We hike Three Fingered Jack yearly and always enjoy our experience. Our 2023 hike was no exception and the air was clear, a challenge this summer with the smoke from the Bedrock fire near Eugene coming and going for weeks. 

The Canyon Meadow/Three Fingered Jack hike is one of our less strenuous summer hikes, the entire route taking less than 8 miles with roughly 1700 feet of elevation gain. Traveling through the forest recovering from the 2003 B&B fire, it is nice to see the growth of new vegetation and young trees, and it was easy to sample huckleberries growing along the path. Once you enter unburned forest, it isn't far until hikers reach Canyon Meadow with its green grass, wildflowers, and views of Three Fingered Jack. The "unmaintained" spur path to the mountain had a number of fallen trees to traverse, but past that it was easy to reach the base of the moraine which holds the blue glacial lake. 

It is harder to scramble up the loose rock of the moraine (going down you have to be careful), but we always do this and reach the saddle between Three Fingered Jack and a nearby peak which we have nicknamed "Dragon Mountain". From there, stunning views of the Three Sisters, Broken Top and Mt Bachelor can be seen. Looking the other way, views of Mt Jefferson can't be missed. During this trip, we also saw a nearby mountain goat; these goats were reintroduced to the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness around Three Fingered Jack in 2010 and have grown in number.

Tarn Lakes at the Base of Broken Top are Hidden Treasures

We have hiked to Golden Lake several times in the last few years, and have always enjoyed the experience despite the length of the trek. We have accessed Golden Lake via the Green Lakes trail, hiking past the last lake deeper into the Three Sisters Wilderness before turning off the main trail into the little used Golden Lake Trail and enjoying the gem of this beautiful, isolated mountain lake. However, we noticed several years earlier that the lovely series of waterfalls which feed the lake have a faint path next to the creek traveling higher up the lower slopes of Broken Top. We had never taken this path before due to the length of our day hike via Green Lakes already exceeded 16 miles.

The first weekend in August, 2023, we hiked to these remote lakes through Park Meadow, a hike we had never done before.  The trailhead for Park Meadow is located near Three Creeks Lake, a few miles from Sisters, and the first four miles of trail were through the dry, dusty dead forest which was the result of the 2013 Pole Creek Fire. Volunteers had cleared the first 2.5 miles of blow down, but the next 2 miles were slow having to hike over and around fallen trees. Despite the dead snags, there are signs of life with young trees, wildflowers, grasses and mountain shrubs growing in the burnt forest, especially near water sources such as the several creeks which flow through the area.

Once we reached unburned forest, it was a short mile or so to reach Park Meadow, a beautiful meadow with wildflowers, green grass and views of Broken Top. Crossing the East Fork of Park Creek was a little challenging for those of us wishing to keep our feet dry.

Past Park Meadow the trail gained elevation at a greater rate until we reached Golden Lake. We walked around the lake to the lovely waterfall at the far end and traveled up the faint path another mile or so, following the unnamed creek which had many small waterfalls and wildflowers all the way to the spring from which it began at the base of a glacial moraine. Hiking up the moraine to the top we reached the first tarn lake, which had a beautiful ice blue color we have seen at other glacial lakes. Up the second moraine we reached the last tarn lake where we ate our lunch and enjoyed the views of Broken Top, including the ridge which overlooks NoName Lake. We spotted several people walking along the ridge, but from the distance we were at, the figures were too small to identify.

With the extra mile up and back to the tarn lakes, our total trip was just shy of 16 miles and roughly 2000 feet of elevation gain. Outside of the volunteers clearing the blow down 2.5 miles in, we saw no other people until we returned to Golden Lake. It was a wonderful day exploring Central Oregon's beautiful hikes.

What's in the August 2023 Bend Premier Real Estate Newsletter?

• Bend Home Sales Average Over $1,000,000 in July
• Mt. Hood's Clear Lake Hike Worth the Trip
• Four Ways You Can Use Your Home's Equity
• There's Only Half the Inventory of a Normal Market
• Housing Market Forecast

Bend Homes Sales Price Over Million Dollars

We never thought this would happen, but the average Bend single family home sold for over a million dollars in July, 2023. Despite mortgage interest rates hovering around 7%, high end Bend homes are selling. When demand exceeds supply, home prices rise. When mortgage rates jumped from 3.5% to 7% in the space of a few months, there was a drop in home sales. However, it appears that home buyers have become used to higher rates, and there are still a large number of Bend home buyers who are purchasing with cash. Lack of inventory continues to be a big problem and lack of affordability for Bend first time homeowners has pushed many to alternative cities.

When figures for Bend single family home sales are compared between July 2023 and July 2022, the following changes can be noted:

• Average sales price is up 8.8% to $1,012,215*
• Median sales price up 4.2% to $797,450
• New listings down 28.6% to...

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Mt Hood's Clear Lake a Popular Destination

With the recent heavy smoke Central Oregon has been experiencing from the Bedrock Fire, we expanded our hiking locations to include the Mt. Hood area. Last Saturday we enjoyed the hike to Clear Lake, a popular hike located just off Hwy 26 by Skibowl in the Mt Hood National Forest. We started our hike just after 9:00 am after our two hour drive from Bend, and found the parking lot practically full. The hike to Clear Lake was well marked and typically is an easy to moderate in and out loop trail around the lake with roughly 300 feet of elevation gain. However, past the lake, which has lovely views of Mt. Hood on a clear day, there is an option to hike up Tom, Dick and Harry Mountain in the Salmon - Huckleberry Wilderness, a trip that provides for over 1700 feet of elevation gain and lengthens the total hike to over 8 miles.

Upon reaching the rock filled overlook, we continued on another 1/2 mile to the actual summit on Tom Dick Peak, which we discovered is part of SkiBowl recreation area, clearly not part of the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness. Our GPS showed an option to hike down through the ski area, which we did. This involved traversing several diamond runs and connecting with the unused mountain bike trail. Our hike down to the Skibowl buildings by the parking lot was extremely steep and what took over 4.5 miles to gain in elevation we lost in just over 1 mile. We do not recommend this route for most people. However, it was a beautiful day with wonderful views of Mt Hood and a pleasure to be out of smokey Central Oregon.