McCulloch Peak

We continue getting in shape and eating healthier. We spent several hours a couple of days ago hiking almost entirely up hill to McCulloch Peak which sits at about 2115 ft. (up from the 235 feet we started at from home in Corvallis, up from 480 at the trailhead). This is a nine mile hike that can quickly turn into a few more if you decide to explore some of the rogue trails. We figured we turned it into a ten-miler doing just that. McCulloch Peak can be seen from our backyard and is in the southern part of the McDonald-Dunn Forest, accessible from the Oak Creek Drive trailhead. From this trailhead, as you head out, either north or west, there are many old logging roads, some still nicely graveled, others overgrown, but many in use by hikers and mountain bikers.

Because of this, and some well-established rogue trails, it can be confusing winding your way to the peak without deviating to other paths, which is what we did, despite having a map with us. There are various maps of the region, and many are not entirely up to date. I'm not saying it would be easy to get lost, forcing you to spend a night in the forest, but Google Maps is missing some of the roads we came across.

If you think you can predetermine landmarks to avoid getting too lost by using satellite maps, think again. Even the most popular satellite maps show clear-cuts that really are no longer clear at all. See my matching contour diagram lines on the two satellite maps below - the big inverted-Minnesota-shaped clear cut circled in yellow should have been visible since it was (at one time) located just southwest of McCulloch Peak. Since it takes forest trees several years to grow back to the sizes they are now, I would say that some of the satellite maps of this area on Google have to be about 15 years old. The first map below is from Google, the second is from MapQuest. The second map is more accurate to what we saw when hiking in this region.

Google's topographic map, however, made a lot of sense to us with the terrain changes we were experiencing, and was more helpful when paired up to a paper trail map. Switching from one to the other can be a bit of a pain, even if it beats getting off on the wrong road/path as you try to find a couple of the summits at or near McCulloch Peak (there are three accessible peaks - see the first map). I would steer you toward Google's topographic map and toward GPS over a paper map.

Our $7 Sky Island Graphics paper map of the Corvallis Trails was OK when paired with Google, but not entirely helpful on its own (although just purchased new, it missed a few old logging roads - 750, for example, was not accurately marked, and others were shown that were simply not there anymore, and no sign of them was to be found). For $7 for a small map, it got easily frayed at the folds with just one trip into the forest. It would benefit from some lamination - it's Oregon - a little rain, and it would have been pulp - just saying.

But enough about the mapping concerns, because we want you to get out there and see the views and enjoy the outdoors. The graveled roads are wide, and there are other people on these trails, so have no fear! For great directions on getting to the top from the trailhead, go to Trip Advisor.

These pictures show our journey along a blocked rogue trail we took where we ran across about 20 downed trees in a tight area. It looked like a domino effect leveled a lot of them with one large tree taking down another and so on until this area was nearly impassable. Still, with some log hopping, climbing, and ducking, we got back to the main trail and continued on toward McCulloch Peak.

The picture below really shows the incline of this hike, which can kick your ass if you're not up to it. This is definitely not something I could have done on day one of getting in shape, but now, a month into daily exercising, it was really not all bad. I was tired by the time we got back to the trailhead, and Pedal Poppers developed four heel blisters in those great boots that had not ever caused these issues before. So, yeah, there was some pain in this hike, but we were well rewarded with a view from the top.

Looking down at it all, it's really something to know you hiked the whole way up. Running out of daylight, thankfully the trip down is much quicker, a thigh-burner going up, a calf-burner going down. But, as you can see, there is a lot more forest around Corvallis to explore, and thankfully, these areas are trail-heavy for just these types of adventures!

Hope you get a chance to see McCulloch Peak yourself. Plan for about a half-day (4 hours).

Catch you later.

-Sprocket