On Friday, September 13, I left our home in the Baker Valley and drove into the Elkhorn Mountains along Rock Creek. I parked at the Killamacue Trailhead, and began my attempt to climb the East Peak of Chloride Ridge. From the east, Chloride Ridge leads south, then turns west above the North Fork of Rock Creek. Chloride Ridge has several little summits. Two of them have at least 300 feet of prominence, qualifying them as peaks in their own right according to those who keep track of such things.

The eastern-most summit of Chloride Ridge (Chloride Ridge East Peak) lies above to the southeast of Killamacue Lake, a reservoir used to provide irrigation water to the Baker Valley. The Killamacue Lake Trail provides access to the lake, and I hoped it would get me close enough to the East Peak for a feasible ascent.

[Read more…] about Chloride Ridge East Peak, Oregon, September 2024