We spent 4 days/3 nights doing some exploration in the Three Sisters Wilderness. Our primary goal was doing some off-trail exploration of Linton Creek having been inspired by forester's Off-trail trip report from 8/8/13. viewtopic.php?f=10&t=16641&hilit=eileen+lake Instead of starting at Linton Lake our plan was to camp at Eileen Lake and hike downstream and be on the south side of Upper Linton Falls when we reached them since we wouldn't trying to get to Linton Lake to see if we could get a view of the top tiers of the big fall.
Thursday we started at the Separation Lake Trailhead and took the Louise Creek Trail up to the Foley Ridge Trail then followed the Foley Ridge Trail to the Linton Meadows Trail. From there we headed to Eileen Lake where we would set up camp.
Friday was entirely off-trail exploration of Linton Creek.
Saturday we hiked back to the Foley Ridge Junction and took the Separation Meadow Trail down to Indian Holes Falls which is located near the junction with the Separation Creek Trail. The Separation Creek Trail runs between the James Creek Shelter and Separation Lake and is, according to the Forest Service "Impassable due to heavy blowdown." After visiting Indian Holes Falls we backtracked a little and then headed over to Honey Lake to get water for the last day (We hadn't seen any water on the first day until we were on the Foley Ridge Trail. After visiting Honey Lake we headed to Buck Meadows then continued toward the Separation Lake Trailhead on the Louise Creek Trail until we found a nice spot to set up our tent.
Sunday was an easy 7 mile hike back to the trailhead.
Pics from Thursday
Skipper
Buck Meadows
Middle Sister
South Sister from Husband Lake
Deer in Linton Meadows
Eileen Lake
Friday
Unnamed falls along Linton Creek
Duncan Falls
Unnamed falls along Linton Creek
Unnamed falls along Linton Creek
Meadow along Linton Creek
Unnamed falls along Linton Creek
Some of Upper Linton Falls
Linton Lake
More of Upper Linton Falls
Unnamed falls along Linton Creek
Back to Duncan Falls
Saturday
Frogs along the trail at Eileen Lake
The Husband from Husband Lake
Linton Meadows
Grasshoppers near Separation Creek Meadows
Separation Creek Meadows
Log crossing of Separation Creek near Indian Holes Falls
Indian Holes Falls
Honey Lake
Buck Meadows
Final nights campsite
Sunday
Three Sisters Wilderness Exploration 7/23-7/26/15
- derwoodynck
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Re: Three Sisters Wilderness Exploration 7/23-7/26/15
You have a knack for showcasing through photos. Beautiful hike.
Re: Three Sisters Wilderness Exploration 7/23-7/26/15
Ditto what Arturo said plus that grasshopper photo is really incredible.
- woodswalker
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- Joined: November 25th, 2012, 4:51 pm
Re: Three Sisters Wilderness Exploration 7/23-7/26/15
You really did a great job of capturing the flavor of the area plus really awesome wildlife photos. What did you bribe them with I once saw a swarm of grasshoppers like that on top of Tunnel ridge in southern Oregon. They can reduce foliage to nothing in seconds. But yet they obviously don't swarm like that all the time. I wonder is it is specific to a very particular life phase?
Woodswalker
Woodswalker
- derwoodynck
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Re: Three Sisters Wilderness Exploration 7/23-7/26/15
We wondered that too about the grasshoppers. We saw them here and there everywhere else but in the one area they were insanely thick. We'd seen something similar in the Jordan Basin of Goat Rocks last year.woodswalker wrote:You really did a great job of capturing the flavor of the area plus really awesome wildlife photos. What did you bribe them with I once saw a swarm of grasshoppers like that on top of Tunnel ridge in southern Oregon. They can reduce foliage to nothing in seconds. But yet they obviously don't swarm like that all the time. I wonder is it is specific to a very particular life phase?
Woodswalker
We did seem to be bribing were the mosquitos with our blood.
Re: Three Sisters Wilderness Exploration 7/23-7/26/15
Wow, what a wonderful trip report! For some reason I've never really explored that area, even though I've been all around it. Another place added to "the list"
Re: Three Sisters Wilderness Exploration 7/23-7/26/15
Wonderful pictures and nice report. It seems like the mountains got covered on Saturday and seems wet on Sunday. Was there a storm or something? I was planning to be in that wilderness that weekend and last weekend, but couldn't make it and heard about bad weather last weekend and possibly this weekend.
- derwoodynck
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Re: Three Sisters Wilderness Exploration 7/23-7/26/15
It clouded up overnight Friday so Saturday and Sunday were overcast. The forecast had been for 20/30 percent chance of showers Fri night through Sunday but it never got stormy. We walked through about 10 seconds of light mist on Saturday morning and that was about it. We put the rain fly up Saturday night just as a precaution but we wouldn't have needed it.hiker4fun wrote:Wonderful pictures and nice report. It seems like the mountains got covered on Saturday and seems wet on Sunday. Was there a storm or something? I was planning to be in that wilderness that weekend and last weekend, but couldn't make it and heard about bad weather last weekend and possibly this weekend.