My lovely wife helped me drop my car at the picnic area at the finish real early and then shuttled me to the start at Horse Butte Trailhead. Day went pretty well, real simple to follow the route, most of the trail is on the Swamp Wells Trail #61 at least the first 24 miles. It is a real gradual climb with cool volcanic features along the way, views off of Kelsey Butte and other mini buttes along the way provide nice views towards Newberry Crater and back towards Bend. Stopped at the picnic table at Swamp Wells about 14 miles in for some snacks. Hit a fair amount of snow on the way up to the rim trail, had to navigate a few short segments via Gaia and trail markers (white diamonds, photo) on trees. Found the Rim Trail, still extensive areas of snow, and only small snippets of trail apparent to let you know you're still on route. Dropped into Cinder Hills campground and refilled my water, luckily the day was pretty cool and I still had some water left. I started with 2 liters (4-500ml soft flasks). Decided I needed an Ice cream sandwich and a Gatorade from the East Lake Resort store. Got back on the trail behind the East Lake Resort RV campground. Easy trails to junction with Hidden Lake Trail and snow free until again close to the summit. The Rim Trail again had a lot of snow and route finding was required, pretty easy. Made it to the Paulina Peak road and used the road instead of the trail (due to the snow was worried that the steepness of the peak trail with snow would be a little treacherous) to make it to the summit (had more snacks) and then back down, hopped on the trail again at the Peak Trail Parking area about 1.5 miles from Paulina Lake and took it into Paulina Lake. Hit the campground Paulina Lake Campground for more water, then took the Peter Skene Ogden trail down to the Ogden Picnic area and group camp, stopped to look at Paulina falls and others along the way. Voila, finished. Really a great route and fun day. My time as far as I know is the OKT and should be pretty easily bested with some effort.
Athletes
Route
Route variation
Standard route
Multi-sport
No
Gender category
Male
Style
Self-supported
Start date
Finish date
Total time
11h
10m
15s
Verification
GPS track(s)
Up_n_Over.gpx12.03 MB
Report