Roz lead another challenging hike on a trail less traveled this past Friday, August 7th, up Trapper Butte. It was a perfect hiking day, she reported, a sunny and cool Friday morning. Five CONC hikers, duly masked and socially distanced, first gathered for the hike briefing, then drove their five Subarus to the empty Trapper Butte trailhead parking lot. (A coincidence? An unintended advertisement for Subaru?)
The group ascended about 1500 feet in 3.9 miles, up several switch-backed slopes, passing verdant groundcover, towering conifers, and even some old growth trees. There was shady cover the whole way, and no burnt areas. Although Trapper Butte isn’t one of the more well-known Cascade summits, it yields postcard-grade views of Mt. Jefferson, the Pyramids, and Bachelor and Coffin Mountains. Roz and company were happy not to encounter a single hiker or biker on their route up and back, a rare instance of solitude. The trail even offered a bit of huckleberry browsing for some of the group. All in all, another good day.
