Seeing Far And Near
The snow was deepest and most powdery back in by Russel Mountain, the furthest most point we rode from the sno park. The truth of it is you can't legally ride any farther north in this area because the lookout sits on the border of the Eagle Cap Wilderness. Farther to the east, over near Duck Lake, you can ride farther north, actually even connecting to the Wallowa trail system that leads toward Joseph. That trail system leads to a couple of overlooks into Hells Canyon, an especially scenic-and deep-chasm between Oregon and Idaho.
A word of caution about the Russel Mountain lookout. You can climb to the top where there are some terrific views of the entire area, but just know it's quite a climb up the wooden steps and second, it's not exactly the safest thing to do. The steps were covered with snow and ice and the walkway on top, while fenced, was also full of snow and not easy to get around on. This is one of those disclaimer moments: climb the steps at your own risk. It's a long drop to the ground.
From Russel Mountain we headed west, first to Deadman's Point, then to the Clear Creek cabin, on to Table Top (from here are awesome views of the mountains in the Eagle Cap Wilderness) and then dropped down to Cornucopia, an old ghost town dating back to around 1884. At times, particularly near Deadman's Point, we were skirting the Wilderness boundary, which follows some ridgelines, taking in views of the rugged Wallowa Mountains. Deadman's Point was one of our stops where we got some impressive views of various peaks in the Wilderness.
From Cornucopia, where many of the original town's buildings are still standing, we headed back to the sno park along a tight, twisty groomed trail.
Looking at the trail map-which is a good one by the way-and tracing our route for the first day, it was obvious we barely rode but a few miles of the nearly 280 miles of groomed trails in the Pine District. We didn't even touch the eastern part of the riding area, nor the western part of the trail system. We mostly stuck to the middle portion.
As we had to hit the road about mid-day on our second day of riding near Halfway, we zipped up the groomed trail from the Clear Creek sno park and rode/played on the ridge between the Clear Creek and East Fork drainages. The riding was similar to the day before-open hillsides, meadows and drainages-and it was just as fun to blast up the hills and play in the trees. The open stretches of the ridge also offer magnificent views of the surrounding mountain peaks in and out of the Wilderness.
It was too bad we didn't have more time to explore the other areas around Halfway. There is a lot of country to ride and play, from gentle hills to challenging chutes.
So, with map in hand, we'll be back someday.
