Season Capper Eagle Cap Wilderness In Oregon Ideal Spot For Late-Season Backpacking

Who said September is the best season for backpacking in the Eagle Cap Wilderness of northeastern Oregon?

OK, it was me. And I was telling the truth. Last year. Scout’s honor.

This year, the advice might be considered a cruel joke.

Nine straight days of clear skies and skinny dipping in high mountain lakes last September compares this year with a similar period of rain, snow and shivering.

Oregon considered opening a hunting season on goose bumps over the Labor Day holiday.

This past week, the weather has changed again. Hikers who trekked into the gloom arrived in the heart of the wilderness to see the clouds part. Paradise appeared, and they slept under skies clear enough to show the pimples on distant stars.

One week you win. One week you loose.

Hikers gamble anytime they head into high-country wilderness. The odds for misery are even steeper when they push to the edge between summer and winter.

The risk seems worth taking for the remote chance to hike virtually alone through God’s country: The chance to sit undisturbed for hours on the top of Eagle Cap Peak, take your pick of campsites, leave the mosquito repellant at home.

But backpackers are generally a conservative lot.

Hunters are more enthusiastic about fall. A backpacker’s edge season is the heart of the hunter’s time afield. A fresh layer of snow is an advantage for tracking anything from grouse to elk. Heavy snow pushes game down from the high-country and concentrates animals at lower elevations.

Cooler temperatures allow for better care of meat, and less interference from pesky backpackers and llama trekkers.

Despite what you see in advertisements for foul-weather outdoor gear and clothing, storm parkas will never get widespread hard field use from backpackers until manufacturers figure how to incorporate mood-altering drugs into the fabric.

The first day the skies darken and the temperature plummets in September, most backpackers apparently dive under the covers and crank up their electric blankets.

The Eagle Cap, Oregon’s largest wilderness, is a wonderfully lonesome place to be, especially on the day after a period of foul September weather.

The wilderness is just under 200 miles south of Spokane, occupying about 360,000 acres in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.

The area is home to a variety of critters, including elk, bighorn sheep, mule deer, black bears, mountain goats and cougars.

Anglers will find trout in most of the areas sparkling waters.

Extending 60 miles by 30 miles across three Oregon counties, the Wallowas were sculpted by nine major glaciers during the Ice Age. The glaciers left deep glacial troughs, cirques, sawtooth ridges, and 17 peaks over 9,000 feet. The tallest is 9,838-foot Sacajawea Peak, which rubs shoulders with the Matterhorn on a long ridge above Hurricane Creek.

Eagle Cap Peak is shorter, at 9,595 feet, but it remains the wilderness centerpiece.

You haven’t soaked in the essence of the area until you hike over Horton Pass and take the spur trail to the centerpiece summit and then hike down to the stunning Lakes Basin and look up to where you’ve been.

With the peak reflecting in the glassy waters of, say, Mirror Lake, a hiker will pack away an indelible image of rugged wilderness.

Mirror Lake is just one of about 50 alpine lakes in the wilderness. It’s a beauty that discriminating hikers chose to avoid during August, when wilderness visitation peaks.

The comfortable hiking season is very short here. For example, snow never disappeared from portions of some high pass trails last year.

Typically, the high country trails aren’t passalble until July.

About the time the lower trails are mostly open in late June, the mosquitoes are thick as smoke in a biker bar - and by August, the hikers are similarly packed into the fragile Lakes Basin below Eagle Cap.

About 32,000 visitors a year take advantage of the wilderness area’s 47 trailheads and nearly 500 miles of trails.

Yet most of the footprints concentrate here, near Mirror, Moccasin and Glacier lakes.

That is, until a good September storm smooths them out.

Terrence Petty, Associated Press writer, contributed to this story.

This sidebar appeared with story: RESOURCES Eagle Cap Before heading to the Eagle Cap Wilderness in northeastern Oregon, get updates on regulations and road and trail conditions by visiting or calling U.S. Forest Service Wallowa Mountains Office and Visitor Center in Enterprise, phone (541) 426-4978. Information on lodging and other services in the key portal towns of Enterprise, Joseph and LaGrande, contact Eastern Oregon Visitors Association, (800) 332-1843 or on the Internet at www.eova.com.