Nesmith Point hike is one of the most difficult early-season hikes available in the Columbia River…read moreGorge. To access this hike, start at the Elowah Falls trailhead, which is on the old scenic Columbia River Gorge Hwy (30). From PDX, get off at Exit 35 and head East along the frontage road on the south side of 84 until you're almost on a freeway entrance back to 84E, which is where the Elowah Falls Trailhead is. Beware, legend has it that this is a high-theft trailhead, so don't leave any bags showing in your vehicle! Hike up the main trail about 50 feet, where the Nesmith Point trail #480(?) cuts off to the right.
This hike is difficult. Don't take that lightly. The trail r/t to Nesmith point is 10 miles and 3800 vertical feet of quad-burning action. The upward grade is fairly relentless, at least in two main up sections. The first .5 to .75 mile ambles gradually up through mossy woods, then turns upward through a set of never-ending switchbacks that gets you probably 1500+ feet up along the side of the hill. Then there's a brief respite of some more gradual-up switches, that turns back in to more and more and more up. It's not until you're at probably 3000 feet before the trail begins to mellow out in to a much less ruthless grade. After the first 1,000 feet or so the trail has a lot of nice open views back down to the gorge, as well as some great stretches of old-growth including some fairly majestic trees.
We did run in to a fairly aggressive grouse part way up, that seemed hell-bent on defending a stretch of the trail. We literally had to run past to avoid getting pecked, and he/she/it followed us up the trail for a while after making menacing sounds. Crazy! We heard a lot more grouse calls up top too, while on lunch.
in mid-April 2013 we did encounter some snow on the upper reaches of this trail - enough to cause us to lose the trail once, and end up with some wet feet (and danger of post-holing our way to knee issues). This time of year, trekking poles would be advised, however with 3800 feet of downgrade over a relatively short 5-miles on the way down, you'd be wise to have poles for that portion of the hike regardless of season.
At 4.6 or so miles you run in to the old road that linked up to the fire lookout. From there it's .2 or so miles up to a very small viewpoint at the top. It was a total white-out of clouds during our trip, so I can only imagine that the views from here are pretty awesome when clear. But it's definitely not 360-degrees of view. You get mainly a NW -facing view from the top. You can continue past the point downhill to what I'm told is an old fire lookout. We made it about 100 yards down into the trees before we opted to grab lunch and head back. Lacking views, we'd had enough "up" for the day.
Water is available along the trail at lower elevations (where you don't need it) but I'd recommend a lot of water on this hike as there are few sources up top. And you. Will Sweat. I saw some pretty young, fit folks coming up the trail as we were descending and they were drenched (as we were). Also I think my calorie burn on this trail all told was close to 2,000 (I was carrying a pack with extra weight), so bring some extra cals with you. You'll be thankful.
The trail at the top offers an option to loop back down to Horsetail Creek, but I have no idea how much distance that adds on. It might be an interesting way to add mileage but cut down on the miniscus-shattering descent back down Nesmith. The way back down is simply reverse of the up. It works the knees pretty hard. There's no water at the trailhead, nor are there bathrooms. So be prepared for that.
Overall, this is a super solid hike. Wildflowers will surely be present in May or later, the trilliums were just busting out in mid-April, and the mix of views, old growth, moss, forest and sheer intense grade make for a challenging but beautiful hike.
