Linton Falls

It is now October and thank goodness for that. The weather has changed where the mornings are cool and the days are still warm. The fires are smoldering and cleanup is happening rapidly. I have a chance to get out for a morning and see some sights. I get up early to get a quick start on the day. Jacqueline just got stung by a yellow jacket the day before when we were out for a walk. Actually, all three of us who were out for the walk, Jacqueline, Conrad, and myself got stung. I was the only one who did not swell up, though. Jacqueline's foot looks like a football and she is constantly bothered by it. So she is not going to join me, but has a plan to go into town later. That means that I have a window to do a short hike. I pick Linton Lake with the goal of actually making it up to see Linton Falls. When I look up information online about Linton Falls, some sources say that it is the second highest waterfall in Oregon. Here it is right in my backyard, but I haven't gone there. The fall is really a race against time to get out and see these places before 242 gets shut down. I leave early and when I arrive at the trailhead, the only cars that are there are people who have stayed the night before. The hike in is cool and I am wearing a long sleeve for the first time in a while hiking.

The air is cool and a bit damp, but the weather is great. Along the way, fall colors are starting to come out on much of the hike. I put in the requisite couple of miles which brings me to Linton Lake. There is one tent there from the night before which is the only sign of other people so far. The lake is lower than I have ever seen it. It is amazing how far it is down from the overflowing fullness of a June hike out to Linton Lake. From here it is a combination of route finding and bushwhacking. There is a faint trail that leads off from here, but actually there seem to be a multitude of faint trails. All of them hug the shoreline of the lake with some going higher up through the burned forest than others. Sometimes I pick the correct one and sometimes I don't, but the most correct one seems to be the one that stays closest to the lake until you get to what some people use as a campsite near the inlet.

Here I should have charged straight up the hill side, but the path looks better the other way. This leads me to a secondary trail that will eventually head up the hill side, but closer to the water course. This leaves me with a pretty steep section that requires some bushwhacking to get over to the main visitor use trail. Once I am on this, it is just a short walk to the first waterfall. This one is amazing! It falls about 80 feet with a spectacular view of it from the trail. It is one of the best waterfalls in Oregon and here I was neglecting it. This is quite a beauty. I wondered what the second one was like. I continued up the hill. This time the trail is much easier to find until the waterfall comes into view.

Then I just kind of charge forward finding pieces of a trail as I do so until I am in the stream course proper. Here I carefully pick my way through until I am at the base of a massive waterfall. This one is not quite as spectacular as the first as it falls in a series of drops, but still quite awesome. The great part about it is that I am right at the base of this one and negotiating some fairly slippery spots in the creek, I am able to access the waterfall really close up. It does not get too much better being close up, though, so I head back and sit on a log to enjoy it for a bit. Then it is back down. The trail is much easier to find on the way down. It seems like no time at all and I am back at Lower Linton Falls, which I find more impressive than the upper falls. I snap a few more pictures than continue down the trail making mental notes along the way because I know I have to bring the family back. This is a shorter hike without any major obstacles. I knew they had to see it. So two weeks later, we were back making the trek to Linton Lake. Jacqueline gets a bit nervous about going off in directions unknown, so my confidence in the route helped her feel more comfortable with doing the hike.

Jacqueline seemed to be just as impressed with the fall colors that were now starting to disappear at higher elevations, but everyone did great getting to the waterfalls. We all enjoyed them and the hiking was not too difficult. As always, the hike made me wonder what was above the falls that we saw. I wondered if there was a route that one could take where I could follow Linton Creek all the way back to its source by the PCT trail. This was something for another day and another time as fall was not the right time to make a trip like this happen. I was thoroughly impressed by Linton Falls, enough so to bring people back only two weeks later. I am sure that it will be visited frequently from this point forward.

Scott Mountain Loop

It was a Sunday in October and it was actually right after our 15th anniversary, so the wife and kids and I had to go out to find some fall colors. I chose the Scott Mountain Loop up on 242. We drove up there and got to the Scott Lake Trailhead. When we read the sign, it said we needed a permit to hike the trail from this location. We did not have requisite permit, so we drove a mile down the road and parked at the Hand Lake Trailhead instead. Here we talked to another guy who was visiting here from Colorado. We gave him some info on the trail and then we were off on our merry little way. He was a nice guy and it was great to have someone enjoying the outdoors on his day off. I hiked this trail before, but Jacqueline and the kids had never hiked the whole thing.

The beginning of the trail was through the woods. Jacqueline was immediately disappointed with the variety of fall colors. Given that most of the fall colors at this altitude were low lying shrubs, it sort of made sense, but this was the best that we could do. The trail was nice and we were right behind our new friend from Colorado when we saw him turn the wrong way at Hand Lake. He was too far away for us to stop him, so we just hoped that he would find the trail again. Hand Lake was lower than I ever saw it. There was just a bit of water making it look more like an almost dry pond than a lake. The trail was nice and flat at this point and the weather was great as we hiked right next to a lava flow.

From here, we started to climb. This put us into the burned area which was in much better shape then when I had run through there with Corey. The downed trees were all bucked and cleared. This made for pleasant hiking and while we never got into really thick foliage, fall was still apparent with many different stages of dying leaves all around us. We climbed and climbed until we made it to the junction for Scott Mountain. Here again, we climbed and climbed until we topped out. The view was amazing. The only other time I had been to the top of Scott Mountain, it was very cold and wet. This time it was perfect weather with 360 degree views all around us. This was definitely a spot for Jacqueline to take an excessive amount of pictures.

There were no other groups on top when we got there, but as we ate lunch, a few started to come in. There was one group with some friendly dogs which Conrad was not too happy about. We ate some lunch, took some pictures, and really just absorbed the scenery. It would be months before we could come back to these high elevations again, so we had to enjoy it while the opportunity existed. Then it was back down the trail. From here we had to go back to the junction for Scott Mountain and then continue on to the right. This took us downhill and eventually it put us right at Benson Lake. There was another couple hanging out at the lake, so we could not be too obnoxious. It did have some of the best skipping rocks and with some nice flat water, we all impressed each other with our ability to skip a rock.

Then we continued down the trail to Scott Lake. The lake was lower than I had ever seen it. There were still lots of people around camping and hanging by the lake. We continued on the trail which took us right past it and then was back in the woods. The total distance on the hike was something like 12 miles, but since we were all in great shape it didn't really feel like we were pushing ourselves. It just turned out to be a very enjoyable day in the woods of the Oregon Cascades.