Deer Mountain — Friday, Mar. 26, 2004

If your looking for a short 1 hour hike next time your hanging out in Lake Chelan, this one is a good early season walk. Deer Mountain is the edge of the Cascades as it's south and east slopes drop into the Columbia River. It's west slopes drop down to the city of Chelan and the lake. My desire to climb to it's summit results from my experience working on the Deer Mountain Fire in 2002. At that time, I almost baged the peak by driving to the summit. This time, it was safe to make a run for the summit. This is really a gated road walk. To get to the gates, drive out of downtown Chelan on the Cagle Gulch Road. Follow this road (becoming dirt for several miles until reaching a pass with a nice sign saying ""Chelan Heights Estates"" or something like that. A gated road leads up to several view lots for sale. Follow the nicely graveled road to the very end. Deer Mountain will be directly in-front of you but a small loss of elevation (150 feet) will be required before the road takes you further along the ridge and up to the summit. We encountered a bit of snow along the way but I'm sure it's gone now. Just before the summit, we encountered 10 deer, which seemed appropriate.