21.5 miles of hiking • 4500' elevation gain • 3 nights
Did a 3-night backpack with my mom in the Wallowas, a completely new area to both of us. Started kind of late on Friday and camped above the first series of the switchbacks and somewhat difficult river crossing. Then we went along scenic Lostine River meadows and stopped about 1.5 miles before the Lakes Basin, remembering reports that this area is famous for mosquitoes (as we found out, a good choice). We visited a BEAUTIFUL Mirror Lake and stayed there to capture the sunset. Glad we packed an insect repellant though, because you literally breathe the skeeters in! There were a few at the camp as well - they are barely noticeable when you move, but swarm in numbers as we stopped (still 5-10 times less in numbers than near Mirror Lake). Early on Sunday we went on to climb Eagle Cap, but were stopped by snow (next week probably should be OK, as the snow melts by the hours). Instead, we went on still 40% snow covered Carper Pass, which is shown as Minam Pass on Sullivan maps. Then we explored the lower old rutted-but-scenic trail along Lostine River just below our camp. On Monday, we hiked out the way we came. Beautiful area, I want to visit it again later this summer or fall.
Roman
August 2, 2011
I see the photos get now automatically sorted in chronological order. That is very cool!