The Babcock Bench is a basalt bench spanning the eastern side of the Columbia River just north of the I-90 bridge. It’s hikeable from the north via the Ancient Lakes trailhead at the end of Ancient Lake Road all the way down to Frenchman Coulee, a distance of around 10 miles one-way.
On previous trips to Ancient Lakes I’d explored the top of the basalt rib between the two coulees but was left wondering whether the southern wall of the southern coulee was similarly accessible (the northern wall of the northern coulee leads to farmland so it’s less interesting). After consulting maps of the Quincy Lakes Wildlife Area Unit boundaries as well as satellite imagery I discovered that not only was the southernmost wall part of the wildlife area but that there were well-worn trails up there as well. I also noticed that the wildlife area stretched further south, all the way down to Frenchman Coulee (with a brief gap after Sunland Road) and that the region between the coulees was called the Babcock Bench.
Goals
- Explore the southern rim of the Dusty Lake coulee
- Determine whether the southern rim is accessible from the coulee itself
- Explore the Babcock Bench and Frenchman Coulee
- See how many miles I could crank out on back-to-back days on flat ground to establish a fitness baseline for the season
- Test out Enlightened Equipment’s winter quilt layering advice using a combination of a recently-purchased Revelation Apex 40F synthetic quilt and my tried-and-true Sierra Designs Nitro Quilt 800 / 20F, which I know to only be warm down to about 40F due to my lazy sleeping arrangement (no baselayers, I just sleep in whatever I’m hiking in).
Day 1: Ancient Lake Road Trailhead to Southern Rim
This was a last-minute trip and packing was rushed so I got off to a late start, arriving at the Ancient Lake Road trailhead at 3pm. Sunset was at 5:17 and dusk at 5:49 so there wasn’t much time for dawdling – I went straight south to the Dusty Lake coulee and traversed the base of the wall looking for a path upwards. The western end had a talus slope below a transmission tower which looked promising, but as I recalled the route up the wall was near the midpoint based on the connecting trail above so I kept moving. Unfortunately I had only downloaded the topo layer in Gaia and not the satellite layer so without reception I was unable to pinpoint the location I was looking for. I passed another talus slope that almost reached the top of the wall but appeared to cliff out on a bench beforehand.
Eventually I found myself at the base of a frozen waterfall near the edge of Dusty Lake. Another nearby talus slope appeared to be just like the last one: not quite reaching the top and ending in a too-narrow-to-cross shelf. However upon closer inspection I noticed a faint trail leading up and figured that I might as well give it a shot since the worst-case scenario was just turning around and camping on the shores of Dusty Lake.
The trail reached the wall and forked, I headed right along a path only a few feet wide as it traversed above a 100-foot cliff. After a particularly narrow portion it opened up again onto a flat area near the top of the frozen waterfall. Success! The ascent wasn’t half bad and (sketchy narrow portion aside) this seemed like a particularly easy way to access the top of the southern wall.
Campsite
The waterfall was fed by a marsh, I followed a trail alongside it looking for established campsites or fire rings but found none. With darkness setting in I settled for a soft patch of grass on what would otherwise be the bottom of a small pond during the rainy season.
After getting the tent set up I used a flake of basalt over rocky ground as a cooking surface so as to keep any flames away from the grass. Dinner was the Backpacker’s Pantry “Outdoorsman” Cincinnati Style Chili With Beef. It was good despite the fuzzy 15-20 minute cook time and the fact that most of the seasoning remained stuck to the bottom even after shaking and kneading multiple times. It also had an odd 1.5 cup water requirement which wasn’t easy to do on the Evernew Mug Pot with its stupid 5 ounce measuring lines.
At some point I dropped my gray GSI Outdoors spoon and had trouble finding it in the dark so I made a note to tie some reflective cord through the handle eyelet when I got home.
I heard packs of coyotes yipping nearby no less than three times during the night.
Day 2: Southern Rim to Sunland Road and Home
I got up early on the second day and started hiking west along the southern rim as soon as it was light enough see. One of the first things I stumbled upon was a neighboring “depression” (I don’t know the proper word for these holes) whose southern end was filled up with a frozen lake or pond filled with shockingly orange grass. There didn’t appear to be an easy way down so I followed the rim of this depression until I got to the other side and could continue westward. As I rounded the southern tip I spotted a wall of hexagonal basalt columns that were clearly “calving” down into the lake:
Don’t see that every day. Or this, for that matter:
Now, if these were sandstone pillars in the southwest I’d call them hoodoos, but they’re basalt pillars in the Pacific Northwest. However, upon reading the geologic definition of hoodoos I think these are actually the real thing. Notice the round capstone rocks (presumarly harder) on top of/protecting the pancake-stack-like lower rocks (presumably softer): that’s all you need for a hoodoo. I marked the location of this particular outcrop in Gaia (see the Route section below) but I spotted other hoodoos on the upper rim as I followed the Babcock Bench south.
After ogling the hoodoos I found myself looking down on the southwestern corner of the Dusty Lake coulee with a massive transmission tower standing guard. A faint dirt trail began the descent but quickly gave way to yet another talus slope. A few slips and falls later I found myself at the bottom and ready to continue south towards Frenchman Coulee.
The journey south was mostly uneventful: I was still too far away from the edge to see the Columbia River so I had to settle for mile after mile of basalt cliff. I did manage to spot two coyotes running along a ledge above me in broad daylight although I did not manage to capture this in a photo. This seemingly out-of-place cattle guard was less tricky:
Eventually I got close enough to recognize the Gorge Amphitheater and the Cave B Inn, both of which were backdropped by some truly striking clouds:
Just past the stage the trail dove down into an erosional canyon where a very healthy amount of water was making its way down to the river. There were some waterfalls as well as a minor stream crossing:
However, afterwards it was more of the same unremarkable scenery. Eventually the trail ended at a parking lot on the side of Sunland Road. There was a gated road that continued further south but with no reception it was impossible to download the satellite layer to confirm that there was actually a trail running all the way to Frenchman Coulee. Sore and running short on time, I decided that the full trip would have to wait for another day and headed back to the car.
Gear
LighterPack:
https://lighterpack.com/r/3ewkot
What Worked
- Quilt layering worked like a charm. On its own my Sierra Designs Nitro Quilt 800 / 20F has had me putting on my puffy jacket at around 37F (although, that outing was particularly windy). This trip I opened up my new EE Revelation Apex 40F quilt and just draped it over the SD and boom! Roasty toasty. Not hot, but very comfortable. I wasn’t using pad straps or even trying that hard to make sure everything was sealed up. I’m hoping to take advantage of the next cold front and see if I can push this combination even further.
- My Stoic synthetic baselayer top was incredibly comfortable. I don’t really think about my woven button-down shirts much when I’m wearing them (probably because they’re loose-fitting and don’t really touch my skin much), but I definitely thought about how comfortable the Stoic was and how good it felt against my skin several times throughout the trip… and this was a short trip!
- The Kestrel Drop D1 temperature logger is amazing… and addictive! It recorded an overnight low of 27F while I was asleep but I probably checked it a dozen times beforehand just to see what was going on “out there”.
- I borrowed some Oboz thermal insoles from my winter boots and stuck them in my trail runners. Combined with my usual quarter crew lightweight hiking socks my feet were never cold (moving or otherwise) down to 29F, and I’ve definitely felt a chill in my toes while hiking in temps in the low 30s. I think this might be a key upgrade for snow-free cold temperature hiking.
- Your bedding insulation (quilt, sleeping pad, etc.) needs time to absorb your body heat and warm up. This was made very obvious to me by the fact that I was chilly getting into bed at around 31F after moving around but in the middle of the night when it was even colder (29F) I was roasty toasty, even after getting up to pee and coming back. Doing jumping jacks, jogging in place – whatever you can do to increase your thermal output before hopping in the sack will help shorten this warming-up period.
- Rolling technique for the Therm-A-Rest Prolite Apex sleeping pad: The foam in the ProLite makes it harder to just fold it in half and roll it up after letting it deflate like you would with an inflatable sleeping pad. I found that leaving it unfolded, rolling it up to the valve end, closing the valve and then unrolling, folding, and re-rolling it did the trick. Note that this will also allow you to get additional air out (you’ll have to open the valve as you near the end of the folded re-roll) which further reduces packed space.
- I have a rule about not keeping clothing etc. packed loosely under the top lid after reading plenty of stories about expensive puffy jackets getting lost after they got snagged on a branch or rock and were pulled free without being noticed. However, it is a really handy place to store gear for stops, especially if your tent has migrated to your pack’s front pocket to dry out (I usually keep my puffy and rain gear in this pocket). I’m thinking that a dedicated ultralight carabiner attaching the puffy’s hang loop to a top lid strap might be a no-risk path forward.
- I know that scented items are frowned upon but my accidentally-packed ocean-scented Purell hand sanitizer totally made my day, especially after dealing with some poop. I actually took a few moments to just sit there and smell my hands. I’ve often wondered about the truth to all these no-scent claims: oceans don’t smell like food (especially if you’re a critter that doesn’t live near an ocean) so why would that be considered attractive? I guess I’ve just always figured that critters are smart enough to know whether something smells like food or not instead of just assuming that every strong smell is something edible.
- Columbia Omni-Heat Touch liner gloves are amazing. Absolutely love them. It wasn’t windy so there are still open questions on their performance but while hiking at 30F all I needed to do to occasionally warm up my hands was put them in my pockets.
- First time taking out my Cuda mini scissors and they were fantastic for cutting up Leukotape, much better than the flimsy scissors on the old Swiss Army Knife.
- I love my Mountain Hardwear windproof beanie. One of the best clothing purchases I’ve ever made.
- Spark-Lite fire starter is good down to 30F with no wind – didn’t even have to warm up the alcohol stove in my pocket!
- I don’t know when I ended up with soot on the bottom of my pot but Fast Orange cleaner took it right off.
What Didn’t
- The Therm-A-Rest ProLite Apex sleeping pad is decently bulky so getting it properly squared away in your pack is important. For whatever reason I decided to pack the two quilts at the bottom of the pack with the ProLite on top. Unfortunately the Osprey Levity 60 backpack has a short-and-squat profile which is much wider at the bottom so trying to place the ProLite higher up in the pack meant that it was fighting against the pack fabric instead of just resting quietly at the bottom like it normally does. I was fretting about how I was going to fit everything in my pack and decided to drop some non-essentials (pee bottle, etc.) in order to make things fit. However, packing up at the beginning of the second day I just happened to put the sleeping pad on the bottom and ended up with tons of extra space at the top of the pack. Derp.
- I keep a skin closure bandage (Steri-Strip) in my first aid kit to deal with cuts. After taking a hard fall on my knee going down some talus I knew that my knee was hurt but I never actually bothered to stop and look until I got home, and what do you know: big ol’ gash! What’s the point of bringing seldom-used things if you don’t hop on an opportunity to actually use them? I think this was mostly a consequence of being in a rush and wanting to get in as many miles as possible which is unfortunately the classic mode of thinking that gets people into trouble in the outdoors.
- My Tifosi Crit sunglasses got scratched! Right in front of the eye too, which is the worst. I didn’t notice it so I’m thinking it was when they were on my head on the early morning of the second day, must have bumped into something.
- The Vonmahlen High Five adapter loses connection too easily which means that the thing you think is charging sometimes isn’t. This was especially annoying since I was trying to keep my phone and battery with me under the quilts so that they wouldn’t be as impacted by the cold temps.
- The Kestrel was fantastic at logging temperatures. However, I noticed that it needs to be outside of the pack and out of direct sunlight in order to get good readings. There were obvious drops and spikes when I took it out of my top lid at the end of the first day or when I turned around to head north and the logger was now hanging on my pack facing the sun.
- For reasons I can’t recall I started packing my alcohol bottle inside a zipper bag, I’m assuming to prevent spills. This was annoying to deal with and in hindsight a bit silly. I’m just going to pack it as-is from now on.
- On Android phones you can double-press the power button to launch the camera. Since I take a lot of notes on my phone during trips I’ve started resorting to voice notes to reduce typing, and I had the idea that if I could configure the double-press action to instead launch into a Keep voice note I could take notes almost effortlessly. Alas, you can only turn the camera-launching feature on and off, no further customization is available at this time.
What’s Next
- Based on how warm my feet were with the thermal insoles I think I might switch to a setup where I only have DryMax and DexShell socks – this should cover water crossings, wet-weather hiking, staying warm at night (since the DexShells double as vapor barriers), etc. In fact, I can’t think of a situation it doesn’t cover. Still on the fence about leaving my beloved fleece sleep socks at home, though.
- I had my hand sanitizer in my first-aid kit but I’m moving it to my ditty bag because it gets accessed 3-4 times a day.
- I’m moving my toothbrush into the first aid kit from the ditty bag. The toothpaste pills are in the pill jar in the first aid kit anyway (although my reading suggests that just brushing on shorter trips is fine, you don’t actually need to bother with toothpaste of any sort).
- Apparently dedicated Leukotape remover exists. After developing a nasty blister I had to be super careful peeling off the tape, was thinking a super-tiny dropper bottle of this stuff would have helped. On the other hand it’s my first blister in years so probably not worth the hassle. Still, I think there’s quite a bit of tape residue built up on my socks so I wouldn’t mind having some of this at home for post-trip cleanup.
- I realized that the only time I ever use the rubber tip on my trekking pole is when I’m taking it off so that I can insert the carbide tip into my tent’s grommet. So that’s one more thing that’s getting left at home for now on, saving 12g.
- Need fresh Leukotape and paper tape rolls. I think my Leukotape had expired, the glue was… weird. Litesmith sells Leukotape in both full and mini rolls so I’m thinking of keeping a full roll in the car for pre-taping and then carrying just the mini roll on actual trips.
- The overcast skies got me thinking: do I really need to lug around this giant 375g 16mm lens when a 116g 18mm pancake lens would be just as good in all non-astrophotography situations?
- The comfort of my Stoic baselayer has me reconsidering my years-long move to woven button-downs in the pursuit of venting. Is it time to invest in a knit polyester henley or similar for three-season use?
Pooping
No, this is not going to become a regular section in the trip report template (or, at least I hope not).
So, I’m torn when it comes to managing poop in the outdoors.
On the one hand, carrying around a trowel (or tent stake) and digging holes is great, you can just leave your poop behind and all you end up carrying around are used toilet paper squares (preferably in a scent-proof mylar bag). If you’ve the bidet type you can cut weight even further at the expense of consuming more water.
On the other hand, I’ve definitely had some unpleasant moments trying to furiously dig through rocky or root-laden ground in the wee hours of the night (I know it’s a best practice to pre-dig when you get to camp, but I often forget). And based on the amount of toilet paper and poop I see in latrine areas at both popular and unpopular campsites I don’t think people are really following the guidelines correctly. I’m coming to the conclusion that typical poop practices are much like bear hangs: great in theory, all-but-useless in practice.
In the past year I’ve made more and more of an effort to pack out my poop with the help of Restop 2 waste disposal bags. It actually started out as a convenience thing: carrying one of these bags means you can go anywhere regardless of the composition of the ground (good luck digging a cathole through solid granite). On the other hand, at $3.40 and 81 grams a pop (poop?) they’re both weight- and cost-prohibitive. I’ve been searching for a lighter and more cost-effective solution and on this trip I think I may have found it.
I originally purchased Bark+ extra-long dog poop bags to see if they’d make a suitable replacement for bread bags as vapor barriers around my feet. Unfortunately I found that they were too short and tended to slide and bunch up in the toes of my shoes. Of course, they’re also designed to pick up poop, so on this trip I paired them up with a spare scent-proof mylar bag (in addition to the one I keep my poop kit in – for reasons unknown) to see if they could be used for carry-out. It worked brilliantly, and at only $0.04 and 2g each they’re efficient. Paired with a scent-proof mylar bag that costs $0.45 and weighs 13g and you’ve got a system that costs less than 50 cents and weighs only 15g for your basic overnight trip. Not bad!
Of course, you’re still picking up and carrying around your own poop, which is gross. On the other hand there are places where land managers require you to do this and I think as the crowding of the outdoors increases this will become commonplace.
Now, as far as the picking up: if you do have dirt then I think using a tent stake or similar object to disturb the top layer a bit is the way to go, that’ll make it easier to get everything up off the ground.
Ok, let’s talk about something else now.
Route
Gaia folder:
https://www.gaiagps.com/public/QvzsNUvsOW79Zw0hiqrraVf1
I didn’t bother recording the first day of travel since it was super short and over well-known territory. Here are the stats for the second day:
- Distance: 17.41 miles
- Gain: 835 feet
- Pace: 2.8 miles per hour (on the return trip north)
That’s the longest I’ve ever hiked in a day by a couple miles and I have a gigantic blister on the side of my heel to show for it. That’s also an incredibly fast pace for a lollygagger. On the other hand at least now I know I can pull it off and blister aside I could have gone a lot farther by just ignoring the soreness in my feet. I’ll just have to keep building up from here.
Photography
SmugMug gallery:
https://turigrinos.smugmug.com/Adventures/2020/Babcock-Bench
The desert in winter doesn’t always have the most colorful palette but I’m particularly proud of these three shots:
This wall of hoodoos is a bit warmer than the smaller grouping above, and somehow the sky ended up with this really cool metallic streaking effect. Very happy with how this turned out.
I took a detour over to the rim above the Columbia River and was dismayed to find that someone had built a town on the edge of it full of little white houses with colorful roofs. Nice, but not the shot I was looking for. Luckily the town had a waterfront park so with careful cropping I was able to include just the tops of the park’s trees to create an interesting border along the bottom of the picture. A clear blue sky and 2-3 times as many pixels (there was a lot of cropping) could have really made this into something fantastic but I’m already a fan as-is.
This might be my favorite shot but it’s not really of anything, it’s just a frozen pond. In fact, it’s actually the corner of a much larger picture I was trying to take where some rocks in the pond were silhouetted against the intense reflection of the sun off the ice – it looked cool in person but I just couldn’t make it work at home. In any case, to me the huge amount of texture with the grass and frozen surface combined with the blues and highlights from the sun just give this a really nice feel.
Future Trips
- Start from Frenchman Coulee and work my way north to establish a connecting route to the parking lot on Sunland Road
- Take the access trail that’s just north of the Gorge Amphitheater from the bench up to the top of the wall and follow it north to the Dusty Lake coulee
- Explore the scablands and canyons leading down to the Columbia River
- Mountain biking!