~28 miles, maybe 7000' accumulated gain. The basic route is similar to this loop.
Friday 7/24, left my office before 2pm. Traffic. Only arrived at Green Lakes TH (5400') at 6:30. Hiked along Fall Creek to Green Lakes basin (6560'). Gentle slope, pleasant 4.5 miles. Saw deer a couple of times. 
Arrived at Green Lakes basin at 8:10. Even armed with the campsite map, it still took us almost an hour to find a legal site (#9 close to the trail junction just south of the southern lake. Slanted ground - no wonder not taken). Quite a few good ones out of 28 designated sites were closed for restoration, but the map posted at the basin boundaries dosen't mark that: wasting hikers time to look for them. Met a park ranger checking the sites, who gave us some clue which sites might be available. By the time we settled down, I was too tired to cook. Cleaned up, went to bed at 11pm. Stars were not the best, because the half moon was still shining. Didn't feel like waiting an hour for the moon to set.
Saturday 7/25, up at 5am. Shot some nice sunrise photos. My hiking buddy for this weekend is an amateur photographer, who spent quite some time patiently waiting for light changes. We left for South Sister climb shortly after 7am, following this non-official route. The summit is maybe 4 miles (+4000') from here. We crossed the outlet of the lake, soon found the climber's trail by the creek. A waterfall, some flowers where there's water. Not long after, one definite trail becomes multiple. 
As ice is thin we chose to avoid all snow and ice. Very loose rocks. At one point, I rolled down a loose creek bank towards the water. Luckily my tumble was stopped by a rock. Jerri came over tried to help, and in the process kicked off a boulder of the size of a dorm fridge, which landed < 1' away from my feet. He was shaken. Me too a bit. Luckily only bruises and scratches. Maybe some long-term damage in my head, as I hit a rock at my cheek. My sunglasses were broken and Jerri only found one of its legs. 
After some rest, against his persuasion, we continued up. No more drama. Clouds rolled in. 
We went up as high as we could see, but still short of the junction to main trail. Didn't even see the little lake below the junction. Saw lots of purple penstemon, Moraine Lake, Spark Lake. Waited for 20+ minutes for the clouds to go away, but only more coming in. Decent cell reception: Jerri txt-ed his wife and talked to his grandma. According to his iPhone GPS app, we did 2200' gain till 8750' and 5 miles RT.
Had a late lunch back at the camp. Around 3pm, we decided to check out Golden Lake where Carlene's group was based at, this weekend. It's on the trail to Park Meadow, with an unmarked side trail, total about 3 miles one way. Walked north along middle Green Lake's eastern edge. I also checked out campsites at the north end. At one of these investigations at the north Green Lake, I lost Jerri. I waited here and there, not sure if he was ahead or behind me. By the time I reached Golden Lake, it was almost 6pm. This lake is lovely, sits NW of Broken Top, with large flat meadow that was still green. Camping is at wish. I saw at least 5 tents. I also txt-ed Zach (part of Carlene's group) and Jerri. Signal is low. No response. I followed the trail due north of the lake to get back on the main trail (did a cut off when I went in). Gentle grade up to a flat sandy plateau (7000', good cell reception again), then dropping down to Green Lakes. When I returned to the camp, Jerri had a nap and was eating dinner. He was relieved to see me but also upset. We hypothesized how we missed each other. I suggested Golden Lake the next day, if it'd be cloudy. Both S. Sister and Broken Top were buried in thick clouds ever since the morning.
Sunday 7/26. Woke up at 2:30am for a bio break. Excellent night stars. Clear Milky Way, no moon. Clouds were edging up from the sides. I didn't get up till almost 6am. Thick clouds. I found Jerri with his tripod at the lake shore. After breakfast, Broken Top seemed clearing up, so I told Jerri that I intend to follow my original plan. He wasn't comfortable going to the Catwalk carrying his camera equipment, so we decided to meet at camp at 1pm.
Shortly after 7am, I headed to climbing Broken Top alone. Found the obvious climbing trail by the southern Green Lake (turn @about 44.0831306,-121.7262474). 
The trail is well established all the way to the NW ridge of BT, passing through some dry meadows. The slope is gentle at first, and the steep and sandy when close to the ridge. I was passed by a PCT hiker (trail name Concrete), who carried a helmet, that got me worried. In ~1 hour, I reached the Catwalk. 
It's not as bad as I thought. The rocks are not as loose, the slope not as steep, reasonable width on the top. The view is stupendous. The higher I went the better. 
Saw 3 hikers coming down. They confirmed of what I heard: the summit block is more dangerous (a 10' rock to scale, and very exposed loose scree), but up to that point, it's about the same. Clouds were rolling in. I waited, and ate my sandwich. More and more clouds. I turned around after seeing Concrete coming down - don't want to be stuck here alone. Overall ~2 hours on the ridge. As I walked down, saw a group of 4 heading up. Concrete joined them back up. The clouds cleared quite a bit as I approached basin. Arrived at camp ~11:20am. Ate, packed everything, and waited.
At exactly 1pm, Jerri marched in. He told me to go ahead with my original plan, and he'll return to the car the same way we came in, so he wouldn't be distracted too much time taking photos. We set our meeting time at 4pm. My returning route: Broken Top trail (2.8 miles) - Todd Lake trail (0.8) - Soda Creek trail (3.7) took me 3:10 hours. Broken Top trail is open, sandy meadow with leaves now an autumn red. Walked by more reddish cones. View of Spark Lake and Mt Bachelor. 
This short stretch of Todd Lake trail has greener meadows and a running creek, with Broken Top in the backdrop. At the junction of Soda Creek trail is a vast meadow, great view, dry by the trail, but seems to have some waterhole in the middle. 
Soda Creek trail is boring in comparison. At first, it was going down in zigzags, gentle enough, no sign of any creek. Quite a lot of white yarrows blooming on the high slopes. View of Spark Lake at times. 
Then occasional view of the creek. ~50 minutes south of the junction is a nice green meadow with a running creek. The last mile is completely flat and dry, in the sand. I arrived at the same parking lot, at a different end 15 minutes late. Jerri was eating instant noodle.
I really enjoyed this weekend. A very scenic basecamp, multiple hiking options. I'm able to do what I set out to do. Will try this again next year, when there's more snow (up S. Sister might be easier on snow), and when grass is greener. If the weather is not favorable, I would like to hike further along Broken Top trail to Hidden Lake and Park Meadow.
