Spencer's Butte

Whitney M.

November 14, 2009 - 3:42 PM

Today, my dad, Collin, his mom Anne, and I climbed to the top of Spencer's Butte. We have been threatening to do so for a long time now, and we have been hindered by weather and laziness until this weekend.

We grabbed coffees at Starbucks, which is a block from my apartment, and left for the butte at around 10:30 this morning. We drove down 18th St. away from campus and turned left on Willamette. We followed the road up toward the butte and talked while sipping our coffees in the somewhat biting cold of midmorning.

As we chatted, we passed deer and beautiful cemeteries along the road that eventually turned off and led us to the parking lot for climbers of Spencer's Butte.

We got out and cheerily began our trek up the butte. The first few yards were downhill, which was encouraging and foreshadowed a fairly easy hike. As we progressed, however, we found the trail more and more daunting. The hill became quite steep and required a few rests for the parties in our group (who will remain nameless) whose asthma dampened the experience. For those of us without asthma, though, the hike was invigorating and pleasant.

The light concentration of trees felt enough like a forest that we felt as though we were exploring a little, but it also had enough clearing that sun shone in, and the area felt safe.

Near the top, the trail becomes a rock-trek-not exactly a rock-climb, but there is nothing left to set your feet on but crumbled boulders.

And at the top, you can see for miles around. You can see green pastures and densely forested areas. You can see bodies of water and the city of Eugene. It was beautiful and well worth all the stops we took for our dearly beloved asthma sufferer.

This kind of experience is what makes the University of Oregon a wonderful place to attend school. There are mountains to climb in our back yard and still time to catch an early-afternoon brunch at Turtles.