Obsidian Basin Backpacking
September 19-21, 2008
Long before I moved to Oregon, I suggested to Lily that we should go backpacking in the Cascades. She consulted several hiker friends and selected one of the most beautiful hikes available in the Three Sisters Wilderness. We met for dinner on Thursday evening and set off up the McKenzie River (Hwy 126) after dark, hoping to find a campsite on National Forest land. We missed several campsites in the dark, but we eventually found a spot at Slide Creek on the Cougar Reservoir, where we slept under the stars. The next morning we stopped at Cougar Hot Springs - a place that was high on my to-do list - for a morning pre-trail soak.
Waterfall (Rider Creek Falls) along the trail to the hot springs.
Cougar Hot Springs.
The water emerges at about 110 degrees and cascades through a series of about six man-made pools, cooling as it goes. Pool #1 is too hot to stay in for long, pools 2 and 3 are just about right, and the lower pools are not quite hot enough for a cool morning, unless you have just been in pool #1. There were only two other folks at the springs, so we had our choice of pools.
Top pool and spring source at Cougar Hot Springs
Cougar Reservoir.
The immense, 400-foot-high Cougar Dam.
We left the springs at 11 am and drove to the trailhead, stopping at the ranger station to pick up our wilderness permit. Highway 242 to the trailhead is very narrow with seemingly endless switchbacks up to the high lava flows of the Cascade Crest. We set out on the Obsidian Trail, climbing through dense forest for the first three miles until we emerged at the edge of the Jerry Flow, a lava flow released by Collier Cone around 440 AD and still largely devoid of vegetation.
Crossing the Jerry Flow
North Sister (left, 10,085 ft), Middle Sister (center, 10,047 ft)
Snow on the trail, still left from last winter!
Above the Jerry Flow, the trail gets more interesting and begins to cross fields of broken obsidian between flower-filled verdant meadows. We chose a campsite beneath the trees in the center of the photo below - level ground with good access to water.
Obsidian Creek. The creek actually splits here into two creeks that flow down separate valleys into the McKenzie River ~8 miles from here. It's not often that you find a stream that splits into two, especially in the high mountains!
It began to rain as we hiked up to explore around Obsidian Falls, a cascade of no spectacular height or volume made more interesting by the fact that it falls over nearly pure obsidian.
Obsidian Falls
Banded obsidian
Lily and her new tent
I hiked to an unnamed summit west of our camp, where I found amazing views in all directions, made perhaps more beautiful by the forest fire smoke that rendered distant mountains as soft veils decreasing in clarity and contrast with distance. I should have brought my camera, but with the intermittent rain I chose to leave it behind.
We sang folk songs from Lily's book as we waited for our dehydrated meals to reconstitute, then went to bed early as the rain picked up.
Tent-shadow after a rainy night
Fresh snow on Middle Sister
Saturday's hike took us mainly northward along the Pacific Crest Trail, through a variety of volcanic landscapes. At first we mainly hiked through obsidian and associated rocks, but the trail soon descended into old growth forest intermixed with green meadows.
Standing on obsidian flakes with Middle Sister behind
Valley-framed Middle Sister at a trail junction
A lupine meadow
After about three miles, we reached the edge of the Jerry Flow much nearer its source at Collier Cone and followed the trail up the lava flow to Opie Dilldock Pass at the base of the cinder cone.
1550-year-old lava flow!
Looking down on Opie Dilldock Pass from partway up Collier Cone
We reached the pass (6890 ft, about 2100 ft above the trailhead) at lunchtime, and since I couldn't convince Lily to climb Collier Cone, I promised to climb quickly. This proved rather difficult given the nature of a cinder cone - each footstep slid halfway back down in the loose rock. But I was spurred onward by the view and soon reached the top (7534 ft). The weather, already windy and cold, became a frigid gale on the exposed ridge - perhaps 40 degrees with a 30+ mph wind - and my fleece offered poor protection. Once at the top I marveled at the view, snapped a panorama and a few more pictures, then hiked down the east side a bit for a brief respite from the wind. Check out the panorama here.
Looking north across McKenzie Pass and the Ahlapam Cinder Fields
Orographic cloud over the North Sister
Collier Glacier between North and Middle Sisters (once the largest glacier in Oregon, but it has retreated by over a mile in the past century).
After the pass, the trail gradually descended to a broad meadow, crossing some oddly-barren soil that seems to be a hallmark of recent volcanic activity (perhaps it doesn't yet have enough organic matter or hold enough water to support plants?). In the meadow we turned west on the Scott trail and hiked through meadows and forests until we reached the Four-in-one Cone, another young volcano (erupted ~40 AD) surrounded by a barren landscape (below).
Past the cone, the trail follows the edge of a lava flow, occasionally venturing across it, until it reaches the end of the flow - an interesting contrast between barren and green that looks oddly unnatural - more like what I would expect to see at an open pit mine than in an untouched wilderness.
Water is surprisingly hard to come by in this wet environment because the volcanic soils are porous and rainfall quickly sinks through to become groundwater. We abandoned the trail after the lava flow and followed our topo map to a creek which turned out to be dry. But we did find one relatively-clean rock puddle in the creek bed that provided enough to cook with and to refill our supply, so we set up camp at this perfect spot, ate our dehydrated curry, and slept to the sound of liquid air (minute fog/mist droplets) against the rain fly.
Sunday's hike was entirely through forest, a total of three miles, and we reached the Subaru by noon. That gave us enough time to return to Cougar Hot Springs for another soak (with many more people this time but still not too crowded) before taking the scenic route (county road 19) back to Westfir and on to Lost Valley (near Dexter on Hwy 58).
At first I was somewhat skeptical about the fall equinox ceremony at Lost Valley, and indeed the semi-serious pagan ritual did not truly enlighten me, but I must say that a community of hippies and conscious creators certainly knows how to celebrate. The ritual did at least seem more sincere and heartfelt than most religion that I have experienced, and as soon as the circle was closed the drumming began. I can't say I've ever had that much fun in a drum circle, as everyone synced up to the point where I felt that the beat was moving my hands rather than my mind. The drumming yielded to the feast - a most delicious variety of fresh-from-the-garden foods and fresh-baked pie - and after everyone helped with the cleanup people broke off into a variety of merrymaking. Lily and I joined two men playing guitar and singing folk songs, and we had some great harmonies going until someone suggested that we migrate to the hot tub. The Lost Valley hot tub is the same as the one at RMBL in Colorado (with a submerged "snorkel" woodstove), and equally soothing. A man we had met at the hot springs randomly showed up at Lost Valley for the celebration, and we ended up in hot water with him again. After several rounds of dunking in cold water and returning to the tub, I was finally ready for bed, and I slept well on a rather-uncomfortable couch. I certainly hope that I can find a community like Lost Valley someday, as my brief stay reminded me how much I enjoyed it at RMBL and how much my life is improved in a community of like-minded, loving folks.
My trip ended with banana pancakes Monday morning and the straight-arrow drive up I-5 back to Corvallis, where I returned to the business of buying textbooks and filling out necessary paperwork. A far cry from Collier Cone!