We took advantage of Memorial Day to hike the beautiful trails around Pamelia Lake.
The location is a few hours from Portland, near Mt. Jefferson, out past Detroit Lake:
The hike starts with a few miles through old growth forest to reach the lake.
Some of the trails follow old, dried-up stream beds:
Then you reach the lake!
Lot's of birds hanging around, making little bird babies:
You can follow trails in the area up the streams that feed the lake:
In a past hike, I've gone up to Grizzly Peak above and seen the beautiful view of the lake below and snowy Mt. Jefferson over the ridge. I didn't go up to Grizzly Peak this time. You can't really go wrong with a hike into this area.
This particular hike was about 12 miles with about 2,100 feet of climbing and a few stream crossings. I ran into no snow anywhere.
The trails in this area require a limited entry permit at this time of year. It's easy to get one at recreation.gov (just Google pamelia lake permit and it's the first link): http://www.recreation.gov/unifSearchInt ... kId=111433
The cost is $6 per day. There are nice campsites at the lake I've used in the past. Since the hike is only 3 or so miles from the trailhead to the campsites at the lake, this is a great trip for a first-time backpacker or backpackers with kids. I've enjoyed a backpacking trip here in the past.
Bottom line: easy hiking, lots of reward, nice backpacking, $6/day permit.
