I dropped in on Henry and his BCRT crew as they were headed in to St. Michael's Lake from the St. John Lakes Trailhead. This trail hasn't seen maintenance in years, but WTA is undertaking a multi-year effort in partnership with the Backcountry Horseman to re-open it. I read in the History of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest that the trail was constructed in 1911 by Forest Service Rangers - the ridge route was originally used by the Native Americans living in the Cispus Valley to reach the high country around Goat Rocks. Earlier this year WTA had a weekend crew that brushed out the trail near Jackpot Lake - for a while the route follows an old road and the work that the volunteers did made a huge difference. But then the trail deteriorates to a thin, scrappy line on a steep side slope. It is easy enough to follow, but gets very brushy in places. Here and there through breaks in the trees you get vistas of the valleys and volcanos. I didn't go in far enough to get high on the ridge as I had to get back to Portland. But I spared a little time to bring home some huckleberries that were all around the Jackpot Lake Trailhead.

I made a 7.6 mile hike in the area of Sanctuary Arch starting at about 1.9 miles up the 160 spur off Forest Road 22. The road was decent for higher clearance vehicles, the weather good, scenery outstanding and the #7 Klickitat trail from Saint John Lake to Mission Mountain ridge needs work. For a little longer hike (4 miles round trip) and about 800 more ft more elevation gain, hikers can start at the Hugo Lake #7 Klickitat Trail head. More photos and details at: http://www.pbase.com/jimthode/sanctuaryarch

I chose the Jackpot Lake trail access from the 3 options given in 100 Hikes In The South Cascades and Olympics for the Klickitat Trail. The hike itself was fine. The trail needs some brushing out, but is otherwise great. The views along the trail and from the top of Cispus Butte in particular are tremendous. I had a great day of solitude, and no people at all -- none on the trail, none at the parking area, none on the road. But there's a reason I was alone. Forest Road 20 is passable by four-wheel drive only, and took about an hour to go the 12 miles to the trailhead. There are four washouts where up to half the road has been eaten away by last winter's rain, leaving a sheer drop at each. One in particular is very scary. But tracks showed that others had done it, so after careful evaluation, I did it too. It was OK, but I don't think I'll want to do it again.

August 8, I hiked up to the old Cispus Lookout site and was intrigued by Castle Butte just a mile northwest, off the Klickitat Trail. I had previously read a September 2000 Castle Butte report by Mick Campbell, in the defunct P & P magazine, but didn’t really appreciate what a great little summit this is until I saw from Cispus. This hike starts at Jackpot Lake, about twelve miles up FS-20. There are numerous issues with the maps of this area, but rather than repeat everything, see the WTA August 8 report for Cispus Lookout. The road has not been repaired. I followed Mick’s path to the summit, which is hike up the west ridge to the summit block. At a little less then a mile past the trail for Cispus, but before the intersection with the Pompey Trail, look for a moderate size clearing. It's a couple of blocks west of the summit, of which there are glimpses of through the trees. This summit is virtually surrounded by vertical cliffs. At the back edge of this clearing is a fairly easy to follow game path, which leads around all the cliffs, right to the summit. It goes up until it gains the west ridge and then skirts it and the ridge trees, on the south side. About two thirds of the way up, the trail heads left, through the trees, over the ridge to the north side where it breaks out into a large clearing. This clearing leads directly to the summit block. Once at the base of the summit block, you can circumnavigate it and walk out to the north and south ridges, where there are excellent views. Mick’s report stated that there is a class 3 gully leading to the top of the summit block, it took me awhile to find it. I found two gullies that looked promising, but half way up them, I stopped. Even if I had got to the top, there was no way I would down climb those gullies. I was ready to quit, there was only one place I hadn’t explored because of the thick trees in that area at the base of the summit block. Yup, that’s where it is. When you reach the base of the block, from the most obvious path in the clearing below, go about 25 feet to the right. This gully is close to being vertical, but it does have fair steps and handholds for the first 15 feet. After that, it is heather handholds. I brought a short rope and some slings and was happy to have them. I setup the rope on the only anchor rock I could find, about half way up the gully, but this was the section I most wanted some protection when coming back down. It’s only about 25 feet to the top. There are still some flowers and lots of blueberries, but most are passed their prime. A few blueberry bushes are still at their prime. Very few bugs. This was a great hike and scramble. Picture 1 is Castle Butte as seen from the Klickitat Trail. Picture 2 is the summit block as seen from the south ridge. The gully is in the trees on the left side.

Cispus Lookout has been on my ‘to-do’ list for several years. Rubberleg’s 7/9/05 report on Cispus jogged my memory; so I finally did the long drive for a short hike. It was well worth the trip. So here is a little more information on Cispus Butte Lookout. Getting there; from just a little SW of Packwood, take FS-20, about 12.4 miles, to Jackpot Lake. This road is in good condition, except for a couple of partial washouts. A high clearance vehicle is recommended. This hike is on Green Trails Maps, Packwood -#302, and Blue Lake-#334. The 2004 Packwood map has an error; it’s missing about one mile of FS-20 from the South Point TH to the junction of FS-20 and FS2020. Trust me, it is there. My Blue Lake map is dated 1998, so the errors on this map may have been fixed, if there is a later map out. The 1998 map shows two dog legs trails, one east and one west of Jackpot Lake, connecting to the Klickitat trail, #7. Forget both of them, The east trail is there, but hard to locate, and the west trail has been abandoned and is overgrown. A large parking area and new connecting trail has been constructed directly north of Jackpot Lake. Follow this trail clockwise around the lake, meeting with trail #7 at the SE end of the lake. A quarter mile west of the lake there are two trail #7 signs. Turn LEFT at the first sign on to a short section of abandoned logging road. The remaining trails and intersections are straight forward. The views from the top of Cispus are outstanding. They include views of Mt. Rainier, the Goat Rocks, Mt. Adams, and Mt. St. Helens. Two other local points of interest, about a mile west of Cispus, are Castle Butte and Twin Sisters. I have seen write-ups on both of these and was contemplating climbing the south Twin Sisters, which is the highest point in this area. However, the summit formation is covered with trees, thus limiting views; cancel that plan. Castle Butte is more of a scramble and looks quite interesting; I will save it for another day. The flowers are passed prime, but sill pretty good. The bugs are very bad, especially at the lake. Picture #1 is Cispus Butte, looking up from the meadow below. Picture #2 is of Castle Butte in the foreground, and Rainier in the background.