La Grande – wanderingyuncks

Burger Pass – 07/12/2022

I’d spent all of Monday hiking with abdominal pain so I was very happy to wake up Tuesday feeling fine. On tap for today was the highest elevation hike in the Wallows for this trip (Mt. Ireland on Saturday (post) was higher but that peak is part of the Elkhorns.) and we weren’t sure how much snow we might encounter. We did have our microspikes with us just in case.

The hike to Burger Pass begins at the Buck Creek Forest Camp and Trailhead.

The Elk Creek Trail (Trail 1944) leads from this trailhead to 7848′ Burger Pass near the 4.5 mile mark then down to Burger Meadows and eventually on to the Minam River. Sullivan’s featured hike is to Burger Pass which was our goal for the day but we had also left open the possibility of visiting the meadows if conditions were good.

At the 0.7 mile mark the trail briefly followed an old road bed to an old clearcut.

Trail sign in the old clearcut.

Sullivan describes the second mile of this trail as one of the dustiest in Oregon but on this morning there was enough moisture in the ground to keep the dust at a minimum.

Rock Creek Butte (post) in the Elkhorns from the clearcut.

The trail climbed steeply following an old roadbed out of the clearcut following a ridge before leaving the ridge and bending SE near the 2 mile mark.

Shortly after leaving the ridge we encountered the largest obstacle on the way to the pass.

The Elkhorns in the distance.

The trail made a long switchback and entered the Eagle Cap Wilderness as it rounded the same ridge that we’d been following earlier.
Granite at the switchback.

Entering the wilderness (photo from the way back).

The trail then traversed a granite hillside to a large slide below Burger Butte.
Valerian along the trail.

View from the trail.

Burger Butte

Rosy paintbrush

Tributary of Middle Fork Catherine Creek.

Looking down the creek over the slide.

Yellow columbine

After reentering the forest we began to encounter the first patches of snow.
The snow began around 7200′.

Snow over the Elk Creek Trail.

China Cap from the trail.

The trail crossed another tributary of Middle Fork Catherine Creek below a beautiful pair of cascades.

Small meadow below the trail.

Approximately 3.5 miles from the trailhead we came to an unsigned junction with the China Ridge Trail.
The China Ridge Trail joining from the left.

We stayed on the Elk Creek Trail as it climbed for another scenic mile to the pass below Burger Butte.

The Elkhorns to the right beyond Burger Butte.

Lyall’s Rockcress

The few patches of snow were just melted enough to allow us to avoid having to walk over them.

Burger Pass

The view from Burger Pass was great. There was a large snow patch over the trail but it was fairly level and soft so it didn’t require the microspikes.
Burger Butte from the pass.

Looking deeper into the Wallowas.

The snow patch below Burger Butte.

I decided to go ahead and attempt the 350′ descent to Burger Meadows while Heather opted to stay at the pass. From Burger Pass the Elk Creek Trail descends three quarters a mile to a junction with the Sand Pass Trail.

There were several patches of snow and some downed trees to navigate but I soon found myself at the junction.

I turned right on the Sand Pass Trail to see more of the meadows.

The Sand Pass Trail can be seen climbing out of the basin in the sandy gap to the center left.

Meadow lookout.

View from the meadow.

Buttercups were about the only flowers blooming in the wet meadow.

The rocks along the ridge were really interesting.

Marmot? in the meadow.

I followed the trail about four tenths of a mile before stopping at Elk Creek where a large snow drift lingered on the far side.

I climbed back up to Burger Pass and once Heather got my attention we started back down arriving at the car a little before 12:30pm.
Golden mantled ground squirrel watching us from the granite.

Butterfly

Mountain heather

Mushrooms near the Middle Fork Catherine Creek cascades.

Jacob’s ladder

Penstemon

Mushroom

Pacific coralroot

Including my visit to the meadows this was a 11.5 mile, 2800′ elevation gain hike which turned out to be our favorite of the trip (Mt. Ireland (post) being a close second.)

We picked up a late lunch/early dinner from Yia Yia Nikki’s which turned out to be a wonderful choice on what was the hottest day of the week. We packed up as much as possible that night in preparation of moving from La Grande to Wallowa for the next two nights. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Burger Pass

Catherine Creek Meadows – 07/10/2022

We’d spent the night in Baker City following our hike to the Mt. Ireland Lookout (post). Our plan for the next six days was to do five more of the “featured hikes” (post) from Sullivan’s 3rd edition “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Eastern Oregon” then before heading home on Friday do the Wallowa Homeland hike which is featured in Sullivan’s most recent 2022 edition of “100 Hikes Eastern Oregon”. Because the hikes were spread out along the western and northern sides of the Wallowas we would be moving our base of operations a couple of times during the week starting with a move to La Grande for Sunday through Tuesday nights.

Sunday morning we packed everything up and headed for the North Fork Catherine Creek Trailhead. After navigating the pothole filled FR 7785 we pulled into the large trailhead parking area.

A $5 fee is required here and at several other trailheads we visited during the week. (An annual NW Forest Pass can be used instead.)

The trail doesn’t start at the parking area but rather another tenth of a mile up the road so we road walked to the official trailhead.

The trail initially climbs above the creek to an open hillside, that was putting on a pretty good wildflower display, before descending to a bridge a little after 1.5 miles.
Lots of purple venus penstemon.

There were also some white scabland penstemon on the hillside.

Buckwheat

Venus penstemon

Lupine and stonecrop

Paintbrush

North Fork Catherine Creek

Douglas dustymaiden

Spreading dogbane

The trail crossed several side creeks, all of which were we were able to cross dry footed.

A brief stretch along North Fork Catherine Creek.

Queen’s cup

Another side creek.

Bog orchid

Spotted coralroot

A fleabane

One of the more interesting things we’ve witnessed was watching carpenter ants removing sawdust from a dead log and dropping it in a pile below.

They’re a little blurry but you can see the ants in the cracks where they would drop their sawdust. It was fascinating to watch and we paused for quite a while.

Columbine

Mountain lady slippers

Large-flower triteleia

Back above the creek.

The bridge over Catherine Creek.

Bluebells next to the bridge.

The trail climbed gradually for the next three and a half miles before reaching Catherine Creek Meadows.

Crab spider

Another type of penstemon

Rosy pussytoes

A side creek running down the trail.

Yellow columbine

Entering the Eagle Cap Wilderness.

Jim Creek, this was one of the trickier crossings.

Hound’s tongue

Nettle-leaf giant hyssop

One of several smaller meadows along the trail.

Jacob’s ladder

California corn lily and bluebells.

Boot Hill Creek was also tricky as it had taken over the trail.

A large patch of coralroot.

A few remaining balsamroot blooming above North Fork Catherine Creek.

Arriving at Catherine Creek Meadows.

Up until this point we had been very lucky this year with mosquitos but the meadows were very wet and the recent warm weather had the bugs out in decent numbers so we couldn’t linger in any one spot too long but we did take a short break at a campsite near a side creek.

All the black dots in the blue sky were gnats flying over the stream at the trail crossing.

Heart-leaved bittercress

Our goal for the day lay about a half mile away, an early 1900’s log cabin at the far end of the meadow. After our break we set off across the creek following what became an increasingly wet trail to a junction where we forked left.

Looking back at the sign post in the meadow marking the trail junction.

Another dry section of trail.

It wasn’t dry for long.

Yellow buttercups and pink elephant’s head.

Elephant’s head, one of our favorites.

Ladybug

Nearing the cabin.

Ground squirrel

Squatter running from the cabin.

We checked out the inside of the cabin before heading back.

It was only 9:45am when we started back so we took our time and kept an eye out for anything we’d missed on our first pass.
Beetle

Another beetle and Nevada bitterroot.

Brunch

A comma of some sort.

Big mushroom

Something from the Lycaenidae family.

Coneflower

Swallow-tail on red clover.

Fritilary on clover

Mourning cloak perched overhead.

Lorquin’s admiral

A tortoiseshell

Skullcap, one of the hardest flowers to get a decent picture of for some reason.

Tapertip onion

Yarrow and other wildflowers up the hillside.

Our hike came in at 11.8 miles with approximately 1450′ of elevation gain.

From the trailhead we drove to La Grande and checked into our Motel, after hanging out at a park for about an hour because we’d arrived a bit too early, and then headed to Side A Brewing for an early dinner. It was going to be a warm week so we turned in early planning on another 4am wake-up the next morning to beat as much of the heat as we could. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Catherine Creek Meadows