Berley Lakes

Saturday and school had begun. That meant that I would probably get one day to get out and go hiking. I thought that I should definitely take that. As usual it was still quite warm down low, so I headed up the road to Santiam Pass. Conrad and I hiked into Santiam Lake from Duffy Lake in June and I figured I would hike to it from the other direction. I was back on the PCT again to start out. It was amazing how easy the elevation change seemed without a heavy backpack on my back. The area was so dry and I was lucky today because the smoke was pushing off in a different direction smoldering from the Lookout Fire. The PCT took me uphill until I took the trail to the left that would lead me to Santiam Lake. Once I was on the trail, I knew that I had been there before.

The last time I had hiked this, though, was many years ago in May when there was still a significant amount of snow on the ground. I also did not have my GPS watch, so at some point, I just lost the trail and scrambled around on the little hills for a bit. This time, there was no issue with snow and I hiked the trail right to Santiam Lake. I stopped at the same spot Conrad and I had stopped at. The lake was lower and much warmer than the last time I had made it there. After a bite, I was heading down the trail. I saw on my watch that there was an old trail that led to Lower Berley Lake. I decided to take it. It was obvious that people went this way, but I would not describe it as an official trail. It was not too difficult to find, though, and so I was on the shores of a beautiful lake.

There was one campsite by the lake and I decided to take a dip. The water was much cooler than Santiam Lake but very refreshing. I brought swimming shorts and a freezer size ziploc bag for this exact purpose. I got myself changed back to hiking clothes and then I decided to try to find Upper Berley Lake. This took a bit of bushwhacking as there were some pseudo trails in places, but the quickest way was to go through the trees. Here was an amazing lake with a great view of Three Fingered Jack. I imagine if I came out here in the summer time, I would still have the place all to myself. This would be a great place to camp and just hang out at the lake all day with the kids.

From here, I found what used to be an official trail complete with signs that probably had been there for 50 plus years. This trail took me to the far side of Lower Berley Lake which had a fantastic view also. I continued on the trail and at times it was faintly still present and at other times it was required for me to hop some blowdowns in the burnt section of trail. Eventually, though, it sent me right back to the trail. Here I ran into a student of mine with his family. Always a little bit awkward, but they were nice people. The rest of the way back to the car, I listened to the Husky game as I had good enough service to get the game. They were creaming Tulsa, so not much of a game to listen to, but still fun since it was my team that was winning. I made it back to the car having seen something new and a pretty enjoyable Saturday if I should say so myself.