McKenzie River National Recreation Trail #3507
Willamette National Forest, in Linn and Lane Counties, near Sisters, Oregon
I’ve wanted to do this trail for a few years, and it was an easy sell to get my friend, Trailkat, to go with me the week of Thanksgiving.
After a 7.5-hour drive, we arrived at Horse Creek Lodge & Outfitters. Setting up the shuttle the week before was easy, and although we arrived a little earlier than scheduled, the owners/operators, Gary and Alyssa, were ready for us. The plan was to leave our vehicle and keys with them, then be dropped off at our trailhead, and then our vehicle is dropped off for us at the end of the trail, on the day we expected to conclude our thru-hike.
Gary helped us load our packs and suggested he show us the upper trailhead before we committed to beginning there due to the snowpack. After giving us a tour of the campsites and trailheads along the way, we did determine that we would follow his advice and begin a few miles down the trail to get out of the deepest snow.
We were dropped off right after Clear Lake, so we managed to avoid the lava flow from Mount Washington and the coldest section of the trail. When we got on the trail, it was 3 pm, and we had one hour of daylight to walk. We knocked out a few icy and snowy miles and saw the beautiful waterfall loop before landing at Ice Cap Creek Campground at Carmen Reservoir. There was a bathroom there – what a treat! The camp was cold. So cold. That’s all I remember from that night.
The next day we walked almost 13 miles and eventually made it out of the snow. We saw Blue Pool, which is indescribably beautiful, and we were lucky to have it ourselves. When we moved on from Blue Pool, we began intersecting with more and more people who were out on day hikes to see Blue Pool and the waterfalls. The trailhead for Blue Pool had a bathroom! And was very busy. Moving on from there, we saw fewer people – just one mountain biker and a couple out trail running with their adorable puppy. We crossed many bridges, but the largest water crossing was at Deer Creek, and the bridge had washed out. I had forgotten my trek poles in the car and lacked the confidence to tightrope walk the frozen and icy logs across the creek, so I changed into my Crocs and hopped rocks until I could get to a fallen tree that I could use to crawl to the other side. Trailkat had her trek poles and crossed the icy logs like a ninja. We camped at Bigalow Hot Springs that night, and I experienced my first backpacking night of being scared. There is something about the area being so accessible to others that made me feel uneasy, and exhaustion was the only reason I finally got sleep.
Internal wandering thought: How far ahead of someone do you need to be to fart and not be “crop dusting”?
External wandering thought: “Have you thought about how I could murder you right now and no one would know?” The answer is no; she had not been thinking about that.
We knew we would be racing an incoming rain system when we went over our map the following morning. We were about 4 miles from Belknap Hot Springs and easily decided that we just needed to get there today. Within about one mile of the Belknap property, I could pick up enough cell signal to email Horse Creek Lodge & Outfitters to see if it was an option to have our car delivered a day early and to Belknap, instead of at the southern trailhead the next day. Gary and Alyssa arrived right when we got off the trail and left us a thank you card in the warmed-up car. We didn’t beat the rain entirely, but the storm didn’t hit us until we were swimming in the resort’s hot spring pool, and we were not mad that we were in the soothing hot spring pool while freezing rain poured on us.
Despite the incredibly cold nights, I loved this trip. I am so happy that Trailkat is wild and brave and also reasonable. We completed 20/25 miles of this trail and are looking forward to bringing our crew out to adventure it with us in 2023!
My Gear
Kelty Coyote 65 (4lbs 10oz)
REI Flash Air 1 tent (3 season) (1lb 4oz)
Therm-a-Rest Z Lite Sol sleep pad (r-value: 2.0) (14oz)
NEMO Tensor Ultralight Insulated Sleeping Pad (regular-wide) (r-value: 4.2) (1lb 3oz)
UGQ Bandit Top Quilt (specs: 800 fill, 30 degrees F/-1 degrees C, Reg/wide, no overstuffing, draft collar and zipper and drawcord foot box) (21oz)
Jetboil Flash Cooking System (13.1oz)
Jetboil Jetpower (did not weigh to see how much was left – 13.4oz when full)
Sea to Summit Alpha Light Spork (.4oz)
GSI Infinity Lightweight Backpacker Mug (3.5oz)
Hygiene:
Vivago Biodegradable Bamboo toothbrush (.4oz)
Schick Intuition Bamboo Shaver (.35oz)
humangear GoTubb Small Containers (3) (.6oz) –
—1. Simplut Toothpaste Tablets
—2. Lumē Whole Body Deodorant
—3. Aquaphor
Conair Comb Detangle (3.2oz)
Toilet Kit:
Kula Cloth
Hilltop Packs Zipper Pouch (large) (.48oz)
Ziplock bag with clean toilet paper
Ziplock bag with clean Water Wipes
Ziplock bag for used TP and wipes
TheTentLab Deuce Ultralight Backpacking Potty Trowel (size #2) (.6oz)
My ten essentials:
1. Navigation: Compass and AllTrails map downloaded to my phone and McKenzie River & Old Cascade Crest, OR, Trail Map
2. Sun protection: did not bring
3. Headlamp: Nitecore NU25 360 Lumen Triple Output (.99oz)
4. First aid: Adventure Medical Kit.5 (.23lbs)
5. Fire: Zippo Emergency Fire Kit (.1 lbs)
6. Shelter: Life Bivy Emergency Sleeping Bag Thermal Bivvy (temperature rating to 14 degrees F) (4.1oz)
7. Knife: an old Army knife
8. Extra food: Tailwind Nutrition Endurance Fuel, Kind Minis, Whisps Cheese Crisps
9. Extra water: This hike was along a river. I used two 32 ounce Nalgenes (6.25oz) and a Sawyer Squeeze Filter (3oz)
10. Extra clothes: Injinji Trail Mid-weight Mini-Crew Socks, Eddie Bauer CirrusLite Down Hooded Jacket (650 fill) (9.6oz), Lightheart Gear Rain Jacket (Large) (6.1oz)
Other:
Whistle
Gear Aid 550 Paracord – 30’ (3oz)
SABRE Frontiersman 7.9oz Bear Spray
Anker PowerCore 13000 portable charger with a phone cord and Nitcore charging cord (8.47oz plus weight of cords)
Hot Hands Hand Warmers (4)
Crocs (<1lb)
Yaktrax Pro (7oz)
Meals:
Hilltop Packs Food Bag with Custom Printing (EXOPAK) Bear Bag (Large) (1.6oz)
Alpine Start Dirty Chai Instant Coffee
Backpackers Pantry Pad Thai
Outdoor Herbivore Chickpea Sesame Zetti
Peak Refuel Butternut Dal Bhat
What I wore:
Old Navy Sleeveless PowerSoft Performance Racer-Back Mini Swing Dress
Long sleeve performance shirt from a race
Constantly Varied Gear Leggings
Injinji Trail Mid-weight Mini-Crew Socks
Brooks Shield Hybrid Jacket 2.0
Brooks Notch Thermal Headband
Mizuno Breath Thermo Knit Glove
Altra Outroad Trail-Running Shoes
Coros Apex Pro Premium Multisport GPS watch