Donaldson Crew Adventures

One of the most popular hiking trails in the central Cascades near Bend is the Green Lakes trail.  You follow a creek with lots of waterfalls up to beautiful alpine scenery with lakes surrounded by mountains, all with minimal uphill grade.  The hike is 8 miles total but you only gain a modest 1100 ft over the 4 miles to the lake.  Plus the trail-head is only about 25 minutes from Bend signed just past Sparks lake on the right.  

I had never hiked it before and Hunter was game to go and see if he could do the 8 mile trek, so we arrived at the trailhead a little before 1 pm.  It was crowded as one might expect for a nice summer weekend but even with all the cars it still felt very peaceful.  

Here are a few pictures of the hike in:

A few pics of the main lake:

These lakes are beautiful but are fed by surrounding snow melt so are known to be frigid most of the year even on the hottest days but maybe because this past winter was low snow, the water today was cold but still bearable!  I tried it first and then Hunter made the plunge as well! 

End of summer calls for a day at the skate park with the boys. The boys brought their scooters and rode up and down ramps today for 4 hours. What a fun day!

Kelly left for California today with her dad and the kids for the week.  I will fly down next weekend and drive back with them, however with no family today, I decided to go out for a hike today in the high cascades.  My destination was the Matthieu Lakes (North and South) via a 7 mile loop hike.  I departed from Dee Wright Observatory about 15 miles southwest of Sisters.  This starting point adds an extra mile each way from the standard trailhead but the views from the lava fields are great.  The weather was warm with a slight breeze, and a perfect day for a walk.  I brought Red with me to enjoy the lakes.  He love the swimming but is not in as good a shape as he was in his younger years.  He was suffering near the end and I had to carry him off and on the last 1/3 of a mile.  

View of North and Middle Sister at the start of the hike along with the snow barren Mt Washington while hiking along the lava fields.

The hike takes you up to around 6000 ft.  Here are some pictures along the highest point of the hike and South Matthieu lake that has North Sister poking up in the background.

After enjoying the sun at South Mattieu Lake, we headed down hill to the slighly bigger North Mathieu Lake.   Red got out and did more swimming at this one. 

From here it was back to the car for a cold beer waiting on ice.  

This weekend on Saturday Papa came in after being in the northwest for work and we went to the Oregon Airshow.   It was really cool with lots of jets and stunt planes capped off by the Blue Angels.  Amazing.

Happy 4th of July from the Donaldson Crew!

We went downtown to the Bend Pet Parade this morning followed by a pancake breakfast in the park. Tonight we will have friends over for desserts and will watch fireworks in the park. This holiday is our favorite!

With today off for the long weekend, we drove up to the Cascades with no particular target in mind.  As we drove by Devils lake there was a nice area by the water that was available so we stopped.  Water was very cold as it drains right off the mountain but the kids had fun in the kayaks and catching frogs along the shore.  The pictures don't do it justice but the lake almost glows green due to the mineral content in the water.

I took the Older Boys on a hike up Tumalo Mountain this morning.  A good starter hike in terms of distance and difficulty but with amazing views of Mt Bachelor on the hike up.  Then at the top you get treated to views of the Sisters mountains and Broken top.