McCulloch Peak Loop Hike

Overview

McCulloch Peak is the highest point in the McDonald Research Forest and offers views to Bald Hill, Dimple Hill, and across the Willamette Valley to the Cascade crest and the snowy summits of the Three Sisters. The loop described here mostly uses gravel logging roads that wind up slopes and along a ridge in the Cardwell Hills. There’s one shortcut on a mountain bike trail and another option on a new trail that needs a permit from Starker Forests. The secondary growth Douglas-fir forest has been carefully thinned on these hillsides, and a couple of different openings on the ridge crest leading to McCulloch Peak afford vistas to Marys Peak in the Coast Range as well as Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson. Walk around the orange gate on the lower road (Road 700). Cross Soap Creek where it flows through a large culvert. A mixed forest of alder, maple, Douglas-fir, cedar, and yew will transition to mainly Douglas-fir as you hike to a higher elevation. You’ll see Funnelcake, an unauthorized mountain bike trail coming down from the slope above. It may be tempting to explore these unofficial trails, but they can be decommissioned at any time by forest management during thinning/logging or because they often follow environmentally unsound grades. Road 710, which joins 700 next, is an example in point: It once carried a popular trail called The Plunge, whose lower end has now been decommissioned. The road rises more steeply and reaches the signed Road 700-Road 760 Junction. Go right here on Road 760. Keep right at the junction with Road 761. The road levels and then drops to cross Soap Creek. Across the creek, you’ll arrive at the Rocky Road Trail-Road 760 Junction. Go left on the Rocky Road Trail. While this is also an unofficial trail, it follows an obvious track on an old logging road bed. A tributary of Soap Creek burbles quietly below, and you’ll pass a sapsucker perforated cedar. Pass through a debris-strewn area that is slightly boggy, and reach Road 760 again. Head up through a young plantation. The unofficial Iri

Trail Stats

Photos

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