100hikes.com

A family reunion of sorts in the Cascades.

Dad and I Mt Bachelor on #33 - 1/3 the way to 100!

I wish I knew my grandfather better.  When I was born, he was in the final chapter of a long life.  He had been a logger and worked on the green chain,  hard and dangerous work.  I have memories of visiting my grandfather and grandmother during the holidays in Bend, Oregon. He had a quiet way about him and most of my memories of him have him siting quietly in the living room of their small house in Bend, studying the world with smiling eyes. He seemed like a man with deep thoughts that he kept to himself.  He passed in 1983 when I was just 8-years old.

When I visited my grandmother on this trip and discussed hiking options in the area, she told me something I had never heard before:  My grandfather’s cremated ashes were scattered in the Cascade Mountains,  just above Todd Lake. I decided immediately to go on this hike. I felt like it was important for me to see the spot where my grandfather rests.

My parents and I got an early start, hoping to get in three hikes today. The Todd Lake Trailhead is located less than an hour from Bend, Oregon – in the shadow of Mount Bachelor. I learned how to ski in the Cascades and our family has taken many Holiday season ski trips to Bachelor. The drive towards the mountain along the Cascades Lakes Scenic Byway was a familiar one, but it was strange to be here in the summer and see so little snow on the sleeping volcano. When we arrived at the trailhead parking, we were surprised to see the lot packed with vehicles. We hoped to have the trail to our selves, considering it was Monday, but we would learn that the senior hiking clubs in the surrounding area would organize weekday excursions to this trail. It’s nice to see older people on the trails rather than withering away in a retirement home, but I wish they decided to do it another day.

The Todd Lake Trail is a gateway to other, longer routes in the area, including Broken Top Mountain, South Sister, and Green Lakes. The trail runs 11.8 miles, but we would only go in about 2.5 miles, at the Soda Creek trail junction, before turning around. The first half mile of this trek is a gradual incline. I’m still getting used to the altitude, which starts at 6,100 feet.

It wasn’t far along the trail that we found where my grandfather’s ashes were scattered. A powerful outcrop of rock stood out from the forest above the trail, just as my grandmother recalled. I stood for a moment paying my respects to my grandfather the best way I knew, trying to capture the scene on film. Although my grandfather wasn’t a big fan of hiking – my grandmother began the activity after he passed – I felt like he was with us for the remainder of the trek, enjoying the forest through our eyes. I definitely consider him an honorary member of the 100 hikes club, even if just in spirit.

The amount of flora in the Cascades is startling. Dabs of purple, strokes of yellow, and spots of red paint the trail. My week of hiking in the Cascades inadvertently coincided around the peak of the wildflower season. I picked up a copy of Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest, or what I call, “the flower bible,” while in the bookstore in Bend. The 512-pages describe in detail 1,200-species of flowers. The 1,247 gorgeous photos helped provide the names of these beautiful stems of color and shape. After the hike, I enjoy flipping through the book and trying to identify the flowers I photographed on the trail.

The butterflies here are equally as colorful. It slowed down my hiking progress considerably, but I was able to get close enough to photograph a few skiddish winged insects such as tiny Northern blue and the visiting California tortoiseshell. I’ve posted a gallery of the Oregon Butterflies I photographed on my other blog, bugshutterbug.com. Most of the photos were taken along this trail.

Thoughts about the hike:

1. A new term I would like to coin: mosquito motivated – to hike without pause in order to keep the mosquitoes from biting you.
2. Todd Lake was formerly called Lost Lake due to the difficulty in finding it. It was renamed by request of the people of Bend, who believed the name caused confusion with the other nineteen lakes in Oregon named Lost Lake.

Resources:

1. VisitUSA: Todd Lake
2. Trails.com – Todd Lake Trail

Hike #22 Trip GPS Stats:

• Date of hike: July 20th, 2009
• Location: Todd Lake, Three Sisters Wilderness, Oregon
• Length: 4.8 miles
• Duration: 3 hours, 5 minutes
• Average speed: ±1.6 mph
• Altitude at start: 6,100 feet
• Altitude min.max: 6,100/6,704 feet

This map was made with the data my GPS captured on the hike.
For a more detailed trip report map, check this out.

Photos:

Mount Bachelor. I've seen this view, from the backseat of a car, on many ski trips in my life. I first skied Bachelor when I was 4 years old.

Mount Bachelor from the Todd Lake trailhead.

Mom & Dad begin the hike.

The final resting place of Lloyd Kirk, my grandfather. His ashes were scattered here in 1984.

Pioneer violet flowers

Three Sisters Wilderness, named after the three mountains along the Cascade Range: Faith, Hope and Charity.

Northern blue butterfly (male)

Meadow checkerspot butterfly

My mom on the Todd Lake Trail with Broken Top Mountain in the background.

Mom calls it a day and heads back to the car and towards Mount Bachelor.

Two tiger beetles. The female holding on to the male.

A tiny meadow tree frog.

A kayaker on Todd Lake with Broken Top peaking over the tops of the trees.