Hunter Summits South Sister

Hunter reached a new high point this weekend by reaching the summit of South Sister - 10,358 ft!  It took us 9 hours car to car including a nice lunch on the summit.  The hike is 11.8 miles and gains 4,878 ft of elevation from the trailhead to summit.  While not technical, it is a tough hike!  I am really proud of him, and he is super excited about the accomplishment.  The original plan was to train over the summer and maybe try it before it starts to snow again but he decided he would give it a go sooner and it went great. 

This is my 3rd time up there.  First time was in 2011 with Red.  Second time was in August 2014 with some people from where I worked at that time.  This year, for mid July, there was a lot of snow still on the mountain at pretty low elevations.  I had hunter practice some ice axe techniques on the mid mountain snow fields where it was steep enough you didn't want to slide a long way, but also not any risk of injury.   The snow also made for some fun on the descent!  

This first set up shots is from where we broke out of the forest to a point on the mid mountain snowfields were we stopped for a snack. 


These shots are from the upper snow fields where Hunter has the ice axe up to a sandy saddle at 8850 with a beautiful cirque lake at the base of the Lewis glacier.   The video is from the way down but taken from right around the saddle area.

 From here the climb gets steeper util you get to the crater rim.  You can see from the shots the cirque lake getting smaller and smaller as we climb.

Some shots from the summit!  First is of Hunter actually on the highest point. 

On the way down we stopped at the saddle and went down to get a better view of the cirque lake at 8850ft.  Notice Hunter in the top of the first shot walking down to give you an idea of scale.

Some fun sliding on the way down.  When there is snow the way down is much faster than the way up.  It took us over 5 hours to summit and we were down in a little over 3.  

Iron Mountain

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. 

From hear we heading up a number of switchbacks to the flanks of cone peak where Iron Mountain came into view to the west (with the big rocky pinnacle on the left/south side.)

Next we headed down to the saddle between cone peak and iron mountain, and across the north side before starting switch backs up the north side.  As we exited trees, wildflowers started again.  We actually might have been a little early.. I expect things will really explode in the next 1-2 weeks.

Upon reaching the summit, we were treated to amazing 360 degree views!  We spent a good 45 min up there eating lunch, exploring and enjoying the views.  A quick 1.5 miles took us back down to the car.  


Lava Butte

On Fathers day after church we with the weather clear and warm we took a drive just south of town to Lava Lands and took the shuttle up to the top of Lava butte for lunch and a short walk around the crater.  

Spring Skiing - April 29, 2017

Saturday was clear.  The mountain had been getting dumped on the previous week so we decided to head up as a family. There is an amazing amount of snow for this late in the year.  One of the highest snow totals on record.  It will definitely be open until its official close on memorial weekend at the end of may.  They are even running snowboard and ski summer camps up there this summer.  We will likely try and get up one more time in May. 

Easter Weekend Skiing 2017

After some continued stormy weather this past week up at Mt Bachelor, Saturday rose Sunny!  Close to a foot of snow has fallen at the mountain over the past week and with fewer people skiing at this time of the year we were hopeful for some powder... which we got!  Amazing for mid April.  

We met up with our friends - the Bercots (Eric and Joe) for some runs and had lunch at the mid-mountain lodge out on the sunny patio.  Great day!


Sledding at Wanoga Christmas 2016

Day after Christmas  rose sunny so we went with our friends the Bercots to the Wanoga snow park area about half way to Mt bachelor for some sledding!

Video 1: Kevin & PJ

Video 2: Kelly & Abbie

Video 3: Hunter (back), Joe Bercot (middle), Noah (front)

Video 4: Kevin and Kelly (check out the air time!)

3rd Annual Boys Fall Camping Trip - Tam McAuthor Rim (2016)

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. 

Thayer Lake High on the East Flank of North Sister

I took Hunter and Noah on a day hike today as they wanted to try something longer.  Hunter wants to to South Sister so I thought this might be interesting practice, plus the books said it was very unknown but beautiful.  It was a lot of off trail hiking and scrambling with approx 11 miles of hiking completed and 2300 ft of vertical taking up up over 7700 ft in elevation.  

The trail was pretty uneventful moving through the Pole Creek burn area for the first 2 miles with filtered views of the surrounding mountains.

After this we headed slightly off trail for another 2-ish miles up along the banks of soap creek staying to the north side.  The trail if you could call it that was off and on so we picked our way up towards a ridge that finally allowed up to get a view of the hulking main mass of north sister up close.  Our target was the yellow bulge to have lunch - the kids wanted to touch snow.  You can see the little snow to the left of the yellow budge and then the kids going across these small snow fields in the 3rd and 4th pics

From here we scrambled up further to see if we could find this supposed lake... I was not hopefully but the guide book said it was there if you just scrambled up a little more.  Then Boom - as we crested the moraine it came into view.

On the way down - we followed the creek properly and what a treat.  Green lush valley, bubbling stream, tasty water.