Aspen Butte (Mountain Lakes Wilderness) 26-Aug-2017

At the moment, there are approximately 130,000 acres (200 square miles) of wildfires burning to the north, west, and south of the Rogue Valley. Needless to say, air quality in the valley sucks (if it were possible to breath-in). And, with air temperatures pushing into the triple digits, even Mordor is beginning to look like a better alternative.  And yet, after two delightful weeks of “floating and bloating” on the Salmon River (post), I (or, more accurately, my now bulging gut) needed a hike. But where? Someplace reasonably close, yet high enough for clearer air, and to the east of the wildfires (some of which, sadly, are busy burning away nearby hikes – like Grayback Mountain and Stuart Falls – that we’d enjoyed only a few months ago). After bringing an extra brain cell online, I decided that a hike up Aspen Butte in the Mountain Lakes Wilderness was my best choice. At 8,208 feet, it’s the highest point in this wilderness and thus a likely place to find fresher air.  The LovedOne – once again suspecting my sanity – opted instead to spend the day volunteering in the cool, filtered air provided by the county library.  Sigh (gasp, hack, wheeze…).

The shortest access to the Aspen Butte is from the Clover Creek Trailhead via the Clover Creek Trail.  The smoke was thick as soup in the valley but had thinned considerably by the time I reached the trailhead at 5,700 feet.  It was also pleasantly cool here and this coolness would last all the way up to the summit. The trail, which goes mostly level of its first 0.7 miles, was in great shape – the Forest Service must have gotten in some maintenance before they were diverted to wildfire duty.

After its level start, the trail turns and climbs gradually up the slope of what was the slope of a cluster of four overlapping shield volcanoes. Along the way I passed a small meadow, still sporting a few late season wildflowers,

and a small, unnamed pond that offered reflections and a few desperate late-season mosquitos.

Shortly after passing this pond (2.3 miles from the trailhead) I came to the unsigned (but marked with a couple of cairns) junction of the “new” Clover Creek Trail (the one I was on – red track on map below) and the “old” trail (blue track on map below), the one that, before 1985 or so, by-passed Clover Lake and went directly up to the rim. The Forest Service had abandoned it but it seems to have been revived by users as it is now an obvious and easy to follow tread all the way up to where if rejoins the “new” trail at about 7,200 feet. The old trail is no longer shown on the Forest Service map (which is understandable) but the new trail is only approximately where the map says it is (which is confusing). I took the old trail up to the rim, where I got a nice, mostly smoke-free, view of Lake Harriette below and Mount Harriman beyond.  Harriette is the largest of over 20 small lakes at the bottoms of several large large cirques carved by Ice Age glaciers near the summits of the four shield volcanoes encompassed by this wilderness.

The Clover Creek Trail ends at its junction on the rim with the Mountain Lakes Loop Trail (USFS #3727). I followed the Mountain Lakes Trail southeast to where it begins to descend toward Lake Harriette. From from here I continued southeast on a good use trail toward Aspen Butte. I traversed the ridge for a bit and then did a steady, but gentle, climb up to the summit. Along the way, I passed strands of #9 galvanized wire, all that remains of the telephone line (first installed in 1915) to the fire lookout (as a camp from 1910 to about 1920; then as a cupola cabin until 1928) that once occupied the summit. Conditions on top were great: fresh air, a light cool breeze, sunshine unfiltered by smoke, no bugs – totally worth the hike up. To the northwest, I could see that the summit of Mount McLoughlin (at 9,495 feet) was also above the smoke.

But, to the north, it seemed that both Mount Harriman and Pelican Butte were well in to the smoke.

To the east, Upper Klamath Lake was buried into invisibility under a dense cloud of smoke. The now 1,500 acre North Pelican fire burning on Pelican’s north slope undoubtedly contributed its share to Klamath’s smoke.

To the south, only the very top of 14,179 foot Mount Shasta was above the smoke pouring into the Shasta area from the Orelans Complex and other wildfires to the west.

And to the west, the Rogue River Valley was also lost in the smoke.

I loitered on the summit as long as I could and then (reluctantly) started the journey back down in to the smokey depths, wishing I could exchange my GPS for a respirator.

I stopped to chat with two equestrians at the rim and then returned via the old trail. A very nice hike (10.4 miles roundtrip; 2,500 feet of elevation gain) to a view with cool, breathable air! One of the classics in Southern Oregon and hopefully one that won’t get burned like many of the others.

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