April 21, 1999 Road Closure A general note on the road closure. We may have had some good luck this winter and spring because Highways 43 & 46 were just opened at Ripplebrook. They had been closed from the Estacada (west side and nearest access from Portland) for three years due to a huge landslide during the spring run-off of 1996. That in effect put restricted access to huge areas of the southern Mt. Hood National Forest. You would have to go to the east side of Timothy Lake off Hwy. 26 to come in. Our understanding was that the 46 highway was also closed down by Brightinbush so it also wasn't open from the south. This breather for the Big Hairy Beasts could account for some of the Whale Head and Indian Henry activity. They hadn't been scared off and had reclaimed some of their territory - or were they there all the time anyway? Fish Creek and some of the other roads had been closed on purpose to protect fish runs and other wildlife. That probably helps too. Fish Creek is the NW boundary to Whale Head. All website content is © Copyright 2000, Joseph Hector Beelart, Jr. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Pages created and maintained by