Big Huckleberry Mountain from Grassy Knoll TH on August 5, 2018

[huckleberries]

Last weekend I was looking at the forecast which showed smoky haze for approximately the rest of summer, and decided to tackle a long hike for a hot day. The field guide on this site was very helpful.

I did notice quite a few PCT thru-hikers at Cascade Locks, but none on the bridge. The drive in on 9+ miles of one lane forest brown roads was tedious. How could those potholes get to be car-sized? I would recommend six+ inches of ground clearance or you are likely to have some vehicle-to-ground scraping either entering/exiting the potholes, or with the raised center of the road.

I got to Grassy Knoll TH by about 9ish and no cars. My pack was pretty heavy with over 100 oz. of water. I did decide given the length and elevation and likely hazy conditions not to bring a good camera. In hindsight, I would bring the camera. Many of the shots would have come out far better.

After leaving the initial meadow, almost immediately I saw a red huckleberry plant with some berries. Exciting! However that was the only one I ended up seeing the whole 13 miles. There were still some wildflowers here and there. And lots of thimbleberries.

What I really like about this hike is the frequently changing views from meadow to forest to territorial or better. The first rocky viewpoint provided fine vantage of Big Lava Bed and Mt. Adams.

View a 360 from the first rocky viewpoint overlooking Big Lava Bed and Mt. Adams:
https://www.vrlog.com/360/big-huckleber ... -viewpoint

View a 360 from the second rocky viewpoint location:
https://www.vrlog.com/360/big-huckleber ... -viewpoint

Grassy Knoll is amazing. It had probably the best views of the entire hike.

View a 360 from Grassy Knoll:
https://www.vrlog.com/360/big-huckleber ... knoll-nr-1

I wasn't planning on definitely going all the way to Big Huckleberry Mtn at this point, waiting to see how hard things got. After heading onwards, I started noticing huge numbers of service berries. I never ate them before, and the inside is white and not that tasty.

Meanwhile I kept getting better and better views of Mt. Adams.

There's many places along the trail where you have to wade through waist high bushes, to the point where it is easy to miss your footing as you cannot see the trail. On the other hand, sometimes the ripe thimbleberries are right at mouth height. I was a little scared of these pictured white berries -- I'm guessing they are poisonous.

As you get closer to Big Huckleberry Mountain, there's more of the classic Vacciniums but berries were few and far between. I think the forest cover is now dense enough that they don't get enough sunlight compared to a more recently burned areas or the Sawtooth fields kind of configuration.

Cold Springs camp was a nice stopping point, but there were no signs of any cold springs anywhere nearby. I did eventually (a mile later?) cross a very small rivulet of water but at the same time this stretch also seemed to have a much larger crew of biting insects of at least two kinds.

I got to a point where the trail starts heading uphill towards the PCT, and at about the same time you get a view of Big Huckleberry Mountain. Way up there. It looks like a bit of a staggering elevation gain after already ascending and descending many, many vertical feet. This business of lots of up and down in a day is so typical of the PCT, no wonder it used to be part of the PCT. Anyway I decided to go for it since the GPS showed the distances not to be insane.

The junction with the PCT is not very exciting, but at least it has good signage.

As I rested here, I thought I might see some thru-hikers but evidently they were already gone. About 15 feet of travel on the PCT later, the side-trail to Big Huckleberry Mountain shoots off and up to the right. There's a typo in the sign --
Big huckelberry mountain.

The summit was reached not too much later and there are a few slot views of mountains here and there, but the trees are blocking 80-90% of the view. I explored off to the east of the summit a bit and found Mt. Adams was now enshrouded in some clouds.


I had lunch here and was glad to be headed back; was getting dehydrated. I had saved 64 oz for the return leg as the heat felt like it was in the upper eighties.

View a 360 from just below the summit:
https://www.vrlog.com/360/big-huckleberry-mountain-nr-1

View a 360 from the firering at the summit:
https://www.vrlog.com/360/big-huckleberry-mountain-nr-2

View a 360 from a slot view of Mt. Hood:
https://www.vrlog.com/360/big-huckleberry-mountain-nr-3

On the way back, there's a meadow somewhat north of the Grassy Knoll which I thought had some pleasing views so I shot a 360 there:

View a 360 from the ridge north of the Grassy Knoll in the afternoon:
https://www.vrlog.com/360/old-pct-trail ... assy-knoll

When I got back to the Grassy Knoll, the lighting had changed quite a bit and so I shot another 360 on my phone. In this one you can see the Columbia River much more easily than the morning one. However both mountains are topped with clouds.
I sort of like this 360 better than the first from the Grassy Knoll.
https://www.vrlog.com/360/big-huckleber ... knoll-nr-2

Somewhere below Grassy Knoll I ran into a family headed in -- the first people I'd seen all day.
They were asking about where the water feature was, which I had no knowledge of.



Another rest stop at the first rocky overlook. (well I cannot seem to add any more media to this post -- weird!)


I did notice the trail in the last stretch below Grassy had some steep pitches which when combined with the loose rocks and duff made it easy to slip even with hiking poles and robust boots.

Notes:

The 360 panoramas are big, with enough resolution to view on a 4K screen. You can zoom in as well as pan around. Consequently they may take awhile to load, but they have a lot more detail than the single shots that you can upload to this forum. They should work in all recent browsers, no plugins required. While they were taken with a cellphone, it was a lot of extra effort to stitch them together compared to an DSLR camera with manual mode and a bubble level.

[Webfoot]

What I really like about this hike is the frequently changing views from meadow to forest to territorial or better.

I am not familiar with that term in this context; what do you mean by it?

By the way I am surprised you hike such distance on so little water. On a hot day I go through half a litre per mile.

[huckleberries]

I think of a territorial view as allowing you to see at least a kilometer or two of territory.

What I didn't mention is the 16 oz of water I guzzled at the car as I headed in. But yes, I think I was under the amount that I would prefer -- many hikes you'd probably run across some water you could filter on a hike this long to augment.

[retired jerry]

I would have called those huckleberries. Maybe that's part of why I have found some huckleberries to be less tasty:)

100 ounces of water is "so little". I never carry more than 16 ounces. But I camel up before I start. If it's a hot day I'll refill half way, so I'll start with 16 ounces, drink 16 ounces at the refill point, and then carry another 16 ounces - so 48 ounces total.

The rule for climbing Cascade volcanoes was always 2 quarts - 64 ounces total.

[Webfoot]

Some people sweat more than others; maybe I'm on the soggy side.

I wonder how much other people drink?

[retired jerry]

If you drink more, at some point, you just pee more. I figure if my pee is clear to light yellow I'm good.

First, I drink when I'm thirsty.

Second, I drink 16 ounces during an 8 hour day if it's cool, 48 ounces if it's hot. Even if I don't seem thirsty I'll make sure and drink that much.

Third, as an over-all check, look at pee color. Occasionally my pee will get medium yellow and I know I need to drink more. Rarely, I screw up and my pee is dark yellow.

If you drink a lot, your metabolism will convert lots of water to pee. If you drink less, your metabolism will shift to water conservation. Nothing unhealthy about getting into that zone, unless you have abnormal health, like diabetes or something.

[drm]

A liter and an apple is usually all I ever take. But if it's a hot day, I will choose a hike with a reliable water supply to get more. Quite often I choose such a hike and carry no water. If there are frequent water sources, I just drink when they are handy. If you carry lots of water on a hot day, the water gets hot - not very refreshing. Most creeks will have cooler water.

[Double Tree]

Outdoor school taught about berries: "Blue and black always, red sometimes, white never." I've found it accurate so far.
Kelly