November by the Calendar, June by the weather

Meadows on the way up Crescent Mountain

I had a free Saturday so Ken and I met up at a trail head.  This time it was the Crescent Mountain trail, which neither of us had ever hiked.  It is located in the Old Cascades area west of Santiam Pass, near the lava Lake Snow Park.  At less than an hour from Bend, it is a great option for a woodsier hike than we have on our side of the hills.  And there was nobody at the trail head at 8:30AM when I arrived.  It was cold at the start but quickly warmed as we ascended into the sun.  By the time we were on the summit at 5,760' it felt like 70 degrees.  Crazy warm.  We had enough time after descending that we hiked a bit of the Old Santiam Wagon Road trail and then hiked Echo Basin a little further west.  All were great.  A nice day to be out on the trails.  All told we saw one other group of four the whole day.  Hard to do that near Bend these days!

Mt Jefferson from Crescent Mountain

Echo Basin