Diamond Peak Wilderness 8/15 – 8/19/2016
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Diamond Peak is the next major volcano south of the Three Sisters complex in the Cascade Range in Oregon. Its summit sits at 8750’. Unlike most of its neighbors, Diamond Peak is a shield volcano. This type of volcano tends to build up a broad, flat profile over time compared to the much pointier stratovolcanos like Mt. Hood or Mt. Thielsen.
I took this picture of it from the north near Mt. Yoran:
Diamond Peak has a network of trails on all sides that make a loop possible. Depending on where a person starts, this loop could be done in just two or three days. I decided to approach the loop from the north on the PCT however, which added some miles and a couple days to my trip.
I car-camped at the Trapper Creek campground on Odell Lake the night before I hit the trail. The lake is about a three hour drive from Portland. I paid for my site for a week, and left my camp set up while I was out on the trail.
From my camp at Odell it was just a short walk to the rather strange Yoran Lake Trailhead, which is next to some railroad tracks…
Here’s a Google Map of the trailhead location:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/43%C2%B034’47.0%22N+122%C2%B002’32.0%22W/@43.579731,-122.0427632,124m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d43.57973!4d-122.042216?hl=en
Soon after is a narrow footbridge which might be difficult for dogs…If you have a dog you can avoid the bridge entirely by starting here instead:
Just hike up the old dirt road a short distance to Pengra Pass where you will pick up the PCT. That’s the way I returned. It’s a bit shorter anyway.
The hike in on the PCT was hot and dusty, but luckily the trail passed several small lakes which offered some much needed shade and water. Arrowhead was one of the lakes where I took a quick break and grabbed some water…
It was here that I met my first mosquito of the trip. There’d be many more in the days ahead. Even the dry west side of the mountain was surprisingly buggy for this late in the summer.
Eventually I began to get some views of Diamond Peak…
And after crossing a saddle my first view of rugged Mt. Yoran…
Then its impressive neighbor, South Mt. Yoran…
I camped at lovely Divide Lake my first night, and had the lake all to myself. It was perfectly calm here, and amazingly quiet. I always seem to forget how quiet a night can be away from civilization. It surprises me. To my delight there were very few skeeters here as well.
Mt. Yoran the next morning, with Divide Lake in the foreground…
After a couple hours hiking west on trail 3683 I arrive at Notch Lake…
After my break at Notch I decided to slather on some sunscreen. To my considerable dismay I found that I hadn’t refilled my little bottle of sun block before the trip, and had only about an ounce to work with for the next four days. Erg! I won’t make that mistake again!
Shortly after Notch Lake I turned south on to the Diamond Peak Tie-In Trail, #4239. This little-used trail was brushy and overgrown, but easy enough to follow…
Bear Grass was abundant in places…
Water sources and views are hard to come by on this west side of the mountain. It’s basically a long stroll through dense woods, with no streams or seeps, and few if any people. In fact I went two whole days here without seeing another human.
After a long day of hiking I was happy to reach Happy Lake. There were no people here, and after a bit of looking I found a perfect camp spot away from the lake at the edge of a high cliff. A welcome breeze helped keep the skeetoes at bay…
Just checking for sunburn…
Happy Lake the following morning…
By mid-day on the third day I was beginning to get some new views.
Mt. Bailey, another shield volcano, is the next major volcano to the south…
At left is Sawtooth Mountain, with spikey Mt. Thielsen on the right…
A bit farther east is Cowhorn Mountain…
I had planned to camp at Marie Lake, but found only one large campsite there. No people, but it was very windy and fully exposed to the late afternoon sun…
So I moved on to nearby Rockpile Lake, where the bugs were bad, but the sun and wind weren’t…
Once again I had a gorgeous lake all to myself. I enjoyed a quick swim here, which mercifully removed three days of baked-on dust and grime. I slept like a baby that night.
I reached the PCT pretty quickly on day four, and soon began to get some new views of Diamond Peak…
And expansive views to the south…
The S.E. side of the mountain is a huge bowl, likely a glacial cirque, which the PCT traverses at about the 7000 foot level. For quite some distance you are inside this bowl and have nearly 180° of mountain to look at. It’s quite impressive. My pano here does it no justice…
Moving along to the north…
Middle and South Sister soon come into view, along with Broken Top and Bachelor…
I tanked up with extra water at one of the two small streams on this side of the mountain so I could dry camp away from the skeeters. I used that new Katadyn BeFree filter for this trip, and was quite pleased with it. The first one I bought the seam blew out on the soft flask on its first use in my kitchen. After getting a replacement at REI, I decided to use two of the Hydrapak SF750 Soft Flasks instead of the .6L flask that comes with the BeFree filter unit. The 750 flasks worked OK, no blow-outs. Can’t say I like the water balloon type container much, but the convenience of scoop and go filtration is awesome. I used the 3L Seeker bottle for water in camp. It also worked well.
Eventually I found a nice flat area on the N.E. flank of the mountain a hundred yards off the PCT. This was at about 6900 feet. Beautiful views, few skeetoes, it was just perfect! I stayed up late here, enjoyed a cocktail and watched the moon rise quietly on my final night.
In the morning there were no skeeters around, but the yellow jackets were certainly smitten with my little yellow tent…
Perhaps it’s the color? I don’t know, but they sure seem to love that tent.
I had a good cell signal at this high camp, where I received the first weather forecast I’d seen in days. It called for a high of 103° in Eugene this day. I broke camp quickly in the morning and hiked with purpose.
A couple shots from my final day…
A final look back at Diamond Peak with Lils Lake in the foreground…
Fun trip!
Gordon
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