Opening pic..
Yesterday Chiyoko & I set out on a hike with our friend Eric who is finally able to do some hiking again after being off the trails for the best part of a year. We settled on Something Chiyoko & I hadn't done before & Eric hadn't done in over 20 years, Salmon Butte. Neither of us bothered to look up the stats or refresh our memories & we both though it was about a 1000' shorter than it actually turned out to be
.. We figured a gentle grade over 5 miles would be a easy hike for Eric to get back into the swing of things...We set off up the old road from the barricade in light rain with just a couple of curious deer for company. I'm sure this area around the closed bridge must be jam packed with people on a Summer Weekend but it was all quiet today.
Its about 1.3 miles up the road to where the trail leaves the old road & enters the trees, we started to see a light dusting of snow at around 2800'. Great only a 1000' feet to go so snow shouldn't be a problem
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At the 3 mile mark there is a great view point. To the right of Salmon Butte is this interesting feature. Does it have a name?
As we continued to climb things got a bit whiter!
At the first of 2 or 3 big switchbacks there is a little side trail to an open area.
I noticed we were around 3800' now, no sign of the Summit, still can't be far the Garmin says the summit is only half a mile away in a straight line! For the next 1.5 miles of hiking the summit remained half a mile away in a straight line
..After the switchbacks the trail crossed over to the other side of the ridge. Up until this point the snow had only been a couple of inches deep on the trail but as we rounded a corner it suddenly became about 2' deep!
I post holed ahead to see if things got better once the trail reentered the trees then convinced Eric & Chiyoko to follow
We finally lost the trail at about 4500'. Eric & Chiyoko decided that was enough post holing for the day & it was time for lunch!
Staging a sit down protest...
I had Summit fever though & so while they settled down to some hot tea & some hot Apple Cider with Brandy I dropped my pack & made a cross country dash for the Summit. I hit the trail again just below the top & then struggled on through some thigh deep snow to stand on the top which I now know is 4870'
..
Almost there.... one post hole at a time!
Finally!
After tagging the Summit I made my way back down to Chiyoko & Eric, hoping to arrive before Chiyoko finished off all the Hot Apple Cider & Brandy
. We even had a few Sun Breaks on our hike out!About 2 miles down from the top we ran into 2 other folks heading up the trail. The only 2 other people we would see on the trail today.
So on our way up in the morning we had noticed a side trail leading off the main trail shortly after entering the trees. We now decided to investigate were it went. It looks like at some time in the past the trail was going to be extended down hill as there was a line of felled trees that could be followed.
We rounded a corner & came across this:
Chess anyone?
The Proto Trail continued on past the cabin and eventually rejoined the road at a large switchback.
There was what looked like an old sign post here but we couldn't find any old sign.
In reading some of the old Salmon Butte reports I came across this info from Tom:
So it would appear that this is what we found & hiked.Splintercat wrote:There's a little more to this story: the decommissioning required the USFS to extend the trail, and apparently the agency had begun work on a new trail segment (separate from the road) from the lower trailhead, but had that challenged by conservation interests over the design and potential impacts on some old-growth trees. Thus, the decision to create the new trail along the old road alignment.
All that remained was the rest of the road walk out under the low flying rainbow!
Back at the trailhead the Garmin said we had clocked 11.3 miles & 3300' of EG.
A great day in the woods & an easy rehabilitation hike for Eric
..A few more pics of the day here & a Map below.
