We drove the very rough Road 4697 up to Road 453, the spur that goes most of the way to the lookout. 453 is gated but renters are given a combination for the first gate. It's a hell of a lock, too, recessed up in a cavity on the backside of the gate. We had to unlock that padlock four times over the weekend and it took us about five minutes each time.
Half a mile later is a second gate where renters have to park and walk the rest of the way. The signboard on the left says it's half a mile from this point to the lookout which is a LIE. (Half a mile is also what recreation.gov and the USFS website say.) It's half a mile to the end of the road, then another third of a mile on a trail. That extra third of a mile makes a big difference when you're hauling a load of stuff up there. Also, I have no idea why renters can't drive through this second gate the last half mile to road's end. Although rough, it's certainly very drivable and there's plenty of room to turn around at the end of the road.
I had called the Detroit Ranger Station the week before and asked if there were any kind of wheelbarrows or carts on site to help haul our stuff up. I was told there were not. So imagine our surprise to find TWO wheelbarrows at the gate.
We wrestled them around the gate to the car, loaded them up, wrestled them back around the gate, and headed up the hill a little after 7pm.
It was dark and it was raining. And it quickly became apparent that we had overpacked. Plus the wheelbarrows themselves were so immensely heavy that they easily doubled the weight we were dealing with. And since there is no water at the summit we had a lot of heavy water with us. We slowly struggled up the road, cursing the darkness and the rain. (It was too dark that night for pictures so these next few are from the next day.)
When we got to the end of the road half a mile later and discovered we STILL had another third of a mile to go...that was a discouraging moment.
At least the rain had stopped by this point. The trail was well-graded for hiking, but not for pushing a heavy wheelbarrow.
Our hands, arms, shoulders, and backs were giving out so neither wheelbarrow made it to the summit. We made several trips back down the trail to the spots where we had abandoned them, carrying our gear up by hand the rest of the way.
Tired, sore, and very sweaty we finally had all our gear in the lookout by 8:30. We settled in, lit some candles, and did some unpacking.
The welcome sign cracked me up because the last item in the if-there's-lightning checklist was "Enjoy the show!"
The rain continued to hold off so I went outside to take some night shots.
In the morning it was definitely cloudy but we weren't socked-in. The clouds were high and smaller clouds were swirling in and around the surrounding hills.
For a short time we got a glimpse of some peaks. There's Mt. Washington and part of the Three Sisters.
Mt. Jefferson trying to come out.
Checking out the limited views.
Breakfast was scones that I had baked at home and which we heated up on the stove. Yum!
The lookout on Gold Butte was built in 1934 and used up until the 1970s. It sat abandoned for several decades before the Sand Mountain Society got involved. The building was in terrible shape by then and full of holes from carpenter ants. The SMS spent about six or seven years rebuilding the lookout from the ground up. I think that the first season it was available for rent was 2006 or 2007. It is in GREAT shape and the SMS is to be commended for all their hard work (they provided 1,000 volunteer hours to restore the lookout!). You can see pictures from the restoration effort here. And you can read about the restoration here.
Where's the outhouse? Found it! A very sturdy and well-constructed outhouse, I must say.
We found the rusty old trash pile from when this was an active lookout.
There's a great little campfire spot near the cabin that would be awesome on a beautiful summer evening.
This little ground squirrel looked VERY healthy. He's clearly been fed by past renters.
With a forecast that called for 100% chance of rain we were pretty shocked to see blue sky!
It was the last day of summer, but fall was already well underway up here.
Since the weather wasn't so bad we decided to head out for a short excursion. We drove down Road 451 and parked where it intersected with Road 459, which we walked down to reach a geocache.
The cache was hidden at a site that was described as the Gypsy Queen Mine, but I'm not sure where the cache owner got that info. In any case it was cool. We didn't see any tunnels but there is some kind of large collapsed structure.
The "road" to the site was pretty rough in spots. Glad we walked it.
Then we headed over to Elk Lake. I'd heard that the road up there was bad and it was. Rough with lots of potholes, and because of all the rain the day before all those potholes were full of muddy water which meant I couldn't tell how deep any of them were, slowing the driving down even further. When we got to the campground at the lake only one brave group was camped there. It was very calm and peaceful here.
We parked and headed off to find a geocache.
We saw quite a few mushrooms on the short trek to the cache.
Trying not to get wet on the way back to the car.
Then we headed back to the lookout to chill out and enjoy the warmth of the woodstove.
Reading in a cozy cabin surrounded by windows is not a bad way to spend a cloudy Saturday afternoon.
I had a lot of fun reading people's entries in the visitor log. There were two more books with entries dating back to 2010. We added our own thoughts before leaving the next day.
The rain started up again before dinner but shafts of sunlight were breaking through.
And then we got a rainbow! It was a complete arch, but I couldn't get the whole thing in one frame so here is the most vivid part of it.
We ate dinner, played gin rummy, drank wine, and read our books. We even got lucky for a brief time with a break in the clouds that revealed some stars!
It was rainy and windy all night and we awoke to very blustery conditions in the morning. We were totally socked-in.
With the wind pushing the clouds around we got occasional glimpses beyond the summit, but not much.
We lingered that morning, sad to be heading out. But finally we started packing up our gear and getting ready to head out into the wind and rain. This was my attempt at keeping both me and my pack dry but the first gust of wind sent the flaps of the parka flying above my head.
We had a pizza lunch in Mill City before the miserably rainy drive home. Despite the less-than-ideal weather we still had a great time this weekend. We want to rent other lookouts and we'll definitely come back to Gold Butte too. Also, next time we will pack like we're backpacking instead of car camping!
By the way, I was amazed at the number of supplies at the lookout. There was LOTS of silverware, some cups, plates, and bowls, some pots and pans, an old campstove and fuel canisters (it worked, too!), candles, matches, three fold-up cots, games, puzzles, and more. And of course the firewood. A whole shed full of firewood that someone (not sure if it's the SMS or the Forest Service) had to haul up there. The hatchet went missing at some point but a family who visited in August noted in their visitor log that they were donating their hatchet to the lookout for future visitors to use, which we did with immense gratitude! Knowing how much stuff is already up there we'll be able to pack smarter next time.
Maybe it's the deceptively short hike from the car to the lookout. We're used to packing light for an eight-mile hike to a remote mountain lake and then on a short trip when we have less than a mile to our destination - and no tent to carry! - we think we can bring twice as much. Not so! And yeah, those dang wheelbarrows were probably more hindrance than help since they were so heavy!
