Great hike. There are a lot of the Grass Widows. I was here 2 years ago and could hike the trails. They were flat then, now they are a 1' wide and a 1' deep with rocks in them up to 2" in dia. It was a week day and there were 25 to 30 bikes. They were not in the erosion ditches they had created. The bikes were either making new trails beside the exiting or just making new ones. There was survey tape blocking some of the ditches and they had been torn down. Some of the branches blocking the newly filled trails were moved. The bikes are destroying the entire area. They do not belong on trails, they belong on fire roads.

The Washington Trails Association partnered with a local mountain bike club, the Columbia Area Mountain Bike Advocates (CAMBA) to design and construct an extensive reroute on the upper part of this trail. During the Forest Service planning process USFS staff identified many user created trails that didn't meet current standards for sustainable trails. The Upper Labyrinth (formerly Jeff's Trail) was one slated for a reroute. The old trail ran right down the fall line making for a slippery, dangerous hike during the wet season. Erosion and trail braiding was becoming a problem. This Saturday WTA and CAMBA built the first part of the reroute and began restoring the old trail by decompacting the soil and spreading native grass seed. This project was supported by a generous grant from the National Forest Foundation as part of a 12 month project to upgrade user created trails at Coyote Wall and Catherine Creek.

Yellow golden grasses, blood-red poison oak and the oranges of fading maples bring lots of color to this area. But one color stands out - Blaze Orange! You'll likely see hunters out this fall as they have been in this area for decades. Please be sure to keep yourself safe by sporting blaze orange while out on the trail. While out scouting for our fall work projects I saw this beautiful rainbow over the Columbia - like so many photos, this one fails to do the scene true justice - simply magnificent!

This is a beautiful hike with brilliant red poison oak (not a problem if you stay on the trail, rock formations and panoramic views over the Columbia River. Unfortunately, the trail disappeared after the viewpoint pictured in the Day Hiking: Columbia River Gorge book for this hike (#43). Perhaps we took a wrong turn at one of the many forks. Even though we had to hike back out instead of making a loop, we still enjoyed the hike a lot!

The Labyrinth Trail is in the Columbia Gorge west of Lyle WA. It is a moderate six mile loop with a total elevation gain of about 1500 ft. The Labyrinth is an open landscape of grassy slopes punctuated by oak forests and rugged basalt formations. It is located west of the Klickitat River. Fourteen Fun, Fit and Over Fifty members from the Tri-Cities participated in this hike on May 7th. We started at the Coyote Wall Trailhead and hiked along abandoned Hwy 8 to join the Labyrinth trail. We then spent two hours exploring the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth is a kind of park, or more precisely a garden, with two wild creeks, a waterfall, a couple of footbridges, a large variety of flowers and beautiful views of the Columbia Gorge. We joined and followed an old forest road to an impressive viewpoint at the top of Coyote Wall. We then proceeded along the ridge on the Coyote Wall Trail back to the abandoned Hwy 8. We saw a lizard, a snake and dozens of birds of prey. Michel Billaux led the hike and provided me with this report. Pictures from the FFOFC website.