{"id":1723,"date":"2024-06-30T18:57:07","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T01:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/?p=1723"},"modified":"2024-09-02T19:32:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T02:32:44","slug":"gold-butte-after-the-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/2024\/06\/30\/gold-butte-after-the-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold Butte After the Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday, June 29, 2024<\/p>\n

Volunteers from the Sand Mountain Society were working on the Gold Butte Lookout on Labor Day 2020 when the wildfires blew up. They watched the Lionshead Fire getting big fast and were able to safely leave. Shortly thereafter crews wrapped the lookout to protect it in the event that the fire reached the summit:<\/p>\n

\"Gold_Butte_Wrapped_Sep_2020_USFS\"
\nUSFS<\/em><\/p>\n

The lookout survived that fire, only to be threatened again in 2021 by the Bull Complex Fires. The cabin was wrapped again:<\/p>\n

\"Gold_Butte_Wrapped_12Aug2021_BullComplexFires\"
\nUSFS<\/em><\/p>\n

After surviving fires two years in a row the cabin has sat empty ever since and has not returned to the rental program. The Forest Service website<\/a> says “People can hike up to Gold Butte Lookout to access the viewpoint, but the rental facility is closed. There are impacts from the Bull Complex Fire that need to be remediated before Gold Butte Lookout can open for reservation. See map of Beachie Creek and Lionshead Fires<\/a> closure (Detroit Ranger District). May be up to 2 hour delay on Forest Road 46 May 15th through summer 2024.”<\/p>\n

I haven’t been up there since the last time I rented it in 2019, so I headed up there today. After a bone-jarring drive on Road 4697 I parked at the gate at the bottom of Road 453 and started hiking:<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

The second gate where renters park was open:<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

Final stretch to the end of the road:<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

One mile from the car I reached the end of the road and the start of the trail:<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

The lookout was all buttoned up:<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

From the outside it seemed to be in pretty decent shape considering the circumstances. The most obvious thing outside that needed repair was the railing on the north side:<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

The flagpole appears to have been cut down:<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

The woodshed is just fine:<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

It was a cloud day, but the clouds were high so I still had some views. Of course the best view is of Mt. Jefferson to the southeast. You can see the massive burn scar from the Lionshead Fire:<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

To the south is Three Fingered Jack, part of the Three Sisters, and Bachelor Mountain:<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

Bachelor Mountain and Coffin Mountain:<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

They cut down trees on the west side of the summit, opening up views of Deadhorse Mountain that weren’t there before:<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

Looking northwest to Battle Ax Mountain (the burn scar on the left is from the 2020 Beachie Creek Fire):<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

Looking north at Bull of the Woods (the lookout there burned in the 2021 Bull Complex Fires), Schreiner Peak, and Mt. Hood:<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

Looking northeast with Olallie Butte on the right. Below you can see how close the fire go to the summit of Gold Butte:<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

I’ve rented Gold Butte four times now (2013<\/a>, 2016<\/a>, 2018<\/a>, and 2019<\/a>) and it feels like an old friend. It’s my favorite lookout rental. I hope they get it back on the rental program soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday, June 29, 2024 Volunteers from the Sand Mountain Society were working on the Gold Butte Lookout on Labor Day<\/p>\n

Continue readingGold Butte After the Fire<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-willamette-national-forest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1723"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1728,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723\/revisions\/1728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}