{"id":3028,"date":"2019-09-27T22:31:48","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T22:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/?p=3028"},"modified":"2020-05-02T20:40:48","modified_gmt":"2020-05-02T20:40:48","slug":"battle-ax-mountain-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2019\/09\/27\/battle-ax-mountain-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle Ax Mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday, September 14, 2019<\/p>\n<p>While staying at nearby Gold Butte Greg and I decided to do the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oregonhikers.org\/field_guide\/Battle_ax_loop_hike\">loop hike up to Battle Ax Mountain<\/a>. The only other time we&#8217;ve done this hike was <a href=\"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2016\/07\/14\/battle-ax-mountain\/\">back in July 2016<\/a>.<!--more--><!-- more --><\/p>\n<p>We bumped along the rough potholed road to Elk Lake and parked along the road at the junction with the turn-off for the campground. From there we road-walked 0.4 miles further along the road before hopping onto the Bagby Hot Springs Trail. There is still no permit box here:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48747384922_285faaee9f_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"533\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Heading up the trail:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48746867028_1ed766bdfd_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This trail hasn&#8217;t seen maintenance in awhile and is quite brushy in spots:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48747199196_e1e6e3f7ae_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>These mushrooms loved this spot on the cut end of a log:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48749645547_9fea8aa249_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Just like <a href=\"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2019\/09\/26\/phantom-natural-bridge\/\">yesterday<\/a> on the hike to Phantom Natural Bridge, we saw millions of ripe huckleberries on this hike:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48747197536_88642c257a_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We got glimpses into the Bull of the Woods Wilderness and the burned area from the 2011 Mother Lode Fire:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48747382822_0de67959dd_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Mt. Jefferson on the left, Mt. Washington on the right:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48747198146_871497412b_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We reached the junction with the Battle Ax Mountain Trail and turned left:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48747380272_b0d1d5a70b_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a steep 1.3 miles from the junction to the summit. Because it was steep I was going really slow. Greg would get a little bit ahead, stop and pick a handful of huckleberries, and put them in my hand when I caught up. Hiker fuel! Finally we reached the summit ridgeline:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48749646742_c2b0726b97_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We reached the summit, which we had all to ourselves. We sat by the old lookout footings:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48749641752_fb8eebe0bd_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There are very nice views from the top. Looking north to Mt. Hood:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48749460136_f263c47643_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48749128363_382f214257_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Elk Lake and Mt. Jefferson:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48749760407_cb5eba6e8a_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48749457356_048c075386_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48749243253_bf54025b37_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Mt. Washington and the Three Sisters, and the flat-topped Coffin Mountain:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48749125348_fe932dd505_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There are two benchmarks up here:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48749456736_01fd7cc59d_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48749119723_b1251a7384_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s nice that this hike is a loop. We continued on the Battle Ax Mountain Trail, switchbacking down, down, down to Beachie Saddle. The views on the way down along this stretch are great:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48749756367_13682c6862_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There are several points where the trail is sliding down the hillside:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48747385467_2bb819d7ab_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"533\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We reached Beachie Saddle and from here we walked along the old stretch of abandoned road, which quite brushy in spots:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48749757082_1f64e41830_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Some sections of this old road are almost getting to the point of being unhikable:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48746862523_1f1f211370_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain hike\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We finished hiking the abandoned stretch and hiked the drivable stretch back to the car. 6.2 miles, 1600&#8242; elevation gain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday, September 14, 2019 While staying at nearby Gold Butte Greg and I decided to do the loop hike up<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2019\/09\/27\/battle-ax-mountain-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Battle Ax Mountain<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213,166,159,158],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3028"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3028"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3178,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3028\/revisions\/3178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}