Cory and I wanted to do one more backpacking trip for the season. So we decided to do Broken Top Loop last weekend, starting early Friday.
The first 4 miles brought us through this burn area. Thankfully there were a few pretty sites to be seen.
The first night we stayed near Golden Lake.
Three Sisters in the background.
Enjoying morning coffee in the sun.
With this view.
Hiking towards Broken top next to South Sisters
Our first good view of Green Lakes. (there is 3 of them)
This was brutal. We had already hiked about 10 miles! Our plan was to make it to Broken Top lake.
But the winds kicked up heavy so we decided to head to some trees to make camp in a bit of shelter.
And this is what greeted us in the morning. It was very cold, but more than that visibility was so low we didn't feel like we could safely continue the loop since we wouldn't be able to see any landmarks. We had a map and GPS so that wasn't the problem, but neither of us wanted to go up in elevation to continue following the trail.
It so happened I had reception on my phone so we called my BIL to pick us up at a different trail head. We still had to hike 6 miles in snow, wind and rain.
My friend, Linda, has been backpacking for a couple of years now and I feel she was the driving force to make me want to try it. We made plans for a girlfriend's backpacking trip to Goat Rocks Wilderness in Washington. It was pretty awesome!
We car camped at Chambers lake the precious night so we could get on the trail at a decent time. It was a beautiful morning. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
Goats in the Goat Rock Wilderness!
Curious marmots too!
Alpine Goat Lake.
Mt Ranier
Sunrise coffee hour.
Another epic view of the mountains, this time, fully loaded.
I really love backpacking and going only where feet will take you, but have a very hard time sleeping, even with a comfy pad and fluffy sleeping bag.
My friend Linda in WA has been backpacking, (that is different than hiking (single day)- backpacking would be staying overnight) then after seeing a terrific home video of my brother and dad backpacking we thought it would be fun to try it. This first trip was to test our strength and supplies. My other friend, Michelle had been prepping a bit to do some backpacking later this summer but when I asked if she wanted to come along, she said yes. My planning wasn't the best as I thought it would be 12.8 miles with one section gaining some elevation. I was wrong on both counts!
We were going to camp Friday night at the primitive campground of Twin Pillars North and head straight south to Belknap trail, east, then look for a place to camp. Wake up early, hit the elevation then take the 4.8 miles N to Whistler Springs on Wildcat Trail to finish the 4.8 miles to Whistler Springs where Michelle had parked her car.
Here are the highlights of that trip:
We camped on the edge of Bingham Prairie and it was beautiful!
We have been hiking here before and knew some of the trail was open and had experienced fires. This canyon was called Desolation Canyon.
A couple of miles in we made it to Twin Pillars. We hiked here last year from the opposite way and you can read about that HERE if you'd like.
Signs of beauty in the desolation.
Snack time by a cold creek...and a time to rest our bodies.
Yay! The cut off! 6 miles in and now we were going to find a place to camp for the night.
I loved seeing the pillars get smaller and smaller.
Cory found us a great spot although is was a little further than we had anticipated. (which was a good thing, because the next day was going to be way harder then we imagined!)
After dinner, Cory's job was to hang our food up away from any bears that may
think they had a free meal coming.
The next day we were in the forest for a few beautiful miles.If you look hard you can see Elsa on the trail carrying her own food and water. She was such a good dog!
This answers the question: Does a bear crap in the woods??
We made it to the next junction~! Home free! 4.8 miles to the car, except it was actually 6 miles.
Looking east to the Ochoco forest.
Still smiling!
If you look really hard you can see the pillars!
By this time we were in a more current burn. Cory lightened Elsa's load and carried her pack about the last 2 miles.
This was an area that had burned last year. Thankfully someone had flagged it so we could stay on the trail. (I have a great app for that too that doesn't need cell reception) We were running low on water and Elsa got to put to use her booties to protect her paws.
I could see we were going to be crossing Mill Creek soon so we forged on.
. We all re-hydrated and Elsa napped.
The final push!
The end!
Three happy tired backpackers conquered the first, of hopefully several more, trips!
