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Strawberry Lakes 6/24/07 - 6/27/07 Posted by vincentpaul (2007-06-28)

This was a planned "one-on-one" backpack trip with my second-oldest daughter, M.  We had planned on doing the Columbia Gorge Loop suggested in Lorain's backpacking Oregon, but by Saturday it was pretty clear that at least Sunday was going to be pretty ugly and the next couple of days looked dicey.  I handed the book to my daughter and asked her if she wanted to take any of the other trips he suggests.  We ended up deciding that the Strawberry Mountains looked interesting, but that it would be easier to do to the hikes suggested in Sullivan's E. Oregon guide.  M decided that she wanted to bring a friend, and I knew it was a girl in great shape from sports, so it was ok by me.  After all, it was M's trip. Mapquest showed 300 miles between Beaverton and the trailhead near Prairie City, so we arose early Sunday morning and headed out through the Portland rain.  The rain stopped soon after our obligatory donut stop in Sandy (anybody else have this tradition?), and the sun was shining in full force when we took a break at the Painted Hills of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.  We arrived at the Strawberry Lake trailhead at about 1:30 p.m., and quickly got on the trail.  As with all the trails in the next 4 days, we never encountered any other hikers on the trail, only some dayhikers fishing at the various lakes.  Many backpack adjustments and about an hour later, we arrived at Strawberry Lake.  There are several fine camps scattered about the lake, each quite private and sheltered from the others.  We had planned on heading up to Little Strawberry Lake that day, but we found that there were only a few (5-6) day hikers at the lake; realizing our luck, we decided to take a fantastic spot on the lake and set up camp.  The girls set up their own tent and I set up a tarp.  You can see my tarp (home-made, dyed, tyvek house wrap left-overs from a construction site, with which I also used a $20 Coughlin mosquito net) in the lower-left trees. After a few minutes the girls' fishing rods were out and M was teachng her friend how to cast.  Later in the afternoon, we hiked up to Strawberry Falls and the girls dashed in for a quick wet down.  Returning to the lake by 6:00 or so, we found we had the entire lake literally to ourselves.  The girls spent the rest of the afternoon wading in the lake, fishing and generating an endless stream of chatter that filled our private resort.  And they had no consumer electronics in hand!  As the day wound down, Dad took a stroll around the lake and then had a quite-time session with some cognac and coffee.  Total hiking:  Dad 5.5 miles, girls 4.1 miles. After a chilly night (32 degrees at sunrise), Monday broke out fine as well.  With such a fine camp, the girls decided that they wanted to do a day hike to Slide Lake.  On the way M and L suprised me by pulling out cell phones when we took a break at a ridge that had a line of sight view out into the John Day valley.  Turns out that M remembered from past trips that we'd have coverage on ridges and peaks and had conspired with L to sneak them into their bags.  Sigh; I guess its more benign than the contraband that I was sneaking into my backpacks as a teen in the early 80's.  : )   Slide falls are visible on the trail to the lake as well.  We had a great lunch and the girls splashed around in the lake for awhile and then fished while I prowled for photos.  We didn't see anybody in the wilderness that entire day.  Total hiking:  7.4 miles. Tuesday night we packed up and hiked up to Little Strawberry Lake.  Our intention was to spend the next two nights at Little Strawberry before hiking out.  The day was just glorious, and quite warm, following a very warm night.  Again, we had the lake and trails to ourselves for most of the day and found a wonderful camp.  Little Strawberry has only a few camps scattered about the lake (3 by my count), but again each is quite private and sheltered from the others.  There is also a fine camp about halfway between Strawberry Falls and Little Strawberry Lake, but I didnt see an immediate water source at hand as we passed by.  Perhaps there is a spring near.  The girls finally got the trout to strike and caught a brace of small but plump brook trout between snowball fights, which they cleaned and stored in a snowbank for breakfast Thursday.  The girls are standing by the snowbank reflected in the lower left. The series of beautiful days turned out to be a mixed blessing as by late in the afternoon there was a fierce mosquito hatch, made worse by the disappearance of the previous days' breezes.  Another father joined by two young sons found the lake late in the afternoon, but they took a sight several hundred yards away from us.  During the afternoon I climbed up the cirque for pictures and explored some animal trails.  Late in the afternoon I sought relief from the mosquitos with a hike most of the way up Strawberry Mountain while the girls played cards in their tent. I had hoped to take the girls to the top of the mountain on Wednesday, but was dissapointed to find that there was a pretty steep and wide snow field covering the trail at about 8000'. It was not something I was comfortable taking two teenagers across.  I did get some nice views of Strawberry Lake on the way up, however.  Heading back to camp, I dived into my mosquito net after discovering that the girls had been more than a little profligate in their use of our two bottles of mosquito repellent, which were now empty.  Total hiking:  Dad 7.7 miles, girls 1.8 miles. On Wednesday morning I awoke to find my mosquito netting literally covered with a swarm of mosquitos.  A smokey cook fire gave us the embers to cook our trout in (a nice change from dehydrated eggs and oatmeal), and some small relief from the mosquitos. Lacking head nets, gloves or repellent, we decided to beat a strategic retreat to....Kahneeta!  A shower and several hours in a warm pool proved to be a great later afternoon break on the drive home to Portland.  Total hiking:  3.1 miles

Re: Strawberry Lakes 6/24/07 - 6/27/07 Posted by pdxgene (2007-06-28)

A doughnut stop in Sandy is a mandatory part of the trip to the trailhead except on the hottest days.. And usually the reward for climbing whatever hill we head up..Sometimes it even helps determine the hike (as in, 'we at least have to go through Sandy to get to wherever we're going to go'..)..

Re: Strawberry Lakes 6/24/07 - 6/27/07 Posted by fettster (2007-06-28)

Sounds like a great trip.  The national monument and Strawberry Wilderness are both fantastic stops and gems in Oregon.  Even with the mosquitoes sounds like conditions were great.  We had a bit more of a dramatic outting last year.  We also found a snow cornice blocking the trail up to the ridgeline leading to the summit of Strawberry Mountain.  Gotta return sometime for that!  Did you see any notable wildlife given your seclusion?

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