Our original backpacking plan was Tuesday-Saturday, but the Akawa Butte Fire (InciWeb) was dumping smoke into Three Sisters Wilderness and then a Red Alert for thunderstorms and possible additional fires in same area. We waited until after the Red Alert cleared and left Thursday morning for Devils Lake TH. Driving to the TH haze and…
With this year’s OR snowpack so far below averages, I was backpacking Three Sisters Wilderness 2 weeks earlier than any summer in last 10 years. Context on how this year fits into the last decade: the 2025–26 winter was one of the driest in the Cascades in years. Peak snow water equivalent in the Central…
Well folks, the original post for So Sister adventure was destroyed … and rather that try to recreate the same thing, I’ll do another one 🙂 For planning purposes leading up to this trip (July 28-31), weather reports from at least 5 services conflicted and contradicted each other; I’ve never seen such inconsistency in weather…
To prepare for upcoming PCT adventure, a backpack kit shakeout was definitely needed. After driving last week to ID and planned adventures, driving more than 1 hour away was not an option. 3 hikes were possibles: Alpine Trail to Tire Mountain, King Castle to Macduff Mountain and finally Hardesty to Sawtooth (or June). The decision…
