One hot August day recently, we decided to take a family day hike up to the Matthieu Lakes in the Three Sisters Wilderness for a picnic lunch and a swim. The kids, being eleven-year-olds, put up some resistance to hiking in to our swimming destination at first, but once we got out there on the trail, they were happy hikers. The trail is an old portion of the Oregon Skyline Trail, and now the Pacific Crest Trail, winding through forest alongside lava flows for 2 1/2 miles to North Matthieu Lake, with a loop up to South Matthieu Lake and stunning views of North Sister. It was an easy hike, and a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
North Matthieu Lake was a clear, turquoise gem at the edge of the lava flows, and perfectly swimmable in temperature. There were a few groups out there with the same idea as us to pass a hot afternoon, but with the lake being fairly good sized, we had a shore to ourselves. No one was camped, with it being the end of the weekend, but we did see some fine campsites I wouldn’t mind returning to for a backpacking trip.
We swam, splashed, played on logs and just plain relaxed in the sunshine.
After a while we hiked the loop up to South Matthieu Lake and got to some incredible views of North Sister.
On the way out, we enjoyed more beautiful views of the central Cascade peaks, and started to notice after a while that it was getting a little hazy.
Then we noticed a plume of smoke coming from a nearby ridgeline, and spotted our second wildfire this summer. We found out later it was the Hand Lake fire, which they were able to contain fairly quickly.
I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a summer afternoon than hiking and swimming with the people I love. Even though it was a busy summer, I’m grateful for how many trails we got out to explore and beautiful places we got to experience. With such an abundance of trails out in our neck of the woods, I have no doubt that we have a lot more hikes to look forward to when summer comes around again.
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