50 mile hike

Last month our Scout troop embarked on an epic journey through the wilderness in the Three Sisters area. The plan was to hike from The Dee Wright Conservatory to Elk Lake by Wednesday, then continue down the Pacific Crest Trail to Charlton Lake. It totaled a little over 50 miles. We had been working on this plan for about 8 months. We had all of our over night camp spots planned out and were we were going to be get water, etc. We felt pretty well prepared.

Then we started hiking. The first day was 11 miles. It was pretty rough. There were a couple of pretty steep passes, and over a thousand feet of elevation gain over all. Toward the end of the day we started to get into snow. Lots of snow. It started out with us following the trail through patches of snow and ended with us trudging through snow looking for patches of trail.

Day two started poorly. We slept later than we should have, but felt justified, because the day before had really taken it out of us. We picked up the trail where we had left off, following footprints through the snow. Trouble was, the fools leaving the footprints didn't know where the trail was. So we followed them for about a mile and a half down an insanely steep, snow covered drop before we realized we were not where we thought we were. We got out the GPS and discovered that we were directly west of were we had camped, when we were supposed to be heading south west. So we headed back up the insanely steep drop, scrambling through branches and brush and snow. When we reached the last confirmed sign of trail it was 2 p.m. and we still had 14 miles ahead of us that day. We headed out, this time more cautiously. We stopped every 100 yards or so to get Longitude and Latitude readings and to orient ourselves with map and compass. There were several heated debates about whether we should continue on or head back to the trail head. We decided to push on, in spite of the fact that we were only covering about a half a mile per hour because of the snow. After the point that we felt we had our navigation system down we ran into another hapless group in the snow. They were an Outward Bound group trying to go our direction. We consulted maps together and discovered that they were under the impression that we were about 2 miles farther down the trail than we really were. We showed them the GPS coordinates, and showed them the spot we knew to be our correct location. They seemed doubious. So we wished them well, and headed off into the snow.



The next leg off the trip was exhausting, terrifying and incredibly beautiful. We crossed snow covered ridges and ravines for another few miles with only occasional sightings of trail. We knew that there was a parallel trail that dropped about 1000 feet and hopefully out of the snow, but we weren't sure we would be able to find the junction. With some tricky navigation we managed to find the trail and took it another 2 miles to a mostly snow free clearing where we camped. That day we had covered over 14 miles. Only about 3 of it went towards our original plan of 11. That left an extra long leg on the next day.

We had originally planned on having a nice easy 5 mile day on Wednesday. We would get to Elk Lake early and enjoy the resort. With the new plan we had to cover 17 miles. We were sure how much of it was under snow, but every mile that was took 3 times longer to cover. The first mile and a half was heavy snow, like the day before. I began imagining us dragging in to Elk Lake at 11:30 that night. Fortunately it cleared up and we began covering a lot of ground fast. It was mostly a nice wooded trail with an occasional clearing and some epic views of the South Sister. Beating my most optimistic expectations we arrived in camp at 6:30 P.M. just in time for dinner. We were all beyond exhausted.


The next day we did nothing. The boys played cards for 5 hours, and I sat in the shade trying not to move unnecessarily. I had been nursing some pretty intense blisters that started on day one, mile 2. It was simple by a miracle that they hadn't popped and worn down to the bone. My knees were still, and my hips were numb. We had covered 42 miles in the first three days. If we had continued on as planned the course would have totaled over 65 miles. We decided to do a day hike of Friday to round out the 50 miles instead.

That left some time for a little fishing and crawdaddying (if that's a word).

It's been almost a month since the trip and I've almost recovered from it. The blisters are only flaky craters and my knees have almost stopped clicking!

Can't wait until next year!