Black Canyon…can’t miss it.
28 May 2016- It’s wonderful to hear of more and more special places being deliberately preserved just because they are special. That said, it seems in the life of such places, there is a period of time in which communication isn’t clear and confusion abounds. Take Pat’s Cabin for example. It’s an area being preserved just outside the Painted Hills in the Clarno Unit. This is such a beautiful, vegetated, rough, rocky region. Before we leave, Jason calls to learn if the area is set up for a couple backpackers to hike in and gently camp for the night. We are told “yes!” though little more detail than that. We’re told to park at the small trail head and hike up the old road into the area. The ranger on the phone also volunteers that good wilderness hiking is to be found also a short distance away in an area called Black Canyon. “…a few miles and you’ll see the alluvial fan coming down toward the road. You can’t miss it.”
Once in the area we look for the trail head for Pat’s Cabin. We look…and look…and check the maps…and look. It seems there were a number of issues the ranger was either unaware of or failed to share. We finally decide the “trail head” must be an intersection in the gravel road with a slightly wider area off to one side. With binocular we spot what we believe is the road we are to hike into the area. Immediately in front of us is a”private property- no trespassing” sign. Our path would be well inside the private fence. Even if we leave the car unceremoniously roadside and ignore the signs, there are still a few hundred feet of marsh of grass at least 3 feet tall and a rushing course of water maybe 7 or so feet wide, followed by marsh on the other side too. Did I mention it’s rattlesnake season? (Later we confirm we indeed are in the correct place.)
With that we make our way to Black Canyon. We
wonder by the time we saw what seems to be the third alluvial fan of rock and such coming down from another unmarked canyon. At least this one has somewhat of a parking area. No signs anywhere to be found. We park, pack up our best guesses and strike into the canyon for the night. The canyon greeter for the evening: a small rattlesnake rattling away for all he was worth. We continue with justified paranoia and find a place neither too rocky and nor too sloped to set up camp.
Yes, these areas will be easier to navigate when somebody plans a route to actually access them, posts a discrete sign or trail number and gives accurate information to the rangers to share.
