Round-Trip Distance: 13 miles.
What a great extended Labor Day weekend. We hiked 4-days through the Ollalie Lake Scenic Area seeing more than a dozen lakes, many we don’t know the names for. If you have never been there, it is well worth the drive. At the lake you have a picture perfect postcard of the lake and Mt. Jefferson in the background, but more on that later.
If you have ever been out in the woods, you may have heard what you thought was the sounds of Mosquitos buzzing around but we realized it is the sound of a million bees doing there work. Bees are everywhere out here.
We left on Thursday and drove to the Ollalie Lake Scenic Area. We got in late and it was threatening rain, so we made camp at the trailhead and left early.
Day 1: Friday
We left super early and ate breakfast on the trail. We weren’t quite sure how far we would make on Friday, but planned on getting as far as we could before dinner. There were about 5 or 6 really nice marked campsites between the start of the trail and where we got to, Wall Lake.
The first lake we hiked past was Lower Lake, we stopped to throw rocks (of course) and then we were off. We hiked to the Fish Lake overlook area and found someone on an Island all of his own out in the middle of the lake. We were intrigued enough that we made it down the .8 mile decent of switchback upon switchback. At the bottom we discovered this guy.
Notice, he created his own “houseboat”. Full will a gazebo, tent, and fire pit with at least half a dozen rounds of wood on hit. I venture to say this was no small feat.
At the bottom, Noah pulled out his fishing pole and Isabel started climbing trees. We have graduated from throwing rocks to climbing trees and boulders. From this point on in the trip, every tree or rock outcropping was a possible climber… If we stopped the kids wanted to climb.
After the long trek back up the hill we stopped for a snack. The kids are at the top of the photo near the trees and we stayed at the bottom of this rock field.
We continued on the trail for about another mile and a half passed by Middle lake (it was the lunch spot, but the kids were doing great so we passed by). It was a beautiful lake, but I forgot to take a photo.
We met a guy with a dog at Sheep Lake, our destination for the evening, but he recommended we hike onto Wall lake another tenth of a mile where there were better views of the water and we would be the only people. It was a good recommendation. We camped by the shore and the kids threw rocks, swam, fished (with no lure yet), and swam/trudged in the mud. It was a great time. The kids also played pretend “family” and they were the parents of rocks and their kids had allergies to everything but Kiwis, milk, Bananas, and nuts. Pretty much all the stuff Isabel is sensitive too. It was interesting to see her awareness.
We had two failed dinners, a diluted Coconut Curry Soup and the kids ate Mac and Cheese. Note, Mac and Cheese doesn’t make correctly if you don’t have the oil part, you have to have butter in the mix or the cheese just clumps together and doesn’t stick to the noodles. I did however use veggie pasta and dehydrated it and it worked great! I just need to remember to bring butter next time.
Day 2: Saturday
We made our own Oatmeal for the trip with cinnamon and raisins and it worked great, it needed more sugar, but worked great! After a summer of backpacking the kids have finally warmed up to oatmeal. Will they eat it at home, probably not, but on the trail they will eat an entire bowl full.
We planned on hanging at the site today and doing a series of short hikes. So we hiked Potato Butte. The vistas from there, were AMAZING! We saw Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson.
The guy with the dog named Eli recommended we take our trekking poles because it got steep, he wasn’t kidding some places could have used a more gradual switchback, we were sliding down even going sideways down. Will was intrigued with a lightning strike that hit up there. There was a perfectly circular burned area at the top and in the center was a totally demolished tree. A team must have been dispatched because there was a fire ring at the top and I couldn’t imagine anyone camping up here and the trees were bucked and the ground was plowed.
The best part of the hike for the kids was… the rocks.
After coming down and having lunch we made our way over to Averill Lake, a much bigger lake, and discovered there was a shorter way to come into Wall Lake and there were at least a dozen people on the lake. Glad we chose this smaller place. I need to do a bit more recon on the surrounding trails before we go out. Dinner was a hit, this time I made milk noodles with cheese on top after the fail M&C event of the night before and Qeets Shepard’s Pie. I found the recipe on backpacking.com and we’ve eaten it twice. I still need to remember to rehydrate the veggies more, I have yet to get the hydrating thing right, but I’m still working on that.
Day 3: Sunday
We packed up early and trekked about 3 miles to Cigar Lake. This was unlike any lake I’ve ever been to. The place was silent–no crickets, frogs, grasshoppers–at night. It was like you were in a cave. It was crazy.
We played in the water here, too. Noah has become quite the good caster. He doesn’t care much about fishing just yet, but casting he LOVeS. Right next to the lake was a small pond and the kids had almost as much fun in the pond as in the lake. I helped Isabel and Noah conquer the rock in the middle of the pond. Also, there were plenty of trees to climb. Notice Isabel about 15 feet in the air.
Day 4: Monday
The last day we woke up really early and broke came by 8. We hiked the 2.5 miles back to the car. I opted to try the PCT trail rather than the recommended trail. Will and I had seen our share of lakes and were curious of hiking the PCT. I’m glad we did. If this little mile section we hiked is any indication of the whole trail, it is amazing. We walked out of the woods and right into a perfect view of Jefferson. It was spectacular, the photo just doesn’t do it justice. The last mile we hiked back on the road, while the kids ate Maple suckers provided by our friends Bill and Karen from their recent Canada trip.
Today Will and I realized how awesome backpacking has become for us. You see a lake in the distance (see the photo with Olallie below) and realize that you are about to be there in the next hour. It seems worlds away when you are high on a hill and then boom you come out of the trees and there you are. It was a bit mind blowing.
