Trekks and Travels: July 2015

Jefferson Park 27 July 2015

Last hike in OR for Andrea and Mike. We hiked Jefferson Park on a cloudy cool day. The water level for all the lakes and ponds was low, and the flowers were gone or about gone for the most part (unless they had a water source). One thing I saw I had never seen at Jeff Park was the glacial melt in the creek. It was milky in the morning but by the time we passed the creek again in the afternoon, it was very milky and running stronger.
We explored all the lakes except Park Lake. Bays Lake had some nice secluded campsites.
13 mi 1800 ft gain

map

Jeff was hiding in the clouds

yummy huckleberries ripe in July!!

Whitewater Creek

lunch spot

Gentian

paintbrush

some plants are showing fall colors

Bays Lake

even milkier in the afternoon

Lincoln City 26 July 2015

We headed to the beach for seafood then visited Road's End, walking all the way from the lot to the rocks at the end of the beach. The tide was out, and we saw some anemones, barnacles, and muscles. The beach was covered with velella velella, a jelly relative. This time they were clear and purple instead of blue as they had been on a previous occasion (2 May 2015). Even the waves were purple! My battery ran out so I don't have many snaps!

Silver Falls State Park 25 July 2015

We have drought conditions this year and Silver Falls makes that evident. The water coming off all the falls is so much less than usual and the forest is dry and dusty. We hiked it on a cloudy day. Welcome showers misted us towards the end of the 7 mile hike.

map

South Falls

Upper North Falls

Middle North Falls

North Falls

Upper North Falls

Broken Top Semi-Loop Backpack 20-23 July 2015

Andrea, Mike and I hiked a semi-loop around Broken Top. We kept the mileage low and explored each area without the packs. The trip was most enjoyable at this pace. We headed out via Soda creek to the Broken Top TH. We camped at the junction with the "unmaintained trail" - actually just before you cross the creek and see the sign. There was a nice spot up on a little hill. When we arrived in the late afternoon there were a few people still coming down from the Broken Top tarn, but the foot traffic soon ended and we had the place to ourselves.
The next morning we packed up early and stashed the packs so we could get to the tarn before anyone else arrived and so we could take advantage of the morning light on the mountain. It was a crisp and clear morning, so beautiful! On our way we met two women who had camped up there for the night so they could shoot photos of the stars. The stars had been amazing that night - the Milky Way was so prominent that you couldn't even make out a constellation!
The tarn was beautiful in the morning light. We hiked up to the ridge to enjoy the view and a snack. At 10a we headed down and met the first hikers coming up. That day we hiked to Green Lakes and camped in sitet 11 overlooking the lakes and between Broken Top and South Sister. The morning light on those lakes was beautiful too! We didn't rush as we didn't have far to go to Golden Lake.
Arriving at Golden we were setting up camp when we were surprised by a ranger who quizzed us on our knowledge of backpacking procedures, and wanted to see our permit. We were the only ones there too!
We rested, Mike swam, enjoyed the views, then went up to investigate the tarns before dinner. We hiked all the way to the moraine which cuts off your view of the tarns from the ridge we were on the day before. We watched rocks falling off Broken Top in huge dust clouds. We also found two campsites tucked back there.
It was our last night and the weather had turned cooler (30's the night before as well) so we put the rainflies on the tents. The wind blew all night with some major gusts! The ranger had said a front was coming. We were warm enough with the flies on though. The next day we got going relatively early and hiked out via the Green Lakes trail and made it to the car by 2:30p and finished up with a nice lunch in Bend. Wonderful trip! So blessed to be able to do this with them. :-)

33 total miles, 25 mi with packs, 4 days, 3 nights, 6300ft gain
map