Tag: South Lake

Mt. Hebo Traverse – 09/19/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date September 21, 2023
1 Comment on Mt. Hebo Traverse – 09/19/2023

At the start of the year I scheduled a week of vacation in September just in case our August backpacking trip to the Wallowa Mountains didn’t work out. That vacation worked out so I had a free week while Heather needed to work. When that happens I tend to look for longer hikes in areas where we’ve already been together.

For this outing I chose Mt. Hebo planning to hike up and over from Hebo Lake to South Lake and back. We’d been to Mt. Hebo twice before, most recently in 2015 (post), but never to the actual summit or as far as North & South Lakes. I parked at the Hebo Lake Day Use Area and walked through the campground to the signboard at the start of the Pioneer-Indian Trail.

Hebo Lake

From the trailhead it’s four miles and approximately 1500′ to the meadowed plateau of Mt. Hebo. The lower portion of the trail includes several interpretive signs.
Despite it being the end of Summer the forest was a lush green.

So much green.

The trail crosses several roads along the way and near the one mile mark an equestrian trail joins from the left. All crossing and junctions were well signed.
Trail sign at the equestrian junction.

The equestrian trail. In 2015 we made the mistake of turning onto it briefly.

Love the mossy trees.

One of the numerous trail signs.

This more recently thinned section was full of ripe red huckleberries.

Trail snacks.

Chestnut-backed chickadee

Crossing Road 14 near the 3-mile mark.

There was a small section where there had been a lot of blowdown that had been removed.

Arriving at the meadows.

Looking NW toward the Pacific Ocean.

Mt. Hebo summit from the meadows.

Bayocean Spit (post) and Tillamook Bay.

Cape Lookout (post)

Looking back across one of the meadows.

At the 4.4-mile mark the trail crossed Road 14 again and traversed a hillside above several tributaries of Three Rivers.

This late in the Summer there was no water.

Dry marsh at the tributaries.

Bunchberry

Another dry crossing.

The trail made another crossing of Road 14 just 0.4-miles later then rounded a wide ridge. Near the 5.5-mile mark I reached the start of the steep descent to North and South Lakes where we had turned around in 2015. This time I continued on.

After descending three quarters of a mile North Lake became visible through the trees, or I should say the dry lakebed of North Lake became visible.

The trail stayed above the lakebed and forked. The right hand fork led to Road 14 along the lake shore while the Pioneer-Indian Trail continued to the left.
This was the only official junction that was not signed.

With no water in North Lake I stuck to the Pioneer-Indian Trail and hoped that South Lake wouldn’t be the same. After an initial climb over a ridge the trail gradually descended arriving at South Lake 1.3-miles from North Lake.

Road 14 – again.

South Lake through the trees.

There was water in this lake (and one car in the campground), so I followed the half mile trail around the lake.

Vine maple changing colors.

The trail around South Lake.

After completing the loop I headed back along the Pioneer-Indian Trail.
I really appreciated being reminded that it was eight miles back to Hebo Lake.

I returned past North Lake and began the 600′ plus climb that needed to be made to get back up to the plateau.
I couldn’t really get a good view but there was a nice meadow along the trail between the two lakes.

Oregon grape

Bridge over Three Rivers near North Lake, I almost thought I heard a slight trickle of water here.

Good sized garter snake in the trail ahead.

Normally these snakes slither off into the brush as you approach but this one coiled up in the trail, so I took a long step over it and continued on.

This was the steepest section of the climb up from North Lake.

On the way down I’d spotted two separate flagged trails along the ridge end that appeared to lead up to the plateau. There were no signs but a quick look at the GPS and maps showed a road on the plateau that connected with Road 14. I thought it might be a little shorter to go that way, or at least it might mean a little less climbing because the trail dipped as it passed the dry streams feeding Three Rivers.
One of the flagged routes.

Looking up the flagged route.

I turned up the first of the routes that I came to and climbed steeply to the plateau where the tread quickly petered out.

Remains of some sort of old structure were present. The summit of Mt. Hebo could also be seen.

Turkey vulture

A lone lupine.

I could see the old roadbeds though so I followed the closest thing I could find to old tread to the first roadbed and turned left onto it.

Mountain ash and maple.

A small bird watching me from behind some sticks.

Approximately a third of a mile from the Pioneer-Indian Trail I reached a gate at the end of pavement and in another tenth found myself on Road 14.

I had a choice of turning left or staying straight on Road 14. It would have been about 0.4-miles back to the trail along the left fork, but the map showed Road 14 curved a couple of times while staying straight appeared more direct.
Going the left would have also been the way to North Lake. The road apparently gets narrow and a bit rough beyond this point.

I went straight and followed Road 14 nearly 0.7-miles before arriving at a trail crossing.

I turned right at the trail marker here. As it turned out it wasn’t any shorter at all and I wouldn’t recommend this route due to a lack of tread between the flagged trail and old roadbed and then having to follow Road 14 for so long.

I followed the Pioneer-Indian Trail back through the meadows then, after almost a mile, when it neared Road 14 again I took a short path over to the road to detour up to the summit.

A hedgenettle

I took this left to cut over to Road 14.

I followed Road 14 uphill for half a mile then turned right to visit the former site of an Air Force Radar station (now radio and other towers).

A path near an interpretive sign led out to the former radar site and a view of the Pacific.

Lots of yarrow still blooming at the summit.

White-crowned sparrow

Heading toward the viewpoint.

Three Arch Rocks

Haystack Rock near Pacific City.

Closer look at Haystack Rock.

Penstemon

Meadows along the plateau of Mt. Hebo from the summit.

I returned to Road 14 and followed it back down to the Pioneer-Indian Trail and headed back to Hebo Lake. It was nearly 3.5 more miles to the lake but luckily it almost entirely downhill and it had stayed relatively cool. I did stop for a moment to talk to three hikers from Corvallis who had originally headed East that morning but realized it was too smokey to be enjoyable, so they’d come West instead.

Bead lily (Queen’s cup).

Meadow along the trail.

So many ferns.

Mushrooms

This was a good-sized mushroom.

Back at Hebo Lake.

To wrap up the outing I took the Hebo Lake Trail around the lake and back to the car.

The hike came in at 17.7 miles with a little over 3200′ of cumulative elevation gain.

The highlight of this hike was the coastal forest. The views were nice, and the lakes were fine, but the green forest stole the show. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Mt. Hebo Traverse

Tags hebo lake, Hebo Lake Trail, hiking, Mt. Hebo, Mt. Hebo Summit, North Lake, Oregon, Oregon Coast, Pioneer-Indian Trail, Road 14, South Lake

High Cascades Hiking Oregon Sky Lakes/Mountain Lakes Area Trip report

Seven Lakes Basin Backpack – 09/09/23 & 09/10/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date September 13, 2023
2 Comments on Seven Lakes Basin Backpack – 09/09/23 & 09/10/2023

As we near our goal of finishing at least part of all 100 featured hikes in William L. Sullivans “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Southern Oregon & Northern California” edition 4.2 (post) there was one backpacking trip left. Sullivan’s Seven Lakes West and Seven Lakes East (hikes 38 & 39 in edition 4.2) start at trailheads on opposite side of the Cascade Crest but both contain a loop through the Seven Lakes Basin and a climb up Devil’s Peak in the Sky Lakes Wilderness. Aside from the different trailheads the only other difference is that he includes a visit to Lake Alta from the west trailhead.

We opted to begin from the eastern trailhead – Sevenmile Marsh. The primary reason for this was the trailhead is roughly half an hour closer to Salem but the Forest Service currently shows the status of the western trailhead (Seven Lakes) as unreachable. (This may simply be an oversight when updating their webpages, but it is a good reminder that it’s always a good idea to double check with the managing agencies before heading out.)
Sevenmile Marsh Trailhead

The trail descended to a crossing of Sevenmile Creek then climbed gradually along a hillside above Sevenmile Marsh, entering the Sky Lakes Wilderness along the way.

Sevenmile Creek

Entering the wilderness

Sevenmile Marsh

The Sevenmile Trail climbed gradually through a nice forest for nearly two miles before joining the Pacific Crest Trail.
Lodgepole pines were the dominate trees along the first part of the trail.

Mountain hemlock took over as the trail gained elevation.

Junction with the PCT.

We turned left onto the PCT and found ourselves losing a bit of elevation before beginning another gradual climb.

There were a few downed trees along this section but nothing difficult to get around.

This twisted tree caught our attention.

Nice blue sky.

Lewis’s woodpecker way up in a snag.

After two miles on the PCT we arrived at Honeymoon Creek which resembled a small pond. Tadpoles splashed around in the mud while larger frogs hung out around the water.

Tadpoles

Frog in the water.

After another 0.6-miles on the PCT we arrived at a signed junction with the Seven Lakes Trail.
Trail sign ahead on the right.

Our plan was to set up camp at Cliff Lake then do the loop and summit Devil’s Peak as described by Sullivan. We could have turned right here and followed the Seven Lakes Trail 1.3-miles past Grass and Middle Lakes to Cliff Lake, but sticking to the PCT for another 0.7-miles then turning the Cliff Lake Trail would save us nearly a quarter of a mile. We decided to save Middle and Grass Lakes for our hike out the following morning and stayed straight on the PCT.

Unnamed creek along the PCT. We were surprised at how many of the seasonal creeks still had flowing water.

Grass-of-parnassus

Huckleberries, there were a lot of these around the basin which we happily sampled.

Devil’s Peak poking up above the trees.

The Cliff Lake Trail.

We turned right onto the Cliff Lake Trail and descended a third of a mile to rejoin the Seven Lakes Trail a tenth of a mile from Cliff Lake.

Prince’s pine

Another flowing seasonal creek.

Crater Lake collomia (Collomia mazama)

The Seven Lakes Trail arriving on the right.

Cliff Lake

At Cliff Lake we turned onto a use trail following it around the eastern side of the lake in search of a suitable campsite. While there were numerous sites most of the sites we were seeing were large enough for multiple tents. We didn’t want to take up one of the large sites with our single tent and we also didn’t want to wind up with neighbors if we could avoid it. We wound up getting separated in the process and after walking back and forth for a bit we found each other and settled on a campsite.

Arnica

Aster

Splash in Cliff Lake from one of many fish that were feeding on insects.

Camp

After getting set up we grabbed our daypacks and headed back to the Seven Lakes Trail. We decided to hike the loop clockwise which meant backtracking along the Seven Lakes and Cliff Lake Trails to the PCT and then turning right to continue southward.
Huckleberry bushes along the Cliff Lake Trail.

Anywhere there was water nearby there were lots of tiny Cascade toads to watch out for.

Back at the PCT.

Larger frog

Monkshood

More grass-of-parnassus

Not only were the toads tiny, they also were well camouflaged.

The PCT climbed steadily providing the first glimpses of the peaks around Crater Lake.
Mount Scott (post) between the trees.

Mount Scott

The Watchman (post) and Hillman Peak (post)

The Watchman and Hillman Peak

Devil’s Peak

Union Peak (post) in the distance.

Cliff Lake with Violet Hill beyond.

Black backed woodpecker

Getting closer to Devil’s Peak.

A much bigger Cascade toad.

Near Devil’s Peak the PCT left the trees and switchbacked up a talus field resulting on great view to the north toward Crater Lake and beyond.

Mt. Thielsen (post) in the center beyond the rim of Crater Lake.

Union Peak with Mt. Bailey (post) behind to the right.

Lots of neat rock formation on Devil’s Peak.

Western pasque flower seed heads.

Buckwheat

Two and a half miles from the Seven Lakes Trail junction the PCT arrived at a pass. The final climb was fairly steep even with switchbacks, so a brief rest was in order at the pass.

Views to the South opened up at the pass including Klamath Lake and Pelican Butte.

Klamath Lake

Devil’s Peak and the PCT coming up to the pass from the North.

Klamath Lake, Pelican Butte, Aspen Butte (post) over the right shoulder of Pelican, Brown Mountain (post) is the small cone on the right, and Mt. McLoughlin (post)

Mt. McLoughlin

A faint Mt. Shasta which, given the wildfires burning in NW California was a bit of a surprise to be able to see.

The view North.

Goose Egg and Ethel Mountain in the forefront with Llao Rock, Mt. Thielsen, and Garfield Peak (post) behind.

Devil’s Peak

While we were resting at the pass we heard a helicopter approaching from the NW. It wound up hovering low above the lakes basin before heading back the way it came.
We were a little concerned at first that it might be picking up water for a new fire but there wasn’t anything hanging from the helicopter so we have no idea what it was actually doing.

A path headed uphill from the pass toward Devil’s Peak while the PCT headed slightly downhill.
The use path to Devil’s Peak on the right and the PCT on the left.

We headed up the use trail which was fairly easy to follow with just one slightly sketchy narrow spot.

The rather ominously named Lucifer from the use trail.

A second use trail coming up from the opposite side.

Western pasque flowers on the hillside above the use trails.

The summit of Devil’s Peak ahead.

The views were excellent from the summit so we took another nice break to soak them in before heading down.
Looking North toward Crater Lake and Mt. Thielsen

Lucifer, Jupiter, and Venus

Lee Peak above the pass.

Luther Mountain (post) in the foreground with Aspen Butte, Brown Mountain and Mt. McLoughlin.

Remains of a former lookout.

The PCT below Devil’s and Lee Peaks.

Goose Egg, Llao Rock, and Mt. Thielsen

Mt. Scott

Mt. Shasta to South through a little smoke but again we felt fortunate to be able to see the mountain at all.

Colorful grasshopper at the summit.

American pipit

We headed down taking the other use trail which angled down along a ridge to the PCT approximately a third of a mile from where we had left it to climb Devil’s Peak.
The Seven Lakes Basin from the use trail down.

South, Middle, North, and Grass Lakes

Heading down the use trail.

Looking back up the use trail.

When we reached the PCT we turned right and headed toward Lucifer.

Western snakeroot along the PCT.

A comma butterfly on western snakeroot.

Painted lady

At a ridge below Lucifer we arrived at a signed trail junction.

Here the PCT forked left toward Luther Mountain while the Devil’s Peak Trail forked right. We took the Devil’s Peak Trail and followed it 1.3-miles to the Seven Lakes Trail. Passing below Jupiter and Venus along the way.
Venus from the Devil’s Peak Trail.

Looking back at Devil’s Peak.

Looking North across the Seven Lakes Basin.

Lake Alta in a bowl below Violet Hill.

Pond along the Devil’s Peak Trail.

Coming up to the Seven Lakes Trail junction. A rock cairn was the only marker.

We turned right onto the Seven Lakes Trail and descended 0.2 miles to a signed junction with the Alta Lake Trail.

We turned left onto the Alta Lake Trail. We followed this trail for a fairly level half mile to the long lake.

Heather took another break at the South end of the lake while I hiked another quarter mile along the lake to get a better look at the northern end.
I was still only about halfway along the lake after the quarter mile. There used to be a campground at the North end.

Common merganser

The southern end of Lake Alta.

On the way back to Heather I detoured to take in the view from the cliffs above the basin.
Cliff Lake below Devil’s Peak and Middle Lake.

Middle and Grass Lakes

I could hear several pikas in the rocks below the cliffs but the only thing I spotted was a chipmunk.

Chipmunk

After rejoining Heather we headed back to the Seven Lakes Trail and continued descending into the basin.
Sulphur butterfly on aster.

Gentian

Fireweed

A mile from the Alta Lake Trail we arrived at South Lake.

South Lake

Another quarter mile brought us to a view of Cliff Lake.

Devil’s Peak from the trail. There were more pikas “meeping” from the rocks here but again we failed to spot any of them.

We followed the trail around to the North side of Cliff Lake and then turned on the use trail to return to our campsite.

Back at camp we refilled our water supply and had dinner then relaxed a bit before turning in for the night. For me this had been a 15.3-mile hike with 2000′ of elevation gain. One and a quarter of those miles was hiking from the Seven Lakes Trail to our camp, and initially wandering around looking for a site and Heather.
Devil’s Peak in the evening.

So many fish in the evening.

In the morning we packed up and headed back, this time sticking to the Seven Lakes Trail to visit Middle and Grass Lakes.

Devil’s Peak in the morning.

Seven Lakes and Cliff Lake Trail junction.

We reached Middle Lake in 0.4-miles.

We detoured left at the northern end of the lake following a pointer for Lake Ivern to find a view back across Middle Lake.

Devil’s Peak from Middle Lake.

We returned to the Seven Lakes Trail and in another half mile we passed views of Grass Lake.
Stream crossing.

Monkshood and grass-of-parnassus

Grass Lake

We didn’t follow any of the use trails down to Grass Lake and instead stuck to the Seven Lakes Trail as it climbed for 0.2 miles to the Pacific Crest Trail.

Arriving at the PCT.

We turned left onto the PCT and returned to the Sevenmile Marsh Trailhead the way we’d come the day before. Of note were the ducks making use of the small pond along Honeymoon Creek.

Golden-mantled ground squirrel

Sevenmile Trail at the PCT to return to the Sevenmile Marsh Trailhead.

Exiting the Sky Lakes Wilderness.

The hike out came to 6.1-miles with just 200′ of elevation gain.

The red section marks our track out past Middle and Grass Lakes

This was a great trip. The temperatures were pleasant, the views great, lots of huckleberries and only a few mosquitos. We also only saw a total of eight other people all weekend. We are now down to a half dozen featured hikes from the Southern Oregon/Northern California book and if conditions cooperate we may well be finished by November. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Seven Lakes Basin