B10 The BulleTin • Friday, FeBruary 12, 2021
Signs for the Peak View Snowshoe Trial and Jeff View Shelter at the Upper Three Creek Sno-Park.
Jefferson
Continued from B1
“The hill is steep,” they
warned. “The wind only gets
worse the higher you get.”
Initially, they were not
wrong. The hill only seemed to
get steeper as the wind picked
up. It became clear early that
this might be a bit of a chal-
lenge than originally thought.
After several miles — actu-
ally, a dozen or so yards — of
the grueling uphill climb, ques-
tions began to swirl.
Why would the good peo-
ple at alltrails.com blatantly lie
by calling the trail’s difficulty
moderate, and what abomi-
nable trail would be deemed
“hard”? Will The Bulletin be
held responsible for suggest-
ing such a torturous activity
to its readers? And how many
screws are loose in the heads of
people who find this to be an
enjoyable way to spend a week-
end afternoon?
Yes, thoughts of turning
around were bouncing around
the head in the early stages of
the climb. But we kept plug-
ging along — mainly because
of this story and for the hope
that the views from the shelter
would be worth the struggle.
Of course, my dog did not
mind the climb and would
mock us two-leggers by sprint-
ing up the hill, then back
down, then back up again.
Many more miles (yards)
later, the trail suddenly began
to flatten off a bit. Then came
more welcoming news. The
trail once believed to be nearly
5 miles out-and-back was actu-
ally only 3 miles, and the shel-
ter was a mile closer than orig-
inally thought. Everyone but
Rodger was relieved.
We weaved through the
forest where the effects of the
fire from nearly a decade ago
were still noticeable. The once-
evergreen trees were reduced
to giant twigs shooting out of
the snow. As Fertig pointed
out, the open spaces left by the
fire helped create better views
of the surrounding Three Sis-
ters and Mount Jefferson.
As we climbed and got
closer to the shelter, the snow-
How to get there
From Sisters: Travel 11 miles
south on Forest Road 16 (Elm
Street in Sisters).
drifts became deeper. Watch-
ing my pup stumble and sink
into snow made me glad for
the invention of snowshoes—
serves that showoff right.
Walking through a patch
of trees, the Jefferson Viewing
Shelter appeared. It is a small
Adirondack shelter with a gi-
ant heavy tarp covering the en-
trance to shield the wind.
Inside, there was a wood
stove and benches, which
made for a perfect spot to re-
lax, rehydrate and munch on
some trail mix, all while warm-
ing up and escaping the ele-
ments. The Nancy’s Loop and
Three Creek Lake Trail nordic
trails also lead to the shelter.
Outside in the distance, in
all its glory, was Mount Jef-
ferson. And on this day, it
Two classes on Feb. 19,
9:00 am and 12:00 pm
Bend Country Inn
62065 SE 27th St., Bend, OR
was completely covered up by
clouds. Just our luck. The view
was stunning nevertheless.
Refueled and after snapping
a few photos, we began our
trek, thankfully, downhill.
To get an idea of how
windy it was, the tracks that
our snowshoes had made
heading to the shelter were
completely gone. On a day
where it was not snowing,
the wind had blown the snow
into our tracks that were sev-
eral inches deep as if no one
had been there.
Mother Nature tested our
hardiness by giving us heavy
winds on our climb and re-
warded us with no wind on the
way down. Suddenly, the mod-
erate ranking made sense, and
we discovered that the people
of alltrails.com were not liars as
we effortlessly made our way
down the mountain and back
to the parking lot.
And we made plans to revisit
in the summer.
e e
Reporter: 541-383-0307,
brathbone@bendbulletin.com
Multi-State: $80.00
Oregon Included No Fee
Oregon Only: $45.00
Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin photos
A group of hikers head out together Saturday to explore a trail from the Upper Three Creek Sno-park.
Get Him The Gift He Will Love
LES NEWMAN’S
QUALITY OUTDOOR WEAR
On NE Franklin Avenue across from Les Schwab
541-318-4868
The Junebugs
Livestream series continues!
February 18 • 6 PM
Tune in for a boot-stompin
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bluegrass and rockin’ renditions
of the American songbook.
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March 18 • April 22
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