The Mule Mountain Trail #919 is quite a good climb. There are various routes to take that can alter the total miles hiked. Our hike organizer said the trail received its name during the local Indian War period when mules, pulling a howitzer, supposedly slipped off the trail and fell into the creek, ruining the soldiers’ gunpowder until it could be dried. We went to the top of Mt. Baldy and back, probably about 10 miles round trip. There is a lot of information about this hike online, so I won’t duplicate that. Here are a few pictures from our climb up out of the valley fog on October 31, 2007
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One Little deciduous tree among the evergreens.
Maybe the ravine the mules fell into? 
Hikers on the trail cutting across the slope. 
Getting brighter, but we are still in the fog. 
Fall colors, Oregon style. 
Mature Madrone trees in the fog. 
On top of the fog! 
The fog starts to break up as we eat our lunch. 
Lunch near the top of Mt. Baldy. 
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Awesome photos, looks like a good time was had by all, very interesting about the howitzer going off the trail into the creek.
Yes, apparently the mules went with the gun. Not sure of the outcome of the animals though.
Wow Will you must have been exhausted to reach the top. I really like the photo where you are overlooking the fog, and the Madrone tree bundle. We did lot of hiking and biking this summer, every trip 4-5 hours, where 1 hour was always for bird watching or chasing some animlas – you know me. Great hiking trail, the one that require going up can be quite energy consuming and calorie burning one too, I guess not that exhausting for mules. Great photo collection, and something different too. Anna
Hi Will,
I just found the post that you left on my blog a few weeks ago. I should check back over older post regularly. I’m still getting the hang of this blog world.
I love your photos! They are very inspiring. IF I get a quiet moment tomorrow I’d like to try and do a sketch of one of your beautiful photos, if it’s ok with you? It will just be a little sketch in my sketchbook.
Thanks for the advice on the google thing. I’m going to look into that now. I’ll put your blog into my favs so I can check back and see what you’re up to.
Anna, by the end of the summer we are usually in great shape and just storm right up almost anything. Now as winter sets in there are less hiking outings and by spring I will have to work a bit to get back in shape. If I can continue to play hockey regularly, that will make it a bit easier come April or May!
-Will
Hi Cindy and welcome. Fee free to sketch any that you want. If you do put a picture of your sketch online, I would love to see it. Just put a link in a comment here!
-Will
Hey Will, I know what you mean about slowing down in the winter. I try to keep up with my walking, but then the vacation days are over, and days are shorter, so it is harder to get out, but we still try to get out our two butts off the couch and walk even in the evening after dinner couple of kilometers, so when the spring comes we are ready for hiking and biking. Anna
And just make sure you don’t injure yourself in hockey again. BTW I been slowly getting in to digg, for now just adding diggs, but I am slowly understanding what is going on. I am usually very slow in that kind of stuff. I remember on the blog catalog, I used to ask Bob all kinds of questions that were just click away. So thanks for the ideas, and keeping up with my slowness.
Very nice post and photos. I have not been hiking up there. I do have photo galleries of some my hikes, including: Glacier National Park, Mason Neck State Park, Starved Rock State Park.
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