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.
