Getting a reservation at a Fire Lookout is a rare commodity here in Oregon. They allow you to book them six months out, and believe me you’d better be checking six months to the day. It had been so long since the booking we pretty much forgot which lookout we were going to.
The plan was for a 3-day trip over the weekend of Tammi’s birthday, leaving Friday and returning home on Sunday. It was a supposed 11 mile one-way trip, not for novices plan on 8 hours and the FS site repeatedly stated to be prepared for EXTREME CONDITIONS.
But really how hard could it be?
The trip starts at Billy Bob Sno-park 20 miles east of Dufur, OR. Great name, right.
Driving to the sno-park Friday, we discovered a good foot of snow had fallen the night before. Well this could make things interesting for the ski up, nothing like breaking trail through powder on skinny XC skis with a 40 lb pack full of wine.
We left to Sno-park at 11:20 and soon realized that the only person ahead us since it snowed just happened to be the sno-cat grooming the trail. So instead of breaking trail through knee deep powder, we got fresh untracked corduroy the whole way up.
We meet the people that had stayed there the night before about half way, they said it had been a wild windy night and had some waist deep drifts to content with on the way down since the groomer hadn’t made it all the way up yet. We took lunch in the sun thinking about how glad we were that we brought skis and not snowshoes like the other folks.
We made it to the lookout in 4 hours and had plenty of daylight left to become acquainted with the area. To access the cabin requires you to ascend five flights of stairs to a narrow cat walk that surrounds the living quarters. All four walls are made entirely of windows giving you a panoramic view of the Oregon Cascades and surrounding foothills. We had a great pasta dinner and sat by the fire drinking wine and watched the sun set behind Mt. Hood.
We had plans to try and ski somewhere on Saturday, but when we awoke the weather had different plans. What had been blue bird skies the day before was now socked in and the wind was blowing around 50-70mph. We hunkered down for most of the day keeping the fire stoked and melting water, and drinking more wine. We did have 3L to go through. We did make it out for a short walk down the road, saw lots of rabbit and squirrel tracks in the fresh snow. The wind had only been blowing strong for half a day but already the sno-cat tracks were almost completely gone. We roasted sausages over the fire for dinner, with beans and rice on the side, and more wine of course. Gotta stay hydrated.
That night we needed ear plugs to sleep because of the wind. The bed was super comfy if not a little grungy, and we did our best not to let any exposed skin touch the mattress. Note to self, next time bring a sheet.
We hoped Sunday would bring better weather for the ski out, and it didn’t disappoint. We woke to clearing skies and calm weather. We got an early start not knowing how the road conditions had changed since we came in and with the horror stories from the last folks about breaking through waist deep drifts. Thankfully with skies it was easy going, and since the trail was mostly downhill we made it back in less than three hours.
When we got back to the trailhead the sun was once again shinning and we ended the trip just like we started under a gorgeous blue sky, in t-shirts.
We stopped at Big Horse Brew Pub in Hood River on the way back to Portland, for some great beer and tasty fish and chips.
The plan was for a 3-day trip over the weekend of Tammi’s birthday, leaving Friday and returning home on Sunday. It was a supposed 11 mile one-way trip, not for novices plan on 8 hours and the FS site repeatedly stated to be prepared for EXTREME CONDITIONS.
But really how hard could it be?
The trip starts at Billy Bob Sno-park 20 miles east of Dufur, OR. Great name, right.
Driving to the sno-park Friday, we discovered a good foot of snow had fallen the night before. Well this could make things interesting for the ski up, nothing like breaking trail through powder on skinny XC skis with a 40 lb pack full of wine.
We left to Sno-park at 11:20 and soon realized that the only person ahead us since it snowed just happened to be the sno-cat grooming the trail. So instead of breaking trail through knee deep powder, we got fresh untracked corduroy the whole way up.
We meet the people that had stayed there the night before about half way, they said it had been a wild windy night and had some waist deep drifts to content with on the way down since the groomer hadn’t made it all the way up yet. We took lunch in the sun thinking about how glad we were that we brought skis and not snowshoes like the other folks.
We made it to the lookout in 4 hours and had plenty of daylight left to become acquainted with the area. To access the cabin requires you to ascend five flights of stairs to a narrow cat walk that surrounds the living quarters. All four walls are made entirely of windows giving you a panoramic view of the Oregon Cascades and surrounding foothills. We had a great pasta dinner and sat by the fire drinking wine and watched the sun set behind Mt. Hood.
We had plans to try and ski somewhere on Saturday, but when we awoke the weather had different plans. What had been blue bird skies the day before was now socked in and the wind was blowing around 50-70mph. We hunkered down for most of the day keeping the fire stoked and melting water, and drinking more wine. We did have 3L to go through. We did make it out for a short walk down the road, saw lots of rabbit and squirrel tracks in the fresh snow. The wind had only been blowing strong for half a day but already the sno-cat tracks were almost completely gone. We roasted sausages over the fire for dinner, with beans and rice on the side, and more wine of course. Gotta stay hydrated.
That night we needed ear plugs to sleep because of the wind. The bed was super comfy if not a little grungy, and we did our best not to let any exposed skin touch the mattress. Note to self, next time bring a sheet.
We hoped Sunday would bring better weather for the ski out, and it didn’t disappoint. We woke to clearing skies and calm weather. We got an early start not knowing how the road conditions had changed since we came in and with the horror stories from the last folks about breaking through waist deep drifts. Thankfully with skies it was easy going, and since the trail was mostly downhill we made it back in less than three hours.
When we got back to the trailhead the sun was once again shinning and we ended the trip just like we started under a gorgeous blue sky, in t-shirts.
We stopped at Big Horse Brew Pub in Hood River on the way back to Portland, for some great beer and tasty fish and chips.
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