Answering the Mountains' Call: Three Sisters Fastpacking

Friday, August 11, 2017

Three Sisters Fastpacking

As chance would have it, Mom and I ended up fast packing around the Three Sister earlier this week. Tuesday night we headed up to Moraine Lake late in the afternoon and spend the evening on the ridge above the lake. Wednesday we headed around the Three Sister clockwise. Once we made our way past South Sister, we headed up to Chambers Lakes then proceeded to climb up Middle Sister. After summiting Middle Sister, we descended down to Arrowhead Lake and continued a few more miles before spending the night at Minnie Scott Spring.

The next morning we continued around North Sister going through Lava fields and later the Pole Creek Fire burn. This lead to a hot morning, so we were a little thankful when the clouds started to build and blocked out the sun. After Pole Creek we climbed up to Green Lakes and took cover by the Green Lakes spring for half an hour when we got a little afternoon rain. From Green Lakes (this is where my camera's battery died) we climbed up to South Sister, then descended down toward Moraine Lake, camping before we reached the lake.

South Sister brought nice views and an unusual emptiness since we were up late in the day. Our camp below South Sister was fairly nice until we heard some thunder and lighting above and took cover under some trees. The trees kept us dry, but it wasn't the levelest camp site, which lead to a long night in bivvy sacks. Friday morning we ran out from Moraine Lake and headed home to Corvallis. Here's some pictures from out trip.

A couple other notes. This was a great couple days of training for Mom who is going to run Cascade Crest 100 Miler in a couple weeks! Hopefully I'll be able to enjoy some more miler up there with her while pacing. As for me, some of you may know I was planning to run the Bridger Ridge Run this weekend. Unfortunately I had a bit of a calf/shin injury which has been preventing me from racing. While a fastpack trip may have seemed foolish with an injury (I thought so myself at times) I think all the slow easy running and hiking actually helped! I'm looking forward to getting out and enjoying some more long easy miles soon.