2018.9.28-30. Enchantment Lakes + Sauer Mt

9/28, Friday. 4pm, I waited for Olga at Gateway TC. The 3rd person had car problem, so just the two of us. Drove non-stop to Icicle Creek Road. Both 8-Mile Campground and Bridge Creek Campground were full. It was close to 9pm, and we camped at the same place last time (2015, August). Quite a lot of campers there already. Olga parked her car by the road, and we carried our tent down. I talked to the girls next door, and they were doing through hike the next day too. I guess most people here are the same. After pitching the tent in the dark, I walked to the next campground to use the vault toilet and water spigot. We agreed to leave at 6am the next day. Not cold tonight.

9/29, Saturday, partly cloudy. My alarm set off at 5:30am, not the first person who got up. I could hear cars going up to Colchuck TH, one by one. Ate two bites of bread and some cucumbers. Only then, I realized that I forgot my sandwich in the office fridge! So packed all my food. 47°F, the car said when we drove to Snow Lakes TH. The lot was full and plenty cars parked on the road. A couple of girls hitching a ride on the road. A shuttle bus came, we geared up, and paid $25/pp to the driver. About 10 hikers already on board. 6:30am, he drove to Colchuck TH. Maybe 1/4 mile of cars parked by the road. We were dropped off at the trailhead. I put up gaiters and two hiking poles, while Olga filled up the day hike permit. She didn't bother with any of these "extra" tools.

We started hiking a few minutes before 7am. I have never seen so many people on a trail before. We passed a series of folks and were passed by a few. There are also runners, climbers (with crampons and ice tools). What I had for breakfast was not enough. 1:30hr later, I had to make a rest stop here to eat a Lara Bar. I was having a minor headache, need more blood sugar. ~20 minutes later, we arrived Colchuck Lake, still dark in the shade.

It takes ~3/4 an hour to walk around Colchuck to the base of the gully towards Assgard Pass. Some boulder hopping and traffic jam. Before the real climb, I stopped and had another Lara Bar. I didn't reached the pass until 11:30am. This is the view looking down Colchuck Lake, and mountains beyond. Could barely make out Glacier Peak. Somewhat cloudy. Chilly here. People scattered here and there, a very busy place.

A little later, I found Olga behind a big rock in a knee length down jacket. I have no idea how long she had waited. From then on, we more or less stayed together. Cooked lunch at the shore of Isolation Lake(s), one of my favorite lakes here. Relaxed, and admired the surrounding.

Crowds thinned out, as there were now more room to roam. Both upper and lower basins are utterly beautiful. This morning, I was vowing not to return, due to the crowd/traffic. Now I felt such a bliss, yeah, I wanted to be back. I took 193 photos today! Upper basin is more rocky, more tarns, more dramatic. Lower basin has more larches, golden everywhere, deeper lakes.

We had plenty time to wander, so took a side trip to Prusik Pass. Didn't encounter anyone until at the pass. Besides the golden larch, there were some red huckleberry adding the color, no berries. Perfection Lake from this side, and Shield and Earle Lake down the north side of Prusik Pass. Saw one guy dangling on the wall of Prusik Peak. I'm sure there were more climbers.

We also visited the peninsular of Leprechaun Lake to look for my old camp site. I refilled 1L of water. My bottle rolled off to the lake. It was quite easy to fetch the bottle with my pole! That was ~4pm.

No goats!

~4:20, we headed down from Vivian Lake, keeping the waterfall to the right. I don't remember having these many iron bars before? Steep downhill. We planned to cook dinner at Snow Lake and watch sunset. Well, no sunset today. Clouds were thickening. The water level was also too low at upper Snow Lake. It takes ~30 minutes to get to the dam between the two Snow Lakes. Lots of logs jammed to the upper end of the dam. Here, Lower Snow Lake surface could be easily reached from trail. Some campsites here. Olga didn't like it here for some reason. So we continued down hill to Nada Lake. The releasing valve was on, and water jet was shooting out into the sky. Cooked dinner by Nada Lake.

After dinner, almost 7pm. It was getting dark quickly. We lost trail twice, briefly. Olga was good locating trails. Very soon it was pitch dark. Moon wouldn't rise until much later. A few headlight here and there. The rest of the trail is tedious. Lots of rocks and roots, so had to pay attention to where our feet land. We reached the car at 9:44pm.

Back to the camp, I walked to the same water spigot to wash and fill water.

My phone registered 64600 steps today.

Surprisingly warm night.

9/30, Sunday. I woke up around 7am. Tent was dry. I cooked breakfast. Olga only had tea. She planned to eat a sausage breakfast in Leavenworth. Well, no one serves bratwurst this early. Already in the 60°F's, not 9am yet. 1/3 of the art dealers were open. I didn't know it was autumn festival weekend. Plenty tourists up early. Quite a number of old Corvettes, one Cobra Jet, one Ford, a few Mustangs. A parade is scheduled later on. Olga found a place open for breakfast, not the bratwurst she had hoped. I looked up WTA for a hike nearby.

Sauer Mountain is a few miles south of Leavenworth, on our way, off the town of Peshastin. On the way there, we stopped at one fruit stand, bought some apples and pears. Olga bought a whole box. Since I had to take a train home, couldn't buy much. 6 miles, 2000' EG seems like an easy option. Good view across the Hwy2 fruit valley and the south. Can see the peaks of the Enchantments under thick clouds. We took to the "viewpoint" sign at one junction. Then continued onward. Not really worth it. We did take the first junction to the left. I like it better than the one to the right. Just before the final accent, there're these logging trucks, and a few down trees. Nothing difficult. Yes, there's a road here. I think I shall come here again in May. Saw many dead balsamroot and lupine leaves. Snow would grace the peaks in late spring. Probably will be very busy then. We saw ~15 people today, including 4 toddlers.

Drove home, with 2 stops for gas and restroom. Olga didn't use any restroom on the way back. Amazing. I was dropped off ~6:30pm. Early enough to unpack and clean everything.

2018.9.23 Sunset on top of South Sister

I canceled my planned outing for the weekend backpack on Thursday because the rain had pushed into Saturday night. So I signed up Olga's South Sister sunset trip on Friday. Since no one else was going with her, she altered her plan slightly to accommodate my 10am meeting at work on Monday.

9/23, Sunday. Sunny. 9:30am, She picked me up at Gateway, and drove to Devil's Lake TH after a lunch stop at Subway in Bend. A 3rd person, signed up this morning, but didn't show up until ~2pm, half an hour late. Luckily my phone had 2 bars at the trailhead, so I was able to call him. The outhouse was out of toilet paper.

We started hiking out ~2:15pm. Me with my overnight backpack, since I packed a lot of clothes and stove to cook dinner at the summit. A ranger caught sight of my big pack, and called us as we crossed the road. He asked if we needed a permit, as it ran out in box, which he was going to resupply. The trail goes up steadily in the trees. We broke out of woods in ~50 minutes: now we could see our destination. 1 hour from the TH, a few steps east, gave me this lovely view of Moraine Lake and Broken Top. See my last year's blog for this same hike in July - looks quite different.

Olga is much faster than me (she hiked around the entire Timberline trail, ~41 miles, in a single day just a couple of weeks ago), I'm faster than William, who's a lot younger. We kept each other insight -- not so easy in the dark. Met many people coming down. I was surprised that a few in orange vest going up passed me. Didn't think anyone would climb later than we did. It turned out to be a rescue mission. Someone sprained his knee just below Lewis Glacier. They carried that guy down that steep rocky slope! Slowly. I watched this careful process, partially stuck on the slope just east of them. Somehow I got off trail above my last campsite. That wasted maybe 15 minutes, slowly inching up as rocks fell under each step.

Too bad, the pond under Lewis Glacier was already in the shade when I arrived ~5:20. A father-and-son walked up from the pond. They turned back down from here. The dad asked us if we wanted any water. He was pouring out from a large (maybe 5L) container, mostly full. I brought with me 2L, and had about 1.25 left. So I filled an extra 0.5L. Planning to cook hot tea for everyone while waiting for the sunset. It's about 9000' here.

I'm slower than I hoped: took me 1.5 hour to get to the crater. Towards the crater, bits of ice shining in the setting sun. Our shadow cast a long impression to the east.

I managed to circle around the crater to the top rocks before the sunset at 7:07pm, but didn't have time to cook and eat. William didn't get here after sunset. Can see the lights in Bend and Mt Bachelor ski area. Olga got cold, so we headed back down. Here's a photo of her where I shot from the summit rocks.

The red color on the horizon lingered for a long time. I was able to this photo with my phone at 7:45pm. The color stayed past 8pm. 1-day-shy-of-full-moon hung high on the east. Despite of the bright moon, it's surprising difficult to see one another, except for my white jacket. However, I quickly got overheat in my down jacket, and then we had to use headlamp to signal William who was lagging behind. On the steep upper slopes, it's useful to have the light on to see the rocks. Once on the flat section, it's a bliss to walk without headlamp. Quiet, not cold. Of course, need head light as soon as we get into trees. Back at the car ~10:35pm.

Olga and I drove north to camp for the night on the way home. William drove back to Bend.

9/24, Monday. We arrived at Haystack West Shore campground just past midnight. There were about 2 cars and 2 RVs by the reservoir. 2 outhouses. The one I used was clean, and full of toilet paper. The place is more for RVs: big parking spot, small/none tent space, picnic table, fire ring. Only when I was typing up this blog, I realized that we, and the other vehicles camped at the day use area. We saw one other tent. Moonlight was enough to get around. I pitched my tent on gravel, not very flat. Stakes were difficult to drive in. Luckily, not much wind. My feet got cold setting up camp, should have worn my hiking boots. So didn't sleep well.

Up before sunrise (~7am). Not much a sunrise. The view would be better on the east shore, just a few miles further. A bit cold. Frost on car and on my tent fly. I put on all my layers. 39°F when we drove out shortly after 7:30am. Saw smoke near Hood. Otherwise a sunny and warm day. Olga managed to drop me off at my office at 10:03am. Amazing. A great adventure with a perfect end.

I laid out my tent to dry at work.

2018.9.15. Indian Racetrack and Red Mt Lookout

9/15, Saturday. Upper 50s. Forecast 20% precipitation (90% on Sunday). Avinash picked me up at Sunset TC ~8am, and then picked up Barbara at Gateway TC ~8:20, and headed off to Falls Creek Horse Camp. The camping area is small, a couple of picnic tables, a locked outhouse. Trail to Indian Racetrack (the trailhead is different) starts off on the east side of the road (from 2 separate points) without any signs. Luckily they are on my downloaded US Topo Traditional DRGs map, not on FSTopo Forest map. A few minutes in, I filled out a backcountry permit.

The trail goes up for the first mile or so, in the woods. Then the slope eased, until the pond at one end of the racetrack. The trail goes around its north and east side, without cutting through the long meadow. Quite nice here.

The trail goes south and disappeared soon after. A trail junction sign east of the trail, which you have to tread on the grass to get to. Here we picked up the Red Mountain trail, and goes into the woods up. The slope is gentle at first and then gets quite steep towards this baldy slope. Good view of Mt. Adams. The trail emerges from the trees onto a rough road. Followed the road for 10 minutes to the increasingly red butte. Some ugly looking structures, solar panels, antennas. A real lookout (locked), which is supposed to be manned in summer. View is quite nice, albeit the thick low clouds. Mt. Adams was now half covered, no St. Helens, nor Hood. A group of 20 something sat on the rocks at the foot of the lookout. We had lunch here.

Once back at the junction at the racetrack, we headed north (right) towards PCT. In less than half a mile, we turn south on PCT, until Green Lake. It's a small and shallow pond, not really worth a visit. But at this cool temperature, without any pending long miles to go, this is a good extra. I found a single tent site with established fire ring on its west slope.

On the drive back, we stopped at Panther Creek Falls, since the rain hadn't dropped yet. Barbara and I scrambled down to the creek. Avinash is more prudent, didn't follow our suite.

At Carson, Barbara wanted to stop for drink/food, which I vetoed. Well, it's my hike. I like getting back early. Some accident on 84 between Gateway and Hollywood. Then the rain started. Back at home at 6.

2018.9.8-9 Pine Mt Observatory

I've been eyeing Pine Mountain Observatory for awhile. This new moon weekend, moon sets before the sunset, is ideal to visit before it closes end of September.

9/8, Saturday. Met my astronomy enthusiastic coworker, Pete, at Hollywood TC at 10am, a mercifully startup time. We drove out to Bend, up Pilot Butte first (I was hoping to use their washroom). Giant flat round top, with a sign model with the names of all the viewable mountains, an outhouse. Great view of the town and the wildfires in the neighborhood. Better view of Three Sisters, Broken Top and Bachelor, Black Butte. Jefferson was partly in the clouds. Saw Jefferson better earlier on the drive here. On a clear day, you ought to see Mt. Washington and Three Finger Jack, Hood, and even Adams. Hazy today. A wildfire close by (Teepee fire, and more around).

To break the 4 hour drive, I wanted to check out the Badlands, with the images of Badlands National Park in S. Dakota in my mind. Oregon Badlands is a huge disappointment. Flat, sandy, not much view. Lots of Juniper Trees. Took Flatiron Rock trail. ~6 miles, a lollipop loop. Only on the top of the Flatiron Rock (or rocks? maybe only 10' high), you see the surroundings. Hot and dry. Saw one guy when we go in, and a family when we left. We were closer to the Teepee fire. Getting worried about the night sky.

Arrived at Pine Mountain campground ~4:30pm, took up a parking spot next to a picnic table. Already 4-5 vehicles here. The road here is wide, washboard, but not too bad. Ponderosa land. Pitched the tents. Our neighbor hung 2 hammocks, maybe a better idea than tent. They also had a tent and a dog. There was a group of cattle coming over. No wonder the cow paddies in the camp area! There's one outhouse. Fairly big and clean. No smell. Two more honeybuckets on the side of the observatory close by, again fairly big and clean. ~6pm, we ate dinner, even though I wasn't hungry. Afterwards walked to the end of the road by the further radio tower for sunset. View to the south and west. Cannot see the Sisters. Not bad, albeit a bit hazy. Broom Snakeweed lit up in the setting sun.

The purpose of being here is seeing the stars. The observatory is across the gravel road. It hosts public viewing every weekend mid May to late Sept. $5/pp donation. 2 telescope domes open for visitors, one with a 25" mirror. Two telescopes wheeled out. I really like this wood frame one with 15" mirror. Staff with florescent name tags onsite. Quite a turnout. Lots of kids. The highlight is Hercules Cluster (as Jim described: it is like loose diamonds scattered on a black velvet), Saturn with its wide ring and 2 moons. Saw Jupiter and Mars, 3 double stars, multiple galaxies (Andromeda being the brighter one, but no spiral), a few nebulas - very nebulous. At 10:30pm when the crowd largely thinned out, Jim set one telescope at M82 and when I watched, shifted to M81, so I saw stars moving. It was fun. Pete was playing with his night photography, setting up tripod for time elapsed photos. He knows more about stars than I do, even built one before his kids were born. I went up the hill behind (east) of the observatory, hoping for better unobstructed view of the sky. But only half way up the little hill, I could see the lights below, from Bend. I decided to come here for sunrise. (Edit: uploaded a composite image of 43 photos taken every 15 seconds.)

The night wasn't too cold, maybe low 40s, being over 6000' elevation. My feet got a bit cold because I was mostly standing around by the telescopes for hours, so didn't sleep too well, but okay.

9/9, Sunday. I woke up before my alarm clock. Got up at 6. Already plenty of light out. After toilet, we packed breakfast and water up the hill. Good timing. We saw the sun slowly broken above the low clouds. I could stare at the red sun while it was shielded by clouds. The Sisters were clear. Bad news, Pete informed me that he has blisters on both feet.

Packed out at 7:45. Drove towards Jack Lake for Canyon Creek hike as I planned. Cool air. Very pleasant. A couple of miles before the trailhead, we turned around at a sandy section which was soft and deeper than my boots. I once got a rental car stuck in sand in Anza-Borrego, so forever wary about sandy road. Need to come up an alternative on the way home, but short enough to meet Pete' 5pm return cutoff. I chose Bachelor Mountain randomly out of my trailhead marks on my map. Only 1.9 mile one way, 1100'.

Only one car in the small parking lot (almost at the end of the gravel road). The start is steep, but only for 5 minutes. Pete's blistered feet didn't agree with his boots. So he turned back and kindly waited for me. The trail started in trees, short switchback, but quickly break out, maybe in less than 15 minutes. Nice walk along open ridge until a little hill. I like this stretch the best. View of Sisters (like ghosts in the haze), Washington and Three Finger Jack. Huckleberry bushes are red sprinkles in green bushes. No berries at all. The view to Jefferson is somewhat blocked by Bachelor. Then a flat plateau. Soon into the woods again. At the trail junction, turn left and up. Met a couple coming down. All in the woods until the last few minutes to the top of Bachelor. Jefferson is right in front of you. Remnant of a lookout: broken glasses, bend iron rods. 2 large cairns on two separate flat spots. Not 360° view, but close. You can see Hood here, despite of the haze. I managed to catch up with the couple as we descend to the TH. Total 1 hour 37 minutes. Next time, I want to go to Coffin Mt Lookout.

Was dropped off at downtown ~3:30pm. On the way, a bit of traffic around Wilsonville again. Got home early enough to clean up, and upload the photos of the pleasant and easy weekend.

2018.9.6. An Auto Show at Portland Art Museum

9/6, the first Thursday of a month. I visited the new Shape of Speed exhibition at Portland Art Museum. I didn't expect to enjoy it, but I did, despite of the crowds. The cars are beautiful and sparkling clean. None had seat belt or side mirrors. Every car and one motor cycle has a nicely written up bio, interesting to read.


Here're some of the interesting ones:

Airomobile of 1937 ($550, 3-speed, top speed ~75mph)
Bugatti's Type 57 Aerolithe of 1935 (4-speed, < 115mph, only 2 built, neither survived)
     Impractical: Elektron alloy body, sealed window)
Steyr 55 "Baby" of 1939 (4-speed, <60mph)
Talbot-Lago T150C of 1938 (4-speed, library art realization.
Stout Scarab of 1936 ($5000, 3-speed, 80mph), has side and back facing seats.
Tatra T77A of 1938 <105mph)