Of black buttes and a flat tire

Originally I wanted to climb the Black Buttes on my way back from Old Man Mountain, about a month ago. However, on that day I ran out of time and had to skip these interesting looking peaks. During the summer, a dirt road - which is not too bad, even for low clearance cars - takes you rather close to the summits of the Black Buttes: namely to the Grouse Ridge Campground. This allowed me to climb the "buttes" in a half day tour where I only had limited time. I almost ran out of time anyway, not because of my hike, but another unforeseen event.

The dirt road from Bowman Lake Road to the Grouse Ridge Campground is manageable even with a non 4x4, low clearance car. It takes me quite some time, probably half an hour for the 5 miles. When I arrive there and get out of the car I hear a "pffff" sound. Soon I realize that one of my tires must have gotten a little hole and is now rapidly loosing air. So the first task before starting my hike is to put the spare tire on the car. This task turns out to be the greatest challenge for the day, because my jack is not really suited for changing a tire on an uneven dirt road, but only on a flat tar surface. So I fiddle for quite a while and fail several times to get the spare tire on my car. Luckily some nice SUV driver arrives at the campground a little later and lends me his "monster jack". More than an hour after my arrival I can finally start my hike.

I first follow the trail down the hill in northeastern direction and hike along the sand ridge trail up to the highest point of Sand Ridge, which offers a nice view to may main goal today. I then continue down to the first of the Five Lakes and turn southeast towards the "butte" immediately east of Glacier lake. In order to get to the ridge east of it, I climb up the little valley southwest of Point 7898 and scramble to the top of the minor butte via it's south face (T4). I then continue along the ridge and climb on top of the highest of the Black Buttes from SE (T4+, somewhat exposed).

Since I don't have all that much time I only make a short break and soon start my return to the car. In order to do so I first continue along the ridge but after the next little butte walk down the northern side to an altitude of approximately 7300 ft. There I find the Glacier Lake trail and follow this maintained path back to the Grouse Ridge Campground. Luckily my spare tire makes it down the dirt road and I get home on time.