{"id":39216,"date":"2026-09-25T08:27:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T15:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/?p=39216"},"modified":"2026-09-25T08:27:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T15:27:43","slug":"camp-sherman-nearby-hikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/?p=39216","title":{"rendered":"Camp Sherman & Nearby Hikes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After hiking Mt Washington Monday (review \/ photos<\/a>), I landed at Camp Sherman CG to meet my favorite sister for a week of hiking and chilling along the Metolius River<\/a>. This was our 3rd or 4th time this year meeting up, but for my sister this was her 9th stay at Camp Sherman this year. A magical place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a placard on a memorial bench in front of one cabin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our tents were pitched <15 yards from river’s edge, and the river’s music made for a night-long lullaby only Brahms could comprehend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sherman Camp CG<\/a><\/strong> is closest to the store just down river. It’s a mixed CG but our site was tent-only right one the river. The CG was about 25% full, most being fly-fishing types. Camp Sherman CG is the easiest one to use a base-camp to hike beyond the river. Great Horned owls created a symphony every night, but the first night had at least 3 singers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hiking Day 1 – Black Butte<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

While one can walk from Camp Sherman CG to Black Butte, the section from the headwaters dead-end on the river to the lower TH is BORING! … so, we drove <10 minutes to the lower TH, and were the first car there (at the time, neither of us had seen more than 3 cars there – ever).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first section of the hike is thru Ponderosa Pines and a few scattered Red Cedar … and as you break into some ‘open spots’ 3-Finger Jack is the first cascade to appear. But getting up above the trees, the entire central cascades open up … we could see from S. Sister to Mt Adams and all in-between, except St Helens. The view to Sisters and Broken Top was the best, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Washington and Jefferson stood also with so little snow … scary!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Atop Black Butte, we had the summit to ourselves for about 15 minutes, and this little guy had to put on quite a show for some ‘treats’. It didn’t realize that we don’t feed the animals, but cute it was!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A group of 5 came up right after this and my sister took their pic (no selfie!) and we headed down the hill … we met up with about 40 people in a church group coming up the hill – some would surely NOT make it :). … when we arrived at the TH, 15 cars. A popular day to hike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hiking Day 2 – Santiam Pass to 3-Finger Jack<\/h3>\n\n\n
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Tuesday morning, we quickly drove to Santiam Pass and were hiking before 6:30 on the PCT toward 3-Finger Jack. Sunrise hit Mt Washington perfectly and the fog barely made it over the pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We played leap-frog with a pair who were going to summit Jack via south ridge … but while we were ahead, we ran into 3 deer – mom, last year’s daughter and this year’s daughter; all three tolerated us for quite awhile and we watched each other. They never lifted their tails and disappeared over the ridge; all looked in great health!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In this same area, a fox walked the path before us leaving footprints in the wet sand and poo along the edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hiked up to the saddle between N \/ S 3-Finger Jack, looking down to Canyon Meadows and out over to Black Butte. Sadly, no goats seen this time. Jack looks like a sandwiched solid piece of rock, and the saddle gets you VERY close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After eating lunch at the saddle and learning all we could about the rock, we headed back down the hill. Over the course of 14 miles we saw 3-4 humans, several deer, and vistas to knock your socks off. But at the end, bitter sweet to see this side of the sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hiking Day 3 – Metolius Preserve and the Metolius River Trail<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On the third day, we decided to be tourists. We drove over to the Lake Creek TH (1 mile)to hike over to and through the Metolius Preserve<\/a> which is part of the Deschutes Land Trust. This is just a great spot preserved by huge effort, I am sure, by a large group of regular Camp Sherman and Metolius River visitors. We rambled around for over 7 miles … deer, ponderosa pines, recovering forests and cougar sighting signs too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just a remarkable place to save between the river and the national forest at Santiam Pass. Vine maple was in full redness to add more beauty to the experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After parking at CG, we quickly walked to the store for hot coffee and tea, then cruised the river trail down past Allingham bridge to the end on west side. We probably walked 5-7 miles along the river over the 3 days … just taking it all in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the Way Home<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We decided to break camp 1 night early as the rains were coming … <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While still in tourist hiking mode, I stopped at Clear Lake on the way home to see how the fall colors were hitting the lake and especially the headwaters of the Mckenzie River. While the colors were there, muted would be about the right word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n