{"id":3055,"date":"2019-10-19T20:57:32","date_gmt":"2019-10-19T20:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/?p=3055"},"modified":"2019-11-23T17:35:29","modified_gmt":"2019-11-23T17:35:29","slug":"hunchback-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2019\/10\/19\/hunchback-mountain\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunchback Mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday, October 5, 2019<\/p>\n<p>Although we have driven past it hundreds of times and seen it from various vantage points, Greg and I have never hiked up Hunchback Mountain, so today we did.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The trail starts at the Zigzag Ranger Station. There is an old run-down springhouse near the trailhead:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875808347_8830019bf3_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875809602_a5a8475f2b_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"533\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We quickly crossed the wilderness boundary, entering the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875722176_cc5d9359a3_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There were many switchbacks as we climbed up, up, up:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875074608_e2229aeab6_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There was signs of recent trail work and indeed Trailkeepers of Oregon worked here on September 25:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875073118_fdd29b55dd_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At 1.1 miles we passed this cool mossy rock face:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875802577_1061e7e34b_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The trail got steeper:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875068833_bec0d40c23_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We saw quite a few mushrooms:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875070223_652d750a05_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875729031_6107608b7c_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After gaining 1,700 feet of elevation over 2.25 miles we reached the clifftop viewpoint looking down on the Salmon River. Although it doesn&#8217;t have a defined and obvious summit, that is Huckleberry Mountain across the valley, where I hiked two weeks earlier:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875066048_ccaebb73dc_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875067313_d67fef0ec8_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875201383_4dded7465b_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875198898_34ae19709c_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We debated whether to turn around or keep going and decided to keep going a bit further. The trail was rough and very steep in places:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875196538_b658162469_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The trail leveled off for awhile and we reached a junction with the spur trail to the old helispot at 3.7 miles. There are no views from it so we didn&#8217;t check it out. We made this our turnaround point:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875727901_13ecf862c9_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Earlier, at the 2.5 mile mark, we had passed the junction for the Rockpile. On the way back we checked it out:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875195268_d230dcf91c_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Turns out the Rockpile is just that, a pile of rocks:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875192053_ef273cb6c3_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We scrambled up to the top where we did not get a view of Mt. Hood, just clouds:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875189783_399d22e188_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You can just barely make out the edges of part of the mountain through the clouds. Drat!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48875723216_29af674964_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hunchback Mountain Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We headed back to the car, descending steeply down the mountain. Boy did our legs hurt for the next few days! This trail is STEEP. 2,400&#8242; elevation gain, 7.4 miles.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49033710096_04f0bda62d_c.jpg\" alt=\"HunchbackMountain\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday, October 5, 2019 Although we have driven past it hundreds of times and seen it from various vantage points,<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2019\/10\/19\/hunchback-mountain\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Hunchback Mountain<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[166,159,188],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3055"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3055"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3073,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3055\/revisions\/3073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}