Rain And Sun And Sun

So we were rained off of Mt St Helens again this year. It's like every other year we succeed and you'd think smarter people would just go on even years, but we are rarely confused with smarter people so there you go. Despite the shortened climb a good time was had by all and a great workout as well.

Next year we are talking about 2 climbs - one early and one in the summer. Like I said, rarely confused.....

We headed out Sunday south into Oregon. Our first stop was at Lake Ochoco County Park outside of Prineville Oregon. The campground was clean and located along the shore of the lake. We had intended to do a hike to Twin Pillars, but we arrived later than planned as our pilot Pam decided on a little longer route that she was curious about. It was really pretty and the bulk of the route was right along Mt Hood who was out in all her glory. Short story long- no hike Sunday.

We got going pretty early Monday and headed to Newbury National Volcanic Monument just south of Bend. There we hiked Paulina Peak. The trail was under snow so we hiked the road to the top which was closed to traffic. The hike was to be 6 miles round trip but ended up being more like 8.5 miles in the snow. Here's the odd part. It was over 85 degrees as we came down from the peak! So we are hiking in the snow in 85 degree temperatures - weird!

We headed down to Diamond Lake for the night and the next day we made it to Crater lake where our plan was to camp in the park and hike Mt Scott in the morning. The only problem was that the campgrounds weren't dug out yet and there was no way to get to Mt Scott yet. You might think this would be a bummer but here's what we saw.

More soon.....