Up & Over Cook Hill 05/12/13

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Guy
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Up & Over Cook Hill 05/12/13

Post by Guy » May 13th, 2013, 5:03 pm

So about a year ago, Beag sent me map showing a route that went to a South facing Meadow on Cook Hill then continued on to the Summit. Yesterday Chiyoko & I finally got around to checking this out!

The hike begins just off highway 14 at the junction of Cook-Underwood & Jackson Roads. There is a convenient parking area just up from the junction. Jackson is very short, providing access to 4 or 5 houses. Just after the blacktop ends there is a path (old road) heading off into the trees on the right, this is the way you want to go.

About half a mile up the trail we came across this well positioned viewing chair :)

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The old road makes its way up the South side of the lower slopes of Cook through Oaks & mixed woodland in much the same way as the Dog Mt. trail does. There is quite lot of Poison Oak along the lower portion of the trail but it's easy to avoid so long as you are aware of it!

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The road winds it's way though a mix of woodland for about 2.5 miles before reaching the junction with the Meadow Trail. It's been reported here before that this area suffered badly during the Ice / Wind Storm of Jan 2012 but the Cook Hill Trail Elves have cleared a way through at least as far as the junction.

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The route from the road over to the top of the Meadow is flagged but there is also a faint boot path that you can follow. The path breaks out onto the West side of the Meadow giving you the first real view of the hike.

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From here we made our way to the top of the Meadow where a piece of flagging indicated the point where to re enter the trees. The Garmin said that from the top of the Meadow to the Summit of Cook Hill was 0.7 of a mile in a straight line. The first section was easy walking through big trees with no undergrowth, there is no booth path to follow here.

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After a quarter mile or so a vine maple jungle springs up, it was here that the flagging was most useful as someone else had already taken the time to plot an open course through this maze! A boot path also reappeared here.

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The final third of a mile or so up to the Summit was through open Meadow & I'm sure that on a clear day the views are great ;) ..

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Poor Cook Hill, breaking 3000' it's taller than it neighbor Dog Mountain but only called a 'Hill' :) ..

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We continued on, descending the North side of the Summit to meet up with an old road that leads out to the Powerlines and the radio facility.

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This was a short section of trail cut through the trees down to the end of the old road.

From here we walked along the old road to the Powerlines & Radio Towers. We could have continued on along the ridgeline to Augspurger Mt. but that would have to wait for another day.

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The old logging road that we had left earlier also makes its way up to this point & so we chose that for our return trip. The top half of this road is a little harder to travel than the lower half as there is still quite a lot of debris on it from the Ice Storm. But other parts of it were quite lovely!

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Just before we reached the junction where we had left the road on the way up we passed though this open rock field area with some great old & gnarled Doug Firs..

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From here it was just a march back down to the car, though Chiyoko did stop to enjoy the viewing seat on the way out ;)

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The Garmin said we hiked 8.75 miles & had 3000' of EG & didn't see another soul! There are a few more pics of the day here & a map below.

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hiking log & photos.
Ad monte summa aut mors

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Sean Thomas
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Re: Up & Over Cook Hill 05/12/13

Post by Sean Thomas » May 13th, 2013, 6:50 pm

Great report and photos, Guy. I've always been curious about Cook Hill but never looked into it much. The view chair is an awesome find.

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Re: Up & Over Cook Hill 05/12/13

Post by mayhem » May 13th, 2013, 6:54 pm

Guy,
Does this mean you have a trifecta lined up for us? C.A.D
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Guy
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Re: Up & Over Cook Hill 05/12/13

Post by Guy » May 13th, 2013, 6:59 pm

Yes Mayhem, this was a bit of an exploratory trip with a view towards a Loony Group CAD hike.

When shall we go!
hiking log & photos.
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mayhem
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Re: Up & Over Cook Hill 05/12/13

Post by mayhem » May 13th, 2013, 8:47 pm

Guy wrote:Yes Mayhem, this was a bit of an exploratory trip with a view towards a Loony Group CAD hike.

When shall we go!
Mostly Thursday-Saturdays work for me! I'm in! Never been to A or C :)
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acorn woodpecker
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Re: Up & Over Cook Hill 05/12/13

Post by acorn woodpecker » May 19th, 2013, 3:09 pm

It's been reported here before that this area suffered badly during the Ice / Wind Storm of Jan 2012 but the Cook Hill Trail Elves have cleared a way through at least as far as the junction.
Nice report and photos of this area. I went with a few other folks last Memorial Day Weekend and spent a few hours clearing a rough way through. It was no easy task with all the blowdown you no doubt encountered.

Cook Hill is a great place to go in May as a quieter and more adventurous alternative to Dog Mt. The balsamroot displays in the meadows and summit are nearly equal in grandeur, in my opinion. When we went up on that Saturday of Memorial Weekend, we didn't see another soul the entire day!

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Re: Up & Over Cook Hill 05/12/13

Post by VanMarmot » June 2nd, 2013, 9:06 am

Having done the slog-Aug-Dog loop twice now in rain, wind, clouds, and/or ice & snow, try to pick a sunny day for your Loony adventure. I know this would violate the Loony precepts of starting in the dark & walking long distances in the rain but the views will be worth it...

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Re: Up & Over Cook Hill 05/12/13

Post by [email protected] » May 8th, 2014, 4:23 am

Good report and pictures - yes, there was a lot of trail work done up there late last fall and nice to see it is all holding together. The views from those meadows on the summit of Cook are much, much better than Dog - to the north, the whole of the Volcanoes line up and flowers to boot. You can continue (as you noted) from the Power Line road staying on the ridge following tin can lids all the way - basically west - to meet-up with the Augsperger trail coming from the north and heading then down to Dog. That portion - the tin can section - is also totally redone and reworked and very easy to follow.
For the beauty, Cook competes better than Dog - I think - and for sure there are a ton less people. I'm heading up there next Wednesday (5/14) with a Mazama hike so hope the weather cooperates for better views from the top

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Re: Up & Over Cook Hill 05/12/13

Post by CMH » July 31st, 2017, 11:27 am

I hiked a similar route on 7/29. I started on the Cook side, I missed the Cook summit proper and I missed the recommended meadows, but I've highlighted what I think that route would look like on my GPS track below.

The trail was difficult to follow due to brush between the radio station and Augspurger summit and in places between Augspurger and Dog. The closely-spaced tin can lids on the Cook-Augspurger traverse were helpful though.

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Cook-Augspurger-Dog loop.

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Re: Up & Over Cook Hill 05/12/13

Post by K.Wagner » August 24th, 2017, 4:38 pm

Guy,

For some reason, I'm a little late on picking this one up.

I really like Cook Hill. I think that it is reduced to the "hill" category, because it is just another bump on the Augspurger Ridge, without enough "profile" to make it seem to be a mountain.

Did you see this mystery bucket, a couple hundred yards above the lower meadow? Gotta be some story about how a metal bucket ended up there!
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I love that upper meadow. Being in the clouds, you probably didn't see the wind blown trees up there.

Here's 2 views, taken the middle of June, 2016.
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28-Indian Paintbrush-S.jpg
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