Vineyard Mountain Loop Hike

Overview

Completed in 2016, the multi-use Vineyard Mountain Trail makes use of short stretches of logging road as well as old user trails to reach the summit of Vineyard Mountain where, just north of the communication towers, you’ll find the chimney and floor of a cabin that had been constructed in the 1930s by Dean George Peavy of the OSU School of Forestry. The new trail has a gentle grade, and the best time for hikers here is the spring when wildflowers bloom along the trail and the forest is newly leafed out. The return route is a quick and gradual descent along Nettleton Road back to Lewisburg Saddle. There are plans to connect the Vineyard Mountain Trail with the trails in the Peavy Arboretum area. Heading north from the Lewisburg Saddle Trailhead past a gate, there’s an immediate fork in the road. To the left is William A. Davies Road, while to the right is Harry J. Nettleton Road. Take the latter, and then go right on the Vineyard Mountain Trail. You’ll hike up in a big-leaf maple/Douglas-fir forest with a sword fern/ bracken understory. Traverse the east slope of the ridge, and pass through an opening with blackberry vines and young Douglas-firs. Reach an old logging road, and make a right. You’ll get a view through a few large Douglas-firs down to Crescent Valley and across to the Cascade crest. The road ends, and the trail resumes under leafy maples. You’ll walk through glades of spring-blooming candy flower, bleeding heart, and woods violets. Make two switchbacks up, and pass a large Douglas-fir. Rise into a denser woodland, and switchback to a junction, where you need to make a right. Hike into a mixed forest that includes white oak and Pacific madrone. Drop off the ridge crest, and notice several bearing trees and a survey marker. The trail rises, and you get your first view of the communication towers at the summit of Vineyard Mountain. Reach the ridge crest, and head up through a carpet of false-brome grass. At a junction, go right to reach a road. Make a left and then a right to get to the fenced com

Trail Stats

Photos

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