I have been wanting to explore the Lone Butte Wildlife Area for a couple of years now and stars aligned to do it. This area is Northwest of Indian Heaven Wilderness and I wanted to see if they had anything in common. There are few trails in this area but lots of old logging roads so that made this a gravel bike ride. My first in the Cascades.
I was working between some maps I printed out and my GPS to find some key places. I wanted to see if I could find Crab Trail and see if it was still passable and to check a couple of large meadows in the area to see if they were like the meadows in Indian Heaven. I found that Crab trail was now Squaw Butte Trail and it was very over grown and I did not have all of my off trail gear with me to bushwhack through it. I manage to get to Cayuse Meadow (where Big Creek starts) and Lone Butte Meadow and found they had different vegetation growth then the Indian Heaven meadows. Great for large animal grazing but not of walking across. One place I did not get to but would have liked was an area called Crazy Hills. I will have to go back another time when I am stronger on riding up hills. I was out for five hours and my GPS had me at 17.3 miles riding and hiking.
