Obsidian Trail - Scott Trail Loop 27 August 2012

Eric and I arrived at the Obsidian Trailhead (White Branch Creek) at 9:30a.  It was a nice morning, cool but not too cool, and sunny.  The trial sets out with a gentle climb through the woods.  It is rather a long section of woods but after about three miles it comes out onto a lava field and there are views of the Sisters, Cascade mountains like Washington and Jefferson, and the Obsidian Cliffs.  When we came to our first creek crossing, the meadows and creeks never stopped until we left the area.  The trail loops around  to Obsidian Falls and Arrowhead Lakes.  The ground becomes quite thick with obsidian which gradually becomes shinier and sharper as the hike progresses.  After climbing past the lakes we came to a viewpoint of North and Middle Sister and Sunshine meadow below.  We could see people heading up to get higher on Middle Sister - so many trails!  We decided to make a long loop of this hike so we stayed on the PCT at the Glacier Trail junction so that we could go over to Collier Cone.  It was pretty late by now, but we  did it anyway, moving as fast as we could downhill.  It was tiring though.  We had to slog up Opie Dildock Pass on loose crumbly lava rock, then we could see Collier Cone dead ahead.  To view the glacier, you don't actually go up Collier Cone, but to the side over a ridge and are presented with a fantastic view of the mountains.  It makes you want to keep going!  But we couldn't stay too long.  It was 4:30p when we left Collier Cone, and we had 7 miles left to hike back to the car.  We booked it down to the meadow at the Scott Trail/PCT junction (which was fantastic with flowers and the lighting so pretty) then on past Four in one cone, and finally through the woods to the trail back to the Obsidian trailhead.  15 miles in 9.5 hours.  Whew!

Woods on Obsidian trail (White Branch Creek)

the first meadow

check out the obsidian

several little creeks to cross

Pasque flower (aka mouse on a stick)

Paintbrush (eric's photo)

(eric's photo)

Eric's photo

meadow and Middle Sister

Pasque flower

Obsidian Falls

Glacier Creek

Spring at Glacier creek

View when you come up from Glacier Creek...Sunshine Meadow, North and Middle Sister

Sunshine meadow at intersection with PCT and glacier Creek trail

from PCT heading to Collier Cone - Mt Washington and others

North Sister and Little Brother - heading to the Opie Dildock Pass

Opie Dildock pass up ahead

Looking down from the pass

Looking forward from the top of the pass...Collier Cone

Eric taking photos after we climbed up

Collier Cone

North Sister (Middle Sister in back) from the ridge by Collier Cone

North Sister, Middle Sister, Collier Glacier, Little Brother

Eric on left

me on right

Eric's pan of Collier Cone

me on the ridgeline

Mt Washington etc from the ridgeline

Leaving...North and Middle Sister

the meadows at the PCT/Scott Trail junction

Four in One cone area

North and Middle Sister from the four in one cone area

Four in One Cone

Niagara Falls and Cascade Head 17 August 2012

Jean, Becky and I set out for the coast on what was supposed to be an extremely hot day in the valley.  We originally wanted to hike Jefferson Park but smoke from a fire in the Warm Springs area convinced us to head west.  So we were headed for Cascade Head between Lincoln City and Neskowin Beach.  When we got close to the coast, it started getting foggy and cloudy so we decided to head to Niagara Falls north of Neskowin 18 miles to give the beach a chance to clear up.  Unfortunately I did not read the map well enough and this little side trip (for a trickle of a waterfall and a 2 mile hike) turned out to take hours.  The road just got more and more remote and to top it all off, my mother though we were going to Cascade Head, Dan thought the same and Becky's mom thought we were headed to Jefferson Park!!!  Here we were miles from any of that.  Here are the photos.

Niagara Falls

basalt lined box canyon

devil's club in the sun

Oooookaaay...back to the original plan.
We arrived back at Cascade Head at 11:30a and parked at the Savage Park Boat Ramp.  Popular hike...many cars in the lot.  Kind of "domesticated" too.  We headed up through woods at first and then broke out into the meadow.

Soon we had a view of the Salmon River and the beach...through the fog.  It never did clear up and only got worse as we climbed higher.

Soon we got to the lower view point where I had had my lunch the last time I was here.  Beautiful view of the cove below.

As we climbed the fog took over.  We huffed and puffed up the hill (1200 ft gain in 2.1 miles).  When we got to the top we could see - NOTHING!  We found a spot in the flattened grass to have our lunch away from people.  Then headed down.

A little forest scene tucked away on top of the cliff...

  

On the way down...even more fog than on the way up!

Deb and Jean

Becky and Jean

Deb and Becky

As we took photos the fog really closed in!  On the way down...a photo of some foxgloves in a stream.

All in all a nice day.  It was cooler here than at home and the company was great!