Hiking the McKenzie River Trail

Good afternoon & happy Tuesday.  I’m wrapping up another two days off here in my work week.  Yesterday, I decided to spend my first day off by exploring something new–the McKenzie River Trail.  This trail is located east of Eugene and is known as the number 1 mountain biking trail in the nation.  It parallels the river for about 25 miles, going past some very pretty scenery. 

   
My roommate Karlie and I went together, and we set out at 7:30 am.  It was about a three-hour drive.  As we got toward the trail, we stopped at the Willamette National Forest Ranger Station for a map and some advice on which portion of the trail we should hike.  It was suggested we do the 3-mile loop that goes near two waterfalls and to go around Clear Lake, which is a 5-mile loop.  It wasn’t long until we came up on the first waterfall named Koosah Falls. 

   

  It was a beauty!  Within the next mile, we were already up to Sahalie Falls, which we climbed to to feel the refreshing spray of the falls.  Both of these waterfalls were huge and were surrounded by bright green moss.  The water of the river was so clear and blue that it made for quite the lovely hike! 

 After the falls, we headed toward Clear Lake.  It took a half mile or so to reach the lake, and the trail skirting it went through tall pine trees.  It was a calm day–not too hot– and it made for an enjoyable hike.   

 On the northeast side of the lake we discovered Great Spring, which was located under the most beautiful turquoise pool.  Quite breath-taking!   

  

 The rest of the lake trail followed some rocky lava rocks.  Then we made our way back to the falls section, going along the other side of the river.  All in all, we hiked a little over 10 miles, but what a gorgeous 10 miles it was!

On our way home, we stopped in Springfield for dinner, deciding on Fin’s diner which was like an old-fashioned 50’s diner.  A grilled cheese & crinkle fries sure hit the spot!  By 9:30, we were back home in Crater Lake.

Despite my aching feet, I got up early to hike with Heidi and Gabby.  We decided to leave at 7:30 to find Llao’s Hallway, a feature on the topo map that does not have a designated trail to it.  Following a dry creek bed, we found it in the pinnacle formations.  The pumic rock was quite unstable, so I was content to peer over the edge, while Heidi and Gabby were a bit more brave and hiked down into it.  Overall, we hiked about 3.5 miles.  A nice morning spent in the woods.    

  Tomorrow I’m back on a Wizard Island boat shift.  These days off sure do go by quickly.  It’s looking like my last day is going to be sooner than expected–Aug. 24.  So I’ll be back home in just two short weeks.  I’m looking forward to seeing Jeremy, my family, friends, and of course my critters!

Until next time from Crater Lake!

Just a Quick Update…

…because I’ve been working the past three days! Two days of boat tours, followed by yesterday and today on trolleys. The weather has been kind if odd here. Storms or threat of storms have been in play all week. Yesterday and today there is a lot of fog, making the lake nearly impossible to see from our trolley tours. It was also in the 50s yesterday!   

  Last night I went for a little hike with Heidi on the Lady of the Woods and Castle Crest trails. We saw three deer who didn’t seem to mind our presence on the trail.  

 Today I’m back on trolleys and we also have our Art on the Rim show going on. It’s a display of art from the artists in residence who have worked here the past year. I’m going to try to pop in before or between my tours today. 

Not sure what I’ll be working tomorrow as our schedule has yet to be posted, but I’m still planning on visiting the Redwoods Monday & Tuesday. 

As a PS, a big happy 4th anniversary to my husband Jeremy! Our anniversary was on Thursday & I couldn’t be missing him more. September seems like a long way off even though so far the time here has flown.   

 Good bye & happy weekend from Oregon!

Rough Rider Falls Hike

After Saturday’s long day of the Wizard Island boat tour shift, it was nice to have Sunday as a prep day.  I spent the morning in the library down the hall from our interp work room, where I continued to research the women of Crater Lake, which will be the subject of my 20-minute ranger talk at the Sinnott Memorial.  If you recall from a previous post, I had made some personal connections to one woman named Frances Fuller Victor, whose name used to grace what is now the Sinnott Overlook.  

In Sunday’s research, I discovered that after renaming her overlook (Victor Rock) to the Sinnott, the 1945 superintendent of the park decided to give her another overlook called Victor View.  After planning my trolley tour, I knew there was no overlook on the map named Victor View, so I did some investigating.  One article said that Victor View was located at the overlook above Sentinel Point, which can only be found by locating an easily-overlooked trail over a rock wall and through a stand of mountain hemlocks.  

This was turning into quite the mystery, so after eating lunch at home, I hopped in my car and set out to find Victor View.  It took me stopping at a few different overlooks on East Rim Drive, but I finally found the trail behind the rock wall.  And boy was I excited to follow that path!  Sure enough, it was hidden from sight of the overlook, but led down to Sentinel Point which I had seen from the boat, but never from the road. I was so happy that I had found Frances’s overlook, and it gave me more motivation to keep investigating, which I continued to do that afternoon. 

 After my day of prepping, Heidi, Karlie, and I headed over to a cookout where a couple who works here at the park was celebrating their wedding which had occurred this past weekend.  We got a bite to eat and chatted with lots of people from other divisions.  Then we headed over to play some volley-friz with the other interps, which was another great time.  

Today was my day off, so after I woke up, I set to work finding a new trail to go hike.  Once I found one, I ventured out once again to the Rogue National Forest for another hike along the Rogue River.  I had to drive a little off the main highway to a forest road, but shortly thereafter I located the trailhead.  It was a beautiful day, so I decided to do a longer hike that would be about 8 miles round trip.  As I set off, I hiked through stands of Shasta Red Firs and Sugar Pines, the Sugar Pines being known for their really big pinecones. 

 The highlight of the hike would be two big waterfalls.  The first came after about 2 miles of hiking.  This one was simply called “Un-named Waterfall” in my guidebook.  But after seeing it, I feel it is definitely worthy of a name! 

   
The second waterfall was called Rough Rider Falls, and it appeared around mile 4 of my hike.  I can certainly understand why it was named so, as I certainly would be fearful of taking a ride down this one!   Rough Rider was particularly beautiful because of the bright green moss that grew on the rocks and logs in its path.  The air was significantly cooler here too, which was a nice break from the 90 degree afternoon. 

    
   
The hike back was peaceful and I got to get another glimpse of the Un-named Falls on the way.  I also realized that despite the incredible falls on this trail, I was the only person on the entire trail.  Such solitude is truly special.

When I got back to my car, I located another short trail in my guidebook that led to a waterfall just about 3 miles up the road, so I headed there next.  I had to drive another 4 miles down a forest service road, but the trail to National Creek Falls was well-marked with signs.  It was just a half mile down a trail, but it led to an absolutely stunning waterfall that was so big, I had trouble getting all of it in the shot of my camera.  Plus, the mist from the falls was so great that I had to be quick so that it didn’t totally soak my I Phone while I was taking the photos. 

   
That same mist also created a pretty rainbow in front of the falls. 

 After admiring the view for a while, I hiked back up to my car, wrapping up a 9-mile day of hiking.  Phew!  It was nice to get home, shower, eat some dinner, and chill for the rest of the night.

Tomorrow I’ll be going to Lava Beds National Monument with Heidi which should prove to be another great adventure.  Until then, good night from Crater Lake!

4th of July Boat Tours

  Happy 4th of July everyone!  I hope you all had a great day filled with family, friends, food, fireworks, and fun.  Here at Crater Lake, we had what will probably be the busiest day of the summer.  I was on a long boat shift today, so I got to Cleetwood around 9 am.  My first tour was at 9:45, and it was a tour that took people out to Wizard Island for three hours.  So I was fortunate to escape some of the madness down at Cleetwood and get marooned on an island for part of the day.  My first group was a lot of fun & I hiked up to the summit, had lunch at a shady spot along the Witch’s Cauldron, and hiked back to down to begin gathering people for our pick-up and second half of the tour. 

    
 When we returned to the docks, I was able to see how busy Cleetwood had gotten.  There were tons of people swimming and hiking the trail, along with a couple of minor medical issues that I was fortunate enought to miss.   

 My second tour was at 3:45, and it was just a standard 2-hour tour around the lake.  I met a man from Michigan on board and we bonded with our captain, Steve, who also hails from the Mitten.  We had a lot of fun talking about Faygo pop, Stroh’s Ice Cream, and Better Maid potato chips. 

 After the tour, it was another hike up the Cleetwood trail.  By the time I got home is was about 7:00.  I made some dinner and my roommate Karlie had picked me up a drumstick ice cream cone earlier in the day.  Boy did that hit the spot after all of today’s hiking!  There was a cookout with some of the staff and a bonfire, but I opted to stay home instead.  I’m still feeling a little drained from all the sun and wind today, and when I close my eyes, it feels like I’m still rocking on the boat.

With that said, it’s time for me to turn in for the night.  Tomorrow is a prep day for me, which means I get to spend the day working on my programs.  The next two days are my days off, and I know that on Tuesday, Heidi and I will be going to spend some time at Lava Beds National Monument.  It should be a lot of fun!

Again, I wish you all a happy 4th & a wonderful weekend!

Last Days of Training

The last couple of days have been quite a whirlwind, physically & mentally! Yesterday we spent all day training for medical emergencies on the boats and down on the boat docks.  I was really anxious from the start because I knew it was going to be my job to conduct the “man overboard” drill.  Basically, I had to act like I was a ranger giving a boat tour, and then we pretended someone fell in the water and I had to spring into action to save them.  Only this time, we didn’t pretend.  One of the law enforcement rangers actually wore a wet suit and jumped overboard (on purpose)–and it was up to me to get him out!  When I found out that someone was actually going to go in the water, I started feeling really overwhelmed.  On top of that, I found out just an hour before that I was going to be giving my first trolley tour on Friday.  Talk about a little mental meltdown I was having.

But the man overboard scenario went pretty well.  I followed the proper steps and had a pretty good aim with the life ring.  Myself and another ranger were even able to pull him into the boat!  I felt very relieved when it was over.  The rest of the day was still quite stressful though.  We had to role play some medical scenarios, like bee stings and diabetic emergencies, but then we had to do a CPR scenario and a rock fall emergency! Both of these required us to put real people on stretchers and carry them up the first switchback of Cleetwood Cove, which is a very steep, sandy trail that’s exhausting when you’re NOT pushing a stretcher containing an adult man.  When the drill was over, we still had to carry all of the gear, including two stretchers, all the way up the rest of the trail.  It was crazy tiring and I give the EMT’s a lot of credit.

So by the end of the day, I was hot, sweaty, covered in mosquito bites and still not ready to give a trolley tour Friday.  I went to bed hoping I’d be able to finish preparing my trolley tour Thursday night.

On Thursday morning, I got to work an hour and a half early to work on my tour script.  At 8:00, we did some final training on visior center operations, which was such an easy, peaceful day compared to Wednesday’s chaos. At lunch, rather than having time to pepare our talks, Karlie and I had to drive to Medford to get fingerprinted for our background checks.  We were also sent to pick up park newspapers and to pick up one of the new park vehicles.  So I got to be the first one to drive our new park truck all the way back from Medford!  That was cool, but I didn’t get back until 6 pm–and still a trolley tour to plan for!

AND THEN–SOMEHOW, SOMEWHERE–A MIRACLE HAPPENED.  We got an email saying that one of the trolleys broke down and would be out for repairs on Friday.  Heidi and I had the choice to split the trolley shift, only doing one tour each, but she volunteered to do BOTH tours so that I could have the whole day to prepare.  SHE IS AN ANGEL! I felt like I was just given a snow day!  I now have all day Friday to prepare my tour and I still have Saturday off if I need more time.  I couldn’t be more relieved and I promised Heidi that I’d make it up to her in cookies, or dinner, or drinks–or all of the above!

So now, after two days of totally stressing, I can finally sleep in peace knowing I’ll be much more prepared for my first tour.  Hooray!

I hope everyone is having a great summer so far.  Even though I’ve been under pressure for a couple of days, I am still counting my blessings that I’m able to be doing this for the summer.

Good night from Crater Lake!   

 

Lightning Springs

  It’s Saturday, which means it’s the weekend! I woke up early today and drove to Klamath Falls with Heidi.  She and I wanted to check out the local farmer’s market, which was fun but a little disappointing.  Nothing jumped out and said, “Buy me!” so we browsed and went on our way to Fred Meyer.  Fred Meyer is a grocery store chain, much like Michigan’s Meijer store…which was founded by a Fred Meijer…not to be confused with Fred Meyer.  Strange.  

We did a little shopping for a few groceries, including popcorn for a movie night we have planned with Karlie and Daphnie tonight.  On the way home we saw a bald eagle swoop down from a telephone pole, which was pretty amazing!

When we got home, I made some lunch and walked up to the post office located at our park visitor center.  Waiting for me there were two boxes from Jeremy!  Excited to open them, I hurried home.  As I was walking back, one of our maintenance guys said, “Get a care-package?” I nodded excitedly and realized how special I felt to be so loved 🙂  Inside the packages, were a beautiful flowered dress and a cute pair of heels.  Perfect for those days when I won’t have to be in park ranger clothes & want to head into town.  (Thanks Jeremy! You’re the BEST!!) 

 A little later in the afternoon, I headed out for a hike.  I decided to try the Lightning Springs trail, which is a trail that connects Crater Lake’s Rim Drive with the Pacific Crest Trail.  I was hoping to take it all the way to the PCT, but quickly realized that would be an 8 mile round trip, just to reach the PCT and turn around.  So I decided to go about half way before turning back.

On the hike, I passed through some sections of forest that had clearly been burned at some point in time.  Lightning is the main cause of forest fires in the park, but because fires are a natural part of the forest life cycle, the park tends to “manage” the fires rather than put them out immediately.  This allows the underbrush to clear out to allow for new growth both for plants and wild life. 

 The trail also paralled Lightning Springs which was a creek that babbled and strolled through the forest.  It was peaceful to listen to it on the solitude of the trail.   

   I think I probably hiked about 4 miles round trip, which was about 2 hours or so.  The trail started downhill, going into a valley, so it was a bit of an uphill climb on the way out.

When I got home, I was able to talk to my mom and dad on the phone.  It was the first time we’d talked in a couple of weeks, and it was so nice to hear their voices! I miss them so much and am very thankful for their support in my Crater Lake adventure.  (Thanks Mom & Dad!)

Tonight I’m off to watch movies with the gals and then possibly to do our part 2 of stargazing with Tom and Marsha if it’s not too cloudy.

Happy Saturday from Crater Lake!

Researching Frances & Hiking Garfield!

   The last two days have been a lot of sitting during training.  Yesterday, we had an all-staff orientation in the morning, and in the afternoon, another one of the volunteers, Tim, and I went into Klamath Falls for our drug tests.  When we got back, I was able to catch our park historian, Steve Mark, and I got to pick his brain about my ranger talk, “The Women of Crater Lake.”  He steered me in the right direction, and gave me some books on a woman named Frances Fuller Victor.Frances Victor traveled to Crater Lake in 1873, where she peered over a lookout that was then named Victor Rock in her honor.  Victor Rock is now known as the Sinnot Memorial in the park, which is the same spot where I’ll be giving my ranger talk.  But the coincidences do not end there.  Mrs. Victor and I share the same birthday, May 23, and despite spending most of her life in the Pacific Northwest, she spent five years of her early life living in St. Clair, Michigan, which is the city in which I was born.  I’m pretty sure I am the reincanation of Frances!  Do you see a resmeblance?

  
So last night was really research heavy, and then today’s training was a straight 8 hours of CPR training.  All day, I just kept looking out the window and thinking about what trail I was going to hike after work today.  As soon as I got home, I changed, busted out my park map and trail guide, and decided to hike Garfield Peak.  

The Garfield trail begins behind the Crater Lake Lodge and spends 1.7 miles going up over 1,000 feet.  It was a pretty challenging hike, seeing as the elevation gets up to just under 8,000 feet.  I was huffing and puffing and had to stop a few times to catch my breath, but it was a good excuse to stop and take a lot of photos.  The trail had some amazing views of the lake as well as the Cascade Range.  After about an hour of hiking, I made it to the snowy top!  I was pretty proud of myself and spent some time just doing some sitting and sight-seeing at the top. 

           The 1.7 miles down the trail seemed to fly by, and I was sure glad the downhill portion was on the way back.  Along the way, I stopped to offer my mosquito spray to a family from California who was very friendly (and appreciative of the Off!).

It was nice to do some more exploring in the park, especially after a long week of training.  I’m hoping to do some more trails this weekend, even possibly part of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Until next time…lots of love from Crater Lake!

  

Hiking & Exploring

Wanting to make the most out of what’s left of my weekend, I really wanted to get out today and explore some places in the park I had yet to visit.  I woke up nice and early, made some coffee (which I finally bought yesterday in Medford…coffee never tasted so good!), and headed out toward West Rim Drive.  I stopped at a  few overlooks, and drove as far as Watchman Peak, which is a peak with a fire lookout on the top of it.  The trail to the peak is still closed, but it was really neat to see it.  From there, there is also a great view of some other peaks in the Cascade Range, like Mt. McLoughlin.  Here are some photos from my morning exploration:

   
  When I got back home, I ate some breakfast, and made plans to meet Heidi at 9:30 to do some hiking.  My housemate Lise suggested we try the Sun Notch trail because of its beauty in the morning hours.  Heading out to Sun Notch takes you to the East Rim Drive.  Along the way we passed Vidae Falls (pronounced “Vita” as in “Vitamin”). This was a really tall falls, visible from the road, and requiring no hiking.

   

 Continuing on our way, we made it to Sun Notch which was a short hike to the Phantom Ship Overlook.   The Phantom Ship is a rocky little island in Crater Lake which kind of has the appearance of an old ship in the distance.

  While we were hiking this trail, we suddenly heard what sounded like a rock avalanche off the side of the cliff.  Sure enough, we could hear a boulder falling, and we even saw the dust from it.  We didn’t actually see the rock that fell, but it sounded awfully large, and I’m glad we were no where near where it landed.  Here is a picture of the cliff the rock fell from.

  Also on the Sun Notch trail, we encountered a marmot, who didn’t seem to mind us taking his picture.

   

 After Sun Notch, we took a side road that veers from Rim Drive called The Pinnacles Road.  Our first stop along this road was a short hike to Plaikni Falls, another gorgeous waterfall!  The trail was only about a mile and well worth it.

  Once we left Plaikni, we headed down to the Pinnacles Trail.  The Pinnacles are these unique lava formations that look like tall towers or spires.  They were formed when hot steam escaped from the volcano’s magma chamber, fusing ashes into solid rock, creating these chimnneys.
  As we continued down the Pinnacles trail, we actually reached the eastern border of the park, where there used to be an entrance to the park.  Now all that stands is a rocky post that used to once hold an entrance sign.  

  All in all, we hiked around 4.5 miles, and it was a lot of fun exploring some new places in the park.  Tomorrow’s training is going to cover trolley tours, so we’ll actually be taking two trolly tours around the entire rim  of the lake.   This will be the first time for many of us to drive entirely around the circumfrence of the lake, and I’m excited to see the north side.

Good night from Crater Lake!