I've wanted to do this hike for years!!!! And on this day we left at 5:30 am to to do the loop trail in five days and 4 nights - 48.6 miles.
We went to pick up Olga and had a brief meeting with Malcolm's previous dog, Homer, who now lives happily with Olga and Geoff
Monday - Day 1 - Pole Creek Trailhead to the Park Meadow Junction - trail starts light blue and then is orange
This area had been devastated by the Pole Creek fire in 2012, and the area is now a desolate dry place with bizillions of dead trees.
South Sister
We walked for a long time through this desolate, dusty, and hot area.
Crossed the first of many streams
In the afternoon, the weather turned rainy (well - sprinkely) which was a blessing in that we cooled down quickly. Still lots of dead trees.....and lying across the trail which made hiking miserable.
More streams
up hills
Scenery started to get greener as we left the fire area
This was the last stream for the day.....our campsite was just a bit further on.
We had pitched our tents on very wet ground and by morning time there was a layer of heavy condensation on the insides of both tents. Used a whole hand towel on our tent to dry it up.
The rain made diamond-like dew drops on the lupin plants. Very pretty groundcover.
Tuesday - Day 2 - Near junction with Park Meadow Trail to Moraine Lake -magenta on the map
Left bright and early in the morning. The plan was to pass by the Green Lakes and then camp at Moraine Lake. Here Paul and Bev folding up the wet-ish tent.
There were always streams along the way.
This is Park Meadow - thus the name of the the trail and junction.
We could see the tip of South Sister --our destination of the day was Moraine Lake which is the start of the trail that summits South Sister.
South Sister is getting closer with every step
At this point we entered the Green Lakes Designated Campsite Area
The lakes were very green
We ate lunch here
And continued on our way to Moraine Lake.
A good bridge!
Bev and Paul scoured the area before Olga and I got there and ended up finding a nice secluded spot.
Moraine Lake in the distance. Not particularly scenic, but neat photos next day as we hiked away.
A frog visitor
My breakfast and table
My bruised hand from where I slipped on a river bank.
Wednesday - Day 3 - Moraine Lake to Linton Creek - purple on the map
We left camp early as we knew this was going to be our longest day yet......because we added on a mile instead of having a super long day on Thursday
First thing I noticed was my Camino de Santiago shadow
We passed by Moraine Lake which had great early morning shadows.
Then went for about eleven miles until we camped by Linton Creek
We walked for several hours through the Wickiup Plain (a wickiup is like an indian wigwam) which had beautiful wide panoramas
and finally our campsite near Linton Creek - it was on a rocky knoll
Thursday, the fourth day, we headed north toward the Obsidian Limited Area. I was looking forward to revisiting this area.
Obsidian Falls
Sister Springs
We ate lunch here at Sunshine Meadow
And then headed on into the area that I once thought would be fun to explore. Lava flows - I didn't know there were lava flows here!
This is a cinder cone in front of us that we had to walk around and up.
Finally got to south Matthieu Lake where we had a perfect campsite. It was the flattest tent site I'd had the whole week.
Friday, our fifth day, was supposed to return us to the car at the Pole Creek Trailhead.....but I was afraid there would be the fallen logs across the trail again, and it'd be ho,t and blah blah. I blinked! So Bev and Paul proceeded as planned and did the eleven miles to the car, and Olga and I went just three miles to the Lava Lake Trailhead where Bev and Paul would pick us up It was a good choice!
Olga and I saw this
Bev and Paul this
To get home we had to go back to Sisters where we found the Sister's Saloon and had a great lunch.
To review..would I do it again - no, because it was too hard. But, am I glad I did it, yes.! We did five legs of about 10 miles each. In a future trip, I'd do two and a half legs in three days.
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