Warner Mountain Lookout Tower

My wife and I booked 3 nights at Warner Mountain lookout in January 17'. We never made it and had to have Lane County Search and Rescue come get us. Here's the condensed version which I hope will be useful for anyone planning to XC Ski or Snowshoe in:

First off, there is mixed intel out there about how far you may have to travel to get to the lookout. I've seen "up to" 9-13 miles. The Forest Service informed me the week of that we should plan on having to do the full 10 miles. It's MORE THAN 10 miles! Not sure why they got this wrong, but OP gets it much closer. We (and SAR) estimated it to be 13 miles. So be prepared. And get an early start.

We brought XC skis and snowshoes. We set off initially on XC, but it was too icy and we just slipped backwards so we switched to snowshoes. The vast majority is a pretty good incline so don't be fooled. There is one section of flat, but other than that it's fairly challenging, especially with a pack. In hindsight, maybe we should have had a sled, but the trail was pretty beat up from sleds so it may have been more difficult. We'll never know.

Fast forward: after 6 hours at a steady pace, we finally hit the 2 Mile marker. We rejoiced briefly, but we were losing light. At about 1.5 miles to go, the clearly marked snowmobile trail hits a meadow and the tracks split in every which way. At this point, we had head lamps and it was mostly dark. Started to feel uneasy. We picked the right set to follow (stick along the tree line, just to left of trees).

NOTE: all of the snowmobile tracks split up into the meadow because there is a shortcut apparently, but we did not know it at the time.

Carried on and came to the 1 mile marker. We had high hopes at this point, but come to find, the sign pointing you towards the lookout was completely buried in snow. The turnoff where the sign is buried is approx. .5 mile past the 1 mile mark. There is a gate with a road closed sign. Next to that gate is supposed to be the sign for the turnoff, but it was buried. There is also a tiny little white placard on the side of the gate that says "occupied".

We were confused because there was no clear marker and the snow was up to our waists and virgin snow. No tracks. No one else had gone this way in some time. Apparently it's very rare for someone to actually hike in vs snowmobiles. So be aware if you are on foot. Go to the right of the gate and follow up the hill for about .3 or .4 miles to the lookout.

We ended up missing the trail and passed it by .6 miles. Pitch black and in a storm, we dug out a tree well and started a fire and luckily got a signal and called 911. SAR pinged our location and they set off to come find us by about 10pm. Lane County SAR does not have snow mobiles, they have modified 4x4's. Shout out to Lane County Special Vehicles Group! They got to within 4 miles of us by 2 a.m. and snow shoed the rest of the way. Got to us at 5:30 am and we had water and snacks and then we all hiked back out and up to the lookout and made it by 7:30 am. Mind you, we are in shape, but were basically crippled with pain because of the strenuous hike in.

The lookout itself is incredible, for the short time we stayed. We had a 2 hr cat nap and then set off back down to the awaiting vehicles 4 miles down the trail. Can't thank Lane County Search and Rescue (DAN AND JACKSON!) enough, as well as the Special Vehicles Group. Truly badass humans.

Moral of the story - If you plan on XC skiing or snowshoeing in during a heavy snow year, it's no joke. Shit is hard.