Trekks and Travels: Tam McArthur Rim to Broken Hand 23 Aug 2013

This was a solo hike day so I set out pretty early since it was a 3 hour drive. It was an easy drive and the only bumpy part was 1.7 miles on a washboard gravel road to a campground at Three Creeks Lake out of Sisters. It was very foggy the entire way - even over the pass. The only relief came when I was down from the mountain, in Sisters. Arrived at the TH at 9:10 and was on the trail by 9:20a (potties available).
The trail climbs up the to the rim but it isn't terribly steep. You get views now and then. The trail is pretty easy too, soft and not too many obstacles. at about .7 miles you get some views then head in again and pop out when you get to the "trails end" at 2.5 miles. The lakes are 1000 feet below and Three Creek lake looks like a heart. Snapped some photos of cloud covered Sisters, and a foggy valley and kept going on the non-maintained trail. It was perfectly fine, however, lots of foot-traffic. It was a great trail, over hill and dale with lots of open views of Bachelor, Broken Top, the Sisters, and potentially Mt Washington and Jefferson if the skies had been clearer. I arrived at the top of the red ridge covered with Volcanic bombs at about 11:15 and decided to head on up to Broken Hand as I could see the trail very well. The only little sketchy part was when the trail had to traverse rocks, but you could still see were to aim. Up at Broken Hand I stopped for photos and a snack, watching the clouds boiling over the mountains and disappearing ask quickly as they had come - enjoying the solitude and the view. The trail seemed to continue faintly around Broken Hand but it was on a very precarious slope. I turned around here at noon. Met one guy on the red ridge on my way down and several other groups after that. On the way up I had run into three groups, two of them had probably been up there for sunrise. This would make a perfect Sunrise hike! Gotta do it! Arrived down at the car at 2:15p and was home after 5:30p because of traffic on I-5 and a stop for icecream :-)