return to the main trail and switchback up past the Pansy Basin-Dickey Lake Trail Junction. The trail rises gently to the short spur that leads west along shallow Pansy Lake’s north shore. On the slope above the lake’s western shore, you can search for Robert Bagby’s Pansy Blossom Mine, where he dug for copper in the late 19th century. From the lake, switchback up scree slopes

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