Thus I dreaded a solo backpack and the idea of enduring this pain for miles on end out in the wilderness. I decided on four days of Wallowa day hikes, which would allow me to turn back without being too far in if things got bad. I was also able to poke my nose into parts of the range I hadn’t been to before.
Catherine Creek Meadows
I camped at the primitive campground at the North Fork Catherine Creek Trailhead with a few cows for company. The campground is technically free, but you need a Northwest Forest Pass to park a vehicle there. There was no wilderness permit box. The trail heads up the North Fork and soon crosses it. You’re basically under tree cover all the way to the meadows, sometimes passing high above the creek. Mushrooms were erupting everywhere. There were three small creeks to cross before the first meadow. The wilderness sign is brand new and already sports an arborglyph from this month! Anyone know a W.S. we can turn in for vandalism?
Just before the first meadow, the trail forks, with the left fork leading to a large hunter’s camp. Shortly after I entered the meadow, I saw a couple of people across the creek. There’s a good campsite on the trail and next to a small creek. In the open meadow, another small stream has flooded the trail and the area around it, so you have to walk up to the right if you want dry feet. A rotting post marks the “junction” with an abandoned trail that comes down from Meadow Mountain.
I passed through a stand of trees to reach the second meadow. Both Sullivan and Barstad write of an obvious fork where the main trail branches off to the left. It is no longer obvious, and I missed it completely. The obvious path was a spur to the Catherine Creek Cabin, where there were a couple of newly erected horse hitches. There’s a double door, unlocked, so I peeked inside. The windows were all boarded up, so it was very dark, but I could see a couple of cots and chairs, a wood stove, and a counter table. Someone had hung a bag of horse feed from a beam.
Walking back, I was able to discern a faint tread branching northwest through a break in the trees. This was the continuation of the North Fork Catherine Creek Trail. I followed the route to the creek and a ford. I didn’t make the ford, but supposedly the trail soon reaches the junction with the Crib Point Trail, which leads steeply up to Deadhorse Flat on Cartwheel Ridge. The backpack I had been contemplating would have taken me up these indistinct trails, along Cartwheel Ridge to Lackeys Hole, and then back along the North Fork. None of these trails has been maintained recently.
China Cap and Burger Pass
At the Buck Creek Trailhead, there were a few vehicles, some obviously hunter’s rigs. However, I met only one (very talkative) hiker the whole day. I took the Elk Creek Trail up through some open forest and a clearcut planted with larch. At times, the trail follows an old road bed. Soon, there’s a junction with the Cúuy’em Creek Trail: this trail could be used to make a day loop with the Elk Creek and China Ridge trails. Cúuy’em (pronounced something like “soo?yum” - ? = glottal stop) is the Nez Perce word for fish. It replaces the word squaw, this being one of at least 55 places in Oregon that no longer display that moniker (except on all currently available maps).
Eventually, I passed the wilderness sign and began to get views up to China Cap and across Cúuy’em Creek to Cúuy’em Butte. The trail passes up an avalanche corridor, where a massive cascade of snow from Burger Butte snapped off dozens of trees a number of years ago. Then I reached the unsigned junction with the China Ridge Trail.
I took this trail up more open and meadowy slopes to the saddle just west of China Cap. The views from the saddle stretched to the west, north, and east. I picked up the climber’s trail on the north side of the saddle. This took me up through a dazzling, late-blooming display of lupine and then crossed over to the south side. I stayed with this route a little too long and found myself far below the crest, so clambered up through knotweed meadows to keep below the rock outcroppings on the ridge. Soon I was at the basalt summit block of China Cap and worked my way around the south side to find the easy scramble route, with plenty of ledges, to the summit area.
From China Cap, the views are unobstructed in all directions. To the west are the Powder River valley and the Elkhorns (Van Patten Butte, Mt. Ruth, Mt. Ireland, Rock Creek Butte, Elkhorn Peak). Just to the north are Burger Butte, Granite Butte, Mule Peak, and the peaks above Tombstone Lake. Working around from there I made a list of all the major peaks that were visible: Krag Peak, Red Mountain, Needle Point, Cusick Mountain, Glacier Peak, Eagle Cap, Pete’s Point, Hurricane Ridge, Aneroid Mountain, Brown Mountain, Glacier Mountain, Matterhorn, Sacajawea, Hurwal Divide, Chief Joseph Mountain, Elkhorn Peak, Twin Peaks, Sturgill Peak. High Hat Butte’s basalt formations were visible up China Ridge. Below, China Creek joined the Minam on one side, and the Elk Creek valley with Burger Meadows were on the other. The summit register records a visit every few days in the summer. One recent signer claimed to have broken the ascent record: 99 minutes from the trailhead!
I returned to the saddle via the easier route, just below the crest on the south side, and then made my way up to Burger Pass via the Elk Creek Trail. Here, you cross some big slopes of white granite and come close to Burger Butte, where outcroppings of columnar basalt are visible. From Burger Pass, you have to move around a bit, but you get closer views of Granite Butte; however, you cannot see the Burger Meadows. There are decent views of the south Wallowas, from Needle Point to Aneroid Mountain.
It was on this hike that I finally figured out how to control the myalgia. A friend had noted a few weeks ago that, since I never experienced the pain when hiking with someone, it must have something to do with the almost constant conversation and turning of the head. I found that, every time I felt the muscle tension coming on, just swiveling my head from side to side a few times mitigated the issue. I had to do this every few minutes for the last half of every hike, but at least I didn’t have to stop. Over the four days in the Wallowas, I managed 48 miles without serious problems.
