Clear Lake Butte Lookout sits high atop a peak just south of Oregon's highest point- Mount Hood.  The views are fabulous - when it's not snowing.  And snowing it was throughout the entire two day adventure shared by six Upper School students and two leaders.  The group skied the old Forest Service road from US Highway 26 for about four miles.  The snow piled up in glorious weightless drifts, decorating the trees like a Currier and Ives painting.  It took about two hours to ski to the lookout.  After setting things up inside the group went out to practice their technique in the perfect powder snow.  Even after an hour or two the technique remained unperfected, but darkness arrived.  With a little Italian flair the group prepared a massive spaghetti dinner, followed by homemade chocolate chips cookies baked on the woodstove.  Everyone in the group agreed to take on the challenge of trying to build a fire outdoors.  It took a little over two hours, but the group was successful in getting a fire going in the snow! 

What could be better than wandering across breathtaking open grasslands, exploring abandoned homesteads and descending through ancient canyons on a rainy Portland  weekend?  Seven students and three leaders from Catlin's Upper School made the trip to Southeast Oregon in a couple of spiffy rental SUVs the weekend before Thanksgiving. 

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The drive took us first to The Dalles, and south on US 197  (to avoid frantic skiers racing to $74 downhill skiing at Mt. Hood).  The rain that was soaking western Oregon ended soon enough and we broke into sunshine around Bend.  The drive through La Pine, Fort Rock, Silver Lake and Summar Lake was magnificent.  The incredible beauty of the endless vistas had the students in awe most of the time.  We stopped in Silver Lake to visit the memorial to the victims of the Christmas Eve fire that killed scores of children and adults there over a hundred years ago. 

We reached our destination of Plush in the afternoon and spent time visiting some ancient pictographs and petroglyphs along the shores of a nearby lake.  That evening we spent a warm night in a cabin donated for our use by a local resident.

On Sunday we were off early and drove up to the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge Headquarters.  From there we headed south to our trailhead near Blue Sky.  We had arranged for a couple of helpful Plush resident to shuttle our vehicles for us - allowing us to make the 17 mile hike in just a single (downhill) direction.

We were following a track recommended to us by the Oregon Natural Desert Association as being spectacular, untravelled and good for winter travel.  They were right on all counts.  The initial few miles of the hike took us along old abandoned jeep roads through beautiful grasslands.  Now that grazing has been suspended on the Refuge, the students were able to see the area in its full beauty of luxuriant grass and wildflowers.  We came across dozens and dozens of animal tracks in the fresh snow as we walked.  A herd of pronghorn antelope grazed not far from where we walked.  The students were excited to see a small herd of wild horses cross our trail not more than a quarter mile from us.  We visited an abandoned homestead and then crossed a few small passes before finding a nice location to spend the night.

Monday saw us travel south over a few more passes and across the heads of several canyons.  On top of one pass we were treated to a truly specacular view of the canyons and escarpments of the area that extended all the way south to California.  Several students said it was the most magnificent view they had ever seen.  The group came upon Wool Lake, and found it completely frozen over.  We discovered a number of pictographs on an obscure cliff face that may never have been seen before (who knows?).  A short time later we came across a carving from early pioneers that was dated from 1897.  What a great way for students to learn history!

We descended Fischer Canyon that afternoon and ended up camping at a hot springs.  Lucky for us the water was indeed hot and we spent several hours soaking while dinner was prepared.  The next day we boarded our SUVs for the ride home-- the students were enchanted by the landscape and we stopped many times to take photos and look at the scenery before we arrived at school before dinner.

A group of ten 6th grade students ventured west to the rolling farmland of Cornelius, Oregon, for a weekend of exploration, pumpkin carving, and fun. We all got to know each other better over the course of the two days while also learning new outdoor living skills!  

After setting up camp next to the berry fields of Duyck's Peachy Pig Farm, we set off to explore the 67-acre property on foot. We passed and identified many crops - berries, fruit and nut trees, and vegetables - before entering the hazelnut orchard.  Upper School students Siobhan and Annika joined the group and helped out with camp tasks. We took our time in the orchard, stopping for a good-hearted hazelnut war and hazelnut throwing contest before hiking up into the cedar grove at the top of the property. Our hike along the perimeter of the farm ended in the pumpkin patch, where we each picked a pumpkin that called out to us. After carving them up, we played games and harvested fresh vegetables for a primavera sauce that would accompany our big pasta dinner. The feast was delicious, and we ended the night with a nice campfire in the woods before turning into bed in our tents. Sunday held more games, fresh food, and a visit to the farm's namesake pigs before loading up the bus and heading back to Catlin Gabel. The sun shone on us the entire weekend, and inspired us all to look forward to the next time that we can spend time together in the outdoors!

That is one huge fig tree

Leslie is unsure about figs

Loading pockets for the hazelnut war

A beautiful Fall day in Cornelius, OR

We set up targets for a hazelnut throwing contest

The girls won!

We found frogs all over the property

Marcell, are you kissing that frog?

Time to pick your pumpkin.

Picking produce for our pasta sauce and for breakfast

The Mary-Go-Round provided lots of entertainment while the dinner crew worked on dinner

Will's skull pumpkin

Leslie's cat pumpkin

Deschutes Descent
October 14-16, 2011
Report by Bob Sauer

We gathered in the parking lot at Catlin Gabel early on Friday morning. We quickly stashed our gear in the bus, and Pat drove us out to our put-in on the Deschutes River on Hwy 26 near Warm Springs. Silas and Travis were waiting at the launch spot with our All Star rafts and gear. We stuffed dry bags with gear, filled three coolers with food, donned splash jackets and neoprene booties, and discussed and demonstrated safety and rafting procedures. The voluminous gear was strapped into the gear raft, and the 12 students boarded the other two rafts to begin our descent. We floated under the highway bridge and into adventure.

The first day was fairly calm, river-wise. That gave us time to coalesce as crews and to appreciate our beautiful surroundings. There was plentiful birdlife – many great blue herons, neat, white collared king fishers, and little groups of mergansers in the eddies. The banks teemed with fishermen, casting, casting, casting but never catching anything that we could see. 

We floated 20 miles down to Whiskey Dick, where we set up camp for the night.  The volunteer dinner crew put together the dinner: southwest fettuccine. The extra southwestern-ness contributed by the inadvertently burned onions gave a smoky flavor that didn’t add well to the overall taste. There was a lot left over. On the other hand, the salsa ensalada disappeared completely. Winter is on its way, and it was dark by 7:30. We were happy to head to our sleeping bags soon after that.

The next morning we were up at 7:00 and enjoyed a pancake breakfast. We broke camp, loaded the rafts, and were under way on the river by 9:30. Just downstream we stopped to scout the Class IV Whitehorse Rapids. We subsequently ran them without difficulty. We passed through areas of extensive grass fires that had burned earlier in the year. Entire slopes of the deep valley were dark brown and a bit forbidding. The black ash wasn’t visible except in the burned areas right along the river. On the higher slopes the dark basalt showed through the sparse ash and rendered the landscape brown rather than black. With the usual grass gone, the spectacular geology was even more in evidence than usual. Alluvial fans debouching from the steep, narrow side canyons showed their spread of rocks openly. The dark, burnt hillsides contrasted sharply with those unburnt, whose napped golden hue was the color of lightly cooked buttermilk pancakes. We stopped at Turtle Rock for some jumping off the high rock of the turtle’s beak into the deep eddy below. We pulled out at Buckskin Mary to camp for the night.

That evening we had build-your-own-burritos for dinner. There were plenty of trimmings to put in them, and everyone ate well. The early darkness again pushed us to turn in much earlier than we would at home. In the night there were several rain showers, fortunately light enough not to drench people or gear left outside. Some animal with sharp claws tried to get into the garbage bag inadvertently left hanging on the table, but it didn’t find much of interest. Another animal (or perhaps the same one) dragged some nesting material into the bottom of one of the empty dry bags. But by morning the animal was gone.

We had 18 river miles to cover the next day, and we had to meet the bus at Sandy Beach in the early afternoon. That meant an early start. We got up at 6:45, when it was still dark. The sky lightened as we packed our gear, and we didn’t need flashlights to eat breakfast. After we consumed muffins and cereal, packing up went efficiently, and we cast off by 8:40. We ran the exciting rapids at Wapinitia, Boxcar, and Oak Springs. Shortly before the takeout we stopped to let those who wanted to float through a rapid. No one had done this the day before at Buckskin Mary, despite the example of another high school group, most of whom floated through the rapid there while some of us watched. This time though, most of our group braved the cold waves to bounce through the rapids, some more than once. The rest of the muffins from breakfast and the leftover Oreos from lunch made a welcome energy boost to the chilled. From this rapid to the take-out was a quick 10-minute float.

With our practiced experience we quickly unloaded the rafts, organized the gear, and set off back to Portland, arriving at Catlin Gabel ahead of schedule. It had been a fun three days, filled with thrilling rapids, napping in the calm stretches, teamwork, camaraderie, and fine self-cooked food. Sign us up for another trip!