South Sister Hike, August 19th 2006

Climbing the South Sister

Day 1:

At 6:00am.  On Monday, August 7, nine members of Troop 2 met at the Methodist Church to gather up all of our camping gear to go camp on the South Sister in Oregon for two nights.   The nine people that went on the trip were Noah Baker, his dad, Michael baker, Ross Lynch, his dad Dan Lynch, Nicky Widmer, his dad, jay Widmer, Nathaniel Martinson, my dad, Greg Storms and me Michael Storms.At about 6:30am, the gang was ready to head out.  Mr. Widmer, Nicky, Nathaniel, Mr. Lynch all in Mr. Widmer’s car, while the rest went in my dad’s car.  The first stop we made was at the downtown Starbucks in Corvallis where we all got food/coffee. 

Unfortunately, Mr. Baker came down with a case of food poisoning, which he got from the night before from a salad at American Dream.  So, our car had to make frequent stops.  One stop we made gave me enough time to order a subway sandwich and eat it all!  I think that stop was in Sisters.

Some time later, we arrived at the parking lot where we found the occupants of the other car, seconds away from going off on their own.  From there, we unpacked the cars, ate lunch, signed in, went to the bathroom and then headed off to the campsite at Morraine Lake campgrounds.  I set my pace a bit high and quickly got ahead of the rest of the group.  I came to a fork near the end of the trail and foolishly decided not to wait for the rest of the group and took a wrong turn that actually went to the south Sister instead of the campsite.  I had gone only a little way until a nice elderly couple corrected me and told me where I was going and where I should go.  I turned back to the fork and had gone down it a little ways when I saw Noah, Ross and Nathaniel coming up to the fork.  They told me to wait.  I waited until I saw them starting to walk.  They caught up with me and we walked the rest of the way to the lake.  Noah and Nathaniel went to look for the campsite while Ross and I hung out at the lake.  After a campsite was found, we all moved our stuff there.  A little while later some of the adults arrived and Mr. Banker picked another campsite.  We all moved our stuff over and I fell and cut my leg pretty badly.  I applied first aid on myself while Ross and Noah set up our tent.  Eventually, everyone arrived and set up their things.  For the rest of the day, we hung out in our tents or down by the lake, slept, and ate dinner, which for most people consisted of Mountain House’s freeze-dried meals.  Nicky and Nathaniel made sausage and mashed potatoes, which I heard from Ross, were pretty good!

Day 2:

The morning of August 8 started out with a classic meal of freeze-dried oatmeal.  After we ate breakfast, the adventurous climb of the south sister began.  My pace of that challenge started out the same as the climb before (unfortunately).  After the first hill, many boys were winded by the thin air.  Through most of the climb, I was able to keep ahead of the others until we started to climb up steeper5.  At that point, I was so tired from my pace that I was only taking a few steps before I needed to stop and catch my breath.  That became my new pace until I reached what I hoped was the top with the others.  We had stopped at a lake created by a melting glacier.  I ate a power bar I had brought and some jerky steaks my dad gave me.   After taking about a five minute break, I continued.  I began to slow down my pace and found climbing the mountain easier.  I caught up with Ross and his dad at the loose red rocks near the top of the mountain and tried matching their pace.  Eventually, we reached the top and took some pictures and rested until we heard thunder, then started to head back down.  The climb down was somewhat easier and faster.  Mr. Baker, Noah, and I were in front for the first part of the trip down.  Then we stopped for what seemed like 45 minutes to wait for the others who were waiting to see if some hikers were in the military.  Once we started moving, Ross and Nathaniel caught up with Noah and me and we stayed in front all the way back to camp.

Upon returning, the rest of the day was filled with mostly resting, dinner, which was, again, Mountain House freeze-dried meal, and getting ready to leave in the morning.

Day 3:

The morning of August 9, 2006 began with another freeze-dried oatmeal breakfast.  After Breakfast, those who weren’t already packed began to start packing.  Ross and I had our tent already in our backpacks minutes after it was empty.  However, Nathaniel and Nicky had theirs in a couple of hours!  After we were all packed, Nathaniel, Ross, Noah, Nicky and I led the way back to the parking lot.  We stopped at the fork where I got lost to wait for the others.  We encountered a couple of guys who staffed at Camp Meriweather and their troop.  We started talking, gave some advice about how to go up South Sister and then went on our way.  We picked a resting spot below a patch of ice in the trail to wait for the adults again.  We continued non-stop down the trail until we reached the sign-out poster to wait until everyone caught up with us.  Once everyone did, we progressed to the cars and bathrooms, packed up, and left.  We stopped at a burger place in Sisters where it seemed that either the instant freeze-dried food or lack of greasy food did something to us because only Nathaniel, my dad and I could barely finish a meal.  The rest of the drive home was uneventful except that Mr. Baker’s car was gone when we arrived at the Church!

Michael Storms