Red Buttes Wilderness

[rosecity]

Four of us set off July 6th to hike in this little known area of the Siskiyous. We hiked about 30 miles in a loop from a trailhead a few miles from Applegate, Oregon. This is a fantastic area mostly in California but accessed only from Oregon. The snow had just barely melted out in the higher areas (at about 5500 feet) and the flowers were at their best. Although we could see the plumes of smoke from the flare up on the Happy Camp fire on Wednesday and Thursday, we had perfectly clear blue skies and no smoke at all. The mosquitos had not yet gotten bad and the trails were not yet dusty. Days were warm (even hot) and the nights were very comfortable. All in all, the Reds were a great choice for a relaxed backpack.
The first 10 miles of trail was mostly on the Butte Trail which follows roughly a fork of the Butte Fork River. The forest is extremely dense in places with exceptionally clear water in the streams and river. There were no-see-ums were we camped a couple of miles from the trailhead. The most significant problem with this low elevation section was the lack of trail maintance. We constantly climbed over or under logs or went arround. Sometimes we just pushed our way through shubs. Occasionally we saw view of the peaks above us.
On Monday night we camped at Cedar Basin. This large meadow filled with flowers, large Incense Cedars, and blooming mountain azaleas. Several small streams cut through the meadows and there is a clear stream a quarter of a mile below the meadow. We were pleasantly surprised that no one else was camped there and figured that all the hikers must be a mile further at Azalea Lake.
The next morning we hiked to the lake and were even more surprised to find no one at all there except us. Later in the day we did see one day hiker out of Applegate. After going up to the ridge, we returned to the lake and spent the afternoon swimming and sunning ourselves. The water was warm. Hiking up Figurehead Mountain would have been another more vigorous possibility. I saw one rattlesnake near the lake.
On Wednesday we broke camp and hiked on the Geoff Mt trail to the Bountry trail where we turned south. This trail follows the ridge for miles with tremendous views down to the Trinities and the Klamath Basin. Much of the ridge is dry after leaving Lonesome Lake which is set in a small cirque. The area is famous for the variey of different plants and we saw alpine flowers next to desert type plants next to strange hard leaved shrubs that cut at our shins (no trail maintance here either). There were lillies, lewisia, odd phlox, wallflowers, yarrows, buckwheat all within a few feet of each other.
That night we camped at Kangaroo Springs. Kangaroo Mt is red. We had seen pale marble extrusions, black volcanic rocks, green serpentinite rock as well as the orange-red peaks all within a few miles of each other.
After a short hike Thursday (and seeing number two and number three of the day hikers for the whole trip) we camped at Echo Lake where we swam (warm but shallow) and watched the snow bank above the lake drain water. The last day we again had to contend with the poor trail maintance as we made our way through the forests and meadows back to our car.
The only other backpackers we saw were a group of three who live in nearby Applegate. This was a wonderful place to explore.

[jeffstatt]

I'd love to see some photos if you have some?

Interesting about there being no hikers - wonder if people are just still too unsure about snow levels and trail conditions.

[Aimless]

This is an interesting year. Late snow melt is forcing hikers to search harder for accessible hikes. Gas prices are keeping them from searching too far afield.

Red Buttes isn't well known to hikers from Portland and Eugene. I've not been there, yet. I think its distance from population centers will probably keep Red Buttes relatively unvisited most years (compared to, say, the Three Sisters). But Ashland and Medford hikers should be there.

[rosecity]

all 6 of the hikers that we saw were from Applegate which is just a couple of miles from the trailhead. One man who backpacks there regularly said that we were the first backpackers he had ever seen who were not locals. The gal at the forest service office said that she had been getting a number of phone calls. My photos are not very great but here is a link to some really interesting photos taken of the same route exactly a year ago.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/5597 ... t=outdoors

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/5597 ... t=outdoors