Jefferson Park one has been on Brad’s list for a while now, so we did a quick one-nighter into Jefferson Park on, yet again, a super hot couple of days in Central Oregon. (A couple years ago it seemed liker every hiking or backpacking trip we went on was smoky-filled from forest fires and we had no views. This summer will be remembered as the year of the hottest hiking we’ve done, barring the bottom of the Grand Canyon in June many years ago.)
We started at the Whitewater Creek Trailhead at 10:45am, and followed the Whitewater Trail for about four miles. We were surprised that in only three years since the 2017 The Whitewater Fire, there was already a decent amount of new growth. One nice thing is that the fire opened the forest for views along the way, however it also opened the canopy, which meant very little shade and lots of sun exposure for the first four (of 5.2) miles.
Some pictures of our hike in…….
Thought these were interesting – guess the heat of the fire bent the trees……..
Eventually we had our first views of Mt. Jefferson….
Some more trail pics………..
It was nice for the last mile to finally get some shade
The last 1.2 miles were on the Pacific Crest Trail, where we had even better views of Mt. Jefferson.
There are many lakes at which to camp, and we chose Scout Lake for no other reason than it has a good name and was the first lake we came upon. We followed a labyrinth of paths to find a campsite, and settled on site #7 – close to the lake for water, views of Mt, Jefferson, and with some shade – clocking in at 1:45pm, so 5.2 miles, 1,700ft elevation gain (it was pretty much all uphill) in 3 hours.
After setting-up camp and enjoying some snacks, we decided to walk around the valley floor to see the other lakes and enjoy the views.
We did notice that there was a fire a bit of a ways-away and heard a lot of helicopter traffic all afternoon – we assume they were trying to extinguish the fire.
This is Russell Lake.
And more fire (well, smoke) pictures.
It was super hot, so we thought it would be a good time to head back and chill in the shade for a while. We also thought that this would be the perfect time to sleep without the fly, since it was clear skies and no rain in the forecast.
We eventually brought our chairs to the lake and relaxed for a while the sun set.
Once the sun set, it started getting cold. (Yup, was just commenting on the heat, I know!) So we were in the tent around 8:30pm watching the last of the sun set.
And it got cold – damn cold. Throughout the night, every couple of hours, we would wake-up and add more layers. First the socks. Then the ski hats. Then another shirt and pants. It was also bright – totally a full moon and no cloud cover. When Suzanne woke at 11:30pm (when the socks were added), she thought, “Huh. I thought I slept, but maybe not since it’s still so bright, the sun must not have set yet.” Nope – bright, bright moon! (So bright that we didn’t need our headlamps when we peed in the middle of night.) At the 2am wake-up (when the shirt and pants were donned) she thought, “I don’t sleep with the windows open when it’s this cold at home. What the hell am I doing in a fly-less tent when it’s this cold?” This was quickly followed by the, “Why do I keep backpacking when its 90 degrees? Hell, I don’t even go to the mailbox when it’s that hot,” thought.
Eventually, it was around 6:30am and we were ready for some hot tea and coffee, so we got up and started the morning routine.
Mt. Jefferson in the morning……
We pretty much ate breakfast, packed, and hiked out. We really hoped that it would be cooler this day, but nope, it was even hotter. One last look at the smoke from the fire…………
We hit the trail at 9:30am and were back to the car at noon, so the return trip took 2.5 hours. Here is Zippy (the Jeep) AKA “The Official Backpacking Vehicle of 2020” and Suzanne changing from her sweaty & dirty hiking boots to her less-dirty hiking sandals!
So a quick one, but also a good one.
