Hot Sisters Day 6 – A burger to end 3 nights of hunger

Hot springs – 3
Mountains – 3
Lookouts – 1

We made it to Lemolo Lake and the wonderful lodge that is here.  That lodge serves up big burgers with the best bacon on the planet (they tried a half dozen different suppliers).

“This burger finally ends what was 3 days and 3 nights of hunger,” we said to ourselves.  That only made it all the much better.

We were at our upper limit for what we can carry with our setups, so we knew we were never going to actually be full — throughout.  It’s a sacrifice, and one that pays big dividends when traveling through the backcountry.

It’s not so much that our setups can’t handle more food, we just can’t stand to carry it.  Even as it was, our bikes were riding like pigs.  Almost like they were riding us, not the other way around.

Another sacrifce you make is long climbs.  Luckily climb one was behind us, last night.  We awoke to high elevations and thick dewfall.  Everything was soaked but us — score another one for the tent.

Ridgelines called us forward as we smoothed our way across the high lines of the mountains.  Occasionally a sign would have the symbol for a lookout tower on it.  We were skunked on hiking to Waldo lookout.  Fuji’s view was rad, but there was no longer a tower or any structure.  Would there actually be one here?

Yes, Mt. Warner commands an impressive view.  No one was home.  After a brief check in to the virtual world, we rolled on to go find the Moon Point singlerack.

It started overgrown and with climbing, but we kept at it.  We hiked out to check the view at the actual ‘Point’, then proceeded to burn brake pads all the way down to the Middle Fork of the Wilamette, some 3000 feet of singletrack ripping.

It reminded me of a less-blown-out version of Alpine Trail.  Only a few sections were rough and rutted enough to be sub-fun.  The rest was good, good trail.

Back in the 2000 foot lowlands again, we rolled into the deep shade of the Middle Fork trail.  What a treat and a treasure this trail is.  Like a world within a world, you can get lost in the thick canopy.  Just as in 2008, I underestimated this trail.  It does start pitching up more, and has some pretty good hike-a-bike.  Our BS-level was exceeded at about the time we encountered two bridges out.  We pushed bikes back to the road, and enjoyed much smoother going, and better hope we would reach food before the end of the day.

At warner lookout I had freehanded a short-cut to our climb over to the Umpqua drainage.  We had originally hope to climb mountains out of Timpanogas Lake, but our grumbling bellies had other ideas.  So we skipped the lake completely, on a route that worked out well.

It was still hard work, climbing granny ring in the sun, and 3000 feet or so, but eventually we were on the downhill run to Lemolo, with a few calories to spare.  A recent fire twarted our plan for a sneak-peak of the North Umpqua trail, but luckily it is still open below the Lake.

We’re feeling it.  Not sure what we will do tomorrow — continue on the route or go explore elsewhere… perhaps another mountain to climb.

Lemolo Lake