Hike through the heart of the Three Sisters Wilderness

The first time I hiked from the north of the Three Sisters Wilderness through to Century Drive, it was 1987 - and I took three days to do it. So, when my hiking buddy suggested it as a day-hike, I was skeptical.

I've been up the Pole Creek Trail many times on my way to climbing the North and Middle Sisters or other wilderness wanderings. In Park Meadow once, I'd noticed it was only four miles to the Soap Creek Crossing on the Pole Creek Trail. Connecting the two was an intriguing possibility, but the logistics seemed daunting.

Nevertheless, I added up the mileage between the Pole Creek and Green Lakes Trailheads and discovered it was only about 14 miles. Still, unless we undertook a 28-mile hike, there was the problem of the 60-some miles by road between the trailheads. The solution I came up with turned out to be really expensive.

My wife agreed to pick us up on Century Drive on an evening when she would already be in Bend. We checked our calendars and set a date. On the morning in question, we set out from Pole Creek, timing it to arrive in accordance with my wife's schedule, which required us to be at the Green Lakes Trailhead at dusk.

The first leg of this hike is a bit tedious, through bug-killed lodgepole. However, as the elevation increases, healthy hemlock and fir appear. Reaching Soap Creek at about the two-mile point was exciting because "new" trail lay beyond. Soap Creek has an easy log crossing, and the trail forks. The right fork heads southwest toward Camp Lake; but we took the left fork south toward Green Lakes.

At one point, we passed through a burn, the history of which I don't recall. At 6,000 feet, about two miles south of Soap Creek, we lunched between two small, unnamed lakes. It was a beautiful day in a beautiful spot.

Soon we dropped down into Red Meadow on the West Fork of Park Creek, and it reminded me very much of Park Meadow. The beauty of the country here speaks to the very reason why we hike the wilderness.

At Park Meadow, we were not quite half-way. I remembered this next stretch of trail from a previous hike into Golden Lake, which I mentioned to my friend. As I might have expected, she wanted to see Golden Lake, too. I looked at my watch, and we were a little ahead of schedule. The detour would only add about an extra mile. If we picked up our pace a bit and didn't make any other stops, we could squeeze it in and still meet our scheduled pick-up time.

Golden Lake, nestled against the slopes of Broken Top, is on all the maps, but not the hidden trail; nor is there a trail sign. I've mentioned this to various Forest Service officials, and I always get the same answer: this is wilderness; and, to provide a wilderness experience, they like to keep some destinations a little mysterious.

By then, the sun was getting pretty low on the horizon, but we were still approximately on schedule. We picked up the pace and marched over a steep, rocky 7,000-foot saddle between Broken Top and the South Sister. The saddle is clearly visible from Sisters as a long ridge stretching between the two mountains. We would later look back at it from Sisters and say, "Wow, that's where we went."

The trail over this rocky ridge is faint in spots and would have been difficult in the dark. While I always hike with emergency equipment to spend the night if necessary, neither of us particularly wanted to explain that to our spouses. So, we soldiered on and picked up the pace even more. As the sun sank toward the horizon, it was still almost six miles to Century Drive; but it was all downhill.

In the early evening, we dropped down off the ridge toward Green Lakes. We'd planned to do some relaxing there, but we'd used up all our spare time; and we blew right on by. Once past the lakes, we scampered down the rest of the trail, even jogging down some of the steeper stretches. In the end, we arrived with nearly 20 minutes to spare.

We snacked on leftover provisions at the parking lot and waited. This is about the time I discovered just how expensive this hike would be. When it was almost dark, I saw my wife's yellow Xterra pull into the parking lot. Only one headlight was showing, which seemed peculiar since I'd recently replaced both with new high-intensity bulbs.

As her car drew closer, I could see that the front end was caved in. She'd plowed into a whole herd of deer on her way to pick us up. I knew the logistics of this trip would be a problem, but I hadn't expected this wrinkle. Still, her valiant little SUV got us all the way home.

It was a great hike, but the news wasn't good for the Xterra. With 200,000 miles, our insurance company totaled the 10-year-old car. They paid more than the cost of repairs but nothing close to the cost of a new one, which was what my wife got out of the deal. So, if you try this hike, you might want to check your financial situation first.

To reach the Pole Creek Trailhead, take the McKenzie Pass Highway past Sisters Middle School and turn left at the Pole Creek Springs sign. Follow Forest Road 15 about 11 miles to its end. To reach the Green Lakes Trailhead, take Century Drive past Mt. Bachelor for another 5 miles. Both trailheads are fee-use areas.