[Dean]

Instead of heading for southern or eastern Oregon as I did the previous two weekends, this weekend I made a trip down to the Bend area since the weather prognasticators promised good weather.  I drove down friday morning and wanted to do Paulina Peak (7984 feet elev)  which is near La Pine.  What a cool area that place is.  Lots of lakes and volcanic history. 

I started up the road and hit the trail about a mile or so on and the sign said it was 2 miles to Paulina's summit and my map said about 1600 feet.  A nice leg stretcher.  I hit snow after a half mile and by the mile mark the snow was solid.  I ended up wishing I had brought snowshoes with me as I was postholing every other step.  Hmmm, this reminded me of Lookout mtn near Prairie City the week before.  Still, it was enjoyable and the view from the summit area is worth the hike.  Don't want to hike?  Wait until the snow is  gone and you can drive a road up to the summit.  Ugh.  Still, I had the place all to myself. 

I could look over to the Bachelor, The Sisters, Maiden Peak,  Diamond Peak,  Bald Mtn, and tons of others that I couldn't identify.  With both of the lakes, Paulina and East laid out at my feet,  I would have stayed longer to enjoy the view except for the VERRRRy cold wind and I still wanted to get one more peak, Odell Butte, east of the town of Crescent.
The Big Obsidian flow deserves more time when I take my wife back there to camp at one of the many campgrounds. 

I decided not to hike back  the way I came (no more postholing for me today) and just followed the road down (4 miles)  I was out of the snow in less than a mile and it felt good to just trod on well graded road.  About half way down, I saw a doe and her two fawns ahead of me on the road.
The doe took one look (or was it one smell) and headed up the side of the hill next to the road.  The fawns had a different game plan.  They ignored their mother and started moving TOWARDS me.  Hmmm.  Then, they looked at each other, looked at me and charged.  They came running right at me as fast as they could and I could have reached out and touched them as they ran past in their deer game of chicken.  I got a couple pics of this that I hope turned out.  If so, watch for them to be posted here a little later. 

Both fawns put on the brakes when they were about fifteen feet past me and one stood there and just looked for a moment before he disappeared over the embankment.  I swear he had a smile on his face. 

From Newberry Caldera area, I drove on down to Crescent off of US 97 and took the Crescent Cutoff towards Odell Butte.  Odell Butte is an Oregon Prominence peak which is a little over 7000 feet high.  I completed that one right around 7 pm and then went looking for a place to sleep.  I camped in my vehicle at East Davis campground,  located in an area that had been ravaged by a forest fire just a few years before.  Had it not been for about 4 other vehicles in there, it would have been kinda spooky. 

The next morning I got up and went over and did Hamner Butte,  another 7000 footer which could have been the twin of Odell Butte.  I had to go about a mile cross country from a logging road but it was through a lot of burnt forest.  The summit of Hamner is like a little mesa and the highest spot is a rock outcropping with a register and benchmark.  The view? Nada.  Foggy and getting worse.  I wanted to complete this trip with the
11 mile hike up Maiden Peak but it was snowing over there so I pointed my vehicle north and headed home. 

Bend is sure growing and the traffic gets worse every time I'm down there but the backdrop of the Sisters and Broken Top is awe inspiring every time I see it (yeah, I could live down there easily)

Three weekends in Oregon in succession is enough for awhile. Next trip is to Washington Cascades and then to Utah for a week.  Next trip to Oregon?  Never soon enough.  I still need to climb Mt. Jefferson.

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Dean - working in Utah for awhile and feeling like it is a 'paid' vacation.
http://www.summitpost.org/user_page.php?user_id=1160

[wildernessed]

then to Utah for a week_Cascadehiker


Oh, does that sound good !

[tazz]

Thanks for TR  It is great to see a good report on some Oregon areas.  Paulina peak area is nice. We hiked up there when I was 8 months prego. No.... we didn't drive to the top . Good car camping on the lakes.

[Chief Paulina]

I'm glad you enjoyed your visit.  Paulina Peak is a great area to poke around.  There is a trail all the way around the caldera, even a hot spring on the other end of Paulina Lake.

I spent my weekend running around in the desert area east of there, Pine Mtn and Derrick Cave included.  The volcanic formations in the area are amazing.  Great place to spend a weekend.

Enjoy Utah and Washington.

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"Life's been good to me so far" - Joe Walsh

[Dean]

Tazz

[tazz]

great pics. Those fawns are adorable.    I love baby wildlife. 
wow what an encounter. 

[MtnGoat]

Is the road up Pine Mtn open yet?

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"Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
- Ayn Rand

[Dean]

[MtnGoat]

thanks!

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"Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
- Ayn Rand

[ActionBetty]

I spent some time in Bend this winter..mainly car camping and hitting the slopes at Mt. bachelor .  There are some really nice little lakes very near that I would day hike after boarding..

I would like to check it out more this summer..its that damn 9-10 hour drive that kills me..

Nice TR and nice pics..  

[Dean]

Thanks actionbetty for the nice remarks.  Bachelor is a great mountain to ski (or board) at and I really enjoy the area.  Have you ever stopped in Shaniko to check out the old hotel there?  Kind of a cool wide spot in the road.

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Dean - working in Utah for awhile and feeling like it is a 'paid' vacation.
http://www.summitpost.org/user_page.php?user_id=1160

[Chief Paulina]