Comments for WyEast Blog

Comment on New Lidar Maps of Mount Hood by Peder

Peder — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:49:26 +0000

Hi Tom,

That is very interesting – I just spent an hour playing with the Lidar map! You have many interesting blogs: I was actually using your map of the waterfalls on the upper part of the South Fork Clackamas River when I got distracted. I visited the waterfalls in the waterworks area last week, all three (Memaloose, Upper & Lower SF Clackamas) are very beautiful. Naturally, the designation “Upper” is not ideal, as there are three more waterfalls upstream according to your map!

Peder

Comment on About the Campaign by Tom Kloster

Tom Kloster — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:47:19 +0000

Thanks, Trixie. I’ve had a bit of free broadcast media several years ago (after the first big Oregonian piece was published), but you’re right, I need to try KPOJ. I did a full hour on the local HikeYeah! podcast in 2010, before it folded. Thanks for your support — and correction on the web text!

Tom

Comment on Proposal: Bridal Veil Canyon Trail by Tom Kloster

Tom Kloster — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:44:26 +0000

Thanks, Doug. As you probably know, a suspension cable from the old flume is still hanging above the middle falls, wrapped around a large, rotted-out tree on the downstream side (not sure what it’s connected to on the other end). The think log in my photo (just touching the right side of the falls, at a vertical angle) is actually suspended from the cable!

And thanks, Jamie — I agree… while my legs can still get me up there!

On Hugo’s point, there’s probably a middle ground where the road could be gated and thus available as an emergency access. In the end, the county budget will probably decide the fate of Palmer Mill Road for auto traffic.

Tom

Comment on Proposal: Bridal Veil Canyon Trail by Doug Gorsline

Doug Gorsline — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:24:08 +0000

Tom – I forgot to add – nice waterfall and stream photos!

Comment on Proposal: Bridal Veil Canyon Trail by Doug Gorsline

Doug Gorsline — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:21:23 +0000

In 1964, when I first hiked in to the middle falls, much to my surprise a section of the log flume was still in place on on the canyon walls. How I wish I had taken a photo of it!

Comment on Proposal: Bridal Veil Canyon Trail by Chabot

Chabot — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:54:16 +0000

Great read Tom as always. I truly hope we get a trail at least to the middle falls in our lifetime.

Comment on About the Campaign by trixie

trixie — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:34:16 +0000

Hello Tom,

As a staunch supporter I am wondering if there are opportunities for you to get some media time – say on KPOJ or other local talk radio show? I think it would be great and make a difference.

On another note I wanted to let you know about an error on the third paragraph of the homepage. The Columbia Gorge (national scenic area) is not administered by the Mount Hood National Forest, it is its own entity, just thought you should know.

Keep up the good work and feel free to contact me!

Comment on Proposal: Bridal Veil Canyon Trail by Hugo Van Glubenshtein

Hugo Van Glubenshtein — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:54:49 +0000

People that live out here still use Palmer Mill road. In the event of a fire, it may be our only route off the mountain.

Comment on The Newton Clark Moraine by Tom Kloster

Tom Kloster — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:15:27 +0000

Thanks, William. That’s the best explanation I’ve heard so far for the pyroclastic deposit theory — that the debris collected between two moving glaciers. But if that’s the case, it seems to me that there’s a pretty good likelihood that the landform is a combination of medial moraine, topped by the stratified pyroclastic flows you describe.

It still doesn’t make sense to me that a linear, uniform landform of this size could simply be the result of debris flows. But it sounds like I’m in the minority on that view, if this has been studied more than Crandall.

Thanks for posting your comments!

Tom

Comment on The Newton Clark Moraine by William Scott

William Scott — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:25:33 +0000

Tom, the sharp crested interfluve between Clark and Newton Creeks is not a medial moraine. Numerous geologists who have studied Mount Hood agree that it is composed of deposits of the Polallie eruptive period. A medial (or lateral) moraine would be composed chiefly of till, an unsorted, mostly non-stratified sediment. Examination of the upper part of the ridge shows that it is composed of tens of individual strata a meter or two thick that were deposited by pyroclastic flows (generated by collapses of a growing lava dome at the summit), lahars (mudflows generated as the hot pyroclastic flows swiftly melted snow and ice), and stream deposits. The strata dip eastward, parallel with the trend of the ridge. As Crandell envisioned, the deposits may have accumulated between glaciers (larger than those at present, but toward the end of the last ice age) in Clark and Newton valleys, but they were not transported nor deposited from the glaciers. The current shape is a function of stream erosion as Clark and Newton Creeks incised the Polallie deposits in post-glacial time. Indeed the recent debris flows that have caused havoc on highway 35 are a continuation of that process. As the slopes of the ridge dry out in summer, there is frequent raveling of boulders, gravel, and sand from the steep slopes at the top of the ridge into Clark and Newton. Torrential rains in autumn cause streams to rise and incorporate the sediment, sometimes forming debris flows.