The Day Was Ours

So, we started the hike up The South Sister late Friday afternoon. We spent an hour climbing two thousand feet over a mile and a half of trail. The incline was at least 25 degrees. It was really tough to climb with a hiking pack but we made it.

Tired from completing the first stage, we set up camp near Moraine Lake. We had a simple meal of honey/peanut butter sandwiches and went to bed when the sun went down.

The morning came early. We decided the night before to get up at two am to reach the summit before sunrise. It ended up working out perfectly, because we made it to the top right when the sun was peaking over the horizon. Getting there, however, was REALLY hard work.

We had to navigate a trail that meandered across grass fields and through small pine forests. Eventually, the trail would disappear across a steep lava field. Getting through those parts in the dark proved to be challenging. There were definitely some times when we decided to go right just because we had been going left for so long.

Eventually, we reached the top though, but not before passing some guy sitting by a rock, in the dark, at 3 am. That guy totally scared the crap out of all of us. Were still uncertain why or what he was doing so high on the mountain so early....alone.

There were also time where we literallybad to crawl on all fours to continue our advance up the mountain. I think the darkness helped a lot here because if we had actually been able to see what was above/before us, it would have been very demoralizing.

When we finally made it up to the summit, there was snow everywhere. It was also freezing cold. So cold. Brrr. I can't emphasize enough how cold. Needless to say, I was thankful for every piece of cold weather gear I had lugged around for the past two days. The sunrise made it all worth it though. Check out the photos below.

(I'll upload them soon)

Location:Hwy 22