Day 3-Gunsight Ridge-Outsmarting the Route, but Still a Long Day

I slept pretty good last night. It was nice with the sound of the creek, and not hot. Thanks to that fine line of dehydration, I only got up once. 

I woke up at 5:45 for good. Warmed up my clothes in my quilt before starting the morning pack up process. Makaela was still silent. Got my stuff packed inside my tent, did a good session of stretching (back was a little stiff after all the pushing yesterday), and continued getting ready. Makaela was still sleeping after I had finished my breakfast. I wish I could lay in my tent that long, but my back says otherwise.

Because I’m a much slower climber than Makaela, I headed out at 8:20. There was a pretty good climb right out of the gate. Had we continued yesterday, I would have been walking. 

I made it out to the pavement. 

Nice downhill!

I got to Rock Creek Campground after 5.7 miles (longer than we thought). There I got water and waited for Makaela. She was about 30 minutes behind me. She had texted me to go on, but I didn’t have service. I did start out while she was getting water. 

The route turned off Wamic Rd onto gravel. This was the connection to the Historic Barlow Rd. Only the route had us going up a stupid way. We did figure out that we could use a different gravel road to connect to Barlow Rd, but we also knew we could just stay on Wamic Rd and skip Barlow altogether. Because we were a bit behind in miles, and because we were a little tired of sketchy routing (remember yesterday’s debacle?), we decided to stay on Wamic Rd. It would take us all the way to Hwy 35 a couple miles before Bennett Pass. 

Now, you might be thinking we were cheating on the climbing. You would be wrong. We still had to climb for the better part of 15 miles. There were a couple of descents, but then it would go right back up. The only difference was that it was paved. 

We also saw this wildlife. 

From a distance, I thought it might be a bear. But, since Makaela kept on riding, I thought it might be a rock. It wasn’t. 

See the thing around it’s neck? It must be a gps tracking. 

Finally we came around the corner and got this view of Mt. Hood. 

Not too much further to Hwy 35. 

Once we got on the Hwy, and made it to Bennett Pass, we turned into a Sno-Park to then get back on the gravel. 

Mt. Hood from the Sno-Park. 

Back to gravel, and continuing to climb. 

Pano at a viewpoint. 

Mt. Hood with the clouds moving out. 

At the viewpoint, there were tons of huckleberries. 

We spent a fair amount of time filling our mouths with berries. 


The climb continued. I was out of steam, and had to push up the steep parts. It didn’t help that it was very rough and rocky. 

Too steep for me to ride. 

Might that be the top up there? Yes, but only a brief down, then back to climbing. 

Interesting rock formation. 

We came to this intersection. Guess which way the route went? Yep, uphill! Back to pushing. 

About 1 1/2 long miles later, we finally reached our destination. It was a trailhead down to Jean Lake. We hadn’t originally planned to stop here, but not doing Barlow made it so we got here. We still did 38.9 miles (and almost 5500 feet of elevation. 

Bikes are not allowed at Jean Lake because it is a wilderness area. The problem is the lake is a third of a mile hike down. Camping at the lake meant we would have to carry all our gear down to the lake. It would take multiple trips. I decided I didn’t have the energy left for more than one trip down and back. There is a somewhat flattish wide spot on the road. I decided to camp here. Makaela decided to go down to the lake. She made two trips. I took my water filter down to get enough water for tonight and tomorrow. 

The trail. 

Jean Lake. It is pretty, but not enough so to make me want to carry all my stuff down there, then back up tomorrow morning. Makaela and I said our goodnights as she was heading back down, and I was going back up. 

It was 8:00 by the time I was eating dinner. Now I’m in my tent, and it’s time to go to sleep. At least we don’t have as far to go tomorrow.