2013 Edition
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Were were out here in 2012. Pictures of that hike are
HERE.
The Memaloose Hill Trail segment of this hike is
HERE.
GETTING THERE: Cherry Orchard Trailhead: I-84 east to Exit 64/Hood River. Cross the
Hood River Bridge to WA SR-14 and turn right/east. Continue past the town of Lyle, WA
and look for the parking area just past the tunnel on your left/north side of highway.
The turn out is 2 miles from the center of Lyle. If you go past Dougs Beach State
Park, you've gone too far.
When you get to this sign, which is just up the hill from the trailhead, go left
to travel the Convict Road. The
Convict Road trail is fairly easy and level although
you have to navigate a lot of rock slides. The road goes for two miles and ends in Lyle.
Turn right and go up-hill to get to the Lyle Cherry Orchard. This trail is about 2 1/2
miles and is well worn although deciding which forks to take can be a challenge.
Basically, you want to take the choices that either go "up" or East. You really
can't get "lost" up here, per se... but you could easily wind up going West and
into Lyle instead of staying on the trail.
This is what the beginning (or the end) of the Lyle Convict Road looks like as
viewed from about 1/4 mile along the Cherry Orchard Trail.
It was a perfect day out here, east of the Cascades. It was a crappy, rainy day
in Portland so coming out here to look at colorful weeds was a no-brainer.
At 0.92 miles from the trailhead, at 721' of elevation, there is a fork to the
right. Just past the fork you will go through a wooden gate. If you miss that turn
you'll stroll along a plateau and wind up with this view of the Town of Lyle. It
was VERY windy up here today.
Julie found a few chocolate lillies up here.
And some balsam root.
In about 2 1/2 miles, you'll come up on a nice cherry tree with a great view of
the Gorge looking East. Great place to stop for lunch. This is the end of the
Cherry Orchard Trail
Inside the rotted out trunk is a geocache box. Be sure to bring something nice to
add to it.
Most of the cherry trees are gone now. We only saw three and this is the only
one that looked half way healthy.
It was not a very nice day in Portland, weather wise.. we were lucky to have sun
and relatively warm temperatures out here East of the Cascades. Saturday turned out to
be a mostly crappy day in the city so we chose our hike day wisely. We'll take any
half way decent outdoor day when we can get! Plus... a yummy lunch at the Gorge Panda
afterwards.
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