The Cost of Purity: Sky Lakes, Oregon

Cherry Creek to Trapper Lake, Sky Lakes Wilderness, Oregon

Memorial Day Weekend, 2016

There is a wilderness which boasts the most chemically pure water know to naturally occur on earth in the mountains south of Crater Lake, Oregon. This is the Sky Lakes Wilderness.

Once I found out it was within an hour of the place we would be staying over an extended Memorial Day weekend, I had to taste it for myself. From the source, of course.

This was my first trip to Oregon, and I knew going into it that there was a high probability that there would be residual snow pack at higher elevation. I packed a pair of snow chains for my most snow worthy footwear.

The Sky Lakes Wilderness can be accessed from a variety of trailheads, none of which are paved or maintained regularly.  Badly washed out roads, snowpack and downed trees turned back our rental car in several attempts. At Nannie Creek, we got within about a mile, then had to park and walk down the road which was blocked by down trees. Unfortunately, after a mile walk down a primitive road, we discovered about 5 feet of snow in drift covering the trail to the extent that one could not even perceive the start.

Then, we drove to a lower trailhead: Cherry Creek. We had originally not chosen this hike because it has high, unbridged stream crossings which can be impassable at peak runoff.

The hike started out great. Nice, gentle grade with huge trees. The mosquitos were thicker than I have ever experienced, but we were soaked in DEET, which is effective. The stream crossings were challenging and cold, but not dangerous. Once we made the second crossing (about 4 miles), snow drifts became frequent and deeper. At this point, the trail switches back to climb 1200 feet over the next 2 miles. This ascent was blocked by increasingly more frequent and complex downed trees. It surprised me the forest was still full of trees, as there were more downed trees along that trial than upright trees in all of Arizona I think. There were sections of trail which were obliterated by ten or more trees, packed in snow.

Beyond the switchbacks, the trail levels out. Unfortunately, at this point, the snow was piled high in this more shaded region.  I didn’t know snowdrifts could be that deep at only 6000 feet on Memorial Day.  As it turns out, recognizing the trail is not easy when it is ten feet below your boots.

Somehow, we found our way, and made the first lake, Trapper Lake. We found a sunny bank and had lunch. Of course, I drank as much of the pure goodness as I could.