Aug. 16, 2006 - Climb up South Sister
The 6 B’s

My hands don’t hurt from the hike so I can type this. I hope you too can sometime go up a mountain with your family.

It started out that Zida and Matt wanted to climb a mountain but with kids this can be a problem. They thought that if they took part of their families up it would be great.

There was the Church campout at Crooked River, OR and Dennelle ask me to go and bring Friday (bike Friday. You can see it on www.bikeFriday.com. It is a suite case bike.) So we looked into a city bus ride to Portland, then Greyhound bus to Bend. There I would put the bike together. With all my things in the trailer, I would ride to the Crooked River camp out - about 30 miles. Not a problem.

However, since Myran and Trina were going to the campout I rode with them Thursday night - much easier but not so adventurous. It would have been so much fun riding down a fast road in the fog lane with a rumble strip and a wide trailer for two and a half hours in 90 degree temperature.

We arrived in the dark and put up our tents right in back of the no tent sign. There was only supposed to be 20 tents in the sight by law. The fire truck came down and looked and left. There were about 100 tents there. They only do it one week out of the year.

The next day there were some riders who wanted to go to Smith Rocks - Mikie on a one speed bike, Dennelle, Teresa and Torey. We were up the hill and out of camp by 6:30 a.m. to beat the heat. We traveled along at about 7 miles an hour. Mikie did great on his bike. Mikie and Teresa (his mother) got together and she went down but wasn’t hurt. The roads had lots of traffic on them. It was 14 miles over to Smith Rocks, a state park for rock climbers. Myran and Trina and a lot of their friends were there climbing on the rocks. We rode our bikes to the base of the rocks they were climbing. Some of the trail was bad and we had to walk our bikes. Myran was teaching some first time climbers. It was hard to let go and trust the rope to repel down. You just lay back and put your feet on the rock and walk down. Sounds easy? Oh yea - you are 75-100 feet up.

Mikie stayed and came back in the car. The rest of us rode back in the heat. It was about noon. It was a great ride and they were irrigating the fields. Some of the water was going onto the road. Teresa would walk with the water hitting her two times as it went by. This was cold water and it helped her stay cool.


We all went swimming in the pool at Crooked River. The water was almost too hot.

I am sitting here and I see this post card on the table from Florida and I am thinking “who is that from? Who went to Florida?” Oh, it is my sister! I didn’t know she was going on a cruise. Some more time passes as I am working on this documentary. I looked at the table again and there was this box marked “Priority Mail.” Now who is that for? Oh, it’s for me! My Jersey from Georgia is in it - only 16 weeks late. The place making the jersey’s finally got around to it. I am so happy to see it!!!! I like the way it looked and it fit good too. Now back to the documentary:

Next day Doug and I went to Smith Rocks on our bikes. We looked over the edge and rode back. He had a 10:00 a.m. appointment for Paint ball. Afterwards they came back all bruised from being hit with the paintballs. That just doesn’t look like fun to me. My blisters and muscles hurt a lot. I guess everyone to there own pain.

We didn’t see Myran over at Smith Rocks, but he had another group. Vellen arrived, and back to swimming and the cannonball competition.

We struck camp Saturday night and left for Devils Lake. This is where we met up with the climbing group. Matt, Tim, Mary and Jason are down from the South Sister and were hurting a little. There were mosquitoes next to the stream and lake. The kids, Noah, Arron, Caleb, and Charis were having fun in the water.

“There were two mosquitoes outside my tent talking about whether to eat me here or take me back to their home. One of them said, “Let’s eat him here. If we take him back home, the big ones will take him away from us.”

Zida was to lead our group. She had never been there before, barely knew where the trail started. What kind of a guide did we have? Why yes, it is all the B clan with the same last name, Byran, Vellen, Marci, Zida, Myran and Trina. Marci and Zida are the exceptions, but since they are ex B’s, we included them.

We were up at 3:30 a.m. Yes, there is a 3:30 a.m. No light out there so there are lots of stars. Marci saw a shooting star and made a wish that she would make it. I think we all had that wish. We ate in the parking lot and there were a lot of people sleeping in their cars who were not happy with us. We tried to be quiet but there was so much to say. All of us were so excited about the hike. We hadn’t slept well. The others and I looked at the clock a few time throughout the night. Vellen didn’t - he didn’t have a clock to look at so he just woke up and went back to sleep.


We ate and our leader found the start of the trail. The trail went to the highway - oh goody. I am thinking this might be a long day and it was. Zida never got lost. There were signs on the trails and the wrong ones went down. The sign read 1-1/4 mile - on the way back the ranger said that was the longest 1-1/4 mile he had ever seen.

It was steep up; there was one short flat after an hour. Not training is showing. Zida dropped off to do something in the woods. Marci is now the new leader. A toad that looked like a wet rock moved in front of her light and she screamed and jumped back on Trina. Zida wants to know why every one had to stop there.

More steep uphill – we would go about 100 feet and rest until the branch in the trail to Moraine Lake, then it went up and down for a mile. There was another trail that cut through. Yes, this is the one that we want. Our leader told us after reading the sign that this was the South Sister Trail. As Obie Won would say, “Who is the most lost the lost or the one who follows the lost person?”

We all started turning out our lights as the sun came up. We were lucky we were walking in the shade. Next trail - our leader picks the trail that goes up, and I thought the first one was steep! Our leader is right - three times - luck is with us. That and the trail coming in were about a foot wide and the one we are on was four feet. Twenty feet and rest.

I have put down two liters of water and it is not hot, just warm. There were some parts that you have to really work at and the shale slides under your feet a lot. I had a pair walking poles that I loaned to Marci. Anything to make my pack lighter. Everyone is giving food out so they don’t have to carry it. We always bring too much food, clothes, and water.

We soon got to Lewis Glacier where we could get more water to do the last climb. Three liters of water and it was good to be able fill up again. If there was no water there, I might not have made it in as good of shape as I did.

Our leader had to make another trail decision. Little trail down or big trail and people going up. You could see the top and the trail. Did I say I thought that was steep? Well, now this must be really steep. I am down to ten feet and rest. We were over 8850 feet and going up to 10,358. My house is at 250 feet. We went half by car and walked the rest. Why were we doing this? Because it was there. I want to say “so I can be with my kids.” Is it bad when the side of the trail falls on you and no one thinks that is bad?

Our leader raced someone, not in our group, to the top. A girl calls home on her cell phone and all she has is one little bottle of water and then takes off like there is no up. As I am still going up, she cames running back down so she can do it again. This part is only 1.1 miles. We all make it to the top. Myran was taking care of me. This was good. This part was hot as the sun was on us. I ate and drank a lot.

At the top the view was something like from a plane but it didn’t move. There was a rim all the way around. The other side was higher so that is where we wanted to go. There were rocks piled up in U shape for people to stay who spent the night up there. Don’t ask me why they carried up a tent. There were about ten people coming down as we were going up with overnight gear, and there were about 50 other people doing the hike.

It was a hazy day with not much wind and not too hot. There were butterflies all over - big gaggles of them; one even hit Marci in the head. You could see the other two Sisters, Broken Top, Bachelor, and a few more mountains. Just being there on top and knowing you walked all the way up there was very satisfying. Walking around the top, you were only a few feet from the outer edge (which was a drop off) looking at the views with little lakes here and there was just breath taking!

OK, I swear by my blisters that this is true: a guy and his girlfriend were up there. He ran down over the icy glacier to Teardrop Lake in the middle of the glacier. The lake was the deepest blue I have ever seen. He broke the ice and dunked in it. He then put his shirt and shoes back on and came back up to where we were. We did not do that!

It was hard to get around the top. We walked by the lake on the ice and up a rock wall - not hard, back over to the trail and down. We all slipped a little; Trina fell but was Ok.

Going down was almost as hard as going up, but you didn’t have to rest as often. We got to the lake where Myran and Zida pumped water going up. Myran was out again coming down so he got more. Vellen and I started down because I go slow. Marci and Zida, our leader, went to Green Lakes which was about 3 miles longer and you get to slide down a glacier. We went down the shale that we walked up in the heat of the day, taking the rocks out of my boots every hundred feet. Soon we were at the tree line and in the shade to cool off. Our heads were pounding from the heat. Trina and Myran were soon up with us and we ate and drank. Vellen was amazed at how hot our feet got. We trudged across the flat part and down the last mile plus. Coming up I didn’t realize how steep it was; my knees were telling about it on the way down. It just seemed to go on forever. I was so happy to see the road, then camp. The mosquitoes were happy too. They all came out to give us a kiss.

The group and grand kids were waiting for us. I told them it was nothing compared to the Grand Canyon. What a lie that was!

I washed off in the creek and put on repellent, struck camp and Vellen drove me home in his truck.

Zida and Marci made it down OK. It was three miles longer that way. Vellen, Myran and Trina had to work the next day so we left and got home at 8:30 p.m. Everyone else got home around 10:30 p.m.

It was a lot of fun but it will take time to talk me into it again. My feet have blisters on them and not being ready for it made it as hard as the Grand Canyon. When I am with my kids, I always have fun. I just like being with them. I guess I was Zidanized.