12 miles of hiking • 2500' elevation gain • 1 night
Saturday it was 90 degrees in John Day. Even with elevation, it was still blazing hot, but a good time. I felt out of place without a cowboy hat.
I headed out Friday morning, taking 26 and stopping at Painted Hills - what a cool spot! I ended up at the Strawberry Lake trailhead by mid-afternoon. There were a few other parties, but it was still pretty quiet.
The next day I went up to Strawberry Falls (hitting snow right after the lake), and then snow-whacked my way up to Little Strawberry Lake, which was still half frozen over. I high-tailed it up the other side of the ridge towards Slide lake, but ended up stopping at the viewpoint at 7000ft, as there was a lot of snow on the other side of the ridge.
After reading Aimless' report, I decided to head to the south side of the wilderness, as there was little more I could do in the Strawberry Lake area that didn't involve lots of snow. I stopped in and hiked a little bit of both the Big Creek and Lake Creek trails, but found both a bit "eh." Lake Creek had oodles of blowdowns, and Big Creek was a green tunnel of short pines, which sounds more interesting than it was. Throw in 85 degree temps and baking sun, and I was hankering for something else.
I headed over to the Joaquin Miller trailhead, and things were looking better - cooler temps, a breeze and a nice grassy section. Unfortunately, I noticed my car making a weird sloshing sound in the gas tank, and my car has had some other weird things going on lately - turns out I think the sloshing was settling from all the uphill driving, but at the time, I didn't want to be stranded in John Day, so I headed home early. It was probably for the better, as the temps were pretty unpleasant, and the bugs didn't help. This area would be a great late September hike (as with all Oregon hikes right?).
Also - tons and tons of mule deer. All over the place!
I hope to get back once things melt out and do the ridge trails. A nice area, with a different sort of feel. Oh, and be sure to drive Rt. 19 back to 84 during sunset - the section between 26 and Spray - absolutely phenomenal!
