This was intended to be a hike on the south end of the Baty Butte trail, in preparation for a South Sister climb the following weekend. Neither of those things came to pass. The South Sister climb was changed since there was between 2-8 feet of snow on the ground at the lake we were going to camp at. This hike was changed because the road leading to the trailhead was closed about 4 miles short of it due to a washout.

We looked at the map and thought we could go cross country to hit the Baty Butte trail. What we didn’t plan too well was how difficult that cross country route would be. It was over a thousand feet vertical and there was LOTS of devils club and rhodies to deal with. It was an amazing cross country hike, but it was TOUGH. Kirk calculated the incline to be about 55%.

It took a long time to do the short cross country (less than a mile), and by the time we got on the trail, it was getting late. We ended up going less than a mile down the trail, but did get to the first hillside meadow, which had lots of flowers in it.

Since the trip up was so difficult and took so long, we decided to hike back the road, even though it was much longer. We didn’t get back to the pickup until almost 8:00pm! A long day, but it was a lot of fun…..