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| Willy on our 2011 Bobby Lake trip. |
Every year for as long as I can remember I have taken at least one fall wilderness backpacking trip. Some people go to church, I go to the mountains. This year I wanted to get backpacking titles on the dogs. I had them officially weighed in preparation for our first "counting" trip. We were going to go to Bobby Lake. The morning I was to leave, the front page of the paper headlined a forest fire at Bobby Lake that had started overnight. Nix that trip.
My next planned trip was to head into the Sisters Wilderness from Pole Creek. Last year I went into the wilderness from the west, this year was to be the east.
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| 2010 Pole Creek Trail-head. Right now where we were standing is a raging forest fire. |
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| Willy and Cedar camping on Pole Creek trail |
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| Pole Creek Fire from Sisters Oregon The above campsite is on the ridge, about where the smoke hits the North Sister on the right of the picture. (from KMTR news) |
Again the dogs were officially weighed and packs were packed. I got up this morning to the radio news headline: "Forest Fire at Pole Creek Started During the Night".
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| Pole Creek Fire from KMTR evening news |
By the evening news, the fire was zero % contained and over 2000 acres. If Ma Nature and the fires let me, guess it will be the west side again this year. For now the access to primary trail-heads on both sides of the Wilderness are closed. I
will eventually get up there this fall. Thanks to working as an Outward Bound instructor, I know some obscure, though less scenic, trails I can use.
