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Lone Pilot Loop Hike

From Oregon Hikers Field Guide

(Redirected from Lone Pilot Loop)
View of Pilot Rock from the Lone Pilot Trail (B. Hope)
Trail sign at the Pacific Crest Trail (B. Hope)
Old stock tank pond along the road (B. Hope)
Stand of ponderosa pines along the trail (B. Hope)
Track of the loop (B. Hope)
  • Start point: Pilot Rock TrailheadRoad.JPG
  • End point: Scotch Creek Crossing
  • Hike type: Loop
  • Distance: 17.8 miles
  • Elevation gain: 2,900 feet
  • High point: 5,300 feet
  • Difficulty: Difficult
  • Seasons: Late spring; early fall
  • Family Friendly: No
  • Backpackable: Yes
  • Crowded: No
Rattlesnakes

Contents

Hike Description

The 53,000 acre Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument was designated in 2000 to protect the extraordinary biological diversity at the confluence of the Siskiyou and Cascade Mountains in southern Oregon and northern California. The 24,707 acre Soda Mountain Wilderness within the national monument was created by the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. All of this wilderness is located in Oregon and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Wilderness designation did not, however, seem to bring with it the resources needed to build trails into this new wilderness. Fortunately, the Siskiyou Mountain Club (SMC) in Ashland, Oregon, stepped up and converted an abandoned road into the Lone Pilot Trail which gives hikers and backpackers ready access to the deepest recesses of the wilderness. The SMC has cleared and groomed this road to make it easy to follow and, although it's not a pure "trail", it is the very best way to visit the interior of this wilderness. Summers are hot here, so the best times to hike this long loop are in spring and fall.

From the Pilot Rock Trailhead, walk up the trail (a restored old road) to its junction with the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). To do the loop counter-clockwise, continue south across the PCT and you'll come to an abandoned road, the course of the Lone Pilot Loop. Stay straight south and, at the next obvious junction, turn south again, getting views of [[Mount Shasta] and passing a small stock pond. At the next major junction after that, near the head of the west fork of Hutton Creek, turn east. Just stay on this obvious road as it heads east, getting views of Pilot Rock on the skyline and ducking in and out of canyons and gullies. You'll notice that each canyon is a unique microclimate - allowing you to go, for example, from stands of towering ponderosa pines to open meadows in the space of a 500 feet or less.

Continue east, across the heads of Slide Creek and the East Fork of Hutton Creek, before descending to a crossing of an unnamed creek. Then you'll climb to Scotch Creek, a possible campsite if this is done as an overnight backpack. The East Fork of Hutton Creek and Scotch Creek are the only perennial water sources along this route - usually available in the spring but likely absent in the fall. (From the creek crossing, an old road bed, now a user trail, leads about 1.75 miles up the creek to join the Pacific Crest Trail if you're feeling adventurous and want to hike a shorter loop.) From Scotch Creek, you continue climbing while views appear north to Pilot Rock and Mount Ashland and south to Mount Shasta and Mount Eddy.

Eventually, you'll reach the top of Lone Pine Ridge and follow the old road along it north - including one big descending switchback and climb back up - to its junction with the Pacific Crest Trail. You then follow the PCT west, getting good views to Mount McLoughlin and then Pilot Rock as you approach it. You'll pass the junction with the short trail leading up to Pilot Rock itself and reach a second junction, where you'll turn right to return to the Pilot Rock Trailhead.

Although hiking on the trail/old road is straightforward and without any navigational challenges, it is a long hike (17.8 miles) and there are enough elevation changes (almost 3,000 feet) to make it a challenging hike.


Maps

Fees, Facilities, etc.

  • Restrooms at trailhead
  • Information kiosk
  • Road 40-2E-33 is rough and rocky. It is passable for low-clearance cars as long as you drive carefully.

Trip Reports

Related Discussions / Q&A

Guidebooks that cover this destination

  • 100 Hikes/Travel Guide: Southern Oregon & Northern California by William L. Sullivan

More Links


Page Contributors

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Oregon Hikers Field Guide is built as a collaborative effort by its user community. While we make every effort to fact-check, information found here should be considered anecdotal. You should cross-check against other references before planning a hike. Trail routing and conditions are subject to change. Please contact us if you notice errors on this page.

Hiking is a potentially risky activity, and the entire risk for users of this field guide is assumed by the user, and in no event shall Trailkeepers of Oregon be liable for any injury or damages suffered as a result of relying on content in this field guide. All content posted on the field guide becomes the property of Trailkeepers of Oregon, and may not be used without permission.