Black Butte and 4th of July Peak: "hike and fish"

When I stood on Round Top and looked down towards Caples Lake I saw this interesting little volcanic fellow. At home I looked up what it was and immediately put "Black Butte" on my wish list. It would perfectly do for a short little scramble when I didn't have a full day for hiking at my disposal. On the webpages of Bob Burd I found a good description on how to get up there.

I arrive at my starting point, Woods Lake Parking and Trail Head at around 8 AM and have about 5 hours time before I have to drive back. I follow the trail to the Lost Cabin Mine and find a lot of interesting artifacts and signs of former mining activity there, including the remains of a very old car! From here I walk west to the bottom of the many towers of Black Butte. As describe by Bob Burd, the easiest way up to the top is the obvious chute slightly south of the highest peak (the second from right). It's best to not directly climb the chute from the bottom but get about half way up on its left side, then traverse into the chute and easily get to the highest point, in pleasantly solid rock.

Since it's only a little more than one hour since I left the trail head, I realize that I have plenty of time to also climb another peak in the area. I see the Fourth of July Peak exactly south of me and immediately declare it as my next goal. I didn't bring a map along for it, but it looks easy enough to not need one. To make it a little more interesting I decide to not go down where I came up but try to climb over the little towers south of me and stay "on top" wherever possible.

I knew that Bob Burd failed to connect the two highest points "due to a deep, intervening notch", but I wanted to give it a try anyway. The deep, intervening notch is in fact very difficult to climb and I don't want to risk that, but climbing a few meters down on the west side opens up a relatively easy chute which takes me up to the next little highpoint. Since it is a lot of fun I keep going and scramble over all the little highpoints of Black Butte and get to is southernmost end (nowhere harder than T5/II, sometimes a little exposed).

From here I head straight for the Forth of July Peak directly south of me. I get to a trail at the saddle between the Sisters and Fourth of July Peak and follow it to the top (T2) and am happy to stand on another peak today. For my way back I first follow the official trail to the Round Top Lake and from there back to the trail head via the Lost Cabin Mine again.

Back at the trailhead I realize that I still have about an hour left before I have to go home and decide to go and try my luck as a fisherman at the nearby Caples Lake. Within 1/2 an hour I catch two rather large trouts (one of them was almost a pound!) and can't believe it - they made a marvelous meal too!