Potato Butte Lookout Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
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So, How do you like your potatoes? After hiking up here, your legs might feel "hashed", or if it's hot, "baked", and your senses might be "fried" by the beauty of it all. Do bring bug spray or you'll be "mashing" bugs all day.
A spectacular hike through a very unique area to an old forest service lookout site. Views extend from Mt. hood to Jefferson, and down the Breitenbush valley. Olallie Butte is what seems like a stones throw away to the East. We parked on the #380 road just off 46 at the trail head for Red Lake. It goes up through some huge trees to power line access road. Go uphill about 100' to another road on the right and turn down it. At a half fallen apart stone cairn go up the trail on the left. Had I been paying closer attention to the map, I would've parked here and cut about 1/2 mile and 400 feet off the hike.
We then crossed the power lines and started up the hill to Red Lake. It's the first of 4 beautiful lakes along the way. Red, Averill, Wall, and Sheep. And yes, as you can imagine, the bugs were horrible.
After passing Sheep Lake we came to the trail to Potato Butte. It's at a sign that points back to Averill and Red Lakes. This is where the adventure (or torture) begins! After passing a small lake the trail goes almost straight up. No switchbacks worth mentioning, and you might need to use your hands in a few places.It's very steep, rocky, and slippery for, thankfully, about 1/4 mile or so to the top. There we found a sign to notify us of our achievement.
After we rested we found what remains of the tent cabin,(which, supriseingly, there is a lot of.) and walked around the top for the views. It looks like there was a fire last year that was quickly put out so it did very little damage. Then we hid the cache and set off back down. Just before the trail dives off the edge there is a side trail to the buttes namesake, the Potatoes, and the view we didn't get on top. We almost put the cache here, but it being a lookout cache, we wanted it closer to the actual lookout. But to be clear, this is the best view on top and is not to be missed!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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