Klickitat Trail

Beware The Clothing Clingers | Ethan Coggins, Natural Areas Specialist, WA State Department of Natural Resources 

Hiking is a wonderful way to experience the outdoors. Many folks carry the memories formed on a nice hike for a lifetime. Unfortunately, that may not be the only thing people take away from a hike.

Many weedy plant species like puncturevine, cheatgrass, and bircher wool are well adapted to cling to clothing and can pose a serious threat to native plants and wildlife. Species like this can often hitchhike on dirty boots and are frequently transported to new locations by unknowing individuals. These non-native species are like a virus for which local ecosystems have no immunity.

This can lead to popular recreation areas being overrun by noxious species that can degrade the ecosystem, reduce habitat for wildlife, and ultimately lead to negative outcomes for both humans and our native species. Fungal spores introduced on the feet of unsuspecting recreators have even been implicated in the spread of white-nose fungus, a devastating disease affecting our local bat species. Thankfully, you can help stop the spread of harmful species by cleaning your footwear before heading out on an adventure.

Please make sure to clean off any dirt and seeds before heading out on the trail. I’ve been Ethan Coggins with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, and I and your local ecosystems thank you for helping to stop the spread of these harmful species. For more information about invasive weeds, check out the Columbia Gorge Cooperative Weed Management Area website.

Lichen Are Amazing | Andrea Ruchty Montgomery, former US Forest Service Botanist 

As you’re hiking along, have you ever wondered what those colorful things are that are there hanging off the branches and stuck to the trunks of trees? They’re lichens. What are lichens you may ask? Lichens are a composite organism, a collaboration between algae and fungi. The algae uses the power of the sun to create sugars, just like most plants do, and the fungus or fungi creates a safe home for the algae by producing the body of the lichen, which is called the thallus.

Lichens are amazing. They’re found in every habitat on earth. They come in many different colors and can be found growing on rocks, trees, soil, and pretty much every surface you can think of.

A lot of people wonder whether lichens growing on trees are harming the trees, but no, they aren’t. They are just using the tree as a place to perch. Lichens absorb all their nutrients and water from the air.

Some lichens can make nitrogen all by themselves, and when they fall to the forest floor, they make wonderful fertilizer. These are called Cyanolichens. There’s a beautiful Cyanolichen called Lobaria that often grows on the branches and trunks of hardwoods like alder in moist areas near streams, ponds, and waterfalls in the western Columbia River Gorge.

Lobaria is also known as lungwort and can grow as big as your hand. In wet weather, Lobaria will appear bright green with a rubbery texture and wavy looking indented surface. On hot summer days when the air is very dry, Cyanolichens dry out and their texture will turn from rubbery to crispy and they will take a nap, also known as go dormant, and that’s when Lobaria will change color to kind of a light gray green.

Along trails in the Eastern Columbia River Gorge, look for a bright neon yellow shrubby lichen growing on pine trees, fence posts, or old barns. These are the Letharia lichens, also known as wolfbane. These lichens are so bright that some people use them to make bright yellow dye.

You may also notice the brown hair lichen, also known as Bryoria, festooning pine and fir branches. The Native Americans of the Columbia River Gorge use a particular species of brown hair lichen to make a winter food that is rather like a pudding. Deer and elk eat lichens in the winter when much of their other food is covered in snow.

Flying squirrels use Bryoria to make their nests. Birds use many species of lichens to build their nests because many lichens are antibacterial. The hummingbird often uses a lichen called Parmelia to line its nests and protect its tiny hatchlings from infections.

Lichens are very sensitive to air pollution and are used to monitor air quality and pollution levels, which help scientists study whether air is healthy for humans and other animals. So you see, lichens are wonderful and important contributors to healthy ecosystems in the Columbia River Gorge. So the next time you meet a lichen, please say thank you for all that you do!

Klickitat Trail History | Kevin Gorman, Executive Director, Friends of the Columbia River Gorge 

As you look around, take in that you are in the midst of one of the most beautiful, ecologically significant, and culturally important landscapes on the planet. My name is Kevin Gorman, I’m the Executive Director of Friends of the Columbia Gorge, and welcome to the largest national scenic area in the country, the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. The Klickitat Rail Trail is a wonderful story of local community members coming together to make a difference.

In the early 1990s, the Rails to Trails Conservancy bought a 60-mile stretch from the town of Lyle to Goldendale along an old rail bed. Their goal was to preserve it for a future rail trail. Eventually, 30 of those 60 miles were lost because of county opposition.

But the Rails to Trails Conservancy ended up transferring the first 30 miles from Lyle through Swale Canyon to the Washington State Parks, and Washington State Parks held that for a number of years. And eventually, landowners began putting fencing up, putting berms, locking this trail, until local residents realized the gem they had hidden right in their backyard. And they began walking this trail, and they began pushing the Washington State Parks to take control of it.

And it was controversial for a period of time, but in very short order, these local residents organized, created their own non-profit, the Klickitat Trail Conservancy, which exists today, and ended up working in agreement with Washington State Parks and U.S. Forest Service to cooperatively manage this 31-mile rail trail. Now, for those who don’t know, the Klickitat Trail is one of two rivers in the state of Washington that is undammed from its source to its mouth. It is a critical salmon stream for the Yakima tribe, as it originates on their reservation lands.

And it is just one of the most beautiful, scenic streams in the East Gorge. It took a lot of work to bring this trail online, including creating the trailhead in the town of Lyle. Friends of the Columbia Gorge founder, Nancy Russell, bought that property where the trailhead exists today.

And at the time, it had three dilapidated houses on it. She removed those houses and eventually sold the land to Washington State Parks for half the value that she had paid. They, in turn, built the trailhead you see today, and it is just a wonderful recreation opportunity for those within the community.

And it’s just a short distance from the Klickitat-Balfour Day Use Area, where the Forest Service has purchased land, restored it, and that has become a premier eagle-watching spot within the Columbia Gorge.

Last Whitewater Fishery | Wilbur Slockish Jr., River Chief

I am Wilbur Slockish Jr. I’m a Klickitat. This is one of my home country sites where my people resided prior to the Euro-Americans arriving. From my knowledge there’s only two white water fisheries left in this country.

This is the Klickitat River and the Deschutes River up at Sherars Fall where the white water comes and the falls are still doing their job. The river was designed by the creator to filter the water with those falls and the gravel beds so the water would always be clean. The dams have limited and altered the flow so now that’s why we have these deltas out here at Klickitat River, at Hood River, at the Deschutes River and other rivers, tributaries in this Columbia River Basin because the water’s not moving, taking the nutrients so that when the floods would come they bring fresh land and fresh nutrients from other areas into there to replenish the ground here by fertilizing it again.

So this has been altered by science. They always say science is going to fix it. Well they said that about the salmon.

Science will fix it. We’ll be all right. Science hasn’t done it.

The runs are still declining because of the habitat issues, because of less of the salmon being declined because of the nutrients that provide the shade and the logging industry, the streams. So we need to be careful or this world will be barren. I don’t want my grandchildren to have to face that and I know the Euro-Americans don’t want their grandchildren to see that.

So be mindful when you go across those dams, the sacrifice that the land made, our people made through loss of fishing places, village sites, ceremonial grounds for electricity. So be mindful of that. We need salmon.

We need the fish. We need the clean water if we’re going to have a future for our people. Whether you’re Euro-American or as you want to call us, Native Americans, we will have our own name for ourselves.

My people are Hawaii Pums.

This Fish Is Legit | Ralph Lampman, Lamprey Project Lead, Yakama Nation Fisheries

My name is Ralph Lampman and I like to say I really like salmon but I love lamprey. You can find me looking for them in any given day, stream, river, lake, or an ocean bay. Some people eat them raw  but I cook them on my spit.

I love them so much that I go into a fit even though salmon biologists don’t like to admit when it comes to anatomy this fish is legit. I work for Yakama Nation Fisheries Pacific Lamprey Project as a project lead research biologist. Pacific Lamprey, also called  Asum or Kasuyas in the Sahaptin language, which is the local tribal language and dialect,  or simply as eels informally by local tribal members, are magnificent and cool ancient fish  450 million years old or older.

They are still found in our local rivers and streams along the River Gorge. They were once highly abundant, similar to the anonymous salmon species in this area, but due to passage issues stemming from hydro dams, habitat loss, water quality and  quantity issues, increasing predation by invasive species, and ocean changes, among other threats,  their populations have declined precipitously since the 20th century.

Inspiration From the Other Side | Brance Morefield, Botanist, US Forest Service

This next story is about a day use area managed by the U.S. Forest Service and it’s off the regular trail. You’ll have to go down to your left, down to the river, to get to this site. Hello, my name is Brance Morefield, botanist with the U.S. Forest Service here at the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.

Welcome to Klickitat Mile 1 day use site. Klickitat Mile 1 is a beautiful place on the Klickitat River that has been visited by humans for thousands of years. This place has been loved for fishing and boating for a long time, but in recent years it became overwhelmed by people driving on the cliffs and leaving behind trash.

Unmanaged use caused erosion and sedimentation into the river and destruction of native plant populations. With very few access points to the Klickitat River, the U.S. Forest  Service determined this site to be a valuable resource and one worth restoring for continued future public access. Beginning in 2022, boulders were placed to restrict car traffic to the parking lot area.

Then in 2023, soil decompaction with soil amendments were added in two roadbeds leading to the cliffs to the south. Ponderosa pine logs were laid across the site to improve soil water holding capacity and restricting foot traffic to the trail. Staying on the trails protects native plant communities and reduces the spread of invasive plants.

In fall of 2023, 2,000 native plants were planted throughout the site, which will eventually soften the coarse texture of the fresh construction and increase biodiversity necessary for a healthy ecosystem. If you look across the river to the steep hillside, you can see an Oregon white oak woodland filled with native balsam roots and lupine. Access was more difficult on that side of the river and grazing was mostly excluded, so the native plant population looks closer to their historic condition.

This mostly intact native plant community gave us a good perspective for what to plant on this side of the river.

Farmers of the Aquatic World | Dave’y Lumley, Fish Biologist, Lamprey Project, Yakama Nation Fisheries

Pacific Lamprey are traditionally dried or smoked by Columbia Basin tribal members, highly nutritious with vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and healthy fatty acids like omega-3, serving dual purpose as food as well as medicine, and have cultural as well as ecological importance. They are a keystone species providing a food source for many animals both in and outside the rivers throughout their life history. When they return as adults to spawn and die, they leave behind a large sum of marine-derived nutrients for other species to consume, including salmon when food source is particularly limited during spring and summer.

Due to their popularity as prey, they act as a predation buffer for salmon, and as burrowing larvae and fine sediment, they are considered farmers of the aquatic world. They are essentially an ecological engineer that feed on low-quality food, such as algae and decaying matter, and convert it into high-energy animal tissue. They contribute to nutrients recycling as bioturbation, redistributing organic matter, and aerating this important microhabitat for other invertebrate species to thrive on.

They have been neglected for many decades in the U.S. until Columbia River Basin tribes, as well as environmental groups, have warned of the dire situation. In 2002, they were petitioned for Endangered Species Act listing, but were not listed primarily due to lack of long-term historical data and limited understanding of their genetic population structures. However, a decade later in 2012, the Pacific Lamprey Conservation Agreement was formulated and signed by many federal, state, tribal, and NPO organizations who committed to working together to help restore the species.

Lost Fish, The Struggle to Save Pacific Lamprey is a great documentary film that shares what the Columbia River tribes are doing to restore the species.Google Lost Fish, Lamprey, and you can find it. Thanks for listening.

I’m Deve’y Lumley, Lamprey biologist for the Yakama Nation Fisheries Pacific Lamprey Project.

Chief Johnny Jackson | Sarah Fox, Hear in the Gorge Podcast 

My name is Johnny Jackson and I live at Underwood, Washington. And I’m a native in this part of the country. I lived here all my life.

I was born and raised here. I’ve always lived up and down the river. Lyle, I wasn’t allowed to go down until I turned 14, about 13 or 14.

Our grandparents were strict. They had a time when we could go down the river. There was a time when we would go out on the scaffolds.

When you dip for salmon in a rough, swift water, you got to be prepared and you got to have the strength to get him out because as some fish with that current, the water turns out, fish turns sideways, he could jerk you off the scaffold or off the rocks. We were taught we had to tie ourselves every time before we went out on the scaffold, not like they do today. A lot of them don’t do that.

Fell off in Lyle once, but I didn’t hit the water because the rope was short enough to where I just fell over the side and then pulled myself back up. When I fell off in Slalom at the main falls and I got caught on another man’s wire, that’s how I got out. Nobody can tell where the fish is going to come up or where he’s going to go.

A lot of them on a small river, they go deep and places like Slalom, they’re all over. The only place you can fish from is on the islands where you could sometimes see the bottom of the water, but even that’s two or three feet deep and it’s dangerous, it’s rough. You go in there, you never come back out unless you’re a good swimmer.

Listen to Hear in the Gorge for more recordings that dig deeper into the untold or overlooked stories of the region. 

These Trails Are Now Highways | Wilbur Slockish, Jr, Klickitat Tribal Member 

I am Wilbur Slockish Jr. I’m a Klickitat. This is one of my home country sites where my people resided prior to the Euro-Americans arriving. And so this place, this town, Elisle, was a village site.

It was a good food drying area because the wind went both ways, east and west, east wind, and it would dry the fish real quick. A lot of fish was taken from this river and also out there there was fishing places on the Columbia, on the bluffs there. Across from Rowena, there was people lived too.

They lived there because of the water and also easy access to the elk meat and deer meat that were prevalent up there in the Rowena Heights. All of the towns down here, White Salmon, Bingen, Hood River, Stevenson, Cascade Locks, Home Valley, Underwood and Cooks were where our people resided year-round in this area. And the government says we were using now, we were only here for fish.

Now this was our year-round residence. We lived here. Lewis and Clark verified that, that our village sites were here.

They came through and using some of the trails on the east to get here. Travel was primarily by canoe or by foot because we still didn’t have the horses yet until later. And then when we got the horse then we were able to move more freely.

But it’d take a while because we had trade routes, trails to Seattle to the coast from the Sawtooth and from the Mount Hood area, Glenwood, Salala. There was a big trail that came from there up to Glenwood and Goldendale. Those were prime root gathering areas.

Glenwood especially. And it was omitted from the treaty grounds that we reserved for this part. So, you know, there’s a lot.

But a lot of these trails are now highways.

A Visit From Montana | Justin Radford, Acting Park Manager, Acting Park Manager, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail

You are in a special place along Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail. Cataclysmic floods traveled through this area 18,000 to 15,000 years ago. Take a moment and look at the Columbia River.

Can you imagine a wall of water over a thousand feet high,* rushing at over 55 miles an hour? Massive amounts of water, glacial icebergs, and debris of rock and gravel scoured this area more than once. At the end of the last ice age, glaciers blocked the Clark Fork River in Idaho, creating a gigantic ice dam. Where Missoula, Montana is today, water rose above the valley floor, creating Glacial Lake Missoula.

As the ice lobe retreated, pressure from the lake caused the ice dam to fail, releasing the volume of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie combined in just a matter of hours. Perhaps as many as a hundred floods created the great coolies and channeled scablands of central Washington on their way here. The entire town of Lyle, this trailhead where you stand, are atop a portion of the flood’s gravel bar which developed across the mouth of the River.

Well-worn and rounded river rocks were deposited here when floodwaters slowed. From this spot, floods entered the Columbia River National Scenic Area and then to Portland and the Willamette Valley, where the floods slowed again and deposited rich soils, making the valley one of the most fertile places on Earth. Finally, floodwaters reached the Pacific Oceans where they created the Astoria Fan off the coast of Oregon.

Stretching miles out to sea are layers upon layers of Ice Age Floods deposits. Enjoy your hike and your time along Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail.

*Many scientists guess it may be up to 2 thousand feet high