Lookout Mountain

As the summer struggles to begin it seems increasingly likely that the Cascade range will be off limits to us for the majority of our remaining time on the Pacific coast. With snow going nowhere fast we continue to search out areas in the more arid east. This past weekend was one of those rare ones where no one had anything planned, making it perfect for out of town excursions. We made for the Ochoco Mountains (pronounced O-cha-ko), a part of the bigger blue mountain chain further east in Oregon. The Ochoco's top out here at Lookout Mountain at about 7000 feet.

We once again had the black lab sole with us for the trip and she made for a well behaved trail dog. She couldn't care less about approaching people or dogs and always stays close. I wish I could say the same for her white counterpart.

Beginning at the abandoned Independent mine, the hike climbs only four and a half miles to the summit. It's a relatively easy climb as far as backpacking goes. But by 5 o'clock we had the entire mountain to ourselves, as well as a sprawling, sunny campsite with a three sided shelter to call home. The sun stayed with us both days. At times not even a cloud in the sky.

With a short hike in, we had the luxury of lounging around in our spacious camp. We tied up the mutts and napped in the sun, played a game of scrabble, which I was crushed in, and made some lunch. We saw only a handful of other people from the time we made camp.

We made one initial climb to the summit to find out why they call it Lookout mountain and decided there on the spot that we had to be there for sunset.

Too often in Oregon you reach a high point looking out onto miles and miles of forest, hoping and half expecting there to be an unroaded, unmolested mass of wilderness, only to find the near hills intact and bristling with old forest. Often beyond are the rigid outlines of clear-cuts, forming a quilt of decimated land, stitched together by a few remnant parcels of old-growth. The industrial logging juggernaut leaves its mark almost everywhere. So when we reached the summit here in the seemingly forgotten Ochoco's I was expecting much the same. The Forest Service has explored all their options. But we came across a view unmatched with any I've seen. Rolling hills of pine and fir, rippling all the way to the Cascade Volcanoes. To the north we could see the hulk of Mt. Adams in WA state, following the ring of fire hundreds of miles south past Mt. Hood, Jefferson, the Three Sisters and even further.

The views were epic. We've never seen so much of Oregon at once.