Sweet Creek Falls Hike June 5th, 2011

Since it was supposed to be a nice day, and we had no agility plans for the weekend, I decided to take the dogs hiking.

After searching, the option I came up with was Sweet Creek Falls, near Mapleton, OR.

I really like the local hikes website as a resource for some neat, otherwise undiscovered hikes in the area.

I took Lexi and Harry Potter, Dan brought Bob (his Bernese).  Please note that all images used on today's blog are copyright Dan Cornford.  It's hard to handle a camera and two crazy boxers so he was designated as today's photographer.

Here we are at the trailhead, pre-hike.

It turned out to be a lovely day, and a beautiful hike.  There were dozens of waterfalls and it was a very easy trail, about 3.5 miles total.  It was fairly level hiking with lots of bridges and a well maintained trail.  We arrived early morning around 10am, and really didn't meet many other hikers till we were leaving around noon.  I'd recommend going early, as it was getting crowded as we were leaving.  I would say, if you're taking your dogs, be sure they are:

1. Ok walking on grating.  Many of the bridges had metal (see through) grating to walk on.  Luckily my dogs didn't seem to mind.
2. Ok with other dogs.  There are narrow parts of the trail where you must pass other dogs/people.
3. Leashed at all times.  This is not a good "off lead" trail, it is narrow in spots, and I'd worry about exhuberant dogs tumbling into the creek and not being able to get back up to the trail.

The following are some pictures of the trail and the dogs. :)

All in all it was a great hike, and I'd highly recommend it.

All photos copyright Dan Cornford.