Well it finally rained. It had been a smoky summer as usual and we finally saw significant precipitation on Saturday afternoon. Probably about an inch of rain had fallen around the area, but still not enough to cancel the John Fogerty concert. We had a great time at the concert, so next morning I woke up refreshed and ready to get out on a trail somewhere. Everyone else was not feeling a 12 mile hike, so I went by my lonesome. I got to the trailhead a little late at 10:30. I decided to hike up to the Sand Mountain lookout. I've known of the existence of this place for quite some time, but had never made a trip. I studied the roads to get up there and many descriptions said that 4-wheel drive was required. I knew I could drive the long way around, but instead I noticed that the Santiam Wagon Road that left from the head of the McKenzie River Trail went directly toward Sand Mountain Lookout. I saw that another road, the 866 Road, went straight up from there, so I figured I could hike it. After looking at the map, I noticed that it was only 6 miles to the top. This would be a piece of cake. So I headed off up the wooded trail. The trail was looking very fresh on this morning. You could tell that the trail had received significant rainfall the day before as it seemed the water had used the trail as a temporary river.
The forest was cool and quiet. I really enjoyed the big trees and open feeling to the forest. It was hard to be here and not imagine the early settlers forging their way through the forest, camping with their wagons and horses. Which sites did they pick to camp at? Where did they get their grass and water? The trail went up for about 3 miles and then I crossed a road. The 866 Road was just a continuation of the Santiam Wagon Road. This road was now closed to automobile traffic, so it felt like just another hiking trail as no one else was on it. The topography started to change here with little bumps of volcanic craters starting to appear. The forest changed from predominantly fir to more pine trees and low bushes. The ground was not quite as smooth either with lots of volcanic rock ready to trip you up and sprain your ankles if you did not pay attention. Eventually Sand Mountain came into view. I could see with the map on my watch that the road continued until taking a nearly 180 degree turn and heading up the mountain. I decided that I could skip that 180 degree turn by just heading cross country until I met up with the other chunk of road.
This turned out to be a bit of a mistake. The bushes were so thick that my progress was slow and difficult. Add to that the steepness of the topography and it made for some very slow going. It did get me sweating a bit which wasn't too bad because up to this point the hiking had been quite easy even with the 2300 feet in elevation I would have to gain to make it to the lookout. I eventually came out to the road where I was happy to not be covered in ticks. Looking at my estimated time of arrival, I had saved 15 minutes of hiking by taking my shortcut, but it really had not been enjoyable hiking. Now, though, I was on the road again, that once again, was now turned into a trail leading to the lookout.
I was starting to get some incredible views to go along with it. I ran into a guy with 2 dogs coming down from the lookout. He was very friendly and we talked for quite some time. Always nice to meet a kindred soul out on the trail. The road/trail continued until I got to a large parking lot. This used to be the trailhead, but was now 1 mile away from the new trailhead. From here, the trail was only another .25 miles.
The views out to Hoodoo, Three Fingered Jack, and Mt. Washington were fantastic. All three of them were right there in your face. When I turned a corner to make it to the top, I was greeted by a very friendly lookout attendant. His name was Tim and he was a professor at Portland State University. He had spent some of his summers since 2000 being the lookout at Sand Mountain. He had the outfit to prove it too as he was dressed in forest service apparel that seemed just about right for the 1920s or 1930s. I asked him about the previous night's storm and he talked about the thunder and lightning storm. We also talked about the Holiday Farm Fire storm. He let me go up in the lookout tower and we talked for quite some time.
One thing I learned from Tim was that the lava flows coming from this area were relatively recent, only about 3000 years old. The flows from Belknap were even younger as that lava is on top of the lava from Sand Mountain. I also learned that the lava flows from Sand Mountain actually created Clear Lake. He gave me lots of great information and I took a few pictures, but it was soon time to head back down. I decided that when going down, I was not going to take a shortcut.
This took me too an amazing little field of cinders. I could tell that ATVs liked to use this area to drive around in, but after the rain it almost looked pristine. Our planet is pretty amazing. The non-shortcut route proved to be easy walking and I saw two other groups on the approach as I went down. As I got to the actual trailhead, some noisy ATVs came up the road and I was happy to be walking back down the other way with many miles of closed road ahead of me to walk. The only exciting thing to report on the way back was the only wildlife I would see on this day which was a horned lizard. He was a little guy, but I guess in this upper elevation semi-desert environment, this was good habitat for him. I continued on down the trail making it back to the car by 3:30. About 5 hours for a 12 mile hike was pretty decent. I was very pleased with the hike as most of it was really quiet with a nice big payoff at the end. I would definitely have to repeat this hike sometime in the future.
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