Middle Sister (10,056)

Hunter, Noah and I hiked Middle Sister today. We did the renfrew glacier route. Middle sister is 10,056 ft in elevation. The route we did gains a little under 5500 ft of elevation and we hiked about 18 miles. It took us a little under 6 hours to summit and a little over 4 to come down Car to car it was about 11 hours. Very long and tiring day but great experience for the boys. Route finding, snow climbing and rock near the top. 

To get an early start we camped at the trailhead the night prior.

The hike up went through some amazing countryside before getting on the snow  

Summit!

A few additional photos from the trip down.

Noah's 13 Birthday backpacking Trip to 3 Finger Jack

Originally we had planned to rent a yurt at Tumalo state park near Bend and have a bunch of boys overnight camp with us, but as with most things it was disrupted by COVID-19.  The Yurt was cancelled due to not enough staff to satisfy cleaning requirements so we chose to take a smaller group on an overnight backpacking trip!  I chose a trip to an area near the mountain 3-finger Jack.  It would be an 8 mile loop with about half the mileage each day, give or take but more uphill on the first day and mostly downhill on the second day.  

Here is the group getting ready, doing gear checks and loading up at our house.

It took about 1:45 hours to get to Jack lack trailhead up in the high country above Sisters.  Here is the excited crew as we get started and through the first few miles as we approach the mountain.

The next phase was to climb above tree line and crest the west saddle, and then drop off trail down the other side of the saddle.  As we got on the slopes of the mountain the terrain changes, and got a lot more steep!

Fun Glissading down the snow slop on the south side of the saddle

We set up camp in an amazing remote alpine setting.  Complete with towering cliffs and bubbling stream.  I cooked a cake on a backpacking stove to celebrate Noah's birthday.  

We saw a heard of goats, had a campfire and tree lights to celebrate before going to bed.  While the sky's threatened a storm, we didn't have more than a few drop of rain.

The next morning rose glorious and sunny.

We then hiked cross country for 1-2 miles through some really pretty country until we hooked up with a main trail to finish out a couple of hours back to the main trailhead. 

A great overnight adventure to celebrate Noah turning 13!




















Stein’s Pillar

The weather was expected to hit 70 so we decided to try and find another somewhat obscure Oregon landmark in the Ochoco mountains about an hour east of Bend past Prineville called Stein’s Pillar.  

However since we are all in lockdown there were about 10 other cars also at the trailhead today. Oh well it was still an amazing hike through ponderosa pines with a great view at the end.

Here’s a shot of the pillar from the road below. Very impressive rock feature that rivals Smith Rock’s monkey face pillar.  

Gearhart Wilderness Adventure

Kelly and Abbie were down in California, so the boys went away to play for the weekend.  I had picked this book up from Costco earlier in the year and figured this would be a good opportunity to pick out a weekend adventure trip.

Our destination was the Gearhart Wilderness area.  See this map below of Oregon - its in the extreme south central/eastern part of the state.

On Friday we drove after work south and stopped and camped at a campground just off the 97 just North of Chiloquin. 

Saturday we got onto the route - basically a circumnavigation of Gearhart mountain on fire roads.  This was true eastern Oregon back country driving.  Very few people (even though we were in the heart of tourist season).   The driving was beautiful and being a little higher in elevation made for perfect warm days (not hot) and cool nights.  One of the neat spots we hit Saturday morning was an old fire tower still standing and accessible but no longer in operation for what looked like many years.  

After the fire tower we continued on to our next stop Campbell lake where we cooled off, had some lunch and tried fishing. (no luck).

For our evening camp spot Saturday we have a few options but we ultimately chose a campsite called Sandhill Campground.  We had it to ourselves - not a soul besides our group for the afternoon and evening and not even a car drove by.    It had the Sprague river bubbling through the campsite giving us our own private river beach.  A magical place.  (I have heard it gets busy in the fall for hunting season).

The campground also had water accessible by an old fashioned hand pump.  Boys had never seen a working hand-pump so Noah decided he wanted to get his water that way.


5th Annual Fall boys camping Trip - Big Lake OR (2018)

We just got back from our 5th annual fall boys camping trip in 2018.  This year we went with some friends that the kids go to school with and the location was Big Lake near Hoodoo ski area West of Sisters.  Dad Patrick with boys Severin and Ben.  Big lake is actually a bit of a misnomer, as the lake isn't that big but it was super 'blue'.    

Previous years:

This year we went the 3rd week of September so we didn't have to worry about deer hunting season (rifle).  I think the 3rd week of September will likely become our defacto standard going forward.   This year the weather was colder and rainy, but we were up at 5000 ft so that could have been part of the reason.  Due to soccer games we got a late start Saturday afternoon so the trip felt shorter than usual.  Going forward we agreed that even if their is soccer games, we might just skip them and even make it a 2-night deal Friday and Saturday.  As with previous years the requirement for this trip is that it cannot be car camping, and must have some sort of 'remote' aspect to it even if just a little.