It's been awhile since I've been on what I would call a decent hike. Earlier this week I went on a 4 mile round trip into the Three Sisters Wilderness to visit North Matthieu Lake. While I walk 2-3 miles most days I knew a hike in the mountains with a bit of elevation gain was going to be a little bit of shock to my system. 😀
Entering the wilderness from the trailhead.
Some of the devastation from a fire about 6 years ago. This area is about 15 miles as the crow flies from where we live. The Milli fire caused to have to evacuate our home for about 4 days.
A burned out log from the fire.
Time for me to leave my small jaunt along the PCT and hit the lake trail.
A short rest and my first view of the North Sister.
The trail starts to enter and area with a few more living trees and leave some of the devastation behind.
Even a few wildflowers making an appearance.
The first sign of some water about halfway into my trek.
A shot of the trail heading into even denser forest. As I was looking at the LCD screen to review this shot, I heard something thrash across the trail in front of me. I had glimpsed something brown so I turned to my left...
and saw this deer staring at me. It was a relief as for a quick moment I had no idea what was rumbling through the woods. 😀
Another small body of water on the way to the lake. It was really buggy here. I didn't spend much time here and picked up the pace.
As I mentioned at the beginning I knew this hike would be a bit of a test for my out of shape body. The last third of a mile to this point didn't disappoint in that regard. About a 10%-15% grade that I was forced to ascend quite slowly. As you will see in the next few pictures though it was well worth the pain this Oldmans had to suffer. 😅
As I arrive at the lake there is one last bog of water on the short trail to the lake side.
Here is a panorama of the lake stitched together in Lightroom.
Very clear mountain lake.
The tip of the North Sister visible in the distance over the lake.
A zoomed in view of the North Sister.
One last view of the devastation as I return to the trail head. Mt Washington, Three Fingered Jack and Mt Jefferson visible in the distance.
Please feel free to make comments or ask me any questions about this post.
Photos taken by me, @oldmans, with a Nikon D3300 and some Lightroom post processing.
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This is my kind of place for a long hike. Love that you got a photo of a deer, that's so cool. Glad it wasn't a bear! What is the temperature of that lake?
I was kind of hoping for bigfoot, but deer is probably the safer option. 😅
Not sure of the exact temperature but alpine lakes are generally pretty cold. I've swam in an alpine lake similar to this before and I remember you don't linger to long in the water. Ha Ha!
If you had managed to get that clear a picture of bigfoot instead of the deer, you would be super famous now lol.
The water does look pretty darn icy and seeing as there was snow on that mountain top, I don't think I'd venture in unless I was dared 🤣
Considering it was 49 degrees F when I started the hike, no need to cool off this time. lol.
I love the stillness of this mountain lake. Calming and peaceful.
It was very serene. Could have spent all day there. 😀
Thank you!
As much as I love all the images shown, I can't say how painful it is to see the leftovers after that forest fire. It breaks my heart when I get to see this kind of scenery...
It is a double edged sword. A lot is lost but there is also renewal with fire. Unfortunately it will take more than my lifetime to restore its self.
Absolutely. But while it takes seconds or minutes to see it destroyed, it takes decades to be back to normal. Which is really sad! 🥺
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