Lulu and papa were visiting and the weather was amazing this past weekend so so got out for some nice fall walking (including some shopping for the girls on Saturday).
While the girls shopped the boys walked Shevlin park on Saturday and Sunday we all went up to hike Todd lake in the cascades. (Big mountain in the background of some Todd lake photos is Mt Bachelor - the local ski mountain)
Fathers Day hike with the family near Sisters. Little chilly today but great to get out.
Also Abbie made me a cake which was so cool!
We go camping on Paulina lake often in the summer. I have never been up in the winter. The resort on Paulina lake is actually open for a few months in the winter but you cannot drive in - hike or snowmobile only from a snow park that is a few miles down the road.
Noah and I drove up Friday afternoon and hiked in staying at one of the small 2 person cabins for the night.
On the way in we stopped and hiked down to Paulina falls. Again - a place we have visited in summer but not in winter. Really pretty.
Kelly and the kids made my birthday really special this year. Lots of cool gifts plus I got a really nice whiskey set from Pat and Sue!
After church we drove south near silver lake and did a hike Hager Mountain. The tower is a working tower, so we got to see inside and see both the traditional and newer methods of scouting for fire.
The main reason we drove down to that area is that Kelly booked us reservations months ago at the very famous “Cowboy Dinner Tree”. It was an amazing filling steak dinner.
Just east of bend by the Oregon badlands there is a hike called Dry River Gorge. Today the weather was cool and clear so the boys and I decided to check this hike out. It was only 15 min from our house and unfortunately only accessible from sept- Feb due to nesting bird restrictions at other times of the year.
A great winter time high desert hiking option.
For Hunter's 13th year, I wanted to do a Father-son get-away so we planned a backpacking trip for July. We decided to try something outside of central Oregon and planned to do an 18 mile loop in the Strawberry Wilderness in north eastern Oregon just south of John Day.
Day 1
Friday afternoon we left Bend, drove 3 hours to John Day and had a quick dinner before heading to the trail-head at just under 8000ft. We camped at the empty trail-head, which must be a regular walking area for deer as we had 1 or 2 of them walking around our tent for a while after going to bed.
Day 2
Saturday morning we had a great breakfast of eggs and sausage before heading out. Our first objective was the summit of Strawberry Mountain (9038 ft). Wildflowers were in bloom everywhere throughout the trip which was a nice contrast to some of the burn areas we hiked through. We dropped our packs at the trail junction and just carried some water for the short 1.1 mile side trip to the summit.
From this high point hiked down into the next valley to Little Strawberry lake at just under 7000 ft of elevation. This hike took us down through the twin springs basin meadow and down a rocky ridge overlooking the main strawberry lake, and eventually down to a waterfall where we filtered water and had lunch before making the .5 mile side trip to little strawberry. Mileage for day 1 was about 7.7 miles.
Little Strawberry is very scenic nestled in under towering rocky cliffs. We brought a fishing pole and were able to catch a number of small trout. We had hoped to maybe add to our dinner with some fresh fish but alas, they were not quite big enough so they all went back. We were also able to swim in the lake which was nice given the warm temps.
Day 3
After having breakfast (and coffee for me!), we broke camp and headed back to the main trail. We hit strawberry falls within the first mile, and wished we had went a little further the day prior to find this gem. It's beautiful but being still early, it wasn't really warm enough to get under the water yet.
From here we quickly hit the main Strawberry Lake which had a number of people at it due to road accessibility. After Strawberry Lake at 6400 ft and 1.5 miles in for the day (9.2 miles cumulative) we hit the junction towards Slide Lake. Originally we considered Slide Lake as our next camp spot but Hunter suggested we push through to High Lake. (That turned out to be a great decision as the bugs were bad at Slide Lake). Today would be tough hiking from our low point at strawberry lake now eventually up and over another 8000 ft pass again. The trudge up to Slide Lake was sweaty and hot but we after cresting a ridge at around 7200 ft elevation we followed a steep canyon to Slide Lake where we stopped for lunch and water. (5.3 miles for the day, 13 miles cumulative)
From Slide Lake we headed up and up for another 1.2 hard miles to crest today's high-point, up through a rocky landscape with sections of blooming wildflowers. From the high point, we could see High Lake down in the next valley, which would be our target for today. Mileage total for the day was 8.1 miles, 15.8 cumulative. Lucky for us some clouds came in and made this section of the hike a little cooler. The sun eventually came back out later after we arrived a High Lake.
High Lake was alpine solitude at its best. Eagles soaring, and our highlight was a heard of mountain goats. I have only seen mountain goats in some remote areas of Idaho previously and explained to Hunter how much of a treat this was to get to see it. This was an amazing site. We initially saw a single goat come down to the lake and drink on the far side and proceeded to watch him climb back up the steep walls across the lake eventually rejoining a heard of what liked 15 or more high up on the upper grassy sections of the wall. Hunter ran over and took some photos but watch the video at the bottom to get a better glimpse. We also tried fishing and while the lake seemed to be teeming with fish, we couldn't coax more than a nibble on our line. Still fun to try though.
Day 4
Today we hiked back out of High Lake valley and back to where we had parked the car. No pictures as my phone had ran out of juice the previous evening. All told we hiked about 18 miles through some amazing wilderness with very few people for a weekend in mid July. The landscape really showed some variety from lower and more lush to high and dry alpine. We hike through various sections of burned forests,and yes, while it makes you sad to see the burned trees, you also can see how forests are resilient and recover. While it seems long for us, the recovery isn't long in the life of a forest. We saw everything from very recent (perhaps even last year) with ground still black, to those where the ground was covered with wildflowers, through to sections where their were small pines from 6 inches to 4 ft tall.
We also saw wildlife!... more than I have seen in other recent hikes in Oregon and more than expected. Most of all we had a great time talking, hiking, sharing meals hanging out by the campfire each night . A great trip for both of us.
I thought I might to try and drive 'up' to get out of the smoke. I drove up to Newberry Crater south of Bend. I was smoky as I drove up but broke out of the smoke just as I neared the top and had great blue sky!
I did and 8 mile hike around the perimeter of Paulina Lake (1 of 2 lakes in the crater). It was great to get out after being cooped up in the house this whole week.
The pictures of me in the water are natural hot spring along the shore of the lake.
Its wildflower season now in some of the lower peaks in the cascade range, so Hunter, Noah and I decided to do a 6.5 mile loop hike at Iron Mountain. You will notice in these pictures its a lot more green as this is on the western side of the cascades so more lush than our central Oregon side. We drove from Bend for about 1:10 min west on hwy 26 and parked at Tombstone pass. From the parking lot we headed east on the cone peak trail.
Within the first 1/4 mile we came to this beautiful meadow. The sign indicated it was a trading area for native Americans and a common stopping point for settlers heading west.
September now has a tradition of a Donaldson boys fall camping trip. First trip was in 2014, where we canoe camped on Sparks lake. 2015 we did a backpacking trip to Benson lake which was the first backpack for Hunter and Noah. This year in 2016, we backpacked again - this time up Tam MacAurthor rim above 3 creeks lake in the 3-Sisters wilderness. We have been to 3-creeks lake in the summer as a family but this time our target was to camp out on 'The Prow' - a high point cliff that overlooks the 3 creeks basin at 7732 ft elevation. (The parking area at the lake is at 6550). The hike to the Prow and back is about 5.3 miles so this would be the longest backpack for the boys to date. As they will tell you - a big difference when you have a pack on your back vs just a day hike.
We left Bend about 2:30 Saturday after the last soccer game and got on the trail about 3:45. Here are a few shots on the way up. You can see the prow clearly in the second photo.
Here are some shots from the top and the cliff area around the prow.
We set up camp about a 100 yards back from the prow in some trees. While this is high fire season we set up a very small fire to take the chill out. Noah got inventive and started toasting fig newtons on sticks. After fire was out we watched the stars for a while - amazing since it was so dark.
Sunday morning I got up to enjoy the sunrise and after breakfast, we decided to do a hike over towards broken top to see if we could see the lake in the crater as well as get some sweet views of the 3 sisters. I had been to broken top crater back in August from the other side and wanted to see if we could link it up from this side. Hiked for about 1.5 miles to a point where we could see it but the scrambling got a little dicey so we decided to turn back to camp. Boys had fun building cairns on the way back as well as sliding down a snow slope still around from last winter. Got back to camp just before 11.
After packing up camp with slightly lighter packs we had a quicker (downhill) and relatively uneventful hike back down getting to the car around 1:30. Enjoyed dipping our feet in the lake looking back up at where we had been. Of course we stopped in Sisters for an ice cream at snow cap before driving home.
We spent Memorial Day together and enjoyed the great spring weather doing a family hike along the south canyon loop segment of the Deschutes River Trail system south of the Old Mill area. It was about 3.5 miles so a good hike for little PJ.
