Three Sisters Backpacking, Part 3.

By the third day, our routine functioned smoothly. Matt cooked breakfast while I packed up the tent. Somehow we always seem to complete these tasks at the same time. While I choked down my oatmeal, I couldn't take my eyes off of the beautiful jagged mountain lit up by the slanted morning sun. Thematically named, The Husband, stood guard a short distance away from the Three Sisters. Rumor has it, there's a Wife, Bachelor, and Brother out here, but we didn't take any particular notice when identifying the mountains.

The Husband

Once the sun officially peeked out from behind the Middle Sister, we were already on the trail. The sun beat down warmly, ripping through the approximately fourteen layers of old sunscreen I had applied in the days before. As I slathered on some more, layers of dust mixed in, creating a lovely clay-like paste on my hands. That can only improve the sun protection factor, right?

The trail eventually left the higher alpine meadow and entered a dense forest. The trail shifted through chilly pockets of air. They refreshed me despite more exertion on our steady gain in elevation.

We took advantage of the small stream passing through this brief micro-climate before emerging into the full sunshine of Wikiup Plain. Small, hardy wildflowers dotted an otherwise naked landscape due to an inhospitably high silica content in the soil. We marched alongside the Mesa Lava Flow, kicking up dust clouds with each step. Our pace felt leisurely and comfortable, finally my hiker legs arrived.  The shorter day, just twelve miles, day was certain to help.

Wikiup Plan

Matt and I stopped for lunch near a trail junction that held the most picturesque view of the South Sister we had seen yet. The rest of our afternoon would be framed versions of the very same thing.

Matt squeezed a tube of almond butter onto his tortilla as I sucked down some purple flavored Nuun. Our lunches everyday have been the same thing: trail mix burritos. Combining almond butter and trail mix for lunch with our oatmeal and dried fruit for breakfast left our tent smelling so foul that I thought we might have to burn it. It bordered on unbearable. We had such frequent gas attacks that we agreed if the other's butt answered, a polite "excuse me" wasn't necessary. I'm pretty sure I only had to do that once. This was our longest unsupported trip so far (the refuges on the TMB fed us), we improvised. Five days of trail mix was clearly too many. We did, however, become expert cat hole diggers.

Looks innocuous, doesn't it?

Back on the trail, the heat radiating from the sky and the soil around us bordered on unbearable. Suddenly, we rounded a corner into a windy area and I could sense my body rejoicing. Cool air! A small pocket of air conditioning, just for us!  Just then, song lyrics popped into my head: "An icy breeze is blowin' in, through the tongue and groove...."  If you recognize that phrase, color me impressed.   Without explaining things to Matt, I began reciting the lyrics. Memories of my childhood saiedl through my head. While he knows the song, he doesn't recognize it at first. I continue:

"Goofus stumbles through the door, he says he got a buck
He was comin' from the wayside and killed it with his truck
And Musty cracks a beer and says "It's time to celebrate,
Goofus got the first buck since 1968" - Da Yoopers, Second Week of Deer Camp

• In all the years I've known the song, I have never seen the music video. It's perfect.

My mind goes all kinds of fun places when left to its own devices. I have to admit, it was a welcome change from the barrage of pop songs playing on the radio just as we arrived on the trail.

South Sister

We arrived at the shores of Moraine Lake and head in for a dip. Since the water filling this lake drains from the snowfields above, it was icy cold and we did not linger. It was, however, enough to make the temperature pleasant enough again and I was able to wash the dirt from my fingers and toes.

This view comes with a "Ten Toe Salute of Approval".

We lounged on the shore drying our clothes for a couple of hours, savoring the last moments of summertime. Our fall travel plans are much less ambitious. On our penultimate day of summer, we found ourselves reluctant to let go of the sunshine and mountain views. 

Pebble sand castle that didn't last long beyond this photo. Sand > pebbles.

As the sun begins to lower in the sky, we retreated to our best campsite yet: a perch above the lake in the shadow Broken Top and the South Sister.

 

After a dinner of dehydrated chili (bad food idea #4?), I wrote a bit in my journal before retiring to the tent for the night.

 Tomorrow's miles are set to begin early and including the best views yet.