Panjab Trail, Oregon Butte & Rattlesnake Trail — Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021

Winter has had a very strange start in the Inland Northwest, but our small hardy group decided to make the most of the weird conditions by attempting a January backpack trip into the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness. In a normal winter I don't think this trip would be possible, but due to recent warm weather & overall lack of snowfall we were able to pull this one off.

The road access to the upper Tucannon & Panjab area was closed off for most of 2020 due to a major road washout, the evidence of which is still highly visible along the way in. We encountered zero snow on our way to the trailhead.

We arrived mid-morning on Saturday and hiked in via Panjab Trail. The TH area had patchy ice but no snow, giving way to some snow in the early miles and by around the 3 mile mark we decided to put on snowshoes. The trail was easy to follow until around the 4 mile mark, at which point we ran into consolidated/icy snow that created very difficult conditions. It was basically impossible to kick steps into the frozen surface, so we abandoned the trail and picked the easiest route up for the final 500' of elevation gain. It was bad enough that we decided we would not attempt to exit via the same route, as a fall in the area of the ice would have been very serious.

Once at the top we had difficulty locating the spring at Dusty Camp so decided to continue to Indian Corral and Dunlap Spring. We camped at the edge of the open meadows at Indian Corral and were able to locate and access Dunlap Spring for drinking water. All of Saturday was sunny, calm and gorgeous.

On Sunday morning we awoke to fierce winds and icy/wet snow. The snow quit mid-morning but the sun never came out and the winds continued all day. We decided to attempt to hike to Oregon Butte, as it has been a longtime goal to try to get there in winter. Route finding was moderately difficult as the trail was generally not visible, but the snow averaged only a foot or two deep and was very consolidated. We didn't get to enjoy the panoramic views from Oregon Butte, as it was shrouded in clouds and fog, but it was still wonderful to be able to reach it in January. The last names on the Lookout register were dated from the end of October.

On Monday we packed up and exited via Rattlesnake Trail. This trail is spectacular. I don't know that hiking it in winter would be possible in a normal snow year, but this year isn't normal and we ended up not even needing snowshoes for the last couple miles of the descent. We were bracing ourselves for a cold creek crossing at the end (we'd thought about going in this way on Saturday, but didn't want to start the trek with cold feet). After we reached the crossing and explored upstream a bit, we discovered a log-jam where we were able to cross safely. Probably not recommended if the water was higher or faster, but right now the water level is fairly low. Then we just had to finish it up with a 2 mile road walk back to the starting TH at Panjab.