Today’s hike was a memorable one. It was (for me) a last minute hike decision, but I’m really glad things worked out so I could go. It merits the “epic” tag for a hike for sure.

Since we knew it was going to be a long day (we didn’t know it was going to be quite as long as it turned out to be, but more on that to come), we started out about 8:00. Kirk picked me up – originally he was going to drive the van so we had enough room for everyone, but Greg offered to drive, and he had enough room for all of us, our gear and the two dogs. We headed out for the long drive to the trailhead, which was past Detroit. Along the way, we stopped at the Detroit Ranger station to see if they had any current condition updates. The person we talked to didn’t seem too knowledgeable – at first they told us we needed a Forest Pass, but someone else corrected them. They also said the Triangulation trail was closed (which it was not).

After that interesting exchange, we continued on and about 10:45 we arrived at the trailhead – a wide spot in the road with a board on it. There was another truck at the trailhead so we figured we would run into someone at some point. I leashed up Thor and we headed up the trail. The trail starts out and immediately you are climbing – the area all burned in the Lionshead fire in 2020 – it was a scene we would see pretty much all day long – scorched earth and downed logs:

Kirk had read that the Cheat Creek trail was cut out last year, but it apparently got hit very hard in the storms last December – there were LOTS of freshly downed trees we had to navigate – there is a trail under all that debris somewhere:

There were several places where we had to do some head scratching on where the trail went. With all the logs, brush and elevation, it was very slow going up the hill. This portion of the day was mostly in the sun, so it was pretty hot as well. The air temperature wasn’t too bad, but with the exertion and sun on you, it made for a pretty sweaty ascent.

The trail mostly follows Cheat Creek up the hill, with the trail being reasonably steep in places. We were not making very good time, and we were not sure we were going to be able to make it to the old lookout spot on Triangulation Peak. We had estimated the trip was going to be over 12 miles round trip with about 3000′ of elevation gain. At this point, I think we were on something like a 1 mile an hour pace, meaning it would have taken us 12 hours to complete the trip which would have put us back at the car at 11pm – well after sunset.

As we were ascending the hill and nearing Wild Cheat Meadow, we stopped for a drink of water in a shady spot and to rest for a moment. While we were stopped, a hunter came down the trail – he was scouting the area – he said he didn’t see any animals – some bear sign in the meadow but that was about all – nothing fresh he said. He also said the going got a bit easier as we got closer to the meadow but he didn’t go farther than that so he wasn’t sure what the conditions were past that. This was welcome news as we were hoping we could pick up the pace a bit in order to achieve our objective for the day.

After a short rest and a short chat with the hunter, we continued up the hill. As he promised, things did get better (a bit). The trail kind of alternated between sections that were not too bad and easy to follow and sections that were covered in debris and logs. As we got closer to the meadow, we had more of the former and less of the latter. We were thinking that the meadow would be a good place for lunch. We weren’t quite sure what to expect since everything burned. This is what it looked like as we were approaching the meadow (you can see the meadow thru the trees):

As we were walking in, I saw a bunch of trillium blooming on the ground:

We entered the meadow and found a shady spot and stopped for lunch. We were all surprised that the meadow itself did not burn – it was a really nice oasis and break from the devastation that we had walked thru all morning.

After lunch, we continued thru the meadow – we followed what we thought was the trail – the map shows the trail going thru kind of the middle of the meadow. While we were walking thru the meadow, I found the bear scat that the hunter must have found:

At the east end of the meadow we were looking for where the trail continued. After a bit of searching we finally found the trail and continued – the trail started heading up towards a saddle. The trail continued the pattern of areas that were not too bad and areas that lots of debris. Unfortunately, it was not too long before we pretty much lost the trail completely. We all 3 kind of searched going up the hill in different areas looking for more tread but none of us really found anything until we were close to the saddle. Kirk ended up finding the trail there and I soon caught up to him. We walked out the trail a bit and soon got to the junction with the Triangulation trail which we would follow up to Triangulation point. There were signs at the junction that were partially burned but still readable:

Kirk and I continued up and it wasn’t long before Greg joined us. He had searched a bit farther north for the trail. The only good news coming up the hill was that it was reasonably easy walking – it was all burned and there were few large downed logs going up the hill.

Now that we were all back together, we started heading west on the Triangulation trail. This continued the pattern of good vs bad. Some of the bad was pretty bad though:

A short ways from the junction – maybe a third of a mile or so the trail actually got considerably better than we had seen all day long. There was still intermittent downed logs, but they became fewer and farther between and the ones we did encounter were typically not that hard to get over. The trail grade had leveled out too, which made it easier to make better time. We were still hoping we could make our objective for the day.

At one point along the trail, I noticed these pretty purple flowers – Kirk thinks they are some sort of Larkspur:

We continued west on the trail and at some point the trail took a turn and we got a really good look at Mt Jefferson – it seems SO close up here:

A bit farther down the trail we got a glimpse of our objective looming in the distance:

It was somewhere past here that we decided that we could probably make it to the top of Triangulation peak – we couldn’t stay on top too long, but we thought we’d have enough time to get up there and then back down to the car before dark. Our pace had picked up quite a bit due to the improved trail conditions and also the reduced elevation gain – much of our elevation gain for the day was in the first 3 miles and then we had another bit at the very last part before the top.

We got to the spot that is underneath Triangulation Peak and the trail starts to head north – it goes around Spire Rock before switchbacking up the saddle between Spire Rock and Triangulation Peak before it gets to the top. It was in this area that someone spotted an old horseshoe – the area had burned pretty hot so there was no duff left – it has probably been buried for a long time:

As we continued, we weren’t really sure what we were going to encounter but we kept on going. Our goal was to get to the top by 4:00, which would leave us a little time on top and then enough time to get back to the car before dark.

We continued north on the trail – the trail in here was not too bad, especially given what we had encountered early in the day. As we were nearing Spire Rock, we found a cool old artifact – a couple of old bridges with little “culverts” – I’m guessing this is to deal with all the runoff in the spring – it was still it pretty good condition given the intensity of the burn:

It was somewhere in here I think where we looked uphill and wondered if we could shortcut the trail – we were thinking the switchback on the west side would come up to the saddle which we could see from the trail we were on. We decided not to chance it since we figured there was probably a reason they routed the trail the way they did and we worried we would get cliffed out or something and have to backtrack which would mess up our very tight timeline.

We continued on and encountered one of the very few bits of snow we saw all day long – Thor and Ollie both enjoyed this little patch of snow:

We continued on, going underneath Spire Rock – it is quite an impressive rock – nearly vertical. We wrapped around the north side of it and then started heading south. The anticipation of getting to the top was making this relatively short section of trail feel REALLY, REALLY long.

I wasn’t sure what we’d find for the junction with the switchbacks heading up, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a VERY clear junction and a pretty good trail heading up. We turned and headed up the switchbacks. This portion of the trail was probably some of the best trail we hiked all day long. The ascent was reasonably steep but at least we didn’t have to deal with tons of downed logs or brush – just a few. We got up a couple of switchbacks and got to the saddle between Spire Rock and Triangulation Peak. We looked down from here and it certainly appeared we could head back this way. The trail wasn’t too far below and it was very open and not TOO steep. We figured we could head back that way and hopefully shave off some time on the way back.

We continued from the saddle up a couple more switchbacks and soon arrived at the top of Triangulation Peak. It was just after 4:00, so our timing was pretty good. It was amazing to me that there was a lookout up here and they brought pack trains up here to resupply the lookout – the terrain is pretty steep and unforgiving, but the views from on top were spectacular. It was a pretty clear day for mountain viewing.

Mt Jefferson:

3 Finger Jack and the 3 Sisters:

Olallie Butte and Park Ridge:

Mt Hood:

And here is a 360 Panorama from the top of Triangulation Peak

It was a bit breezy but I decided to try and see if I could fly my drone to get some shots of the top – video TBD

While we were on top, Greg noticed this very vibrant butterfly sitting on the ground – I was hoping this picture would come out better – unfortunately it does not show the vibrant colors – there were beautiful red spots on its wings that don’t show up in the photo:

Kirk went over to the “other” peak at the east end of the peak. Thor and Ollie rested – they were tired as we all were and we still had to go back the whole way we came!

After soaking in the incredible views from the top, we knew we needed to start heading back – I think we spent just about a half hour on top, but if we were going to get back to the car before dark, we needed to make good time on the way back. We packed up our stuff and headed back down the trail. Not too far below the top I had to take this picture of a really cool spring – the moss was VERY vibrant:

After the dogs got a drink and cooled off in the spring a bit we continued down. Coming back down was easier than going up – we quickly got to the saddle between Spire Rock and Triangulation Peak and headed down our “shortcut” towards the trail on the east side of Triangulation Peak. One thing I neglected to mention earlier – under Triangulation Peak there is a cave called Boca Cave that provides you with a perfectly framed view of Mt Jefferson. Greg had seen it years ago before the fires and we all wanted to see it. We looked for a route to it on the way back but we really didn’t have enough time to go to it. Post hike note: The route to the cave is from a user trail at the first saddle directly below the summit of Triangulation Peak.

We soon re-joined the trail we came in on, and continued our way back. We made pretty good time. We were hoping we would be back at the car before sunset, which was about 8:20. We had almost 4 hours to get back down.

Things went very well on the way back down. We were making good time and relatively easily navigating the blowdown on the Triangulation trail. Originally, we were thinking about heading downhill from the trail to shortcut the turn down to Wild Cheat Meadow but plans changed on the way down. We wanted to follow the trail we had found on the way up. We got to the junction and continued but it wasn’t too long before it looked like the trail was going in the wrong direction. The trail entered unburned area which was really cool to see what it looked like before the fire. Greg and I decided to head back down – kind of the way we had come up and Kirk said he was going to follow it a bit and if it didn’t turn, he would come back down the same way. We said we’d meet in the meadow.

Greg and I made our way down the hill to the meadow and eventually found the trail we had started following up the hill. We got to the meadow and found a post with a ribbon on it – how had we missed this on the way in? We made our way across the meadow. I was going to stop kind of in the middle to wait for Kirk and Greg said “he is right over here!” I didn’t see he was already there on the west side of the meadow! (kind of where we had lunch) I asked him where that trail went and he said it WAS the trail. It apparently took a turn not too far past where we turned around and then came down the hill, sometimes following what looked like a stream bed. On the way up the hill, I remember seeing some areas like that and wondering if that was indeed the trail – too bad I didn’t follow them. Kirk said the trail was really nice for a lot of the way (in the unburned areas). When it got to heading down the hill, it was a bit rougher but nothing worse than we had been hiking all day long.

Once we were all back together, we continued our way down the hill. The first part of the descent past the meadow wasn’t bad – the trail was in decent shape but we soon returned to the rougher areas of the trail. We had been making good time and were still hopeful we could get back to the car before dark. I think we left the meadow about 7:00 and I was thinking we might make it back to the car by 8:00.

We fought our way back down the hill, navigating all the downed trees along the way. I think the last half mile of this trip was the longest half mile I’ve ever hiked. My feet were tired, my legs were tired I was running out of water and I was just ready to be done. The dogs had done really well all day long but you could tell they were really tired too. I had to help Ollie over a log at one point – he couldn’t pull himself over it.

We finally got back to the car about 8:15 – 6 minutes before sunset! We were all glad to be done with the hike and be able to sit down. We now just had a 2 hour drive ahead of us to get home. We were all hungry too so on the way home we looked for a place to eat dinner. It was late so our options were limited. It looked like the only places we could pick from were in Mill City. Originally there was a bar that said they were open until 2:30AM but then I found a “grill” that looked pretty good – we decided to go there but they had a limited menu after 9:00. It wasn’t the best dinner but after over 9 hours on the trail, chicken strips and fries tasted pretty good!

I think Kirk dropped me off at home at about 11:30PM – a very late night, but it was truly an epic day with lots of discoveries, great views and plenty of adventure.