The hike began at the gate on the river road, seven miles southwest of Maupin. A jeep track leads up from behind the outhouse. Lower down the imprint of the road is very faint, becoming more obvious higher up where it’s cut into the slopes. However, there’s an obvious singletrack trail that follows it for 3 ½ miles. This was a very pleasant gradual ascent, first crossing some low grassy benches, then plying up a rocky gully before slicing along the bunchgrass slopes. I surprised a herd of deer, got the gory eyeball from a sunning gopher snake, and strolled along to the tinkling calls of meadowlarks. Ascending higher, I appreciated some views of the river (and the return leg of my loop).
At 2,735 feet, I hit a private fence and turned south to follow it. This dipped me into a gully and then up past a water trough and a cow pond below a fenced spring. Following an established cow trail, I reached the corner post of the private fence and then continued down across a gully to some structures I had seen on Google Earth. This area was probably a regular stock camp. The denizens used the gully for their garbage, and there was a small structure, very roughly constructed, that may have been some kind of shelter or store room. Nearby were some rectangular layouts of rock with coils of barbed wire. From here, I continued south to join what I call Stag Point Road.
From this jeep track, I made the short hike cross-country to Stag Point, the easternmost of twin hummocks, this one sporting a pole with foot brackets. There was once an antenna on top and something of wood construction, but all this has been scattered around the hillside, perhaps by ferocious plateau winds. From here, the view is down to the settlement of Dant on the Deschutes, the workings of the Lady Frances perlite mine, and the Mutton Mountains in the Warm Springs Reservation. I could see across Juniper Flat to the White River Canyon and Bonney Butte, but Mt. Hood was concealed within a thick agglutination of clouds.
I continued to follow Stag Point Road as it switchbacked downward, offering splendid views. Then I arrived at the No Trespassing gate. I knew from Brad’s report and my own confirming research that this sign is illegal, posted some distance above their property by the Portland Deschutes Club, perhaps because of the convenience of an actual gate. Thus, I continued descending, still on public land, on a deteriorating road bed. A broad low ridge just north of Dant is also under the purview of the BLM and it connects with the river. An old ranch road descends to this ridge and then I dropped down steep slopes to the Deschutes River Road.
The four-mile return along this recently graveled gated road, private but open to the walking public (though not to their bicycles), passes alternately between private and public lands. On the latter, you can try to access the river; on the former, stick to the road. There’s a bucolic residence that is the Deschutes Club’s gatekeeper’s house and a big gate where you’re asked to sign in or out (while acknowledging the right of passage for walkers). Then I passed below some natural caves sunk into a layer of The Dalles Formation below the rimrock of the Columbia River Basalts. Here and there are private fishing cabins, and there were many active osprey nests on platforms atop telephone poles. Across the Deschutes is the BNSF railroad. Hackberries were just leafing out , and I could get views back to the Stag Point plateau. There had been some dark clouds in the morning, but after midday all was a bonny blue sky with just a few white puffs.
