CONC president Jerry Sebestyen reported that on Sunday December 5, “we rounded up ten willing souls to trek from Edison Sno-Park to the AC/DC shelter and back.” The group hiked up the AC trail and descended by way of the DC trail for about a 7.5 mile loop. “The weather was excellent,” Jerry noted, “ unless you wanted to ski.” The daytime high reached about 45°, or perhaps 50°, with not a hint of rain in sight. “For December 5th,” Jerry said, ” it was amazing.” Marty Rose reported that everyone did a snow dance, beseeching, “May the snow gods dump on us.”
The snow at Edison is usually substantial. Marty noted that “the signage was 14 feet high—a neck crooking blue diamond event.”
The lava flows at Edison are quite recent. One source put them at 7,000 years old, while another estimated their age at closer to 10,000 years. Either way, they are newcomers in geological time. Since they are so relatively young, the rocks retain some very sharp edges.
Large ponderosa trees lined part of the route, whose age the group estimated at 100 years or more.
Despite all the electricity-themed trail names, Edison Sno-Park and Edison Butte apparently were not named for famed inventor Thomas Alva. The Oregon Geographic Names book asserts that Edison Butte was named for an early 20th century firefighter, one Jack Edison, who found shelter in an ice cave (also subsequently named for him) near Wanoga Butte during a large forest fire in 1910.
Photographer and recent Club member Mark Darnell was along and put together another beautiful photo and music slide show like the one he made for the recent Paulina Creek hike. Here is the link: https://youtu.be/_TrqSiUlJjg
