Greg and I spent the weekend hanging around Olallie Lake, and on Saturday we headed up to the Sisi Butte Lookout. There is no trail to the summit, but there is a road. The road is gated at the bottom to keep out the vandals (which only works some of the time, I'm afraid).
It's 2.8 miles and 1,400 feet of elevation gain on this road hike, which is fortunately mostly shady. The road is in terrible shape (as are most lookout access roads, in my experience). It is very rough and rocky and rutted in spots. I'm not entirely sure my Outback would have made it up even if the gate had been open.
Not too far up the road we saw an RV parked. (We later learned that the guy staffing the lookout sleeps here and not in the tower.)
We made it! This particular tower was built in 1997. It is 50 feet tall and has an unusual eight-sided cab that I've never seen anywhere else. The previous tower that stood here was built in 1940.
A nice man named Floyd Walker was manning the tower and invited us up to enjoy the views. Unfortunately the views were pretty smoky thanks to smoke drifting up from the Lizard Fire. Mt. Jefferson:
Mt. Hood:
The bump in the foreground is part of Sisi Butte. You can see the layer of smoke beyond it.
Looking west:
Floyd said the forest didn't keep a full-time lookout up here, just when the fire danger was high. He also told us that despite the locked gate vandalism is still a problem, even in winter (thanks to people coming in on snowmobiles). He said the lookout had been broken into in the past and items had been stolen. Vandals also stole the copper wire that grounds the tower in a lightning storm. Ugh. People like that are nothing more than pond scum.
Going down is always a little trickier than going up.
Other notes from the weekend:
The mosquitoes are long gone, but the yellow jackets are out in full force. They plagued us at every meal. Ugh.
Also, we managed to camp right next to some morons who were listening to a football game on the radio Saturday evening. They apparently wanted the WHOLE campground to hear the game. Dude, that is TERRIBLE campground etiquette. if it's that important to you, stay home. Don't inflict it on the rest of us who are trying to enjoy nature.
The moon was almost full so the stars weren't as numerous or as bright as they could have been. But the night sky was still amazing. The first two shots below are from Friday night when the sky was very clear. The third shot is from Saturday night which wasn't as clear because of the smoke.
Sunday morning we took a short walk along the shore of Monon Lake to find a geocache. Nice views of Olallie Butte from there.
We also did the short jaunt down to Lower Lake, which looks like it would be good for swimming.
We tried to get to Horseshoe Lake. I had heard the road was bad but passable up to that point, and that the road beyond Horseshoe was utter crap and pretty much impassable. However we discovered the road actually deteriorates much sooner than we thought and becomes utter crap after you pass Monon Lake. About 0.2mi beyond Monon we reached a bit that looked something like this stretch of road we walked down in the Willamette Forest last fall:
No thanks. I backed down the road until I could execute a five-point turn.
Beautiful weekend! Wish there had been less wind and smoke, but that's par for the course this time of year.
Sisi Butte Lookout - 9/6/14
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Re: Sisi Butte Lookout - 9/6/14
I've always wanted to check out Sisi Butte; I've seen it from various peaks I've hiked to in the region, but never have made it up there.
The vandalism of the copper wire doesn't surprise me - the cost/value of copper has gone thru the roof the past several years, and it has become a favorite target of druggies and the like (who fit well into the pond scum category). I work in the homebuilding industry, and it's an occasional problem in new construction as well.
Ah, yellow jackets.....I'm not sure which I despise more - yellow jackets or mosquitoes. My wife and I ran into a few of them at Mt. Rainier this past weekend, and I'm guessing our upcoming trip to the Metolius will be similar. Yikes.
Kevin
The vandalism of the copper wire doesn't surprise me - the cost/value of copper has gone thru the roof the past several years, and it has become a favorite target of druggies and the like (who fit well into the pond scum category). I work in the homebuilding industry, and it's an occasional problem in new construction as well.
Ah, yellow jackets.....I'm not sure which I despise more - yellow jackets or mosquitoes. My wife and I ran into a few of them at Mt. Rainier this past weekend, and I'm guessing our upcoming trip to the Metolius will be similar. Yikes.
Kevin
"Going to the mountains is going home."
— John Muir
— John Muir
- rainrunner
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Re: Sisi Butte Lookout - 9/6/14
Nice pictures, you got some great night shots despite the bright moon.
The mountains are calling and I must go.
John Muir
John Muir
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Re: Sisi Butte Lookout - 9/6/14
Did the road to SiSi Butte last year, for the first time, too. Nice views along the way, when the bear grass was doing so well.
Love the Olallie area. Falls colors are on the way.
Kelly
Love the Olallie area. Falls colors are on the way.
Kelly
Re: Sisi Butte Lookout - 9/6/14
I also had Sisi Butte on my agenda this past week, but my wife declined the offer, so I went and did Olallie Butte by myself.
The second summit on Sisi is one foot higher than the one you were on although, of course, the lookout tower tops everything.
We did drive up the road to Horseshoe Lake, not for the first time, and did a hike from there. You definitely need some clearance!
The second summit on Sisi is one foot higher than the one you were on although, of course, the lookout tower tops everything.
We did drive up the road to Horseshoe Lake, not for the first time, and did a hike from there. You definitely need some clearance!
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Re: Sisi Butte Lookout - 9/6/14
Thanks for posting, Cheryl! At risk of completely geo-geeking out, I can't resist commenting on the very unique geology of Sisi Butte. It's a garden-variety Cascade volcano, but what makes it unique is how three glacial cirques were carved into the NE side, eventually creating the true summit that Bobcat mentions. You have to see it on a topo map to appreciate the symmetry of the glacial erosion:
I added the arrows to show the three glacial troughs -- striking!
-Tom
I added the arrows to show the three glacial troughs -- striking!
-Tom
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Re: Sisi Butte Lookout - 9/6/14
Thanks, Tom! That's fascinating!
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Re: Sisi Butte Lookout - 9/6/14
Apologies if that was a near-thread-hijacking, Cheryl -- I do tend to get overly excited about geomorphology...
Tom
Tom
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Re: Sisi Butte Lookout - 9/6/14
Nice TR Cheryl! Walker is a pretty nice guy. I hear him over the Forest Service Radio Network, check in and out occasionally, and give fire reports. He'll be up there until we begin getting our Pacific monsoon rains. The 4220 after Monon Lake gets pretty rough. Last year I had to drive on that back breaker of a road every day to check on campers and service campgrounds. I'm glad the Olallie Lake Resort took care of all the campgrounds this year! Keep up the good work on fire lookouts. Looking forward on seeing the book you will write from all of your lookout trips and experiences!
Will
Will