What a Day!

Today I hiked to the summit of Black Butte. This volcano rises 3,000ft and it was really challenging. Just to get to the trail head you have to drive five mules up a narrow gravel road which turns into a VERY narrow dirt and rock strewn road.

Once at the trail it wasn't too bad (just steep) until patches of snow started to appear on the trail.

Here are some views of the hike up;

The last 100 yards was covered with about four feet of snow. By this time the air temp. was nearing seventy, so to avoid a slide which could easily turn into an avalanche (not good), I had to cut straight up over snow that was in the shade and still hard.

The view from the top is pretty much indescribable:

There is rubble from the old fire watch tower which was built in the thirties up there and a small cabin used by the rangers during fire season.

The trip down was just as hard as climbing up because the snow was melting (it's so quiet up there you can actually hear it melt). At one point I gave up and just slid down a few yards on my butt and back pack!
The ride back down:

So that was the day. I had been looking forward to making this trip ever since I first saw the Butte more than two years ago and I'm so glad I finally got to do it.