Sacajawea Peak via Thorp Creek 07/29 - 07/31

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PatrickL
Posts: 27
Joined: June 20th, 2021, 12:38 pm

Sacajawea Peak via Thorp Creek 07/29 - 07/31

Post by PatrickL » August 4th, 2021, 8:54 pm

First attempt at writing a trip report, and I did it on my cell so I apologize in advance. Will try and add some pics soon.

This year I decided to get into decent hiking shape and start trying to bag some minor peaks and do some backpacking. Ive done a little in the past but mostly day hikes the last few years. I can't remember how I decided on Sacajaera Peak, but once I started looking into it a backpacking trip to Eagle Cap sounded pretty great. My best bud joined me for what would be his first backpacking trip.

Lots of smoke through Eastern Oregon but when we got to Hurricane Creek TH the air seemed fine. We strapped on our packs and headed down the trail. Lots of cars at the trailhead.

My buddy was a little worried about the creek crossing having never forded a creek but we found the two logs and it was no problem.
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Logs over Hurricane Creek

A little poking around for the trail shortly after the crossing but we kept moving in the general direction and we stumbled into it. Then began the steep climb up, which for me was just one of those when I'm carrying a pack seems to keep going up and up and never ends when I think it should. We passed one kid who was coming down on our way up, the only person we saw after the creek crossing that day.

We made it up to the valley and found a small and warm thorp creek. Thankfully a little later in the day and higher up it was nice and cool. We grabbed the first camping spot we could find, as it was where I told my buddies we would be. Better spots further up but we were happy enough to unsling our packs and set up there.
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Thorp Creek
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A neat rock in our camp

Next morning we made the trek up to Sacajawea Peak. It was a steep climb up scree. We got a late start and the sun beat down on us as we climbed. Easy enough to follow the route but not always obvious the best way to go so some scrambling here and there to get out of a bad spot as needed but nothing crazy and no real exposure. The parts ahead of us we saw that looked sketchy from far away ended up being easy once we got to them.
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Side of the valley
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End of the valley


We pressed on and made the top, and chatted with a guy who was there having ascended via the Matterhorn. There were thousands of orange an black butterflies up there, I managed to catch one in one picture but couldn't get a photo showing how many there were, it was amazing. We considered continuing on via the ridge (out original plan was to continue to the Matterhorn) but I was feeling juiced and my ankle was bothering me. I knew the traverse required a little scrambling to get there and back, and we were unsure of the fate of our friends, who had not shown up before we left camp. I was feeling nervous about descending such a steep rocky trail on an empty tank (it ended up being super easy, I guess I psyched myself out on that one) so we headed down. Always good to have a reason to come back to such an amazing place.
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Mountain views on the way up
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The path up
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view from the top
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Ridge to the next mountain
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Ridge to next mountain with bird and butterfly

We passed our friends on the way down as they headed up. We lazed around camp and poked around the valley until they returned. We saw a couple more people come through that day (Friday). We all enjoyed some snacks and a freeze dried dinner and called it a night. The next day a group of 4 or 5 passed us as we packed up. We hiked out, had a dip in hurricane creek, and headed to Terminal Gravity for a burger (and beers for some). Enterprise was a sweltering hazy place, I think it was 100 degrees there. Then it was a long smoky drive back to Portland, during which I was very grateful to have AC.

Awesome trip all in all. First backpacking trip to that area, definitely will return.
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Webfoot
Posts: 1759
Joined: November 25th, 2015, 11:06 am
Location: Troutdale

Re: Sacajawea Peak via Thorp Creek 07/29 - 07/31

Post by Webfoot » August 5th, 2021, 8:05 am

Thanks for the photos and trip report. Glad you had a good one!

Titogoeshiking3
Posts: 22
Joined: June 29th, 2017, 10:45 am

Re: Sacajawea Peak via Thorp Creek 07/29 - 07/31

Post by Titogoeshiking3 » August 7th, 2021, 3:34 pm

Great photos and report. Cool that you caught a bird and butterfly in the view picture.

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