Snow in June...

This was our first look at the mountain.  We'd spent a great night outside on the asphalt parking lot near Mt. Bachelor, covered with tarps in blowing snow.  Robin opened the door to his warm car at about 3am and told Stephen and I that it was time.  We were up, packed and moving by 3:30, using headlamps in the snow to find our way down the road.  Right away we were putting on snowshoes, which stayed with us for the rest of the trip except for a few brief moments.

Here we are during happier times.  We'd just hiked about 7 miles down hill to the point where we would leave the road and bushwack up towards the

 base of our goal: the South Sister.  At over 

10,300' elevation, it's the third tallest peak in Oregon.  It's also at this point that Stephen shared with us the greatest gift of the trip.  His girlfriend, Autumn, had packed along some homemade Orange Sweet Rolls.  Note:  Ladies, if you want to gain favor with your boyfriend/husband's friends, pack along sweet baked goods.

Shortly after the food break, we started up.  And by "up", I mean we somehow forced ourselves to climb a snow 

covered pitch that bur

ned our calves, thighs, hamstrings and lungs like nothing else this trip.  The nice part was that at some points, if you were tired, you could just put your arm out in front of you and rest against the ground in a standing position.

After the steep ascent, this was our reward:

It's hard to describe just how serene it was up there.

  I've never seen the sky such a deep dark blue.  The snow was untouched.  And we were running out of time.  The goal was to climb to the top of the mountain, ski/snowboard down, and hike back to the car where we'd drive home and I'd go to work the next day.  With the distance we ha

d cov

ered and had to cover bac

k home, we just didn't have the time or the energy to make it to the top AND back.  We decided that it would be a two day trip to do it right and that this year we'd have to

 just be content with a great hi

ke and a few turns taken from the base of that mountain.

After dropping in to the bowl and pretending we knew what we were doing, we had a few miles to go down hill.  Unfortunately, my map reading skills didn't account for all the trees, the running creek, nor the quickly melting snow that didn't want our boards to slide.  So it was back into the snowshoes and falling over logs and our feet in delirium back towards the road.  Once safely on the road, we set a good pace, took a few deserved breaks, and slogged back uphill to the car.  For our own curiosity and safety, I packed a GPS unit with us and left it running the whole time.

20.08 miles.  If we'd done the summit, a marathon.  This was the longest day-hike most of us had ever done, and we did it with snowshoes and packs loaded with boards, boots, and assorted gear.  Truly and ass-kicker.