East fork Lostine River – wanderingyuncks

Minam Lake – 07/25/2024

After an excellent hike to Bonny Lakes (post) followed by a night of intense thunderstorms I woke up extra early Thursday morning to check various fire and lightning strike maps and the Forest Service website online. While there had definitely been some lightning strikes, the various satellites weren’t showing any hot spots in the area of the Minam Lake Trail so we set off as planned to the Two Pan Trailhead

Even at 6am on a Thursday the trailhead parking was nearly full.

Most of the people parked at the trailhead were likely headed for the Lakes Basin below Eagle Cap (post). It’s 7.4-miles to Mirror Lake in that popular basin by following the East Fork Lostine River Trail. We however were headed for Minam Lake which is the headwaters for the West Fork Lostine River. The trails share tread for the first tenth of a mile before splitting.

This was a neat feature.

We both counted our steps, for me it was 50 and Heather 60.

The Lostine River.

Entering the Eagle Cap Wilderness just before the trails split.

Trail sign at the fork.

We headed right on the Minam Lake Trail which climbed steadily for 2.7-miles to a junction with the Copper Creek Trail.

Bridge over the East Fork Lostine River.

East Fork Lostine River

The storm overnight had provided a little much needed rain.

Huckleberries (I’d already picked the ripe ones.)

Elkhorn Peak

Monkshood

Some of the river channels were very calm and crystal clear.

We passed through a section of bent and snapped trees which were probably a result of an avalanche.

The trail climbed more steeply at times over the next 1.5-miles before arriving at a crossing of the West Fork Lostine River. Views also began to open up along this section.
Glacier Mountain

Talus field along the trail. We encountered a gentleman hiking out who we spoke with about the storm. He said it was wild from about 4pm to 9pm with multiple strikes very close. He said he’d had enough between the excessive heat, bugs, and then the storm and was thinking that his days of summer visits might be over and Autumn trips might be his new go to.

Looking back at the other side of Elkhorn Peak.

Nuttal’s linanthus

Looking back down one of the steeper sections. We passed another couple heading out along this section.

Looking up the Copper Creek drainage. Glacier Mountain on the left and Elkhorn Peak on the right.

Off-trail waterfall. We could hear this from the trail, and it was a fairly easy bushwack to get a good view.

The river crossing.

It was another 1.5-miles from the crossing to Minam Lake but only a 300′ elevation change. This section of trail passed along a beautiful, large meadow and recrossed the river after just over a mile.

Yellow columbine

A little hazy looking toward the Sun.

Elephants head

Unnamed creek

An easier crossing of the river here.

First view of Minam Lake.

Minam Lake

Common mergansers

We took a nice break at one of the outlets of the lake then explored a little further along the lake shore before heading back.
Needle Point is the peak in the distance to the far left.

Shooting stars

We could have stared at the rocks along the ridges for hours.

Heading back.

It was a pleasant hike back as the temperatures were finally reasonable. We did hear a helicopter shortly after leaving the lake which then came into view. It didn’t have a bucket so it wasn’t getting water, but we surmised it was performing a smoke check. We had been on the lookout for any signs of smoldering trees that might have been struck by the lightning but didn’t notice any. We found out a couple of days later that there was indeed a fire burning in the Copper Creek drainage due to a lightning strike Wednesday night. We however remained blissfully ignorant.

Violet

Groundsquirrel

Robin

Fritillary

Orange agoseris

The fire was burning up in that basin somewhere.

The talus section in the afternoon.

Spirea

Butterflies and moths were out in force.

Police car moth and another interesting looking pollinator (out of focus).

Prince’s pine

Back at the junction with the East Fork Lostine River Trail.

Left for hikers and right for stock.

Our hike to Minam Lake came to 12.5-miles and approximately 1800′ of elevation gain.

We left the busy Two Pan Trailhead and drove back to Enterprise for one more night. We had purchased tickets for the Wallowa Lake Tramway for Friday which we needed to ride up Mount Howard in order to do the final hike of the trip. The good news was that Friday was going to be the coolest day of the week with improved visibility.

As of 7/28/24 the Elk Horn Fire is just 1.8 acres so hopefully it will remain a small one. There were several other fires sparked by the lighting as well with the Big Canyon Fire being the most likely to grow significantly. It’s already been an ugly year for fires, and we just pray that we get some relief soon. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Minam Lake

Eagle Cap Wilderness Day 3 – Into the Lakes Basin

We woke up feeling pretty good on the third day of our trip despite the long hike searching for a campsite the day before. Heather had made it through the night without getting sick and we were up at dawn getting ready to continue on.

We were a little concerned by an influx of smoke coming up the valley behind us. We figured that the wind had shifted overnight and some of the smoke we had seen from the Matterhorn the day before had made it’s way to us but we weren’t sure. We hoped that it wouldn’t affect our visibility as we began the days hike.

The trail continued through increasingly impressive wildflower meadows to a bridgeless crossing of the West Fork Wallowa River.

At the crossing we found a single log across the river which I started to attempt to cross on before deciding it was a little too narrow and wet for my comfort.

Oddly enough there appeared to be an actual bridge way upstream but it was only a snow-bridge.

The river was only calf deep so instead of trying to balance on the log we decided to simply ford the river and deal with wet feet for awhile. On the far side of the river the trail continued up the narrowing valley past a number of side streams and waterfalls.

Once again a “Fires Prohibited Beyond This Point” sign signaled we were only quarter mile from a lake.

The trail leveled out and quickly brought us to Frazier Lake.

We didn’t see anyone camped here just a lot of tadpoles in the water.

At the far end of Frazier Lake we left the West Fork Wallowa Trail and followed a pointer for Glacier Pass.

This trail followed a branch of the river flowing down an alpine valley from Glacier Lake to Frazier Lake. Waterfalls, wildflowers and golden-mantled squirrels awaited us as we climbed ahead of the encroaching smoke that continued to make it’s way up the valley behind us.

A final wide sweeping arc completed this 2 mile section of trail bringing us just below the basin holding Glacier Lake.

The beauty and wonder of God’s creation is our main motivation for hiking and although we witness it every time we hit the trail there are moments where that beauty is indescribable and impossible to capture with a camera. Our first look at Glacier Lake was one such moment.

Backed by snowy peaks including Eagle Cap and lined with wildflowers the blue-green waters of Glacier Lake were breathtaking. We set down our packs and removed our wet shoes and socks to allow them to dry while we soaked in the unbelievable scenery.

Amazingly we only noticed one tent set up around this gem. Heather quickly decided that someday we would come back and spend at least one night here. We had more hiking to do though, so we eventually pulled ourselves away and continued past the lake and up toward Glacier Pass.

A couple of patches of snow lingered across the trail but neither were any issue to cross.

The view from Glacier Pass included Glacier Lake, Eagle Cap, and the Matterhorn.

As we began to descend from the pass we spotted Moccasin Lake and our ultimate goal for the day, Mirror Lake.
Moccasin Lake

Mirror Lake

After seeing no one at Frazier Lake and the single tent at Glacier Lake we began running into more and more hikers as we made our way down to Moccasin Lake. The landscape here contained many alpine meadows and bubbling streams.

We followed the trail to Moccasin Lake where we had to hop across it on rocks.

At a trail junction near Moccasin Lake we followed a pointer toward the East Fork Lostine River.

In another .7 miles we reached Mirror Lake and began looking for a place for our tent. After crossing the lake’s outlet creek we found a nice spot in beneath some tress near a small pond and set our packs down while we looked around a bit more.

There were already a number of tents set up around the lake and more hikers were arriving all the time. Before we had started to set up our tent a group of teenagers chaperoned by one adult began noisily setting up tents nearby. We quickly decided to move further away to avoid the unnecessary yelling this group was already doing. We settled on a rocky cliff overlooking both Mirror and Moccasin Lakes above the creek between the two lakes.

The noise from the creek below helped drown out some of the noise and we spent the rest of the afternoon lounging around our campsite and exploring the rocky area between the lakes. The smoke that had been coming up the valley near Frazier Lake made a brief appearance early in the evening but it eventually rolled back and was held at bay on the horizon.

The kids wound up being quieter than expected and after watching a nice sunset we turned in for the night.

Happy Trails!

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9319235@N02/albums/72157671957245226