Wallowa Mountains, weekend before Labor Day

Now that my name is on the title, it's time I chime in and help with our blog. Hopefully, I can keep the fun vibe Shay has managed over the last year.

After much contemplation and chin scratching, Shay and I decided how we'd spend our last three day weekend that we'd have for awhile, the Wallowas! It was an exciting discovery to realize there was a new area for us, just 4 hours away. We loaded the truck, hit the interstate and pulled into Two Pan trail head just in time to have a relaxing evening, a big dinner, and pack for our over night hike the next day.

It was 7 miles to our destination, Lakes Basin and Eagle Cap Mountain. It started with a daring crossing of the raging Lostine Creek.



After a hour and half we had slogged up the steep trail far enough to get our first view of Eagle Cap, the mountain we hoped to climb. I thought "that looks far away" which were the first words out of Shay's mouth when she saw it. Uhhh.... it's not as far as it looks.



It was far, but we made it to the lakes!



I tried to impress Shay by tip-toeing on rocks out to "the big one". My gracefulness must have must have left her amazed.



After a restless night, we woke up to tea and oatmeal and climbed Eagle Cap mountain before our hike back to the car. It was an incredible view and our first summit together, as we mentioned in the summit register.







We soaked our legs in the cold water before the long backpack down to the car. I forgot Ibuprofen.......why?




Shay was a trooper! She set the pace and power-walked us out of the forest past dozens of other hikers and did it with painful blisters. That's what you are looking at below, if you weren't sure.



It was a long day, waking up at camp, climbing a peak, hiking back to the car and driving home, but we felt good and had an awesome sunset sending us home.