I'm going to start where justpeachy left off, at the plaque memorializing Dr. Richard Carlyle Lambert as mentioned in justpeachy's TR. You can see the plaque in the lower right at the base of the rock outcrop.
I did the class 3 (?) scramble to the top to get the big views - nice place for a memorial. A fall from up there and you'd be joining Dr. Lambert. To the south is Jefferson flanked by Frog Lake Buttes on the left, Bird Butte on the right and the little bald spot to the far right is Palmeteer viewpoint (did not know that at the time).
The view is great towards Hood.
Pretty vertical to the south.
From the memorial rock outcrop I continued south on fairly good and well blazed trail. The ridge is open in spots for good looks back at Hood and to the east.
Hey dude, found your snow shovel, looks useful, I'm keeping it.
The further south I went the worse the trail became - obviously little used at this point and abandoned by the FS - even though on the FS info sheet the entire route is shown. Well blazed like this spot.
The blaze kept me on the route although there is not much difference between trail and off-trail - 3 kinds of blaze, ax, paint, and some diamond shaped plastic markers nailed to trees.
As I dropped off to descend to Barlow Rd I ran into this nicely developed piece of trail - shame to let this go to waste.
Eventually I gave up trying to find blaze to keep on the route - taking too much time so I just went cross country to depart Barlow Butte to land on the Barlow Rd. I went south and came across the broken bridge, great for hikers:
I crossed the bridge and went looking for the Bonney Meadows Trail, unfortunately I chose the wrong direction on Barlow Rd and wound up having to bushwhacking uphill to catch the trail. Pro Tip: From the bridge go north, not south. I reached the trail head for Catalpa Lake but I was running late from looking around for trail on Barlow Butte so took a pass. Instead I would head up the road towards Green Lake, hop off and bushwhack my way up to Frog Lake Buttes and continue on from there. Catalpa Lake TH:
A gnarly tree on the bushwhack to the top of Frog Lake Buttes:
Just below the top I found myself in a clearcut with great views to the south and east. Here's Clear Lake and Timothy Lake.
On I trudged in the heat when I ran into some blaze and a clear trail!??! What gives?
Turns out there was trail here back in the day - here's a snippet from the '63 map - the #484 trail:
I reached the top - there's a microwave relay up there. A couple of guys had driven to the top and they pointed me towards the viewpoint, not much, the clearcuts on the way up offer better views. At the north end of the southern butte:
The Frog Lake Buttes trail up from Frog Lake was easy tp find, just around the corner from the relay site - started out as road and eventually became a signed trail. Went rapidly down through the forest to get to the trail to lower Twin Lakes:
The trail at this point, and pretty much the rest of the way back to Barlow Pass, was paved with horse poo. Here's upper Twin Lakes - horse poo right up to the water's edge:
I was entering the home stretch when I made a fortuitous wrong turn to Palmateer viewpoint. I thought I was headed back to the Pass but instead there is the nice open area with big views - looking back on Frog Lake Buttes on the far horizon and Bird Butte nearby:
Here's a panorama - nice to see the entire length I'd traveled on Barlow Butte:
There was something about Devil's Half-acre, is this it?
I took the Palmateer Trail down to Barlow Road and headed up toward the pass (rule #1 broken, never end a hike going uphill) - I now have some appreciation for the pioneers who had made the same trip as I was pretty beat up. I was at least as happy as they were to make the Pass.
Traveled ~19.7 miles with ~5200' elevation gain in ~10 hours. Good day, saw lots of stuff. The trails (Twin Lakes, Palmateer) with all the horse poo I will make every effort to never do again.
