Last week Ben and I did our first backpacking trip in Oregon: The McKenzie River Trail. I strapped a baguette to the outside of my pack and Ben brought a huge summer sausage and we hiked 26 miles from Clear Lake down over lava fields, past hot springs, all following the McKenzie River. The trail took us past two huge waterfalls, Sahalie Falls and Koosah Falls, then the river disappeared for awhile, re-emerging at Tamolitch Pool, a stunning and strangely still aquamarine pool. We camped at a place where the river converged with a small stream, then the next day continued our hike, at first following raccoon tracks from a creature who had probably been interested in but unable to reach our bear hang during the night. In the afternoon, we hit Deer Creek Hot Springs, a small, steaming pool walled off by piles of rocks from the adjacent river. I really like the West Coast ability to stop during a hike and soak in natural hot springs! My feet felt much happier afterward. The rest of the hike took us through mossy forests and then ended with a rather anti-climactic late afternoon hike near the road, at which point both Ben and I realized that our bodies were extremely upset with us for hiking 26 miles since 1 p.m. the previous day.
Here's a photo from one of the highlights, Deer Creek Hot Springs. We were lucky we had it all to ourselves!
And here's a photo of me looking goofy with a baguette strapped to my pack (we'd already eaten part of it):
The lovely mossy part of the trail:
All in all, an amazing trip! The trailhead is less than two hours from Corvallis, so we will probably be hiking this again. I love Oregon!
