Oregon Hikers

I posted a trip report over at BPL but wanted to share info here too since we found it so helpful before our own trip. My sister and I started on the Timberline Trail Thursday evening and finished Sunday evening. We went clockwise starting at Timberline. The conditions were good -- an Alaskan low pushed out the smoke so the air quality was great. It was maybe a bit colder than we were expecting but we packed some extra layers at the last minute.

The river crossings weren't bad at all. Most of them we crossed via rocks or logs and our feet stayed dry, including the Coe and Eliot crossings. Eliot has this huge log that made the crossing very easy, even at 6 pm. Coe had double logs to cross on and we also crossed that one in the afternoon. We waded across the White River, although I think if you spend some time looking you could cross on rocks as well. For some reason we were expecting White River to be a really long ford but it was two small branches and I only needed to ford the first one and rock hopped the second. We also forded the Clark but that is optional (I think I rock hopped and my sister waded). For us the Eliot was the scariest looking river as it had the most flow when we crossed. It was really raging, that is one not to fall into!

Bugs: Not a problem, no need for bug protection last weekend. Probably the cooler weather helped keep them away.

Landslides: one sketchy section where a creek is running down the landslide so the footing wasn't as secure as the other landslide sections. But we made it across unscathed.

Water: we didn't have any trouble finding water sources. There was even water on the way up to Lamberson Spur which we weren't sure about. The little creek outside of Cloud Cap had water, but I needed to use a scoop for that one.

Rough itinerary:
Day 1: camped 1.7 miles north of Timberline lodge.
Day 2: camped near Muddy Fork.
Day 3: camped near Cloud Cap campground (sites are $21 but not sure they enforce it much, we camped right next to the official campsites).
Day 4: back to the lodge.

that was a good report on BPL https://backpackinglight.com/forums/top ... ust-23-26/

This time of year, "a bit colder than we were expecting" is certainly a good thing.

Your moraine pic makes me thing you must have ventured off the TLT a bit.

Maybe I've just been lucky, but this might be the best mosquito season ever. (best for us, not for them)

I can't even imagine paying to camp. Writing a check to the government for the privilege of sleeping on public dirt just feels wrong.

Great trip report on BPL! I'm commenting here because I'm not a member there.

The little birds with B&W tails are Oregon juncos - very common here. The large B&W birds up around the whitebark pine (there is no bristlecone pine this far north) are Clark's nutcrackers.

If you come back and do TLT again, there is a great campsite up high on Lambertson Butte, very near the summit, tucked away inside a dead grove of whitebark pine. Not a place to be in a thunderstorm, but otherwise spectacular. The summit of Lambertson Butte is easiest accessed via a ten? minute hike up the backside (east side) by cutting south off the TLT before you get to the high point, if you are going CCW.

Thanks for the TR and so happy you two managed a clear window amid all the smoke and had a successful and fun trip.

maybe we weren't in the moraine proper -- we were definitely on the TLT though. It just looked moraine-like to me. On that climb out of Cloud Cap.

And yes, I noticed some of the sweet campsites up on the spur, would love to camp at one of them next time, weather permitting!