(Eagle Cap Wilderness, Oregon)  At the end of July we traveled to Northeastern Oregon to the Eagle Cap Wilderness.  This adventure was the highlight of our summer backpacking trip.  All in all, we hiked over 20 miles and encountered many wildlife (mostly deer) and even ran across some elk tracks.  We thought we might run into a bear or two, and even took precautions with our food, but needless to say we never even saw any tracks.  The pictures shown above are of Culver Lake, which entailed a gruesome hike straight up the mountain trails.  We were passed by two men on pack horses that made the trail look easy, and even made us wish we had horses.  

          Below is a picture of Bear Lake with the dome of Needle Point in the center.  Bear Lake had plenty of elk track around it, but we think we missed the elk by a few hours.  Here we stopped for a campfire and a hot meal.  The Rainbow Trout were biting good and we really enjoyed our stay here.  Our second day we traveled to the left and below Needle Point to a lake called Cached Lake.  It was here that we had lightening booming around us, so close that our hair stood up from the static.  Even though we were well protected within a group of trees, it was still pretty scary.  By the time we got back to camp we were wet from head to toe.  Dry clothes and a fire sure did feel good.   We hiked in this Wilderness for four days (three nights) and take many memories that we still enjoy.  On memorable (chuckle) instance was when Lori got swept away while bathing.  The river wasn't big, just very, very cold.