Pacific Crest Trail #2000, Obsidian Trail #3528 — Thursday, Aug. 17, 2000

Our party of five backpacked for three days on the Pacific Crest Trail across a volcanic landscape of cinder cones and lava flows beside the North Sister (""Faith"") in the Three Sisters Wilderness. Since Ken did not want to miss any opportunity for PCT miles, we began our hike at the McKenzie Pass trailhead for the PCT (5,125 ft. elev.), which is located about ½ mile west of the summit on the north side of McKenzie Highway 242, rather than at the more standard Lava Camp Lake PCT trailhead. The McKenzie Pass PCT trailhead is located on a small forested island in the middle of the huge Belknap lava flows, so the trail immediately enters the rugged, jumbled basalt. After about a third of a mile, the trail crosses the highway and heads east across the lava. Magnificent views of the North and Middle Sisters dominated the southern horizon. After about a mile, we left the surface of the lava flow and walked along its forested edge. As the PCT gradually climbed, we gained views to the north, west and south. It was obvious that the cold front that was bringing rain to Portland was headed our way. Clouds were building and Mount Washington and Mount Jefferson were obscured by clouds. At 3.8 miles, we crested the shoulder of a cinder cone covered with lava bombs. We looked below to North Matthieu Lake but continued walking south another 1/4 mile to South Matthieu Lake at Scott Pass (6,050 ft. elev.). We found the last remaining permissable campsite and set up camp as the clouds thickened all around us and the wind picked up. By dinner time, we were in the clouds and light rain was falling, yet we could see sun a couple of miles to the east in Central Oregon. Following a damp night, we awoke to sunshine that dried our tents. The clouds were lifting and indicating a general clearing trend so we proceeded onward on the PCT, skirting and then crossing the lava flow to climb around the north and west shoulders of Yapoah Crater. We then descended to the junction with the Scott Trail at 2.4 miles from South Matthieu Lake. From Scott Pass to this junction, we had been tracing the route of the first wagon train across the McKenzie Pass in 1862. At this point, the Scott Trail went west and we proceeded south another 1.2 miles through open forest to Minnie Scott Spring, where we filled all of our water containers. This was the first water we had seen since leaving the lake. From Minnie Scott Spring, we climbed onto the cinder shoulder of Collier Cone and crossed Opie Dilldock Pass. Opie Dilldock was a popular newspaper cartoon character of the early 1900s who was noted for telling tall tales that had him escaping from nearly impossible situations. Forest Service rangers named the small passage through the lava rock for him in 1932. We descended through red and black lava to an oasis of old-growth mountain hemlocks at Sawyer Bar for our second camp. White Branch Creek was dry so we were glad we had packed water from Minnie Scott Spring. The third day dawned absolutely clear with sparkling views of the North Sister and the Little Brother towering above us. We headed south 2.2 miles to Sunshine, a longtime wilderness crossroads watered by Glacier Creek. The meadow was filled with lupines and their fragance perfumed the air, while the Middle Sister gleamed at the head of the basin. We paused to soak in the beauty before taking our leave of the PCT and heading west on the Obsidian Trail for 4.8 miles to the trailhead where we had dropped a couple of cars at the start of the trip.