Eagle Cap Wilderness

We submitted Eagle Cap, got caught in a hailstorm, and almost got rescued by Ranger Dad.

We split town after work on Thursday, which gave us enough time to drive halfway across the state before rolling up to a campsite in the dark and calling it an evening. In the morning we meandered the rest of the way past Joseph and set out for a long ascent towards Mirror Lake along the Lostine River. We camped at the lake for a night. Our favorite feature of this lake is watching a handful of birds that swim leisurely together in a V formation until, at some signal known only to them, they scatter at turbo speed in all directions. They look to us like a track team running drills, but upon second thought, it’s probably just an effective way to surprise attack whatever they’re hunting beneath the mirror’s surface.

Eagle Cap peaking out over Mirror Lake

On day two, we ate breakfast as the sun warmed up the lake, applied sun screen, and started a day trip up to the summit of Eagle Cap. As we ascended towards the summit at 9577 foot, clouds starting gathering in the distance. We passed a party or two coming down, but seemed to have the trail to ourselves.

We got to the summit and spent a few minutes taking in the views, including this cute shot with the heart shaped Glacier Lake in the distance. Then the clouds rolled over us, the temperature seemed to drop 20 degrees and a cold rain started falling.

Luckily we had we a few layers so we pulled those on, and started to book it down the mountain. Once wet, we were going to struggle to stay warm at that elevation. Sadly but perhaps not surprisingly Kaden was only wearing a flimsy pair of booty shorts. So we set off down the peak at the fastest pace we could move without risking a tumble.

At about halfway down the mountain, we ran into a ranger with a Saint Bernard looking rescue dog, which I’ve only ever seen in cartoons. The ranger was a man in his 50’s or maybe 60’s who said he had gotten a call that a pair of folks were up on the mountain when the storm broke out and came to see if we were okay. He had a walkie talkie and supplies as well as the dog. He let us know a bit about the weather conditions and what to expect in the next few days. Most importantly, this man who had lots of grounds to question why we continued on to the summit when the clouds were gathering, or why on earth I was hiking around in my underwear essentially, or to be frustrated that he had to get out in the hail and come after us. But he mentioned none of these things and was in good spirits, and as we were making friendly chatter, he used our correct pronouns adeptly and without skipping a bit, like a pro.

When we said goodbye, he was heading up the mountain to see if he could pick up some service on his walkie talkie to let folks know everything was okay. We both got choked up a bit thinking about him. We named him Ranger Dad because he was all the things you want a Dad to be… someone who will show up in just the right moment with the resources and information you need, with good cheer and a total absence of frustration or judgment. Someone who will get your pronouns right, but in an understated way. I’m choking up now just thinking about Ranger Dad, because we all know that ideally dad’s are supposed to protective and resourceful and also loving and kind, and we also all know that not everybody gets to have a dad like that, so it meant a lot to us that Ranger Dad showed up when and how he did, and didn’t even chide Kaden for the booty shorts.

Kaden amidst rolling fields of grain

Because of the good intel from Ranger Dad, who said it would continue raining here and there through the day and likely would pour for most of tomorrow, with snow in higher elevations, we got back to our site and packed our gear and headed down the mountain. We got caught in a hail storm along the way, and made it back to Jackson at the trailhead just as dusk was falling. All told it was a 15 mile day.

We were tired and luckily were able to pull into dispersed camping just down the road, and before long we were eating salmon and drinking wine, listening to the patter of rain on Jackson’s roof, warming ourselves up and in good spirits.

The next day the rains continued, and we drove west, winding back across the state and watching the ecology shift. Before we hit the Dalles, we started south along the Deschutes River, ascending a winding road, past windmill farms, until we found the perfect pull off, overlooking golden hills that reminded me of the wheat cards in Settlers of Catan. We watched the sunset and had a cozy night. Like the best adventures, this one did not go “as planned” but we still found a lot of joy and excitement and intrigue along the way.

Thank you to Ranger Dad. And all the Ranger Dad