School was finally out and it had been a pretty good year. The relief of the responsibility of teaching being off me and having time to myself over the summer was very rewarding. I started the summer with a project or two. Jacqueline's dad Tom flew out and we were able to rebuild the decks. It was a lot of labor but well worth it as it was great to have brand new rebuilt decks. We were also planning to take out the old brown carpet and put in new wood floors, so there was a pile of wood flooring sitting in our house. Still, I needed to get out. All these days spent in the classroom or entering grades at home, it was time to go.
My choice on this day was the Rebel Rock loop. I had done part of this loop a year earlier and had really appreciated the lushness and the views. This previous time, though, I ran into too much snow and was forced to turn around. Given that it was the end of June, I did not think that was going to happen on this day. I got going in the morning and was to the trailhead before 9AM. It was great to have the trail to myself as many days hiking in the McKenzie area, it was odd to see anyone else. When I thought the area was lush last time, though, boy was I right because this time it seemed to be overgrown with greenery.
When I got to the places that there was previously snow, I would just see an overgrown jungle of low lying shrubs. The trail led me up and up before I was finally at the highlight of the trail which is the Rebel Rock lookout. Given that this was one of the only remaining lookouts in the Sisters Wilderness, this was a pretty remarkable sight. I was able to snap the iconic picture of it, but unfortunately I missed the trail that led out to it. I was glad I got to see the Rebel Rock lookout, but by the time I realized that I had missed the trail to it, I was too far gone to turn around. The hike continued and now I was up high.
The climbing had virtually stopped and I was now getting the payoff as the views were spectacular. In Oregon, you get to see a lot of the same thing which is rocks and distant views to mountain peaks. Luckily, all of it is so awesome that you never really get tired of it. On this perfect sunny day, the Sisters were out and it is a spectacular view of them from the Rebel Rock loop. I enjoyed all the views and eventually the trail started heading back down through the lush greenery and back toward the car. The nice part was that I did not have to hike the same part of the trail twice because it was a loop trail. All of this had been completed in just a few hours and I had really enjoyed this hike. I estimated it was about 10 or so miles round trip with quite a bit of elevation gain and loss.
