Three-fingered Jack Hike - July 31, 2019
Published on 7/31/2019
It was a warm day, but with cooling breezes all day. We started at the Pacific Crest trailhead at Santiam Pass, hiking through burned areas for about three miles, though undergrowth and new trees are thriving. Then we hiked through lovely alpine forest -- mostly hemlocks -- until Voila! we got a good view of Three-fingered Jack, up close and personal! Bear grass had finished blooming, but there were lots of other wildflowers, dominated by lupine, but including wild strawberries and wood violets (at the upper elevations where spring was recent), cat's ear, and several we didn't know. None of us had done this hike before, but as usual, Bill Sullivan's book told us everything we needed to know. Members Martin Doerfler, Stephen Gram, Karen Shinn (membership pending), and leader George Struble, who is so grateful that at age 87 he can still do hikes like this!