The Sister Never Sleeps

Last year, BN and I summited the South Sister. We went on Labor Day weekend, and there were holiday crowds all throughout the day. Even before we’d made it out of the forested approach, BN said, wouldn’t it be cool to hike at night and see the sunrise from the top? I figure he should wait till we’d made it to the top before making any wild plans like that – and sure enough the hike really took a lot out of both of us. But, BN was determined and he did the night hike, solo, just the very next weekend.

This year it was my turn. Not for a solo hike, but the hike-all-night sunrise vigil. I don’t think I would have committed to do it if I hadn’t gone during the day last year. I knew that I could do it, and I hoped it would be less painful because I kept up with running and working out and even did some extra stair-work to try to prepare. Also we had hiking poles, which BN had tried on his solo hike and found they really helped. The part of the hike where you are actually on the mountain is mighty steep and painfully gravelly.

What I was worried about, was the no-sleep part. BN felt fine last year, but I know that I am less able to cope without sleep. I was also a little concerned because we’d had a colder winter and we were hiking a few weeks earlier than last year’s trips and what if there was lots of snow on the trail?

Well, we made it. I took a short nap during Wednesday afternoon and after dinner we drove to the trailhead. We got started about midnight, and well-fortified with caffeine, we set out with our headlamps and hiking poles. The first leg is already steep, through a forest. That part was spooky, with the nearest layer of trees ghostly-gray in our headlamps with pure black behind. Hiking at night feels different in the passage of time, because you can’t see how far you’ve come or how far you have to go. Just one step at a time. Leg 2 is across gently rolling hills, and that was my favorite part of the hike because it was open to the sky and the full moon allowed us to turn off our lights and stride along freely. Then comes the gray gravel, and lastly the red gravel. At night of course the color is less noticeable and it’s just one long blur of step forward, slide slightly back. My ankles were starting to hurt from the angle and slipperyness, when there was a mercifully flat spot – we had arrived! And no snow on the trail, except for a very short spot. BN noticed one of the rubber tips from his hiking poles had stuck in the snow and come off and he stopped to pick it up. I realized I’d lost one of my tips and both of the plastic clips that hold the poles together for packing purposes. They could be anywhere!

One of our other goals for getting to the summit well before the sun came up was to check out the meteor shower, which had peaked just the previous night. By the time we’d set laid out our mats and looked at the stars for about 5 minutes, BN realized it was starting to get light and we needed to move up to the true summit where we could see the eastern horizon. So we didn’t really do much meteor-watching. But at least it was a fairly clear night. I was feeling the lack of sleep, and there is nowhere comfortable to sit on top of a volcanic peak. But I hung in there for the sunrise, and it was beautiful. One of the coolest things about being on the summit is you can look west and see the shadow of the mountain, projected on the low hazes and fog as a giant cone.

Last year when we were on the summit just past noon, we could only stay there for a short while before getting chilled to the bone from the wind that sweeps over the glaciers. In the early morning, it’s still and just cool. BN set up the backpacking stove to boil water for instant chai and backpacker’s curry. We were going for a Himalayan theme. I think I could have slept right there but it was cold and rocky. Once the sun was well up, we packed up to head back down.

The hardest part coming down is that silly little forest. It seems about six times longer than it did when you were fresh and trying to psych yourself up for the hard segments you know are coming. My toes were killing me! BN wrapped my toes in gauze and tape, which helped a bit. We stopped at Elk Lake for a refreshing dip. Driving home was tough, and we had to stop a short ways from Eugene for just a short rest.

I was sore the next few days, but not nearly so sore as last year.