Hiking in the Oregon Alps

The East Eagle Creek, part of our long [ten mile] march up the creek to Horton Pass

DAVE AND I HIKE IN THE OREGON ALPS

 Dave and I went hiking on August 23 thru August 30, 2011 in the Eagle Cap Wilderness in northeastern Oregon;  at 565 square miles it is the largest wilderness in Oregon.   We were in the Wallowa Mountains of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forrest.   It was a 44? mile loop hike in the wilderness that had been written up in the national Backpacker Magazine.  It was a bit more than we bargained for at age 64; but we would not have missed it. It has to be one of the best places we have hiked in.  We started with about a 50 pound pack and lost about two pounds of food from it a day. 

"When God made this spot, he made the air a little thinner and cleaner.  He made the water a little purer and colder.   He made the sunshine a little brighter." (William O Douglas quoting Roy Schaeffer, Mountain Man of the Lostine).   These all seemed to be true to us.

We started hiking from the trailhead at East Eagle Creek, elevation 4714 feet.  We camped the first night there and then took off and that was the lowest elevation we would be for the next six days.   We slogged up the Creek to a place where the trail changes to a sharp uphill route.  We camped there that night and had a very nice campsite that the horse groups used for camping.

We decided to not go to Hidden Lake.  We had heard that there was a party of mules who had gone there to Hidden Lake and so we decided to skip it.  

The next day we resumed the ten miles to the approach to Horton Pass (8435 ft.).  On the pass was a plaque that was in memory of "Jack" Horton, a forest ranger who started in 1913 and died in 1948.  He had developed the trails in the area and in other places in the northwest.

Once over the Pass we could not clearly see the trail down to the Lake Basin.    We asked others for help and found the way that was partially covered by a snow field of soft snow.   We could have walked up to the summit of Eagle Cap, another 1,000 feet, but we were too tired to go up then.  We had gone up almost 4,000 feet in ten miles with 50 pound packs and we were tired. 

Map of Lake Basin, Eagle Cap, and Glacier Lake, Horton Pass, Glacier Pass, USGS, click to magnify

Dave at "Jack" Horton Pass, 8,435 feet, looking up to Eagle Cap summit at 9,595 feet.  A one hour walk up, but we were a little too tired make the summit, so went down into the Wilderness Lake Basin.

We walked down to a snowfield,.  There were a few snow fields blocking the way.  We walked on the soft snow and made kick steps down to the  trail.  We noticed that the flowers were newly out like it was Spring,  because the snow had melted recently.

We saw Upper Lake that was very buggy and all the good campsites were taken.  So, we continued on to the next lake, Mirror Lake, where we found a fine campsite about 200 feet up from the lake shore.
We were tired but started to set up camp and a young man came by and asked for help fighting a fire. 
We carried as much water as we could from the lake about 200 yards up the hill to the fire.  We were very tired but managed to do this twice.   We had about six people carrying water up to the fire and we put it out.  We tried to show the volunteer ranger where it was the next day but could not locate it.

Ashes of the fire

Mirror Lake

The was a lot of wind that night and about 10 it was gusting vigorously and dust was flying all over in different directions.  Later that night we had a thunderstorm pass by with a little rain and some thunder, lightning was pretty far away.  It lasted about a hour.   The next day many of the campers where gone. 

Thunderclouds gathering

Mirror Lake

 

That next day we spent most of the day day hiking to see the other lakes we could get to in the Lakes Basin. We went from Mirror Lake (7595 ft.) to Moccasin Lake (7473 ft.) to Crescent Lake (7371 ft.) where we ate lunch, and nearby Douglas Lake.  We did not see other campers on the other lakes, besides Mirror Lake.  We washed and sunbathed at Mirror Lake. 

Dave at Moccasin Lake

The next day we packed up and headed back to Moccasin Lake.  There is a little causeway most of the way across the middle and a small opening where water runs thru from one part of the lake to the other.  We crossed this causeway and started up the hill to  Glacier Pass and at 8442 feet and over to Glacier Lake (8166 ft.).   Glacier Lake was beautiful and we camped near the shore on a rocky outcrop. This was an afternoon for exploring around the southern heights near the lake and washing and sunbathing. 

Glacier Lake

After a wonderful warm sleep and rest we packed up and headed down the hill to the bottom of the valley to Frazier Lake (7137 ft.).  From there we hiked up the steep hill to Hawkins Pass (8373 ft.).  This bare and windy place was where we ate lunch.  We were tired. 

Me on the Pass

Dave heading down from Hawkins Pass

After we ate and rested for an hour we went down the trail cut into the steep bank over the meadow that was the headwaters of the South Fork of the Imnaha River.  (Imna's Place: Imna being a legendary heroic Nez Perce warrior).   We worked our way down the valley of this river with lush meadows of grass and flowers.  We finally met the Cliff Creek that cut in from the west (6079 ft.).   This was our most tired night.


We stayed that night in the deep woods near the trail over the place where the Cliff meets the Imnaha.
There were a few bugs but what bothered us was a large doe who came upon us as we were eating dinner.   She came right up to us and had a gregarious look in her eye, and licked her lips all over.  We had nothing to feed her and shooed her away.  She left after a short time; apparently, the stockmen who lead horse trains of tourists must know her and give her an apple when they see her. 

The next day we hiked and hiked and it was again hot and we kept coming through meadows with no shade.  We went through Wallowa County and into Baker County, finally reaching Crater Lake (8166 ft.) about lunchtime.  We saw some guys that looked like cowboys.  They were farmers from Richland, Oregon.  They were up for the weekend to turn on the valve to let the lake water go down the pipe to the creek so that they could use the water for irrigation downstream.  We sunbathed and washed and set up camp and cooked a good dinner.   We had a Pad Thai dinner and apple cobbler dessert.  That was our last night. 

Crater Lake

On our last night: "The late Sunday night thunderstorm gave a spectacular show. The strikes were constant for a few hours with the rain shadow surrounding the cell. Blue Mountain Interagency Dispatch Center Dispatchers documented 41 [fires] Incidents from late Sunday night through Monday at 1800."  We were at 8,166 feet at a mountain lake and did not see any fires, but took movies of the lightning.

Thunderstorms coming on our last night.

On our last day, we packed early and hiked down the trail with our lightened 37-pound packs.               We hiked and hiked and for over four hours we hiked.  It was hot and the switchbacks were long and seemed to continue forever (42 switchbacks on the map).  We must have covered over six miles in that time.  Finally, we reached the bottom and the parking lot on East Fork Eagle Creek where we started. The elevation there was 4614 feet.  

It was a hard way to lose 5 pounds, but I liked this hike as much or more than any other one that I have been on.  Dave and I really enjoyed it.