Ruckle Ridge

Below are photos from Ruckle Ridge. With family and friends working on Christmas Eve, I decided to get up early and drive into the Gorge to do one of my favorite trails before meeting up with family later that evening. With a planned loop up Ruckle Ridge then down Eagle Creek, I knew the success of this route would depend on the amount of snow on the ground once I arrived at the Benson Plateau at 3600 ft. I hadn't been keeping close tabs on the weather in the area over the past month, but I knew there had been a number of cold, wet storms that had moved through the area so I expected to get into some snow. The main question was 'how much'. Route finding would be difficult if the trail was covered, but hopefully there would be blazes or ribbons or some sort of trail markings on the trees. If conditions were too adverse, I knew I could go back down the ridge or take the paralleling Ruckle Creek trail.



The trail 20 minutes up



The trail 40 minutes up

In places, the trail becomes more like a "route" with a 45 degree slope and rocks and roots to clamber up, over, and around. Hands are required!

A natural bird bath

The ridge is narrow like this in a number of places

Looking back at the Columbia River and Bonneville Dam, supplying electricity to much of the west coast

The Catwalk: a 20 foot section at 2500 ft up that is precariously narrow with large drops on either side. In dry conditions it's a bit tricky. When it's covered with ice and snow... well... it took me a few minutes to travel 20 feet

The "bridge" I used to cross the creek on all fours

After wandering around for an hour plus in knee-deep snow up on Benson Plateau, I made the decision to turn back and follow my tracks back down. I was relying solely on my memory of this area since there were no tree blazes or other markings to show the direction of the trail and I wasn't having much success. After turning around and reaching the juction with the Ruckle Creek trail, I noticed orange paint on the trees to clearly mark the trail down. Simple.

The heavy, wet snow was clinging to everything it could dragging the thin branches of these small trees down over the trail. When I passed under them, I would brush under these branches and snow would be released all over me.

I could look west over the Ruckle Creek valley and see the neighboring ridge I had ascended a couple hours earlier through the clouds

Ruckle Creek

Ruckle Creek


This is the original Columbia River Highway that has since been repaired and is now maintained as a pedestrian/cycling path. I followed this section maybe a quarter mile before taking the final section of trail that would lead me back to my original trailhead.

And after 5 1/2 hours I was done. A bit disappointed I wasn't able to complete my original route, but extremely happy with the loop I did. Great run and afterwards, I met up with family to spend Christmas Eve together. Merry Christmas Eve!