Kettle Crest North — Friday, Jun. 24, 2022

Our destination was the historic fire lookout on top of Columbia Mountain. We started on the Kettle Crest North Trail, occasionally needing to go over, under or around large trees that had fallen across the trail. At 2.2 miles, we left the main trail to join the Columbia Mountain Loop Trail and then took the short-but-steep 0.3-mile spur trail to the summit. An old log cabin, built in 1914 and restored in 2010, used to have a tower attached to it and is all that remains of the former lookout. After exploring the site and leaving rusty nails and tin can "artifacts" undisturbed, we went back down the spur trail to continue clockwise on the loop trail, but soon encountered snowbanks on the north side of the mountain. We reversed direction and hiked about a mile along the southern and eastern part of the loop, then turned back and headed down to rejoin the Kettle Crest Trail. We met a couple of mountain bikers on their way up who were hoisting their bikes over a fallen tree; we let them know there were half a dozen more fallen trees still ahead. They continued on, but soon gave up and headed down the trail. Our hike was about 7 miles total.