South Sister

Last weekend we attacked the South Sister, Oregon’s 3rd-tallest mountain at 10,358 feet. The trail we took has 4,900 feet of elevation gain over about 6 miles, so yeah, it’s steep. It’s a “non-technical” climb, as we were warned by the sign at the trailhead. Only climbers need apply!

We drove to Devil’s Lake on Saturday night, pitched our tent and cooked some curry. We wanted to get an early start and were on the trail before 7 on Sunday morning.

This trail seemed a lot longer than 6 miles, and most of it is very steep except for a sandy, rolling plateau that gives a great view of the intimidating peak you’re about to tackle, and a pretty good idea that you’ve got a long way to go, and a few strong clues that it ain’t getting any easier from here…

Then, the section we’ve been dreading: the gravelly, scree-strewn scramble to the top. Miles of gray, and more miles of red, gravel and rubble. My right hip/thigh started to hurt on this intense uphill. I have been fairly active all summer, hiking, riding my bike, and such, but I haven’t been doing my strength/stretch routine (or running much since, the Butte to Butte.) So I had quite a bit of pain from my muscles and joints being out of condition, but I wasn’t having any endurance problems. I was expecting major altitude issues, because I’d experienced that so much in the past, but breathing was really not the problem this time. Kinda strange…

The South Sister has a very short hiking season, because it’s covered in snow most of the year. At this time, though, there’s no snow on the actual trails and it wasn’t cold until we got to the top. Then, it was absolutely freezing due to high winds whistling across the glaciers and right through our clothes. BRRR! We had planned to eat lunch at the very summit, but after spending a short while getting buffeted by all that windchill up there, we decided to have a second course a bit lower down, inside the crater where there was a bit more shelter from the icy wind. (It’s hard to smile when your teeth are chattering, see below)

Of course, the main reason people climb the South Sister is the awesome views. On a clear day, they say, you can see all the way down to Mt Shasta in California and all the way up to Mt Ranier in Washington. This was a moderately clear day, and it was quite a stunning view, except to the north, where Mts Adams and Hood were mostly obscured by the thick smoke from a raging forest fire that was threatening the vacation homes outside Sisters, Oregon, until it rained the following Tuesday…

For those of you reading this who came to Cascade Lakes this summer, we got an awesome all-in-one view of the region we were in for that trip, which I’ve labeled above. Check out Sparks Lake, the big twisty one just to the right of Bachelor. It’s dried up a lot in one month! If we went there now, we’d be walking in mud rather than water!

I was all psyched up for the ascent, and it was tough, and my leg was painin’ me. But I have to say, the way down was so much worse. The gravel sections were slippery, seemed unending, and the high winds were constantly blowing grit into my eyes. (There were quite a few other people on the trail, as you can see from the picture above.) By the time we got to the flat(ish) area, it was too late for us to enjoy it and even the gentle uphills caused me to limp since I could barely lift my stiff right leg. All those downhills killed our knees, and my toes had that stingy, pinched feeling. Then there was the final descent down through woodsy switchbacks, which hadn’t seemed like a big deal in the morning when it was cool and we were anticipating the attack on the summit. Going down it was not a pleasant trip, hobbling down each stretch of downhill hoping it was the last. It wasn’t. Nope, neither was that one… that part was maybe 1.5 miles, but it felt more like 4.

But, obviously, we made it. And lived to tell the tale. Happily, our car was a short distance from this sign, and we hobbled over and grabbed our swimming gear. It was after 5, and still windy, but we were glad for the chance to drive over to Elk Lake for a quick dip, to rinse off all that gritty trail dust. (No way were we going into Devil’s Lake. Remember how cold it was!) My feet were killing me and I turned the low vents on full-strength heat in the car – that felt really good! We ate dinner out, back in Eugene, and the restaurant had a fire pit right near our table. A perfect ending to our adventure.