Day 97

Another beautiful day in Oregon! The terrain was much more difficult than yesterday, with at least ten miles of trail consisting entirely of exposed lava rocks, at least fifteen through burn scars, and several steep climbs throughout. Fortunately, the views were excellent—we woke up with this awesome view of South Sister.

Soon after we were reacquainted with Middle Sister and got our first look at North Sister, who had been hiding to the northeast of her less jagged siblings.

After a steep climb through the first of many lava fields, we turned north for a neat view Mount Washington, Three Fingered Jack, and Mount Jefferson.

We lunched in a burn scar and afterwards marched up and over a long lava flow which gave my feet quite the massage. Fortunately the views north and south were excellent, my new shoes are quite cushy, and I began listening to the third of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels (I am hooked on these books, having devoured the first two in the last few weeks).

After the lava rocks we had another sustained climb, this time rounding Washington through an old burn scar.

We pulled into the Big Lake Youth Camp at 6:30, where we were welcomed for a hot meal and many amenities which we didn’t take advantage of because we wanted to hike out after dinner. Bloated from heaps of food, we made it a mile and a half before collapsing at Mile 1999.3.