Donaldson Crew Adventures

This past weekend, I climbed Mt Hood - Oregon's highest mountain, with a couple of friends from work - Matt H, and Zak C.  Last time I was up it was 2011 also with Matt H about a month later in May of that year.   The weather this time was spectacular, however with the low snow year, the climbing was much more difficult.  We left Bend about 12:30 AM friday night, and left the parking lot at Mt hood at 3 am.  We hit the summit in 5 hours around 8 am.  We were back down by 11:30 for lunch at the lodge before driving home.

In the pictures, if its not obvious, I am in the red jacket (blue in one sitting), Zak has the green jacket and Matt has the brown jacket.  Notice in some of the pictures how blue the sky is.  No camera filter - just shot with my iphone.  

Hunter wanted to hit the park today so we spent most of the day there. Unfortunately Noah wasn't feeling well so he couldn't make it. Here is one of his jumps. He doesn't quite stick this one but he was landing and sticking others.

This year since Pat and Sue (Kelly's parents) were coming to visit after Christmas we decided to get them an 'experience' gift of a snowshoe and bonfire tour through Wanderlust Tours.  This is the same company we went with this summer when we did the moonlight canoe trip on Sparks lake with some friends.  This time it would be a snowshoe hike at night with a bonfire waiting for us!   We were in for an extra special treat last night as it was snowing like mad up in the mountains making for a real winter outing with fresh powder to snowshoe through!    Waiting for us was a carve snow seating with seating pads, a fire, treats from sparrow bakery and warm drinks with your choice of spirits if you like.  I selected the crater lake hazelnut vodka by Bend distillery with my hot chocolate!  

Great fun and highly recommended by all of us.

I took the kids up today (Nov 1) to see the snow in the mountains near bend.

The first picture is Mt Bachelor (the ski hill).  The second photo is South sister poking through the clouds.  The third is snowy broken top through the trees.  

On Sunday (Aug 24) my friend and work colleague Matt decided to climb to the summit of Broken Top (9175 ft).  Broken top is one of the local volcanoes in the 3 Sisters Wilderness.  Broken top is mostly class 2 with a small section of class 4 low class 5 scrambling/climbing near the summit.  We did the Northwest Ridge route, that starts from Broken top trail head.  The drive to the Broken top trail head is an interesting drive to begin with that you can likely get up with a 2 wheel drive BUT you will need high clearance.  Its about 8-9 miles off the cascade lakes highway by Todd Lake and takes you up into some beautiful country with high country meadows and forest.  

The hike from the trail head starts with approx 4.5 miles of relatively flat hiking to the Green lakes.  It is some great hiking with views of the BT crater, high country meadows and views of Mt. Batchelor and sparks lake.

 Just before arriving at Green lakes we headed Northeast cross-country up towards the northwest ridge of BT.  The first picture in this set - you can see a view of the northwest ridge (coming up from the left in the picture) taken from the South sister trail (Moraine lake in the foreground) by one of the hikers in our group a couple weeks prior.  As you head up to the NW ridge you get great views of South Sister.  The last 2 in the set are from the lowest saddle when you ascend onto the NW ridge

Here is a great pano shot I took looking Northwest from the ridge (Matt in the shot)

Here are some shots of the ridge and summit

Some shots of the cross country descent and a great view of the Sisters and Green lakes that most people would not get since its not on the standard trail

August is the prime month for visiting mountain lakes in the cascades.  The weather is still warm and the water has also warmed up!  This weekend we decided to try Three Creeks Lake at the base of Tam McAuthor Rim.  The last time I was here was for an early season hike in late June of 2012 when there was still a decent amount of snow.  To reach the lake turn south on Elm Street in downtown sisters and drive for about 18 miles until the road ends at the lake - pretty easy.  There are a couple campgrounds there as well and the lake has some nice open beach areas wth shallow wading areas for the kids.

Here are the kids playing in one of the 'three' creeks that flow into the lake.  The water is ice cold!

On the way back through sisters we stopped at the famous sno cap for ice cream.

The Three Sisters are a series of Volcanoes near Bend.  South Sister is the highest of the three, closest to Bend and generally the least technical making it idea for those wishing to try a real mountain without technical climbing.  It's still a good hike though at almost 5000 vertical feet of climbing and over 12 miles round trip.  I was up it in 2011 almost to the day and this time doing it again with a group of eager guys from work.  We left the Devils lake trail-head at 7 am.  We made summit in about 4 hours.  It took just over 2 to descend.   Matt brought some ice cold beers for the parking lot when we returned.   It was a little smoky on the way up due to the fires but it cleared up by the way down with a change in wind direction.  Great time but everyone is going to be sore for the next couple days. 

Last friday I took the kids to Paulina Lake inside Newberry Crater.  This week after Hunters swim meet we went up to East Lake, which is the sister lake inside of Newberry Crater.  (see this picture - the lake on the right side is east lake)

Here is a panorama of the lake from our spot on the beach

We hung out on the beach and also rented a boat for a ride around the lake.  Great fun.

A cool old sign by the boathouse

Kelly is gone on a girls weekend in Boise, so I took Friday off and we went up to Newberry Crater for the day.  We rented a small motor boat at Paulina Lake Resort for 2 hours.  A good deal at only $30.  We traveled across the lake to the north side where the Paulina hot springs are located on the shore.  We had the area to ourselves.  The hot springs bubble out of the beach.  

After the lake I wanted to take the kids from the water level to the top of Paulina Peak at just under 8000 ft which is accessible by road.  The kids enjoyed seeing where we had just boated across.  Notice the 'big obsidian flow' a massive lava flow in the greater crater area.  

We ended the day off with a bbq in the back yard.

With the thunderstorms this week we have been treated to some great sunsets. Crux has one of the best views in town coupled with great beer.