Oregon Hikers

Snow in patches on the Plaza trail, north and south of Sheepshead Rock, between the Salmon Mtn trail and Road 4610. Most of the snow is gone from the Salmon Butte trail.

mountainkat wrote: ↑

May 30th, 2023, 2:12 pm

Snow in patches on the Plaza trail, north and south of Sheepshead Rock, between the Salmon Mtn trail and Road 4610. Most of the snow is gone from the Salmon Butte trail.

Did you get up 4610? Or how did you access the trail? I'd be really surprised if you could get up 4610 yet, but this has been a weird year for sure....

RobFromRedland wrote: ↑

May 30th, 2023, 3:26 pm

mountainkat wrote: ↑

May 30th, 2023, 2:12 pm

Snow in patches on the Plaza trail, north and south of Sheepshead Rock, between the Salmon Mtn trail and Road 4610. Most of the snow is gone from the Salmon Butte trail.

Did you get up 4610? Or how did you access the trail? I'd be really surprised if you could get up 4610 yet, but this has been a weird year for sure....

I reached the Plaza trail by going offtrail up to Salmon Mtn from the Salmon Butte TH.

4610 did have some snow near the Plaza Lake area, but, it was melted out further along my route to Salmon Butte. Apparently, they did some cutting to widen that road as a firebreak during 2020, which was new to me.

mountainkat wrote: ↑

May 31st, 2023, 7:03 am

I reached the Plaza trail by going offtrail up to Salmon Mtn from the Salmon Butte TH.

4610 did have some snow near the Plaza Lake area, but, it was melted out further along my route to Salmon Butte. Apparently, they did some cutting to widen that road as a firebreak during 2020, which was new to me.

That was quite a trip!

Yeah, they used 4610 as a contingent firebreak for the Riverside fire in 2020 - funny thing is they didn't cut ALL of the road - there are places that didn't get touched and others that have a pretty wide cut.

I'm guessing you took the old road/trail back up to Salmon Butte from 4610?

Alpenglow18 wrote: ↑

May 26th, 2023, 8:06 pm

Nesmith point, no snow

How was the poison oak situation?

RobFromRedland wrote: ↑

May 31st, 2023, 10:35 am

That was quite a trip!

Yeah, they used 4610 as a contingent firebreak for the Riverside fire in 2020 - funny thing is they didn't cut ALL of the road - there are places that didn't get touched and others that have a pretty wide cut.

I'm guessing you took the old road/trail back up to Salmon Butte from 4610?

Yes, about 20 miles. Like you, we noticed that the cutting was not continuous for some reason. Odd.

Yes, the old road back up to Salmon Butte. There's a lovely waterfall above that old road along the way.

06/04/2023, Pk 4694 (High Rock Quadrangle) west of Salmon Butte snow free, minus a small patch near viewpoint.

Hiked Cooper Spur from Tilly Jane trail, 06/04/23. No snow until the A- Frame, which appears to have been nearly hit by a tree this winter. Pretty much continuous snow above treeline with some places melted out. Bandit Rock still has snow around it, which made for an easy ascent of it.

A little more snow around Three Corner Rock than I expected.

From our Field Guide:
On the main trail, walk on the level to reach an abandoned four-wheel drive road. Hike up this rubbly, deeply gullied track to a ridge crest of bear-grass with a sprinkling of baby noble firs.

I approached on that four-wheel drive road, on bike from Duncan Creek TH. A little below the junction mentioned above, I reached snow. Not enough to cause any problems. No boot track that I noticed, so I don't think there have been a lot of visitors to TCR this season. Completely bare at top.

mountainkat wrote: ↑

June 5th, 2023, 7:33 pm

Bandit Rock still has snow around it, which made for an easy ascent of it.

Neat!
But I didn't know it had a name.