The night before the trip started was spent in a delightful, reasonably priced rental house in Wallowa. Arriving in early afternoon we sorted gear and distributed loads, making sure that the grandkids were not overloaded (soon to be discovered a mistake!).
That night we bar-b-qued steaks from local beef and hit the sack early.
Day 1 began with a drive up to the even smaller town of Lostine then up the Lostine River canyon to the pack station where we emptied the 4 Runner Leaving Kathy and the grandkids while my son-in-law and I drove both vehicles to the Two Pan Trailhead, left the 4 Runner then drove back to the packstation which is located across the road from the Bowman TH. The previous year, with two friends, this was all backpacking, but I had learned my lesson. Though the first target lake was just 5.5 miles from the trailhead it was 3170 vertical feet up. The previous year we stopped a mile short and 800 ft. lower. But the fishing was so interesting that I wanted to maximize our time there and I didn’t want to kill my true love who was going on this trip along with my son-in-law, two oldest grandkids, and me.
This was the first time on horseback for the kids. My grandson was quite apprehensive about this. But the wrangler did a great job of introducing him to the horse and in no time my grandson was enjoying himself.
- Getting going
- Getting Higher
- Still Higher
- Almost There!
- Room with a view!
- Kitchen
- They Forest Service doesn't even talk about food storage here, still hang to prevent loss to little critters
- Split Level Camp
- Lake I've never visited, beyond that Wallowa Valley
- Sunset from Camp, Eagle Cap Peak is the one in the distance on the right
to be continued
Mike
