Trip Report

At the trailhead, the leader passed out maps of Butte’s trail network. She explained her plan to avoid losing hikers at the many trail intersections of our intended route. At each intersection, she would stop, raise an arm, and catch the eye of the sweep (Janet). The sweep would raise a hand, the leader would semaphore her raised arm to indicate the intended direction, and the sweep would then watch that all hikers followed it. We set out, finding many wildflowers. Since the sweep photographed many of these, she was often the last member of the group to notice the raised arm of the leader. Since the leader is a slow hiker and also stopped for flowers and birds, the group bunched close behind her, and it was soon evident that the precautionary procedure at intersections was quite unnecessary. Being a methodical person, however, the leader persisted through most of the 23 trail intersections. We ascended to the summit meadow on familiar trails, paid our respects to the city, the river, and the distant, cloud-obscured Sisters from the west overlook, then descended to the relatively new mid-elevation trail. This passed around the eastern meadow, under the big O and the big E, then over the top of the climbing columns. On the way down the north side, we took the path to the Campbell Center parking lot to see the bald eagles’ current nest. It was unattended by parents, but Joanna spotted an adult eagle on a tree opposite the nest from us. As we watched, a second eagle flew to join it. We pointed them out to a man with an impressive camera, who Janet learned was Chris Pietsch. His photos of the eagles and their two eaglets appeared in the next day’s Register-Guard.