July 26 - July 29
Day 1
My wife and I set off on Sunday July 26 from Lava Lake Trailhead. The parking lot was packed, we felt lucky to get a spot! We hoped to take off at 7:30am, but due to a trip to Bend to replace a defective fuel can we did not set off until 10:45am. Most of day 1 was spent working through the 2012 Pole Creek burn. It was amazing to see the devastation, the survival, and the recovery. It was cloudy most of the day so we did not get many good pictures. We arrived at Park Meadows around 6:30. It was packed largely in part to one of several boy scout groups camping in the Sisters Wilderness that week.
Stats
17.7 miles
Elevation Gain 2591 ft
44,000 steps
282 floors
39 people
7 dogs
IMG_20150729_214535 by paulstrobel, on FlickrHiking out of the burn
IMG_4212 by paulstrobel, on FlickrNorth Sister through the burn
Day 2
We woke to stunning views of South Sisters & Broken Top framing our campsite. We took off early before the boy scouts were up and set off for the trip around Broken Top. The first several miles were a non-event. Plenty of water, more burn areas, and one wrong turn. But once we hit the Tam McArthur Ridge Trailhead, it all changed. There were SOOOO many people. Old, young, families… all of them hiking up the trail. Some of them just for a light trip, some to the summit. We were not prepared for how crowded the area was. As much as we enjoy the solitary times on the trail, we also enjoy stopping to chat and engaging in ‘trail talk’. It was a beautiful area and we stopped for lunch near the summit for one of the best views of our trip. From where we sat it felt like we could reach out and touch the other mountains, the view was large and unobstructed. We could see the Sisters lined up with Washington, Jefferson, and Hood lined up in the distance. Breathtaking.
After lunch, we made our way to Green Lakes and enjoyed a solitary, quiet camp site and some of the freeze dried Pad Thai noodles (our new favorite). That said, our biggest concern was water. Water was sparse on the south side of Broken Top. We passed some lakes, but we preferred to fill up at streams. We’d heard that the streams were flowing, so we held off only to find most of them were dry.
Stats
19 miles
Elevation Gain 2816
51,000 steps
335 floors
101 people
16 dogs (1 bad dog - unleashed and snarling)
0726151348b by paulstrobel, on FlickrGood morning Broken Top!
Stitched by paulstrobel, on FlickrView from Broken Top
Day 3
We took off early. Fall Creek was definitely a highlight of the day, beautiful and relaxing. Moraine View lake was very pretty, also. But once we left Moraine, we ran into water problems again. We were able to fill right before Mead (which was also running), but then there wasn’t any running water again until we hit Obsidian. Hiking through ‘The Oven’ (Wickiup Plain) was hot, we were glad to have done that before the heat of the day. We were happy to see that this section of the hike offered a lot more healthy forest areas and some great views of South Sisters and Middle Sisters. We arrived at Obsidian around 6:15. We had a permit (no one checked). There was another scout camp. Obsidian was one of our favorite places. It was very pretty and peaceful (the scouts were great & well behaved!). Obsidian had the only waterfall we saw the whole time. The campgrounds were surrounded by cliffs of obsidian sparkling in the setting sun. A creek ran through the grounds with lits of low grass like vegitation growing on either side of it. It looked lush and inviting. It felt surreal staying there after such a hot tiring day.
IMG_20150730_183515 by paulstrobel, on FlickrSouth Sister from Moraine
0728151957 by paulstrobel, on FlickrObsidian Falls
Stats
20 miles
Elevation Gain 2761
49,000 steps
297 floors
59 people
4 dogs
2 horses
2 deer
Day 4
By now our feet were tired and we just wanted to get back to the car & have burgers and fries. This was going to be the hottest day yet, but also our shortest. The first hour was very scenic and fairly level. It felt like a nice walk through the woods. We had a close encounter with an animal as a fawn came around a bend on the trail just we were. It came to a screeching halt and we stared at each other dumbly for a couple seconds before it bounded up into the trees. Shortly after that, we passed through the lava fields and took in the views from Opie Dilldock Pass. We were glad we were warned about this climb, it was tough, but the views were spectacular! This day was fairly uneventful, more climbing than we had anticipated, but we made it back to the trailhead before noon. It was a great trip!
Stats
10.8 miles
Elevation Gain 1025
31,000 steps
140 floors
57 people
1 dog
2 deer
20150729_085020 by paulstrobel, on FlickrNorth Sister from Opie Dilldock Pass
