Hike coordinator: Lane Harris
Narration by Lane Harris
In 1949, a 30-foot timber tower was built on top of Mount June, and acted as a fire lookout for the area.
In 1967, the lookout was eventually abandoned and removed due to advances in fire detection and declining budgets for maintenance.
In 2025, 13 unsuspecting hikers found themselves huffing and puffing up the side of a very steep mountain, with the history of the old lookout being the furthest from their minds.
In fact, only two things come to mind as legs strain and beads of sweat drip from one’s forehead on the ascent towards Mt June: “Wow, this sure is steep!” and “Are you sure it’s only a ½ mile to the top?!” But hey, at least we can check this off the bucket list, right?
And so it was, as we trudged our way up the cruel and steep trail towards Mt June. From the trailhead, the first half mile or so isn’t too bad. But once we reached the junction at the ridgeline and turned right to start the climb, everything changed. I would describe this as probably one of the hardest half miles around. This last half mile gains 500 ft. To put that into perspective, the steepest part of the Soggy Bottoms Trail at North Bank Habitat, a trail that most of us are familiar with, takes about 1.2 miles to gain the same 500 feet. In other words, the trek up Mt June is over twice as steep than that. Steep enough to make MY bottoms soggy!
Once at the top, we saw what remained of the lookout, just 4 pillars that formed the foundation. We then took a few moments to soak in the views. While we debated which mountain peaks we were looking at in the distance, one thing that did not need debating was whether to have lunch now or later at Sawtooth Rock. Unanimously, we all chose now!
After filling our bellies, we left the peak of Mt June and began the steep descent down. After regrouping at the junction, we continued along the ridgeline with Sawtooth Rock set as the destination. The trail here has nothing on the Mt June climb, but somehow it is able to poke at the sore muscles we obtained going up that mountain. Whoever built this trail didn’t believe in skirting around the many little peaks that make up this portion of the trail. The path aims straight to the top of little knobs, just to head back down again on the other side. I saw several places where there was plenty of room to go around these knobs that would’ve kept the trail mostly level. Ahh, if only us hikers were trail builders!
Somewhere along the wooded ridgeline on the way to Sawtooth Rock, several members decided they had enough and turned around. I can’t say I blame them! The rest of us continued on through a large meadow toward Sawtooth Rock. We stood underneath its towering rocky surface, wondering why it was called Sawtooth Rock…
After a short break at the ‘Rock’, we made the long, up and down hike back to the trailhead. Those of us who did the entire hike came in at just over 5 miles. Funny, it sure felt a lot further! And to my amusement, those that turned around early only clocked in about 3 miles! These short hiking distances that felt like “normal” full hikes is testament to the punishment that Mt June can cruelly dispense on to us puny humans.
Consider this hike checked off my bucket list 😜
Pictures below by Lane Harris
(If there was an after picture, it would look exactly the same, minus the happy smiles)
