Some times the best days come unexpectedly with little preparation. Last week we were camping (if you can call it that ) with a group down at Detroit lake. Tuesday night brought us a incredible lightning show with the frequency of strikes like I have only seen in the Midwest. Just a short down pour and then the stars came out and we thought the next day wouldn't be to wet. But Wednesday morning the sky's opened up and it poured down rain all day. We watched movies and played Dominoes most of the day by evening it was not to bad.
But Thursday morning was terrible with low clouds and a heavy drizzle falling with temps around fifty. It could have easily have been mid March. I checked out the Mt Bachelor web cams and the weather to the east look promising. By the time we got to Sisters the sun was shining and the Three Sisters stood tall. So we headed for the Tam MacArthur Rim trail head.
My wife and I started up the trail at noon at over 6,000 ft elevation the temp was fifty degrees
and it felt like a crisp fall day. We were traveling light just a little water and couple of apples,
shorts,tennis shoes and my phone for a camera. I guess we broke every rule of the ten essentials
This was uncharted territory for us we had never been on this trail before.
The rim itself is a very large feature and this view point was the end of the
maintained trail.
You can see the remnants of a old fire in the area.
But the storm that passed through had cleared the air and the sky was a clear blue.
We went past the end of the trail sign and there was little difference between maintained and
unmaintained.
We ran in to a little snow and the landscape turned red.
Looking back at the rim you could see how large it was.
The views really began to open up over seventy five hundred feet.
Our high point was up the trail but we were out of time we were responsible for dinner for several
families that evening. We were as high as MSH at that point. There is a cool little lake on the other
side of the ridge we just did not have the time to visit it.
So back we went skiing in our tennis shoes.
And the little green lake had turned blue.
It was a great day to be out it felt like fall and the sky was so blue and crisp. On the drive back my wife spotted a empty hunting camp with a stack of fire wood. That evening was very cool and full of stars and we had a great camp fire thanks to some hunters. Friday the sun came out and the younger family members road wave runners, skied and road tubes with their families. I stuck to just swimming.
This is a great place to hike with easy trail access and many possibilities beyond our high point.
A date with Three Sisters Tam McArthur Rim and beyond 7-24
A date with Three Sisters Tam McArthur Rim and beyond 7-24
Last edited by Roy on July 27th, 2014, 8:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.
The downhill of the mind is harder than the uphill of the body. - Yuichiro Miura
Re: A date with Three Sisters Tam McArthur Rim and beyond 7
That is one dandy hike. I've done it a few times over the years, and it never disappoints. Last September I hiked to the "no name" lake that you almost got a view of, but I hiked to it from the Todd Lake side - - driving up the nasty 370 road past Todd Lake. You'll have to put it on your to-do list, it's really spectacular. You can climb up to a high saddle above the lake and look down towards 3 Creeks Lake and up at Broken Hand.
Kevin
Kevin
"Going to the mountains is going home."
— John Muir
— John Muir
- retired jerry
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Re: A date with Three Sisters Tam McArthur Rim and beyond 7
yeah, I got to hike up around there more, really nice area
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Re: A date with Three Sisters Tam McArthur Rim and beyond 7
Nice! I've lived in Bend for years, and have still never been up there. Shame on me!
- Eric Peterson
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Re: A date with Three Sisters Tam McArthur Rim and beyond 7
Wow Tom, those pictures are nice! What phone are you using?
Re: A date with Three Sisters Tam McArthur Rim and beyond 7
retired jerry wrote:yeah, I got to hike up around there more, really nice area
We have always came at the sisters from the West or the South this side Its much more scenic and open high country. Thanks for the tip on the other hike. We will be back with no time restrains. We were both very impressed.kelkev wrote:That is one dandy hike. I've done it a few times over the years, and it never disappoints. Last September I hiked to the "no name" lake that you almost got a view of, but I hiked to it from the Todd Lake side - - driving up the nasty 370 road past Todd Lake. You'll have to put it on your to-do list, it's really spectacular. You can climb up to a high saddle above the lake and look down towards 3 Creeks Lake and up at Broken Hand.
Kevin
I have been hiking and climbing down there for nearly thirty years and I always passed up this area to.dirt farmer wrote:Nice! I've lived in Bend for years, and have still never been up there. Shame on me!
Its a older Lg phone its good with landscapes but the zoom is terrible Ive learned just to use it on nice bright blue bird days.Eric Peterson wrote:Wow Tom, those pictures are nice! What phone are you using?
The downhill of the mind is harder than the uphill of the body. - Yuichiro Miura
Re: A date with Three Sisters Tam McArthur Rim and beyond 7
I think you just planned my upcoming weekend adventure
- oldandslow
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Re: A date with Three Sisters Tam McArthur Rim and beyond 7
The hike to Tam McArthur Rim from the Todd Lake side is indeed nice. However Rosd 370 is a problem. It usually opens late--not open yet according to the most recent road report--and the lower part of the road is awful. For a short distance it rivals the wort of the road to Bird Creek Meadows. It is possible to hike up the Todd Trail from Todd Lake which is a beautiful walk, but there is a lot of distance and elevation gain before you get to the place that Road 370 would take you. Probably best to plan on going later rather than earlier
Re: A date with Three Sisters Tam McArthur Rim and beyond 7
-Q- wrote:I think you just planned my upcoming weekend adventure
I cant help but wonder if you and I have crossed paths before we seem to enjoy the same type of adventures.
Thanks for the advise I love that description of the road to Bird Creek Meadows it says it all in one wordoldandslow wrote:The hike to Tam McArthur Rim from the Todd Lake side is indeed nice. However Rosd 370 is a problem. It usually opens late--not open yet according to the most recent road report--and the lower part of the road is awful. For a short distance it rivals the wort of the road to Bird Creek Meadows. It is possible to hike up the Todd Trail from Todd Lake which is a beautiful walk, but there is a lot of distance and elevation gain before you get to the place that Road 370 would take you. Probably best to plan on going later rather than earlier
The downhill of the mind is harder than the uphill of the body. - Yuichiro Miura
Re: A date with Three Sisters Tam McArthur Rim and beyond 7
I wouldn't be one bit surprised if we haveRoy wrote:-Q- wrote:I think you just planned my upcoming weekend adventure
I cant help but wonder if you and I have crossed paths before we seem to enjoy the same type of adventures.
We both seem to end up in very similar places, MSH in particular