Black Butte 5-23-11

The last month and a half has been a little busy and stressed out, so it was time to head to the mountains for a few days to do some hiking. Dealing with being busy working, car shopping, car selling, and just crap in general, I've only been on one somewhat decent hike/jog out in McDonald Forest since I last posted here. My physical fitness in general has been lacking, bought a mountain bike last month, but other than back and forth to work, haven't even had much time for riding even. Enough was enough, I needed to get away, so back up to Black Butte for a few days. Today I went after the Black Butte Trail that I attempted back in January but was hampered by snow. Now you can drive to the trailhead, which took a few miles off of the distance I did prior. Since I already wrote a trail description about Black Butte in January, I'm mostly just posting pics here. Still some snow at the summit, 3-4 foot in spots, but the trail was clear up to the last 200-300 yards to the lookout tower. Someone was staying at the cabin, so I didn't wander around that part much, but the clouds broke just as I reached the summit. Nice bonus for a day of hiking. With the time spent taking pics at the top it was about a 2 hour round trip. Definitely helped to clear my head and gauge where I'm at in regards to a South Sister attempt later this summer.