Trip Report.

Friday, September 1st – The Summit Point trailhead is best accessed from HWY-86 via NF-77 to NF-7715 just before reaching Halfway, Oregon. We initially drove past this junction to check out the fire lookout at the Pine Ranger Station (post). After a quick stop, we back tracked to turn onto NF-77. This junction on HWY-86 is signed, but for some reason is labeled as the Summit Creek L.O. instead of Summit Point. I’m not sure if it was actually ever referred to as such or if it was just a misprint too costly to fix. We drove roughly 11 miles on NF-77 before we reached another signed junction with NF-7715 to the right and the McBride Campground to the left. The sign on the NF-7715 road was correctly labeled and stated there were 5 more miles to reach the trailhead. We already knew we wouldn’t have enough time to make it to a backcountry camp before dark and turned into the McBride Campground to see if there were any available spots for the night. This is a free unmaintained campground that offers fire pits, picnic tables, and pit toilets that were surprisingly stocked with toilet paper. There is also water access along the Summit Creek from most of the camp spots. I was surprised to find an empty campground given that it was a Friday on Labor Day weekend. We picked a camp spot on the far right end near the creek to set up. This put us the farthest away from the entrance if someone did decide to join us later in the evening. Dinner was simple since we only had our backpacking food and equipment to fuss with. We fell asleep to a light rain and some nearby thunder, but I hoped it would clear up by morning.

Saturday, September 2nd – We still had the campground to ourselves when we awoke the next morning. The skies were cloudy and slightly threatening in comparison to the day prior. The pack up was simple and quick, but we still weren’t on the road until after 8:30AM. We are not early risers by any means and didn’t feel the need to rush given our proximity to the trailhead. The NF-77 road had been a good gravel road all the way up to the junction with the McBride Campground. There had been a few minor rocks or potholes, but nothing extraordinary. The start of NF-7715 wasn’t daunting and we hoped for similar conditions. I had read from a prior trip report that “most any vehicle with normal clearance can negotiate it, taking care in the bad spots”. We found this to be accurate and it took us 46 minutes to drive the 5 miles to the trailhead (my car’s odometer calculated it at 4.6 miles). I will say some of the bad sections were a bit intimidating, but going slow and thinking through your wheel placement helps. We were more determined to make it all the way since we would be backpacking beyond the fire lookout. We were also met by a truck coming down when we were heading up in a tricky spot. I wasn’t able to move out of the way due to washout on the road. They were nice enough to back up and let us pass, but I felt bad that I had to take up the whole road. There is ample parking at the trailhead and my Civic stuck out among the 4 other pick up trucks. It was not surprising to see people here since it was elk bow hunting season during a holiday weekend. The road continues beyond the trailhead parking for the lookout attendant to access the tower. There was a gate blocking this at one point, but I guess someone felt it was an inconvenience to them. We started our hike up the road with 45lbs each on our backs for the long weekend. We both hadn’t been backpacking much this summer due to our house duties and could feel the weight immediately. Garnet’s new bike commute is a marathon every day, 13 miles each way, that helps keep him fit. I’m not as active during the week since I drive to work and have a desk job, so one can assume I was feeling it a bit more than him. We are normally able to slip away for a night in the backcountry here and there throughout the summer to keep our backpacking legs in shape, but that hasn’t happened much this season either. I quickly fell behind as we continued to follow the road. I reached the junction where the road to the lookout continued to the right and our “trail” turned into an old road bed. I decided to drop my pack here to catch up with Garnet. The Strava app stated it was only 0.9 miles from the trailhead to the base of the fire lookout. The attendant must have had the day or weekend off since no one was onsite during our visit. This is an actively staffed fire lookout and it seemed too early for their season to be over. After taking in the view and some pictures, we headed back to where I dropped my pack. I reloaded my back with the 45lbs and we turned to continue on the official “trail” into the wilderness.

The Cliff River Trial #1885 starts out by following an old road bed that climbs up and over a hill to reach the meadow below Cornucopia Peak. We had to cross through a cattle guard and follow the fence line to reach the official wilderness boundary. The trail through the meadow can get convoluted with the many different user and game trails. We just followed the most defined of the trails to the base of Cornucopia Peak. If you have the time and energy to do some off trail navigation, Cornucopia Peak offers a rustic trail to a former fire lookout site. That wasn’t in our cards for this trip, but it was tempting being so close. Garnet had spotted an old hunting or mining cabin across the meadow on the way in and wanted to check it out while we were here. I decided to stop for snacks and to filter more water at a spring while he was off looking for the cabin. Our plan was to continue our climb along the Cliff River Trail to Crater Lake for the night. The Cliff River Trail continued to the left of Cornucopia Peak and steadily climbed up to a pass that met up with the Sullivan Trail #1946. I thought this was novel since my last name is Sullivan. From there, the trail dips down before climbing to another pass that meets up with the Pine Lakes Trail #1880. There is a lot of exposure along this section of trail and it is best done during a cooler day. I wouldn’t recommend it during the heat of summer. There was also quite a bit of erosion along this portion due to the loose scree texture of the slope. It’s not a matter of if, but when, this trail will eventually wash out. I’m not even sure trail maintenance would be able to help solve this issue given the terrain. Once at the second pass, you can see your destination off in the distance. The trail heads down from here to wind around the base of Granite Mountain until you reach the junction with the Little Kettle Creek Trail #1945. The Cliff River Trail continues all the way down to the South Fork Imnaha River, but to access Crater Lake we turned left onto the Little Kettle Creek Trail. It’s only a short distance along the Little Kettle Creek Trail to the lake. The hike from the trailhead to Summit Point and then on to Crater Lake had been 8.2 miles with 2,148′ of elevation gain. I’m not sure what it is about the Eagle Cap Wilderness, but it always seems to chew me up and spit me out rotten. Garnet had continued on ahead of me after we had reached the final pass and said he was getting ready to send out the search parties by the time I reached the lake. I dropped my pack once we found our camp for the night and laid on a nice cool rock for 30 minutes before moving again. Despite only seeing one couple hiking out from the Pine Lakes Trail, we shared the lake with two groups for the night. One was just a couple as well and the other was a group of six plus a few dogs.

Sunday, September 3rd – I had already decided the day prior that today was going to be a rest day. Garnet had previously mentioned hiking down to the South Fork Imnaha River, but we were both too tired after yesterdays hike. We spent the majority of the day reading and lounging around camp. Both groups that were camped at the lake packed up to either head out or hike deeper into the wilderness. This left the lake to us for the evening. We took a stroll around the perimeter of the lake to check out the other vacant camp spots. There were about 3 or 4 decent spots including ours and a couple of flat spots that would make due in a pinch. Despite getting quite a few people hiking past us along the Little Kettle Creek Trail, none stopped to camp at the lake. They all seemed to be heading back out to the trailhead, either Eagle East TH or Little Kettle Creek TH, coming from somewhere else within the wilderness. At one point during the day we were able to spot a mountain goat on the side of the ridge between Granite and Red Mountain. We watched it for a long time with our binoculars picking its way along the steep rocks. We gave up when some low hanging clouds rolled in to obstruct our view. Crater Lake sits just below 7,600′ which kept the temperatures cold all day. Rain rolled in later that evening and we could hear some distant thunder storms during the night. This made our tent feel extra cozy, but I hoped for clear skies in the morning.

Monday, September 4th – We initially planned to move our camp to Pine Lakes for the final night of our trip. But, after seeing how far we’d have to hike out to the Summit Point TH combined with the long drive home, we decided camping closer to the trailhead made more sense. The rain from the evening prior had thankfully stopped, but the clouds were still hanging low. We decided to try and find a camp for the night in the meadows below Cornucopia Peak. This would set us up for a much shorter hike out on Tuesday. The climb out from Crater Lake felt much easier than the hike in. Our packs were lighter than when we had started and the cloud coverage helped to keep the heat of the sun off of our backs. We only saw a group of three hiking into Crater Lake as we were hiking out. After 5.4 miles and 808′ of elevation gain we found ourselves back at the meadow. We knew there was a least one camp spot near the old cabin Garnet had checked out prior, but we decided to take a look around to see if there were any others among the trees. This is a popular area for cattle grazing, so it was hard to find a flat spot that wasn’t littered with cow pies. We eventually found a very old one set back from the trail with a fire ring that hadn’t been used in years. After setting up camp, I decided to take a hike over to the cabin since I didn’t check it out with Garnet. It was a surprisingly nice kept cabin that definitely is utilized by someone. The door frame was comically small and even shorter than me. I’m not sure the history of this cabin, but I would love to know. I realized you could see Summit Point from the cabin area and took a look at it through the binoculars. There was still no one there that I could see. We had a bit of service in camp and decided to check if there was a burn ban in effect for this area. There was not. We don’t normally go to the trouble of building a fire while backpacking, but it was cold and walking through the damp grass made our boots wet. This helped to keep us warm for the evening.

Tuesday, September 5th – We woke up to clearer skies and decided it might be worth making a trip back out to Summit Point for some better views. The hike out was going to be much shorter today, but we still had a 6-1/2 hour drive home. We saw quite a few people as we were heading out. Once we gained a view of the fire lookout again, we could see someone moving around in the cab. We decided to definitely make an extra side trip back since we were hopeful to meet the lookout attendant. We both dropped our packs at the junction this time and hiked the remaining distance along the road. As we approached the fire lookout we were surprised to see no vehicle. This was confusing since we definitely saw someone from a distance in the cab. There were also fresh tire marks on the road that hadn’t been there at the start of our trip. We also noticed the catwalk door was now open. All signs pointed to someone being there. The sun was positioned awkwardly where I couldn’t really see inside the cab from the ground. We weren’t sure if they had just left or if someone had dropped them off. As we walked around to take in some more pictures and better views, we both thought we could hear someone walking around in the cab. We stood where they could see us and decided to locate all the visible surrounding fire lookouts in hopes that they would come out to greet us eventually. After sometime we realized they probably didn’t want any visitors and said our good-byes to Summit Point. As we were turning around to leave Garnet said he saw the woman open the door to the cab, but I only heard the door when she shut it again. It was a bit odd since it seemed like she was going to come out to talk to us, but then decided against it. It’s possible she just thought we were another pair of hunters scoping the view for game. Regardless, It’s their space and should be respected. We hiked back to our packs and made the final decent to the car. The hike from our camp in the meadows to Summit Point and then back to the trailhead came out to 3.3 miles with 334′ of elevation gain. We decided to start a tradition of getting burgers after backpacking in Eagle Cap. Our first trip to the wilderness was in 2021 where we did a week long loop through a lesser used portion. It was rough and beautiful, but that trip kicked our butt too. We hiked out a day earlier than planned to get burgers and a beer at Terminal Gravity in Enterprise. They were the best burgers we’ve ever tasted (possibly because we had been eating trail mix and dehydrated food for a week). This trip we made our way to The Main Place restaurant in Halfway before heading home. Their burgers tasted pretty good as well.

History.

Summit Point was first established as a fire detection site in the 1930s when a 20′ open platform tower was built on the north end of the ridge. Construction for a new tower began on the most southern end of the ridge in 1949 and wasn’t completed until 1951. This move was noted due to constant fog obstructing the view from the northern end. The lookout built was a 20′ treated timber tower with a 14’x14′ L-4 cab. It is still actively staffed every season.