Three Sisters Circumnavigate - Cascade Trekker 2009

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• published: 12 Feb 2013
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Visit http://CascadeTrekker.com for full stories, pictures, videos and more! Like Me at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cascade-Trekker/398559483549413 A favorite place of mine to visit and I usually do it once or twice a year. This will be the first time though that I stop at the ranger station to check availability for hiking into the limited entry Obsidian Area. It is full for the day, so I hike instead up the Scott Trail. A little silly because I intended to through hike anyway. I don't see a single soul on this trail, except for three White-Tailed Deer: two doe and a fawn. After a steady climb through the forest the trail breaks out to cross a lava field then skirts the edge of it up to a huge lava plain next to Four In One Cone. I push hard to get to Minnie Scott Spring, the only water in the area. After a 3.5 hour drive on the motorcycle, and a seven mile 2000 foot climb I arrive exhausted. The photo is from a wonderful meadow below the spring with Collier Cone, the North Sister and the Middle Sister visible. On the Pacific Crest Trail now, I cross paths here with some through hikers that I will meet again on my Dutch Miller Gap trip. After watering up at the spring, having to scoop it out with my cup, I head up into the hills a little to set up camp. In the morning, the Clark's Nutcrackers, like cawing alarm clocks, wake me from my dreams. I gear up and start my 500 foot climb over the pumice field north of Collier Cone. I'm traveling backcountry, looking for the path of least resistance through stonecrop flowers clinging to life. It's like a no man's land or other worldly up here. Under the crunch of brick-red pumice, the wind hits hard as I meet now snowfields. I can see the jagged spires of peaks north with overcast clouds creeping down at them. I climb a little higher over the pass, where there is a cairn of large boulders. There are cliffs a little lower and large rock outcroppings higher and a known route in between. Following a couple of snowfield then a switch above a steep one I find good purchase through the boulders and scree. Here you can find the headwaters of Alder Creek, always flowing here for me. A wonderful backcountry camp location. From here I plan to cross over the ridge where a group of Ponderosas have died and turned an ossified gray. A little hard to pick out I basically angle in a circular fashion climbing up and then down about 300 feet. The final going is thick with close trees, I am always making noise and sometimes carrying a stick through it. I find the dusty trail and head north, hoping to get to Golden Lake near Broken Top. After the Camp Lake cutoff the trail was in desperate need of maintenance. Not that I really mind, but there were many blown down trees with ad hoc trails around. It was very time consuming and the hope of getting to Broken Top fading. I pass through a few places where amazing desert flowers are blooming. After some contemplation, I set up the tent next to the quick flowing and wide Squaw Creek, just before a blast of rain comes through. I do not have a decent map showing elevation for this area, and it was holding me back. So tomorrow I will have to start heading back through the pass between the South and Middle Sister via trail. The rain is short and things dry out with the dappled morning sun. The morning is chilly and the creek is cold too when I wash my dishes. I start heading back down the trail with the blowdowns. I take a mini trek through the forest on a ridge and catch the trail luckily just before a switch back. Just before reaching Camp Lake there are wonderful vistas that twist through meadows and rocky shelves. I climb up higher from the pass, shown left with Upper Chambers Lake, hoping for a route above the lakes and snowy ridges. I also hope to locates two small lava tubes at about 8,000 feet. I start dropping too early and now there is a long cliff between me and the lava tubes. My only choice now is to drop down to the Pacific Crest Trail, about 1,000 feet. The going was steep in places, and of course beautiful when hiking through the grassy shelves. On the trail I head south hoping to get a favored campsite, though it was taken. With ebbing daylight I backtrack and drop down through the grassy meadows to set camp. I always get great setting suns here. My strategy for getting warmth from the rising sun was thwarted by a huge Hemlock. I am up early and see no one on the hike back to the Obsidian Trailhead.