Wagner Butte TH to Granite Street

I have found that during this pandemic we in Oregon still do have the opportunity to get out and practice safe hiking. Since April 8th. I’ve been able to average over 10,000 steps per day without exposing myself in an unsafe manner on the trails.

Lately, myself and hiking buddies have been involved in a growing hiking project. It started with reading an article about an hike in the watershed on Horn Gap Road. Then the search for Horn Gap Road, first by car and then when stopped by a locked gate, on foot for two miles past the gate. Then with the help of Jerry and Barry a third attempt proved successful 3.7 miles above Lithia Park.

Along the way, an idea was formulated about a possible hike from Split Rock Trail off FS 20 down to Lithia Park, about 14 miles. Jerry connected the trails on map and tracking apps and we set out Sunday morning to check the approach on FS 20. We brought our snow shovels and spade because we knew there would still be snow on parts of 20.

Wearing our face masks, we drove in Jerry’s RAV4 out on 20 to Grouse Gap. Looking up the road ahead of us we saw a white van parked in the road. As we got closer we realized it wasn’t parked, it was stuck solid in the deep snow. After helping with attempts to push the van and two broken ropes from trying to pull the van out we finally left them with our shovels and headed off on foot for the additional 1 1/2 miles up 20 to the Split Rock TH.

There we found lots more snow on the trail. We managed to trudge up and over the first hill and up and over 7,200′ McDonald Peak before being stopped by a large snow field down the north side of McDonald. So this part of the hike will be sidelined to sometime in July when the snow has melted.

BTW, on the way back we were able to climb the Rabbit Ears formation and take pics up at 7,500′ by the golf ball radar station.

So, Monday, Jerry and I had to change our hiking plans with Liz because of the snow. So instead of Split Rock we started up the Wagner Butte Trail from the parking area at 4,800′ up through the forest for three miles to the start of Wagner Glade trail at 6,800′. We saw many wildflowers through all the forested areas. Wagner Glade took us down hill for two miles to FS 2060 where we stopped for lunch. After our lunch break we split up to explore two different routes down.

Jerry continued on 2060 and Liz and I went down Potlicker Trail for 1/2 mile then left onto 4.4 miles of Horn Gap Road, which was shaded and mostly level as the article had said. Eventually, we met up with Jerry as he descended from his higher road.

As we reached the end of Horn Gap we were still 3.7 miles to Upper Lithia Park. Although we were on fumes we were in good spirits. We got to my Kia at about 4:30, having started out at 8:30. We were about 7 1/2 hours on the trail and covered 16+ miles. We celebrated our Epic hike with ice cream treated by Liz at Ray’s Market in Talent. Then I drove Jerry back to his car up at the Wagner Butte TH. It was a special day.

Hike Leader: Rich Stickle

Photos By: Rich, Jerry