A Hike in the Three Sisters Wilderness

 Recently I took a short hike near Bend, OR.  We were there for a wedding, and I only had a few hours to hike while my wife was at the bridal shower.  The Three Sisters Wilderness is just west of Bend, and showed a number of accessible trailheads, a good network of trails, and numerous inviting peaks and lakes.  I didn’t think I’d have any trouble finding a place to go.  

I bought a trail map from REI and started planning a hike. I quickly learned that many of the trailheads require a day use permit, which you get here:  Central Cascades Wilderness Day Use Permits

The system was very easy to use, but one after another, I found that all the trailheads closest to Bend were booked out for a week or more ahead.  The idea is to limit the number of daily users at each trailhead to preserve some level of solitude and improve the wilderness experience.  I can support this goal, but it does mean you have to plan farther ahead than I did.   

I eventually found a trailhead a bit farther away that did not require an advance reservation, and took a short, fast 6 mile out-and-back hike to Sunset Lake.  I couldn’t start walking until about 1615, so it was a fast walk to the lake, dinner by the lake at sunset, and back to the trailhead in the twilight, walking by moonlight for the last half mile or so.

I always like to see these USFS Wilderness boundary signs.

This was mostly a hike through the woods without expansive views.

This was about as close as I came to seeing much of anything off in the distance.

Part of this hike followed a section of the Pacific Crest Trail, so I guess now if I wanted to stretch a point I could say “I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail”, lol.  

After about a mile or so, the trail from the trailhead met and followed a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail.

A PCT marker in the late afternoon sun.

After another mile or so, the trail to Sunset Lake diverged from the PCT.

Sunset Lake at Sunset (or should it be "Sunset at Sunset Lake"?)

I walked back to the trailhead in the gathering dusk.  The last half-mile or so was by moonlight.

It was nice to get out in the woods for a hike, but it was very different than most of my hiking experiences in Idaho have been so far. These trails are very heavily used, and are therefore wide, well-trodden, and easy to follow.  It helped me to appreciate just how fortunate we are to have so much truly remote, wild country in Idaho.  I hope we can preserve the wilderness we have without needing to institute limited access and permits.

Mood:  Happy

Music:  King Harvest, Dancing in the Moonlight