Irish Mt.

 I was under a time crunch because we had received free tickets to the Oregon vs. Idaho college football game. Not being a Ducks fan, I was not too stoked about it, but Conrad wanted to go to the game. I decided that I could get a hike in during the morning as long as I was speedy and still make it back for the game in the afternoon. I was still really loving the Box Canyon area, so I decided to go back to the scene of the crime of a few weeks earlier. Corey and I were on a run around the Erma Bell Lakes when he lost his keys. We looked for them for an extended period of time before giving up hope. We had to jog all the way back to the trailhead and then from the trailhead another couple of miles down the road all while shirtless before walking the road for another hour or two until we finally got a ride. 

What was supposed to be a morning run turned into an all day affair. There was a trail along the way that made me curious, though. It jutted off kind of steeply toward Irish Mountain. It even had a sign that said Irish Mtn. on it and since Jacqueline, Conrad, and I had been on the Crossing Way trail a few weeks earlier, this trail made me want to hike it. So hike it I did. It is a bit of a drive to the trailhead which includes a dirt road, but not too big of a deal. I knew the trail would be in good shape until Otter Lake and it was. From there I took the junction toward Irish Mountain. The trail started to slowly deteriorate as it climbed uphill. There were numerous switchbacks and some places where the trees were cut. As I continued to climb uphill, those places got fewer and farther between.

I could still make the trail out for some time and I had it on the map on my watch, so even though I had to hop over lots of deadfall it was still reasonable for some time. Eventually though, it became so overgrown, I lost it in a few places. I was able to track it down again, but after some time it became easier to just take a straight line approach to Irish Mountain. This took me past some excellent views and some great meadows. One such view I could see far to the south toward Diamond Peak with a great view of the Cedar Creek fire scar. It still looked like an alien landscape. One such detour also took me past a lake which if I was in need of water, would have been a great watering hole.

After the lake, the trail was non-existent. I decided to just go for the peak. I was cutting it close on time as the difficulty of the trail was keeping me from making great time. Now the steepness of the route to the peak was deterring me also. It was still just in the forest, so I didn't have the ability to hurt myself too bad if I stumbled, but the angle was getting pretty steep. As I got closer to the ridge, the rocks became jagged. I had worked pretty hard gaining 2700 feet to get here over nearly 6 miles. I was looking at my watch, looking at the difficulty of the peak and I realized that if I wanted to go to the football game I was going to have to turn around soon. I thought I could make the top, but once I got there, I knew it would take a bit of route finding to make it to the right spot.

I had made it to about 50 feet from the summit, but I decided due to time constraints to save it for another day. I negotiated the way back down to the ridge where then I was able to start heading downhill. I was still not able to make great time because of all the deadfall, but it was still a faster trip downhill than up. This had really been a steep ascent and a lot of hard work to get up there in a short amount of time. In the future, I would have to come back to Irish Mountain, but I would probably use the approach from Crossing Way. Though longer, the trail was in better shape and you get to start at a much higher altitude. As I got back to the good trail, I made sure to utilize all my training.

I jogged the last couple of miles. It was so freeing to be in good enough shape that jogging a few miles at the end of a long hike was not a big deal. I quickly got back to the car and made my way back home. We were able to make the game though we arrived as the first quarter was expiring. That was good enough for me as we got to see Oregon figure things out eventually against Idaho. All and all a pretty enjoyable day in Oregon.