25 miles of hiking • 3750' elevation gain • 2 nights
We had decided back in January that the Obsidian Limited Entry area would be on our list of hikes for this year. April rolled around, and we got overnight permits for the weekend.
Four of us, including two on their first ever backcountry trip, headed out on Friday. We stopped to check weather at the McKenzie Ranger Station. 70% chance of thunderstorms today, 50% tomorrow... Reasonable some might say. As we found out later, we there were severe weather warnings for the area, shortly after we were out of cell coverage range.
We got to the trailhead a little after 3pm and were greeted by the sound of thunder and showers. After a lot of debating at the car, we strapped on our packs and started heading up the trail. The first mile or so was a lot of hike, stop, discuss the weather, continue. At a mile in, we hit a microburst with hail. We almost turned around and headed back to the car, but then it stopped; so we decided to continue on to our camp. No turning back. While all this was happening, there was a steady stream of hikers heading OUT. Many mentioned thunderstorms, wind, horrendous hail...but it was 3pm. It had to pass soon, right?
By the time we made it to our planned campsite, at the junction of the Obsidian Trail and PCT, the skies had cleared to make way for a clear evening.
The next morning we woke up to clear skies. Our plan for the day was a hike to Chambers Lakes. As we headed south, we kept an eye out for PCT thru-hikers, with the hopes of being able to perform a few acts of backcountry trail magic. Between the Obsidian Limited Entry area boundary and Separation Creek, we were able to chat and share fresh fruit and coffee with five PCT thru hikers and one woman section hiking Oregon. We also kept an eye on the skies...
By 10:30am clouds started appearing over North, Middle, and South Sister. We stopped for lunch just north of Separation Creek. By 1pm, South Sister was almost completely obscured. We decided heading up to Chambers Lakes would be unsafe, so we started making our way back to camp.
About a mile into our return hike, we heard thunder, followed by hail. Followed by LOTS of hail.
The storms finally passed by 6pm. After a quick dinner of dehydrated stuff, we went for an evening hike on the PCT within the Obsidian limited entry area. We spent time exploring the falls, the obsidian fields, and searching for the memorial plaques that are on the topo maps. We were able to find Branaugh and Prouty, but not Montague.
Sunday morning, we woke up to more gorgeousness and hiked out to sunshine.
It wasn't until we were back on the road home that we realized how severe the weekend storms had been. There were several places on Old McKenzie Pass where gravel and rock had washed onto the road.
Despite the weather, it was still a fun, although somewhat wet weekend.
