Upper Menagerie - 8/21/11

Had a fantastic exploratory day in the upper menagerie with some of the CMRU folks... I'm a little embarrassed to say I have never visited a lot of the features in this (relatively local) area, and even more so after seeing how spectacular it is. We spent most of the day exploring the pinnacles around "the bridge" group, trying to sort out which routes were which and how they could possibly have put up so many routes with so little protection. Clearly the folks who developed this area were not afraid to "run it out". We did get a couple really nice pitches in... Just enough to make us want to go back for more. After the day ended, we helped some folks get their boat unstuck from a gravel bar on the willamette... It was pretty disorganized, and our solution wasn't very elegant, but at least in the end their boat was unstuck and I think our being there helped a lot... I'm fairly confident that the boat would still be out there if we hadn't shown up... :P


Panorama point and the Rabbit Ears


First looky look at the bridge


The bridge up close. You can walk across the top of it, but the whole formation seems pretty precarious...


Bridge shadow.


The view from the top


This week's "incredible tree".


View from the alcove below the bridge.


Bridge from below. Doesn't appear that there is much holding this up...


Cusk and Hoy after the first (mossy) pitch


Monkey face v2.0?


Bridge from the top of p2.


Same, 'cept with Aaron.


Jerry all grins on the jetboat.


Already getting dark and we aren't there yet.


"Stuck" stuck...


Before we got started, the Marine Patrol folks had the sense to take some of the family back to the boat launch. Really good call cause it was after dark before we even got started on freeing the boat...

Carl Lake 8/13/11

Mel and I took advantage of the full moon on a trip into Carl Lake in the Jefferson Wilderness last night. Was rather scenic in there, although a little dusty in the burned over area. Pretty darn cold in there for August, and still a lot of snow up higher. Enjoy!

Middle Santiam - 8/6/11

Had an awesome trip into the Middle Santiam with Mel, Mark, and Sarah this past weekend. This little gem has been sitting basically in our back yard and I only recently realized that it could be a great way to get away from the summer heat and higher elevation mosquitos. We basically "endured" countless miles of beautiful and amazingly diverse old-growth, an "exhausting" camp out session next to a lake with man-eating plants, and "heart wrenching" views of Cascade Volcanos that look way too beautiful for this late in the year. Seriously though, one of our team's smallest members suffered some incredible blisters for all of this... I think she'll be able to keep her toe, but even if not it may(?) have been worth it.


The super neat Shedd camp


Mark styling a rather interesting crossing on the Middle Fork


Pyramid Creek


Lot's of awesome little swamps along the way.


Amongst all kinds of interesting vegetation we found a few lonely sugar pines!


"On the count of three, everyone duck!"


Swamp creek


Mark scoping out one of the boardwalks along the way. Bella crashed and burned trying to follow...


A little known fact is that Sarah is part human part tree frog...


Pretty much an average sized tree along the way...


Our first glimpse of Donaca Lake


Awesome carniverous Sundew that Sarah located on a floating log.


Upon closer inspection you can see the dried up carcases of other humans who tried to camp here.


The little lady following a cold-assed swim


Pretty typical camp activity


Beautiful Donaca lake, the site of a few failed swimming attempts, a few successful swimming attempts, and at least two "fall ins".


Pretty amazing to camp sandwiched among giant cedars








Apparently I was the only one to not have a colorful tube for my head.




I think you get the point... It was beautiful.


My only half assed attempt at a night shot. Not too bad given that I didn't even aim.


Chimney Peak, our elusive goal for the weekend.


Wee scramble right before the top. Some of the trail was amazingly exposed.


Jefferson


Some members of the summit party were pleased we didn't attempt to camp at this rather uneven location.


The Middle Santiam drainage.


Das Hoody


Nice little Cascades lineup.


Mark and Sarah enjoying the views that had been obscured pretty much the whole way.


What is wrong with this picture!!!???


If you guessed "the 'snag' behind Mark is really a huge spear that broke off the adjacent tree" 10 points!


I have about 100 photos like this so I had to put one in.


"seriously guys, screw you, I'm staying here"


Lot's and lots of stuff like this.


End of the day.