PH'ers "Romann", "BGBG", myself and another friend repeated "greenjello85"'s recent trip on 1-31-15. Many thanks go to him for the recon.
The weather was cool in the morning, near freezing actually, but blue skies were filtering through the thin fog layer from my home in NE PDX.
We left just after 8:30am and arrived at the Pansy Lake trailhead around 10:30. The drive out 224 was uneventful (in a good way), though we did spot a coyote on the roadside near Wildcat Mtn Rd. He casually loped across the road as we slowed down to gawk and admire him.
The OR 224 was in good shape, and evidence of the fire from this past fall was present, but not nearly as bad as I had feared. It is still a nice drive and we can all be thankful for that. They are still target shooting at the gravel pit, however.
I have looked forward to hiking in this Wilderness for some time, and it did not disappoint! It's fantastic to be able to reach a place like this in January! Striking out from the 551 Pansy Lake TH, we immediately entered a wonderful forest and the cool morning air and sun rays breaking through the branches just made me feel alive.
Is that a cool sign, or what?
SO MANY RHODIES!
Shortly we came to a creek crossing where you see water disappearing over a ledge. I scrambled down the hillside to see the waterfall from below.
It's actually much taller than it appears in this photo. I would estimate it was between 30'-40' high, though it continued cascading below my vantage point.
Another junction where we would return on our loop, the 549 Dickey Lake trail veered left. We went right, staying on the 551 trail.
We soon arrived at Pansy Lake.
I wandered around the lake checking out the various campsites. One or two nice ones, though I hear this area gets really busy in the summer and also terrible mosquitoes. Two strikes against it, though nothing stops me from visiting in January this year! It's almost thawed out.
Large crack in the lake ice:
The trail starts climbing up above the lake to a viewpoint:
Before soon coming to a junction with the 558 Mother Lode Trail. Beyond here, we came across a good viewpoint south towards Mt Jefferson and the Mother Lode Creek drainage.
I think this is Mother Lode mtn:
The trail really begins to climb here, ascending steadily through forested canopy to towards the top of Bull of the Woods mountain. Eventually you reach a ridge, and the 554 Welcome Lakes trail, marked by this hungry tree:
There are views here and we gawked a bit at the volcanoes, but knowing the best was yet to come and it had begun to cloud up to our West, we continued on up the ridge along the 554 trail until the lookout tower came into view.
We geeked out a bit:
View South East (Mt Jefferson, Three Sisters, Broken Top, Three Fingered Jack, etc)
View North East (Mt Hood, Mt Adams, Mt Rainier, etc)
View East (Mt Hood, Big Slide Mtn & Lake)
View West (Mary's Peak)
Couldn't stop taking pictures of Jefferson.
The lookout was chained up, but interesting in it's own right. Some interesting graffitti:
Me doing what I do best, look at a map and point at stuff:
Spotted the privy over the hill:
Worse for wear (though still better than 75% of FS restrooms)
Nice look at Olallie Butte:
I really appreciated the interesting perspective from this area. I love looking at familiar landmarks from unfamiliar angles and elevations.
At the top we ran into fellow PH'er ChipG. Good to meet you, Chip! Only another PH'er would be silly enough to come all the way out here in January, right? PH effect in full effect. Thanks greenjello85!
Time to head back, this is us:
Stopped to check out Dickey Lake, not much to see:
SO MANY RHODIES!
Back to the car and all smiles on the way home.
About 8 miles, 2250' eg.
Thanks for reading!
If this keeps up we're going to be really screwed this summer with wildfires.