Blue Mountain Heritage Trail?

[Mina Loomis]

I’ve been listening to some old Practical Backpacking podcasts during walks around the neighborhood.  One from 2009 I listened to recently is about a trail, or perhaps better described as a route, named the Blue Mountain Heritage Trail (BMHT), an 870 mile loop in eastern Oregon and Washington, based out of Baker City, OR.  I went to the web to look it up.  Its organization web URL goes to dnsearch.  A Baker County tourism site still has an article about it.  This all makes me wonder if the project has been dropped.  The speaker on the podcast was talking like it was almost open, back then.  Does anyone on BPL know anything about this route/trail?

[Ian]

Started a thread in Pre Trip Planning

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/blue-mountain-heritage-trail-2/

[Ian]

There are great trails throughout the Blue Mountains but it’s my understanding that many of them have become neglected over the years.  From speaking with a ranger, he was of the opinion that the national parks are doing okay funding wise, but the other federal lands have had to cut back on trail maintenance.

From reading a few articles, it sounds like the association would like to get some feedback on the trail conditions.  I suspect that no one has hiked it in its entirety, at least, not recently.

[Mina Loomis]

Ian, thanks for looking into this!  So it looks like the existing trails making up the “route” may be there, if poorly maintained, but perhaps the effort to make it a destination has flagged.  I’ve been exploring options in that area because our daughter and her husband have settled in Spokane and my husband and hiking partner is retiring in another year so we hope to have time for more fun up there.

[Ian]

The Blues are beautiful and a nice thing is that most Portlanders and Seattlites are too lazy to drive that far, so it’s pretty wild.  It is however a popular location for Elk hunting though so unfortunately you’ll find some areas here and there where people didn’t take care to LNT from the previous year’s camp.  But, if you plan your hikes around peak hunting and fishing seasons, you could stomp around on the trails and not see another soul.

If you’d like a taste of the Blues, this is a loop I’ve had my eye on for a while.  The author is a member here as well although I’ve forgotten his name here.  I’ve only hiked out to Oregon Butte but the region is thick with bear, mountain lions, and all sorts of wildlife.  The trees aren’t as thick as they are in the Cascades and it’s not hard to find lovely views of the Wallowas which you’d swear were the Swiss Alps.

http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=514871

[Todd T]

The Blues are indeed a wonderful place, and the loop Ian linked to is A+ number 1…yes, I’m the author, same name here as there. :-) I’ll do it again someday. Things to remember in the Blues: go early before it gets hot; prepare for ticks (I treat my clothes with Permethrin); any trail that goes low will be brushy; never pass a water source without filling up, especially on Smooth Ridge–many of the springs on the map are no longer running; beware that some of the trails on the map have effectively been abandoned, so carry a good map and know your options in you can’t find one; move quietly and you’ll get lots of wildlife sightings–deer, elk, turkey, bear, coyote, grouse, Western Rattlers, cats (wish wish), and even moose (wish wish). I could go on. It’s a beautiful, dry, rugged place.

[BlackHatGuy]

Let me know when you want to do it Ian, I’ll join you.

[Ian]

Thanks Todd. Nice to see someone here from the same zip code.

Definitely Doug.  It’s warming up so fast and with the other hikes that are on the docket, I think it’d be best to push this one out to September.

[Author]

Posts