Black Butte

 

Waking up at the campground along the Metolius River, Conrad and I were right near the trailhead to Black Butte. We both slept in a little bit after a hard day of hiking the previous day. I think we both had a pretty good night of sleep in the tent. It got light rather early, but we still found a way to sleep in until 6:45, Conrad making it all the way until 7:30. Our breakfast was pretty easy as we each had a bagel and a small orange. Then it was time to get the tent all packed up, the sleeping bags put away, and the air mattresses deflated. We got the car packed up quickly and were out of there a little bit after 8 am. I decided it would be interesting to drive through Camp Sherman just to see what it was like. It was like a little village complete with a camp store, a restaurant, a school, etc... Then it was off to the Black Butte trailhead. 

There were quite a few cars parked at the trailhead. We found a place along the side of the road, but even before 9 am, we were still the 15th car parked there. This was the lower trailhead. I thought it was only 3.1 miles to the top based on the guidebook that we had, but when I looked at how far away that the top was, I realized that it must have been 3.1 miles to the upper trailhead. The trail was supposed to climb over 3000 feet, but we were heading up rather slowly. After a few junctions, it began to climb. It was not a big deal to either of us. Conrad was so tough for 11 years old. He just took whatever challenge was thrown his way. The forest was pretty thick and it was rather overcast. I was surprised to see so many trail runners coming down the trail. This trail had a lot of vertical, so I guess it was a way to get that training in. Plus, it was probably the only thing this high that the snow was completely off of the trail. 

We continued up the trail and sure enough, the 3.1 miles was to the upper parking lot. There was still another 2 miles to go to get to the top. We continued on up. Conrad was doing great as the trail just climbed steadily. There were not even really many switchbacks, just continuing uphill. The upper trailhead had a bunch more cars, so this section was definitely a bit busy. There were trail markers next to plants and we guessed some of the plants. I got a few right, so I felt good about that. Eventually the trees died away. It became a little more exposed and I could tell that Conrad was a little bit nervous. He tried his best not to show it, but I could tell that he was thinking about it. Soon, though, we were coming around the corner and heading for the top of the mountain. 

Right above us was a family with young kids so it was hard to revel in our accomplishment too much, but 3400 of vertical gain over 5.3 miles was still a good day's work. We wandered over to the viewpoint, but it was very cold and windy. We found a place out of the wind to sit down and have some lunch. 

We ate and then we started on down. It was much faster going down, but we had to stop quite a few times for people coming up. Conrad was least excited to see the people with dogs. He had this thing, but I kind of get it as people treat the dogs like they are humans. They can be irritating, but they can be sweet too. We were quickly down to the upper trailhead and then we kept moving quick until we were back down to the lower trailhead. About 4 hours to do 10.6 miles, so we felt pretty good about that. Plus we had a great workout and got to hike a new trail. Definitely a hike that we enjoyed. I was so lucky to be able to do something like that with my son. I hope for many more experiences like this in the future.