u/squidsinamerica

I guess it shouldn't have been a total shock to see this this morning, given the wind shift. But... I was shocked.

Cmon, Hwy 35, you are a strong and brave fire break! You can hold this!

North trailhead. I'm seeing posts on alltrails that say it's gotten bad and you should have high clearance, but I take anything on that site with a big grain of salt

For context:

• I'm familiar with the usual/past conditions--unpleasant but drivable. I'm looking for the most current conditions, particularly the unpaved 1825-109
• I'm aware FR 1825 (the paved section) is notably worse right now
• I can live with rolling through potholes, as long as they aren't so deep that you bottom out
• I'm in a Ford Focus that has survived more than its share of terrible forest roads, but I also have nightmares of breaking something in the middle of nowhere

Just happened across a June 7 post on Alltrails saying they'd run into a bear near Wahkeena Springs (their track shows they stayed on the Multnomah-Wahkeena loop, so presumably just around the junction).

Not super uncommon, I've run into a bear in that area myself, and I've never had a bear around here do anything but run away from me, so I'm not particularly concerned. But I do run in that area, and moving quickly can make it a bit harder to hear or see what I'm coming up on. So in the interest of trying not to be surprised by or surprising a bear, I wanted to see if anyone had more info to contribute.

Any other recent bear sightings in that area that might indicate he's hanging around? If so, dates and times of day? Runs away as expected? Or were you the alltrails user?