Mount McLoughlin

Author's Comments

McLoughlin is the kind of mountain you see for a hundred miles before you ever stand on it. From the Rogue Valley, from the highway south of Crater Lake, from the far shore of Upper Klamath, it just sits there on the horizon, that classic stratovolcano silhouette that the Cascades do so well. Climbing it is something else entirely. The trail is honest. Ten and a half miles, nearly four thousand feet of gain, and the upper third turns to scree and boulder where the route becomes more suggestion than path. I have started this hike at three in the morning in August to be on the summit at sunrise, and I would do it that way again. The light at nine thousand feet, before the valley haze has lifted, is the reason you came. Shasta floats to the south. Crater Lake's rim ridges sit to the north. Upper Klamath spreads out below in the half dark, going slowly silver as the sun arrives. This is not a mountain that gives you many compositions on the way up. The forest is dense and the views are mostly closed off until you break above tree line in the final mile. Save the camera for the top, or for the descent when the light is working against the western slope and the shadows are long. Go in late August or September. The snow is gone, the afternoon thunderstorms have mostly stopped, and the air is at its clearest. Bring more water than you think. Bring a wide lens for the summit and something longer for Shasta, which from up here looks close enough to touch and is not.

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