What: Eagle Cap Wilderness (NE OR) backpacking trip
When: 7/18/13-7/20/13
Who: Me (Born2BBrad) and Chris (Hiker Chris)
Once again, I'm too tired to write a full-meal-deal trip report with all the history, geography and other narrative information. This TR is mainly to show conditions and what the views were on our route.
Here is the basic information on the route we took:
• Started out at the Wallowa Lake Trailhead (4645')
• Up the East Fork Wallowa River trail past Aneroid Lake (7560').
• Made camp at Jewett Lake (8270') after 9.56 miles and 3604' EG.
• Up and over Tenderfoot Pass (8540') and then up and over Polaris Pass (8900').
• Down to the West Fork Wallowa River at 6600'.
• Up the West Fork Wallowa River past Frazier Lake (7130') to Glacier Lake (8170').
• Up and over Glacier Pass (8530') and down to Moccasin Lake (7475').
• Up to Mirror Lake (7600'), then up the Horton Pass trail to a plateau (8183') below Eagle Cap (9572') to make camp for the night after 18.8 miles and 3411' EG.
• Tagged Eagle Cap early the next morning.
• All the way back to the trailhead after passing the lakes in the Lakes Basin and crossing the West Fork Wallowa River at 6040' and going through Sixmile Meadow after going 18.8 miles and 2059' EG.
• Total mileage 47.16 miles and 9074' EG (GPSFly says 43.8 miles and 9860' EG).
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Other comments:
• I lost 5 pounds on this trip.
• Made it to the trailhead from my house in east Portland in 5 and a half hours. Same time for the way back.
• Mosquitoes were only bad near Moccasin Lake and Mirror Lake.
• We had budgeted for an extra day to bag the Matterhorn and Sacajawea Peak but were too tired and had too sore of feet to do that. Maybe next time.
• Talked to a USFS employee at Moccasin Lake who said he counted 80 switchbacks going down Polaris Pass to the West Fork Wallowa River. I think it was more.
• Not counting the last six miles, we only encountered 10 people along the trails, most of them within the first couple of hours before Aneroid Lake.
•
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First good view of Wallowa Lake:
Waterfall along the East Fork Wallowa River Trail:
]
Diversion dam for electricity generation purposes:
Flowers along the trail:
First view of Aneroid Mountain (9702'):
Cool pano shot of a meadow:
Wooden benches above Aneroid Lake:
The trail going up to Dollar Pass (to the left) or Tenderfoot Pass (to the right):
]
Aneroid Mountain from the trail going up to Tenderfoot Pass:
Pano of Aneroid Mountain and the area below it:
Heading over to Jewett Lake:
Campsite just above Jewett Lake:
Sunrise at Jewett Lake:
Jewett Lake from above:
Video below Tenderfoot Pass:
Deer below Tenderfoot Pass:
Looking down the other side of Tenderfoot Pass:
Herd of 30 elk on the way up Polaris Pass:
Looking up at Polaris Pass:
Looking down at the North Fork Imnaha River Valley:
View from Polaris Pass looking west at Eagle Cap:
Zoomed in on Glacier Peak (L) and Eagle Cap (R):
Video of 360 from Point Above Polaris Pass:
Looking down at some of the 80 switchbacks down to the West Fork Wallowa River:
Lots of pretty flowers on the way down:
Can you see the river way down there?
More flowers:
Chris crossing the West Fork Wallowa River below Frazier Lake:
Video of crossing the ice-cold West Fork Wallowa River (below Frazier Lake):
Frazier Lake:
Almost to Glacier Lake/Glacier Peak (L) Eagle Cap (R):
Glacier Lake and Glacier Peak:
Glacier Lake pano:
Climbing up to Glacier Pass:
Pano of Glacier Lake area from the trail up to Glacier Pass:
Looking down the other side of Glacier Pass:
Crossing the isthmus of Moccasin Lake:
Upper Lake and the East Lostine River Valley from the Horton Pass trail:
Campsite on the plateau below Eagle Cap:
Looking up at Eagle Cap, our destination:
Me Brad. Make to top. Aaagghhh!!!
Glacier Lake from Eagle Cap:
Too many geographical feature to name:
Video of Eagle Cap walkabout:
In the very center is a guy taking a shortcut to the top. He must have had crampons. I wouldn't go up that way.
Zoomed in on our tents below:
No bridge over Lake Creek:
This is the crossing of the West Fork Wallowa River:
An exhausted Chris taking a break on the trail:
The Matterhorn and Sacajawea Peak. Not much snow way up there:
I came home to find that my garden had exploded:
GPS tracks overlaid onto NatGeo:
GPS tracks overlaid onto Google Earth:
Elevation graph:
Google Doc link to the GPX tracks:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7SKP52 ... sp=sharing
Not enough pictures for ya? Here's more:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54959080@N ... 742486626/
Keep on hiking,
Brad
