Metolius-Windigo Trail South

(click on photo's to see full size)

Nancy and I attempted to follow the Metolius Windigo Trail from Ranger Butte near Davis Lake to Whitefish Horse Camp on Crescent Lake.  Well, the first 2 1/2 miles to Odell Bridge were clear and easy to follow.

It didn't go quite as planned.  The trail was blocked after Odell Bridge, so we had to cross the creek and take the Lava Odell Road to Hwy58 near Odell Lake.  Notice that is Odell Lake and we were headed to Crescent Lake and Whitefish.

If you plan on trail riding the Cascades, you plan on surprises.  The forest service no longer has the funds to maintain trails, so, with a couple years of downfall and the occasional fire, following old trails can be a challenge.  They had built this brand new bridge over Odell Creek, so we thought they may have cleared the trail after it.  I'm pretty sure that we were the first horses over that bridge.  Yeah, well, they had started to clear, but didn't get far.  Hopefully some bike or horse group will adopt and clear the trail soon.  At least this section allows chain saws, so should be quicker than the wilderness sections that don't allow chain saws.

The trail maps show the trail going through the middle of a gravel pit.  It doesn't, it passes just east of the pit.  They are doing some logging where the trail passes over, so you have to look a bit to see where the trail continues, but it's not hard to find.  You can sort of see it to the right of the dozer in the picture.  Not that the dozer will be there forever, but the trail is fairly obvious with just a bit of searching.

After the gravel pit we went through a fairly scenic section until we got to the brand new bridge.  After crossing the bridge, you have to watch for the trail on the left of the road.  Easy to miss.  If you do miss the turn, you come to a closed gate.  There are several roads near the gate that lead to and around McCool Butte.  We backtracked from the gate and found the proper trail, but they had only cleared around 1/4 mile of it.  Nancy and I tried to push through, but putting the horses legs at risk going over the downfall just wasn't an option.  It didn't help that a tree jumped out and whacked Nancy a good one in the face either.  Broke her glasses and scraped her face up a bit, but she's a trooper and we just backtracked, crossed back over the bridge and caught the Lava Odell Road.  We figured that was the most direct and safest route.  We discussed attempting to go around McCool Butte, but that was a maze and decided not a good idea even though it would have kept us on the correct side of Odell Creek.

After re-crossing the bridge and getting on Lava Odell Rd., we went through one of the prettiest old growth forests.  Maybe a couple miles worth of gorgeous old pine and fir trees, a multi generational forest.  It was SO pretty and smelled like heaven.  Made the detour worth while.  The road is passable for vehicles but we didn't come across any, we had the whole road to ourselves.  It really was a nice ride, side by side, pushing our horses up into a nice little foxtrot from time to time.

But low and behold, we eventually got to Hwy 58 and the banks of Odell Creek again.  We maybe could have crossed the creek there, but, we both felt it was only marginally safe and not worth the risk.  So, the map suggested that we might be able to cross 58 and find a road on the south side.  Yeah, no, didn't work.

Thank goodness Linda was doing the shuttle for us.  She found a nice spot on Crescent Lake and practiced her casting while we rode.  It sound as though she and Mischief had a quiet pleasant day along the lake.  So, stuck up the road near Odell Lake,  we called her and she picked us up.

We didn't make it to Whitefish, but we had a wonderful ride none the less.  I've embeded the GPS track below.  This particular one starts 1/2 mile into the ride.  Don't ask!  My other gps track has the  30 mile ride home included and I had a terrible time uploading it to Garmin.  I was sure I turned off the tracking at the end of the ride, but there was the track all the way back to LaPine and none of my waypoints.  Sigh.  Definitely a learning curve involved in getting the info from the gps to the computer the way you want it.  I'll get in time!  If you want to see the fun we had near the bridge, zoom in and you can see our attempts to get around the downfall.





Added after some playing on the computer is a jpeg with the leg from parking to Odell Creek Bridge including waypoints.