Lone Pilot Loop

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Features Commonly Backpacked · Fall Colors · River/Creek · Spring · Views · Wildflowers · Wildlife

An abandoned road was converted into the Lone Pilot Trail which gives hikers and backpackers ready access to the deepest recesses of the wilderness. The road is cleared and groomed to make it easy to follow and, although it's not a pure "trail", it is the very best way to visit the interior of this wilderness. By combining this trail with part of the Pacific Crest Trail and the Pilot Rock Trail, you can enjoy a delightfully long loop through this wilderness.

Carry extra water, particularly if you do this as a backpack. There are two perennial water sources, and several intermittent ones, along the trail but any of these might be dry by late summer. The best times to hike or backpack this route are mid-spring to early summer and early to mid-fall. It can be very hot here in mid-summer.

From the Pilot Rock Trail, hike up the trail (an old road now restored to a trail) for 0.7 miles to its junction with the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). To do the loop counter-clockwise, continue south across the PCT, and you'll come to another abandoned road. Continue south on this old road, past where an old road going left (east) has been completely decommissioned, to another road junction 1.8 miles from the trailhead. Continue on the road going due south from here and, at 2.2 miles from the trailhead, continue on this road as it turns sharply to the east near the head of the west fork of Hutton Creek.

Just stay on this obvious road as it heads east, ducking in and out of canyons and gullies. You'll notice that each canyon is a unique microclimate—allowing you to go (for example) from stands of towering Ponderosa pines to open meadows in the space of 500 feet or less.

The trail continues eastward and crosses the east fork of Hutton Creek at about 4.6 miles from the trailhead. This is one (the other being Scotch Creek) of only two perennial water sources along the route. From here the old road contours around and into the Slide drainage which is usually completely dry. Eventually, at 9.2 miles from the trailhead, it descends into the drainage of an unnamed intermittent stream then climbs into the Scotch Creek drainage, which is known for its hovering maples and gigantic ponderosa pines. This is a possible campsite if the loop is done as an overnight backpack.

If Scotch Creek is dry where the trail crosses it, your options are to: (a) Follow the apex of the drainage down for about 8-10 minutes to where there's a perennial spring rolling over a small outcrop or (b) continue up another mile to where another perennial spring crosses the trail.

From Scotch Creek, the trail climbs to the top of Lone Pine Ridge and follows yet another old road north along the ridge. After an easy stroll along the ridge, you do one big descending switchback (to avoid some cliffs along the ridge) followed by a climb back up to a junction with the PCT. You then follow the PCT west (south-bound) back to the trail leading down to the Pilot Rock Trail.

Although hiking on the old road is straightforward and without any navigational challenges, it is a long hike (17 mi) and there are enough elevation changes (3,000 feet worth) to make an intermediate/difficult hike.

This wilderness is an ecological mosaic where the state's eastern desert meets towering fir forests. The biodiversity of the area includes fir forests, sunlit oak groves, meadows filled with wildflowers, and steep canyons. The area is home to a spectacular variety of rare species of plants and animals including Roosevelt elk, cougars, black bears, golden and bald eagles, goshawks and falcons.

The Soda Mountain Wilderness is a 24,707 acre wilderness area within the Cascade–Siskiyou National Monument in southwestern Oregon and was created by the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. The 53,000 acre Monument was designated in 2000 to protect the extraordinary biological diversity in this area. All of this wilderness is located in Oregon and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).