Bachelor Mountain 5953' (07-29-12)

Father/Son summit of Bachelor Mountain

I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and take my son out for a  hike. While looking on SummitPost I found this short hike that offered plenty of reward for little effort. The dirt road up features views from Mt. Adams down to Broken Top.

Zack and the snags

While this is a relatively easy hike, it was hard pacing myself to match my sons pace. He isn't nearly as accustomed to trail slogging as I am, especially when I am on flat terrain. Part way up you get into an old burn area with snags and a clearing. This would be a great place for a picnic or even an overnight stay (if you wanted).

Bachelor Mountain Trail sign

 After a short while past the clearing you come to a fork in the road. Stay left at the well marked sign, which is trail no. 420. Even though the SummitPost page says the trail is maintained I found myself ducking under branches and trampling over quite a bit of weeds and grass. A few times I had to hold the grass down so Zack could get through it.

Zack on some loose rock on Bachelor Mountain

 Having made it through the thicker forest area of the trail we came upon some nice loose rock to scramble over. The path was pretty well maintained but I stayed close to my son since I didn't want him falling.






We had a nice lunch on the summit, albeit a fast one, due to the horseflies that were bothering us. We even found what looked like an old indian petroglyph of a deer near the summit. We left it in hopes that it was real. The way back down was pretty uneventful. Zack started complaining about his legs but we kept on. Stopped for some ice cream in Idahna on the way back home.

Coffin Mountain and Lookout from the Bachelor Mountain trail.

View South from Bachelor Mountain

Final Stats:

Summit: Yes
Elevation Gain: 1100'
Round Trip Distance: 4 miles
Round Trip Time: 2-3 hours (Normally 1.5hours)

Middle Sister 10,047' - Hayden Glacier (07-22-12)

Laying on the summit of Middle Sister catching some sunshine

This was my first official climb with the Chemeketans. After lots of trouble with weather and scheduling earlier this year (cancelling Mt. Hood trips), I was excited to do a club climb. Usually I only climb with groups of 4 or less, so it was a new and welcome experience.

Heading up the snowfields

We left from the Pole Creek Trailhead around 11am. My pack was roughly 45lbs, but I was feeling strong and being in a group made me forget about the weight. The heat was beating down, with it being 70degrees or more. My brand new Mountain Hardware Stretch Bandana was coming in handy. I ended up using it almost the entire duration of the trip for one thing or another.

Almost 2 hours later, and a few breaks in between we made it to the turn off for the climbers trail. After this point we started hitting patches of snow and crossed a few creeks.

Water carves ice and snow

Things started getting really awesome here, scenery wise. With Broken Top to the south and the Three Sisters popping up it started reminding me why we were out there.

We decided to continue on past the normal place to camp at 6900' and instead climb the snow fields until we reached the toe of the Hayden Glacier, closer to 8000'.

Shortly after arriving we set up camp and found a nice pool of water. We decided to boil it just for safety's sake but I am sure it would have been ok to drink on it's own. After boiling water for the following day and storing it in the tent, I made quick work of a delicious Mountain House. We went over tying in for the following morning and also some basic glacier travel etiquette.

Camping at 8000'

The following morning we got up at 3:00am, roped in, and started a slow but steady climb up the Hayden Glacier. With such a light summit pack I never felt like I was working very hard. It was nice and made the trip more enjoyable. I got to turn around and see the sights quite regularly. One amazing site was seeing headlamps on other mountains around us. There was a group going up North Sister and I saw one headlamp turn on on South Sister's summit.

Heading up Hayden Glacier

Crux picture courtesy of Mike Pennington

When we reached the top of Hayden Glacier, we un-roped and took off our ice-axes/crampons. We scrambled up some poor scree/rocks until we were at the base of the crux move. The crux is a ~40degree pitch that most people bang in protection on. Being that it was a Chemeketan climb, there was no way we were doing without a few snow pickets. There were nice footsteps all the way up the pitch and quite honestly I felt safer here then some parts of my Mt. McLoughlin climb. Perhaps it was just knowing we were clipped into a rope, or maybe it was because of the club atmosphere.

Washington, Three Finger Jack, and Mt. Jefferson

Once we reached the top of the crux we unroped and did another scree climb til we reached the summit. We got out sweet summit photos and proceeded back down to camp. There was a group of Mazama's heading up as we were heading back down. After breaking down camp I threw my rain gear on and had a fun glissade, which seemed to save lots of time. After we got off the snow it was a long slog back to camp. I really enjoyed this trip and wish to be on future Chemeketan climbs.

Chemeketan team summit photo!

Final Stats:

Summit: Yes
Elevation Gain: 4747'
Round Trip Distance: 12+ miles
Round Trip Time: 24+ hours
FULL PHOTO ALBUM

Henline Mt. (4650')

Henline Mt. in the Opal Creek Wilderness is a pretty straight forward hike. Unfortunately, when you attempt in in mid-April during unusual snowfall the "straight forward hike" becomes much more difficult. Last April we attempted to reach the summit only to fall short.

Looking West back towards Salem

Fast forward to July and now the trail and the summit are completely snow free. We parked at the trailhead and left the car around 6:45am. At the Henline Mountain Trailhead 3352 you must fill out a free Wilderness Permit. I have seen reports (after we hiked) that you also need a Northwest Forest Pass, but we didn't have one in my car and I didn't get a ticket.

You start gaining elevation pretty quickly heading up the trail. We were in 60+ degree weather so we started out in shorts/shirt and opted out on gaiters. There are a few small rock outcroppings that you can get great views towards the west from. There are also some loose rock slide areas that help break up the trail nicely. When you reach the old lookout tower be sure to soak in the sights and also eyeball the true summit. After getting hydrated and eating a small snack we continued up towards the summit. This is not an official trail but honestly it would be hard not to follow the stomped down trail in the bear grass and dirt. After seeing some bear scat and lots of trees with bark scraped off I was actually starting to worry about bears.

Jefferson stands above

We reached the summit (2700' higher than the trailhead). Since the summit isn't above timberline we didn't feel the need for any great poses. We trotted our way back down the mountain and made it before it got too hot. I still sweat a ton and almost finished off the 2.5L I had brought. Overall this was a great conditioning hike and it felt great to be outdoors again. My next report will hopefully be about my summit of the Middle Sister with the Chemeketans.

Here is my GPS output for Henline Mt

Final Stats:
Summit: Yes
Elevation Gain: ~2700'
Round Trip Distance: 7.6 miles
Round Trip Time: 3.75hours