Part 1. Strawberry mountains - my first backpacking trip

And oddly, not much different from camping. The food was just a bit less fresh, the hike a bit more strenuous and slow, and the freedom much more delicious. I've always been one for minimalism. I know it gets old after a while, and one wants more comfortable trappings, but I like to go light and free. I was made for this backpacking stuff.

I also finally fully skinny-dipped. I've jumped in the water before, but seem to always leave on at least one article of clothing. Not this time.

So the trip was good.

Friday night we decided to stay in PDX, to not stress about getting out of town too soon, so that we would be properly prepared and wouldn't have to fight traffic. Besides, we hadn't even figured out where we were going.

Saturday morning, off to the Strawberrry Mountains. They are located in the eastern portion of Oregon, in the high desert, near Canyon City and Prairie City (also near the John Day fossil beds and river). Strawberry Mountain was the one peak in the chain that we were gonna bag.

Shopping had to be done first, some groceries and more importantly, some maps and gear from REI. We were on our way. Seven hours later (we had no idea it was that far away, nor did I know I was to get my period on the drive), we were at the campsite and trailhead. We had no intention however of camping at this place, where there were dozens of people. Instead, we loaded our packs onto our backs, and started climbing into the hills just as it was getting dark. Out came the headlamps. We hiked a mile plus a bit into the woods and found Strawberry Lake. We saw a potential nice campsite, near a creek, but would have to make a perilous crossing, we looked around, found nothing that satisified us and made the crossing, with nothing getting wet. We set up camp, broke out the scotch and beer (btw, watch that Guiness at high elevation), and made dinner. And it was good.

The next morning, we discovered that we were camping in an idyllic setting. Here is the view from the inside of the tent:




There was a beautiful lake in front of us, and the creek that the lake was using to empty out, was cold, crisp and wonderfully refreshing to wash up in.



We had a lovely breakfast, and decided to walk around the lake counter-clockwise, opposite from the night before. We discovered two other campers on the way out, but the last we were to see until coming out of the woods three days later.

The big plan was to make a loop, by hiking up to the ridgeline at 7,000 ft, dropping our bags off, climbing Strawberry Mountain at 9,000 ft, going back for our bags and then following the ridgeline to High Lake, staying there for a night and then to Slide lake for a night and back down.

It didn't happen that way, because it was not physically possible.

Next post: the hell I call last Sunday.