This was one of the only trailheads that I had not yet visited in the Sky Lakes Wilderness. I've always liked this area because there is a lot of really nice scenery, without the trails being especially difficult.
Not to be confused with another horse camp in Oregon, also called Sevenmile, this trailhead is located outside of Fort Klamath in Southern Oregon.
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| Devil's Peak. |
There was a fire burning to the south, and also to the north, but right in the middle was actually smoke free, at least for the short time that I was there.
The gravel road to get to Sevenmile Marsh is in good shape. This is just a very large trailhead with ample parking for many rigs. There is a bathroom, a couple of picnic tables and one fire ring, and it is free to park or camp. But there are no other amenities, corrals, or water. This equestrian trailhead is located 1.6 miles before the hiker trailhead, and so that adds 3 miles to the rides. You could drive up the road to the hiker trailhead, but it gets a lot steeper, and once you arrive, there is not a lot of room for parking trailers, hence the reason they built a separate lot.
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| The equestrian parking area. |
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| Huge parking area for equestrians. |
When I do these shorter trips, I leave home early, so I have time to do a ride the same day. I had the choice of riding the equestrian trail that switchbacks up and over a butte, or just riding up the road. So since I had to do this section more than once, I chose the trail this time and the road the following day. Once at the hiker trailhead it is another 1.8 miles to the junction with the PCT. I rode north on the PCT, with a detour on a side trail to check out Ranger Spring.
I continued on the PCT until I got up on a hill, with a very limited view. It was a very hot day, so I didn't mind that this was mostly a forested ride with not much to see. In fact at Ranger Spring I doused my shirt with the ice cold water to cool myself down.
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| On the PCT. |
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| Ranger Spring. |
The next morning a strange thunderstorm rolled in very early. I was in the bathroom when I saw a lightning flash under the door and then an unholy loud gunshot/cannon noise. I had visions of exiting the bathroom and finding my truck/trailer with a large smoldering hole in it, but luckily it was intact. The strike must have happened on the ridge above me. The weather stayed a little cloudy and gloomy at first, but I had a long 20 mile loop to do into the Seven Lakes Basin, so I started riding and eventually the weather cleared.
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| On the Sevenmile Trail. |
I reached Grass Lake first, and I rode across the slightly marshy ground towards the water, where I learned that this area, and it turns out, any other area that I passed with water on this loop of lakes, had a zillion little Cascade Toads underfoot. The ground was literally alive! We took a brief break and while my horse ate some of the grass, I ate some of the copious amounts of bilberries (similar to a blueberry) growing in this area. Then I continued on to Cliff Lake which is very beautiful. There were also some side trails that led to a couple of other lakes, but I did not follow them, so I only saw five of the seven lakes in the basin, however once I was on the upper part of the loop on the PCT, I could see an amazing view of Alta Lake from afar. There are designated horse camps near the lakes for packing in, but they don't seem to get much use.
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| Grass Lake. |
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| Cliff Lake. |
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| Cliff Lake. |
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| On the PCT. |
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| The view of Alta Lake from the PCT. |
The loop continued around Devil's Peak, which is the mountain you see as the backdrop of Cliff Lake, and then back to the junction with the Sevenmile Trail. It was not a busy area, no hunters, even though it was bow season, and I only saw one hiker all day, near the end of my ride.
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| Skirting Devil's Peak on the PCT. |
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| Devil's Peak. |
On the way back I had to cross a bog again that I had already done that morning. It is right on the PCT and the spot I chose to cross was not great, two of my horse's legs sunk up to the hock and knee. So this time I found a better way, off to the left, to skirt the entire water area.
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| The bog on the PCT. |
The next day I had planned to do a ride in Chiloquin, on the way home, but once I got out of the mountains and back over to the highway, I changed my mind pretty quickly. I had left the clear blue skies behind and encountered nasty thick smoke all the way until I reached La Pine, where I stopped and did a quick ride at the state park. I guess I can count myself lucky I did not end up having to camp in that kind of hazardous air.
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