Wy'East and Cairn Basins via Vista Ridge TH 10/6

[jgreisel]

We planned on doing the Cairn Basin loop via Vista Ridge trail Saturday. We got to the Th around 930 and boy, was it windy. Why didnt I take that beanie cap, when my partner offered to me??

The sunrise on the way to the mtn was beautiful!

This was the first hike we asked mom to come on with us. We had been up to Elk Cove earlier in the summer and wanted to show her the burn area and check out Cairn Basin.

Cher and mom

The trail ash was a little more compacted than earlier in the season. We went a leisurely pace, enjoying the sun and taking lots of pictures.

Diego wondering when the humans are going to hurry up already...

We meandered up to Wy'East Basin, where we stopped to enjoy some lunch.

We got a decent view of the Northern mtns.

It was really windy up at Wy'East, which made us a little on the chilly side, so we didnt sit too long, before we decided to move onto Cairn Basin. We decided to back track to the junction off the Vista Ridge trail (which is where the guide book has the loop ending at). We thought we could just do the loop in reverse.

Not too long into the trail, there was a large icy/snow field that looked as if it had slid down onto the trail, bringing some trees with it. It goes onto the trail, but people have been walking down below it off trail.

After this, you quickly enter more burn area.

Beautiful views of Mt Hood on the way.

We had an easy time passing Ladd creek. There was a rock bridge with some packed ice/snow at one end.
And not too much further until we arrived at Cain Basin shelter.

It appeared that the last person to use the shelter left some trash in the fire pit bad hiker!!
We neglected to bring any life saving device(like the oscar mayer weenie whistle) to leave for unfortunate hikers that may get trapped at the shelter.

We tried to locate the other trail to loop back to Wy'East Basin, but were unsuccessful. We ran into a trail runner (who was also having some navigation issues, and I hope that he found his way back to his car-he was parked at Timberline and it was already after 3). We decided to just head back the way we came. There was a trail that fizzled out north of the shelter and one that headed south toward the mtn, but also fizzled out, so we probably could have headed west a little further and found it, but it was too cold and mom was getting nervous about not wanting to get lost.

We headed back down the trail and were happy to get back to the car and the heater that was in it

yay!! heat!!

[Splintercat]

Hey, that was the day I was on Cooper Spur... enjoying the balmy breezes!

That last shot looks like it's from the meadow on the west slope of Vista Ridge, on the switchbacks down to the upper Ladd crossing, is that right? I've wondered how that area fared from the fire -- haven't been in there yet this year. I'm thinking of this much-photographed spot above the last switchback, as you head toward the crest of Vista Ridge from Cairn Basin:



Thanks for the report!

Tom