Birthday backpacking trip

Scott and I took Tucker on three-day hiking adventure in the Three Sisters Wilderness for my annual birthday backpacking trip. For once, the hike in was fairly short and easy. We started at the Park Meadow trailhead just south of Sisters, Oregon, in the central Oregon Cascade mountains. Overuse by horses has chewed the trail into a six-foot-wide pile of powdery dust that traverses a ridge below Broken Top. The scenery improves as you enter Park Meadow, a too-popular camping destination that offers views of South Sister and Broken Top. From there we climbed for a mile before leaving the main trail and heading to Golden Lake, a clear, cold tarn in a beautiful meadow flanked by Broken Top. From the north side of the lake, North, Middle and South Sister are all visible.



We were in time to set up camp and cook dinner before dark and we enjoyed hot cocoa with Bullet Bourbon in just enough of a breeze to keep the mosquitos at bay. The next morning was chilly with an icy breeze blowing through camp. Thinking the day would warm up, we set off for a day hike to Green Lakes with lunch and plans to relax in the sun with our magazines. The fall-like crisp air and cold wind continued all day, even though it was still August. We were able to find shelter from the wind by hunkering down on a gravelly slope above the largest of the Green Lakes.



In the evening, we went to filter water by the waterfall that pours into Golden Lake. A trail follows the creek uphill to two smaller ponds even closer to the cliffs of Broken Top's summit. Since it's only a mile, we decided (actually I decided and Scott grudgingly went along) to explore. The upper tarns were even more spectacular than Golden Lake and offered shelter from the south wind. We regretted not discovering this earlier! But dark was not far off, so back to camp we went where I finally found comfort by dragging my sleeping bag out of the tent and snuggling in it while enjoying my post-dinner toddy. That night, Tucker's water bowl froze over and we had ice crystals inside the tent instead of the usual condensation.



On the drive home in the pouring rain, we listened to the weather forecast on the radio. Snow was expected above 5,000 feet; our camp was around 6,500. Had we not had to work Monday and camped another night, we might have experienced the season's first snowfall!