Trail Conditions Three Sisters Loop

[illbeyourhuckleberry]

Hi All,

We will be doing Three Sisters Loop in a couple weeks starting from Lava Camp Lake Trailhead and going clockwise. We just got back from another backpack trip and heard from a couple other hikers how severely dry the NE part of the loop is and that Alder Creek, which is usually a reliable water source, is now dry. Hoping someone who has been on this trail recently can tell us what is the next reliable water source on or fairly close to the main loop. We plan to camel up at South Lake Mathieu. Appreciate any feedback.

Happy Trails!

[retired jerry]

Soap Creek has water. 9 miles from South Mattieu Lake. At the junction with the trail going up to Camp Lake.

Alder Creek always dries up late summer.

[KDfishbiologist]

We backpacked it the first week of August. Started at Lava Camp, and found the NE portion to not only be very dry but surprisingly a bit more tough than we thought. Who knew scaling 500 down trees would be a bit tiring As Jerry mentioned, Soap Creek was flowing beautifully. Lots of muddy streams after that so highly recommend filling up there before you head onward.

Hope you have a great trip. IT WAS AMAZING!!!

[christabrews]

I have a permit to do it this weekend. Although, looking at the air quality, I'm not so sure. Last year, my knee prevented me from completing it. Now it looks like smoke might thwart my efforts. Ugh.

If I do end up going, I can report back on the water situation.

[illbeyourhuckleberry]

Thanks for the feedback! Christabrews, if your knee isn't up to the loop but you can still do some gentler hiking you should check out the Sisters Mirror Lake area if your pass allows. We did that two weeks ago and looped over to McBee Trail where we saw only 4 other hikers all day. It had lush tree canopy, clear trails, and back to back lakes which we and our dog were grateful for. Also, no smoke! It doesn't have all the views but it was nice to get remote and we plan to back and explore the area more before the season is over.

[christabrews]

Thanks! I'll keep that in mind. I did a 3-day, 30 mile loop through the Mink lake area a few weeks back and felt pretty good. Hoping my knee continues to hold up!

[christabrews]

We did the loop around south sister, and it was amazing. I will post an official trip report soon. I realize this info does not cover the NE corner that much, but I can comment on other water sources on either side of south sister.

On the West side: Mesa creek and Hinton creek had wader. Hinton especially. We could hear it roaring from a ways off, and it was flooding some parts of the trail. Separation creek was bone dry.

On the East Side: Soap creek, Whychus creek (both forks), and Park creek (both forks) all had water. Soap creek was super silty, like chocolate milk, when we arrived at the trail junction to camp for the night. In the morning, it was perfectly clear. I'm assuming there was a rockslide that muddied it and then it cleared up. The north fork of Whychus creek was clear, but the south fork was silty and white. For park creek, I'm a little confused at the map because it shows two tributaries, but we crossed three. The one in the middle was also very muddy. The northern and southern creeks in that area were clear.

Hope that helps a little, and good luck!

[illbeyourhuckleberry]

Thanks for the update!

[retired jerry]

Thanks

I saw that on the White River on Mt Hood

In the evening very silty, the next morning pretty clear. I think it's just that its warm during the day so there's more snow melt.