Off The Backside
Once the camera was put away, we baled off the top of Pelican Butte and flew down the mountainside. Locals claim the drop is about 1,100 feet (we have no reason to dispute that) and it's just about straight down (at least the pucker factor feels that way). Once at the bottom (which comes up pretty darn fast), the cirque is wide open for hillclimbing and sidehilling. You don't have to have a big horsepower sled to enjoy Pelican Butte, but it wouldn't hurt, especially if you want to climb back out. We went out a different way, toward nearby Point 76, appropriately named for a peak 7,600-feet tall.
The snow was in great shape, untracked and fairly deep, although the locals will tell you that the depth wasn't what it usually is. Between 125-200 inches of snow falls in various spots in the county and its well documented that Crater Lake National Park, in the north end of Klamath County gets more than 500 inches every winter. The snow was deep enough, though, to provide a workout as we made our way around Point 76 and the east flank of Pelican Butte, stopping to track up an open hillside or boondock through a section of trees every once in a while.
We made a full circle of Pelican Butte at various elevations, coming back out on top near the tower. From there is was bonsai off the mountain through the trees until we came out on the Cold Springs Trail and headed back to Lake of the Woods. Mark it down as one of the best rides of Winter 2006-07.
One of the great features about the trail system in Klamath County is that several trails, much like Pelican Butte, take you to the tops of mountains in the area, including Buck Peak (8,080), Robinson Butte (5,864) and Surveyor Peak (6,300) to name a few.