An Otrovert's Overnight on Lookout Mountain

Have you heard of the proposed new personality type named "otrovert?" Even though I hate labels, I have to say it describes me pretty well. I want to connect and be around people, but only meaningful one-on-one means much to me. I may appear like an extrovert, but in truth group settings and casual interactions are exhausting for me. 

So the thought of spending the night in a fire lookout with complete strangers was both thrilling and terrifying. If they liked me and we connected and had this mutual bonding experience -- heaven! If I could tell they didn't want me there and we had to fake at niceties and force small talk all night -- hell!  Such a risk...though I do crave terror and suffering for some odd reason.

Even so, when I got to the "register" at the beginning of the Lookout Mountain Trail and saw that nobody had claimed it yet, I was super relieved. I actually would have gone home if someone's name was there - not because I assumed they didn't want to share, but because I would have to make them share whether they wanted to or not. And of course, that's a bit asshole-ish.

I left work at noon on Columbus Day because I had found out a couple days earlier that I randomly had Tuesday off. A midweek outing with fantastic weather and having strong end of season legs, I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Except leaving that late in the day with a 6:30 pm sunset meant I had no plan B; so if someone was in the lookout even though they didn't write it on the register, they would be sharing with my asshole self regardless.

Staying in a lookout has been on my bucket list a very long time. I knew this particular one was my best best; far better than Hidden Lake, Park Butte, or of course Mount Pilchuck; all which are extremely popular and near impossible to get to before someone else. And even though hikers are some of the best sharers in the world, who wants to chance it? 

Though as an otrovert, I'm always hoping to find a soul sister (or brother) - so when I "claimed" the lookout I also wrote "don't mind sharing." I knew the lookout "fits 4 easily" from the previous person's note, and I didn't want anyone coming after me having the same stress I was having.

Also, "going to be crowded"...apparently some people aren't worried about assumptions

 

About half way up I met my first hikers and asked them if anyone was at the lookout. They told me there was a group of SIX (must have been because of the holiday) but only two planned on staying the night. At that point I was too committed to turn around, so I just prayed I'd be getting heaven instead of hell. 

I was so committed, in fact, that even a warning from the next descending group couldn't stop me. "Be careful, it's super slick and one of us had to grab onto branches to keep from falling," he cautioned. 

"Would I fall off an edge to my death?" was my question.

"I don't think so, but you could get really hurt...though you should be okay with your poles," was his not so reassuring answer. It was good enough for me, however. 

For the last half mile all I could do was kick myself for not bringing my micospikes or even my crampons. I had considered it, but I was too concerned with staying light because of the extreme elevation gain. Stupid. I kept imaging how the people up there would react to my appearance: "What is wrong with you coming up this late without proper gear and no plan B?" The other imaginations of spending the night crumpled up in the trees groaning in pain I refused to let in.

And you know that going up is one thing, and going down quite another, so I was also really worrying about what the next day was going to look like. Except I was all in; plus I knew I could wait until late morning when hopefully it wouldn't be as icy. 

To say I was relieved to finally make it to the lookout would be an understatement - but there's no word strong enough to describe the feeling of deliverance that came over me when I found nobody there. Confusion too...where the heck could they have gone? But whatever...I GOT THE PLACE TO MYSELF!!! 

Maybe I missed out on some heavenly bonding time, but avoiding a hellishly awkward night was a bigger desire. Plus, I love being alone - another sign of being an otovert. 

The next morning's descent was painfully slow and not pretty, but I got it done. (Butt sliding is bad form and terrible for anyone coming after me, but it didn't seem I had a choice.) And even though it was pretty terrifying and probably foolish and definitely cold AF, I really did love every minute. Happy "if it's October, just put the spikes in the pack" trails!

Things to Know About Lookout Mountain Lookout:

1) It's 4.5 miles to the top, with 4.5k elevation. Better have your trail legs. 

2) I had great cell phone reception inside the lookout with T-Mobile, which was nice to Face-Time with my husband and helped me not feel too alone. 

3) Though it's in the North Cascades, it's outside of the National Park, so you don't need a permit - not even any sort of parking pass. Though the other area you can camp at (Monogram Lake, about a mile off the main trail) you do need a permit for because it must just fall within the boundary.  

4) If you're uncomfortable using the pee container provided, you had better bring your own because I promise you that you will not be going down the stairs in the middle of the night. I do show you what it looks like in one of the video clips - I'm a little embarrassed to share this trip's movie, but I'm doing it anyway because I'm a otrovert who "needs no validation from others" bahahahaha. (I'm not actually showing myself peeing in it for heaven's sake if you are thinking that!)

5) At about 2.5 miles there's a good stream, and actually a place you could pitch a small tent - maybe even two. I'm assuming this is outside the boundary and okay to do, though I'm not positive. It could be a late night save though for sure.  

It's bigger than it looks here, plus there's a little space on the other side of the trail as well

 

 

Walking the Coltswold Way with My Sis

It's done! The big plan with my sister, Vicki, that I was so afraid I'd jinx by even talking about is now in our rear view. And what a trip it was! Near perfection. I'm so grateful for all the work Vicki put in pre-booking the buses and trains to get us from here to there; I commented several times that we'd surely be dead if we attempted to drive ourselves anywhere. (Have you seen the roundabouts in the UK?!)

But of course "on foot" travel was what we were there for. Vicki came up with this idea when she wanted to go on a hiking adventure with me...without all that backpacking nonsense. The British call this a Walking Holiday and you can book them through several different travel companies. 

We used Mickledore, which I was pleased with despite one encounter I'll expound on in my usual Trail Log below. They were more affordable than I expected, though if you have your mind set on luxury accommodations, this is not the holiday for you. 

For me, a quaint old B & B with a bed and shower is a huge step up from a sleeping bag and tent - even if the place does have sloping floors, crazy steep/skinny stairs, and low hanging beams you are continually bonking your head on. That all just adds to the rustic charm, right? ;)

Maybe it's a bit mushy or sappy to conclude by saying the best part about this whole escapade was getting to experience it together - but it's true! Having a sister that loves you and that you love back is one of the biggest blessings in life, and one that should never be taken for granted. Happy "family bonding" trails! 

Trail Log: (Or a video mash up here if you don't feel like reading.) 

Day One: Travel day, because getting across the pond is no easy task. We stayed at "Premier Inn Heathrow Airport Terminal 4" -- and though it took us a good 40 minutes of walking and train riding, you do get there without ever officially leaving the airport - which is the 5th largest in the world! 

Day Two: A pre-booked bus (that was completely full, so thank you Vicki) took us to Warwick where we planned on visiting the tomb of our distant relative, Warwick's 13th Earl, Richard Beauchamp. After our dad died, we found a book in his belongings that traced our lineage back here; which is the main reason we chose the Coltswold area. (We also toured The Lord Leycester, which I would highly recommend.)

One of the most elaborate tombs you'll find anywhere

The Lord Leycester felt like a movie set

Day Three: Castle day! Because of above stated ancestry, we claimed Warwick Castle as our own...though as hard as I tried to make jokes about getting a family discount, nobody was amused. It was totally worth the entrance fee though - it's like a Castle Disneyland! Maybe a little over the top touristy; but we ate it up - along with all the treats from our high tea splurge. 

Sammie thought booking the tea was worth the extra pounds

Day Four: More public transport to Chipping Campden where we would stay two nights. Ideally you would walk to each night's accommodations, but often this is not possible as many of the towns only have a handful of rooms to offer. Therefore it is common for the travel company to book two nights and then arrange transport back and forth from the trail.

I loved all the old towns, but I think Chipping Campden was my favorite

Day Five: (First hiking day) 10 miles from Chipping Campden to Stanton. A wonderful way to start off our walk - so beautiful. We walked the grounds around Broadway Tower, but didn't do the paid tour. 

I already ordered this as a new canvas for my work kitchen

Day Six: 7 miles from Stanton to the White Hart Inn in Winchcombe. Our shortest day, but whenever you have a mindset of "this will be easy" it always turns out harder than you expected. Stopped mid-day for our first ever Scotch Egg...can't say we were big fans. 

British food is not our fav

Huh?!? Thankfully we never saw him

Day Seven: 11 miles from Winchcombe to Dowdeswell. Our biggest mile day, though the large section of golf course walking was a good distraction. Not like any golf course you'd find in America, that's for sure! (The video explains.) We had to take a cab into Cheltenham for our night's stay, which was a crazy ride and more proof of why trying to drive ourselves would have probably proved deadly. 

Winchcombe...I couldn't get enough of the cute towns!

Day Eight: The best part about using a travel company is they transport all your luggage from place to place for you. Except we spaced and brought our luggage out to the curb while we waited for our cab...can you imagine if it hadn't clicked before he got there and we actually put it all in the car? Thankfully we didn't have to hike these 10 miles with our suitcases in tow, as this was a very hilly day. Met some really nice people on trail, and they even forgave me for convincing them to take a "cheat" to avoid some elevation...which actually resulted in even worse elevation.

Hard to appreciate steepness in a pic; but the railing is so you don't fall to your death ;)

You should follow the signs and not the Alltrails App...well, except for the last mile; which either one will guide you into Birdlip on a very dangerous road. We avoided this by going completely off trail and climbing a dangerous hill instead, ha ha. All around a pick your poison kind of day. 

After the "thrill hills" we were glad to have a real hotel this night...another crazy staircase would have done us in! ;) 

Day Nine: This was stated online as being a 9 mile day, but I'm pretty sure we didn't even hit 7.5. We got very fixated on finding our midday pint, and ended up going on a bit of a goose chase to get to the golf club (yes we were hiking through yet another course) only to find afterward that we would have basically ran into it if we would have just stayed on trail.

"A pint a day keeps the doctor away" was my motto for this trip

Eventually ending our walk in the quaintest town of Painswick at the adorable Saint Ann's B & B really seemed so perfect...until the proprietor made a rude comment about "right leaning" folks while checking us in. This made my sister feel unwelcome and a bit suspicious - so she checked his reviews and found two recent ones from Jewish people who had been refused lodging. We did bring this to the attention of Mickledore, who took it seriously and if proven true said they would stop using this establishment. I know we are living in extremely divisive times, and each side feels strongly they are standing on the higher ground. I personally am not following politics closely because I just can't - but even if I'm more "left leaning," I'm sure I could never grasp how discrimination like this is justified.  

I took a "beautiful church" pic in every single town - very hard to choose just one

Day Ten: The Cotswold Way ends in another 56 miles at the City of Bath, which we really wanted to see but were out of walking time - so we took the train. We spent our first day there pampering ourselves in it's famous ancient waters at the Thermae Bath Spa - an absolute must do if you are going there. (No cameras allowed inside...below is the Roman Baths, which nobody is going in obviously.)

Day Eleven: We had just enough time to tour the Roman Baths then stop for one last tea before catching our bus back to Heathrow where we would fly out the next day. I could write a whole blog entry on my nightmare travel day home of 34 hours - but instead I'll just be leaving some nasty reviews wherever I can about Icelandair.  

Our last tea, right on the famous Pulteney Bridge

One of only four bridges in the world to have shops across it's full span on both sides.

 

Letting Go of Middle Sister

Heidi has her list of volcanoes she wants to summit. It's her thing. I can't really say it's my thing; but I'm thankful it's hers, or we never would have met. (Story here) 

I relate to her desire to have goals - we need them to push us. And getting to put the check mark after an accomplishment is a great feeling. She has supported me in mine, and so I try my best to support her as well. Even though, as I said, I could live without peak bagging.

So I agreed to a trip to summit Middle Sister; BUT if we are driving all the way to Oregon, we have to do some regular hiking too. There are almost endless options in the Three Sisters Wilderness, so it shouldn't be too hard to come up with something, right?

Well, it shouldn't be too hard to pick a flavor at the Baskin-Robbins ice cream counter either, but most the time it is. Therefore, coming up with a plan to see as much as possible within our 6 day time frame was a difficult task.

Our final itinerary will be laid out below, but I'll tell you right here there is one thing we missed...summiting Middle Sister. Is Heidi disappointed? Not really. And honestly, I'm more proud of her for that than any of the goal check marks she's ever made. 

Knowing when the drive to accomplish something is pushing you too hard and making you unwise takes a different kind of strength and courage. Ambition can easily turn into obsession, as the classic tale of Captain Ahab in Moby Dick tries to teach us. Letting go of the need to "win" can be hard, but once you're able, it is also very freeing. (My own lesson here) So whatever your goals in life are, I wish you success...but also the wisdom to realize when they are not serving you well. Happy "sometimes you need to let the whale go" trails! 

TRAIL LOG:

Day 1) It's almost an 8 hour drive for us to get to the town of Sisters, so this was just a travel day. When we summited South Sister in 2023 we flew into Portland, so we were able to do a little hiking on day 1 that time. This time a spot at The Sisters Creekside Campground was in order. It's walking distance into town, so we made the most of it.

"The Barn" is the place to be in town

Day 2) It's a half hour drive to the Tam McArthur trailhead, which is where you start the Broken Top Loop. Thankfully it's not at the Broken Top TH (which it seems like it should be, doesn't it?) because we heard it is not very drive-able. We left poor Reba right there on the side of the road and hoped for the best because there is no parking lot. It's 4.7 miles and about 2K gain to get to Broken Hand, and then you have to decide to go left or right.

Can you see tiny Heidi about to go around Broken Hand?

Left is the standard way...but right looked shorter. Looking down on the snow field from above it looked really easy, but once there I was very uncomfortable with it.

Taking a slide down would not be good

 

Maybe I let my ambition get the best of me, but I followed Heidi across anyway. You keep gaining from here - I'm not sure how much, but we were really over it. Then you see No Name Lake and WOW.

So worth it. Heidi had her heart set on camping here, but WHERE? We passed a couple small spots along the ridge, but there was NO WAY we were walking down to the water and then back up. We half considered being bad and trying to camp within the half mile restriction from the lake, but wisdom prevailed and we kept going down until we found a legal spot. It must have been about 7 miles for the day. 

Day 3) Most people said doing this loop CCW was best, but because we weren't doing the whole loop and avoiding the burn area, we went CW. As we went down, down, down for the day, all I could think of was how miserable it would be to go up - plus we loved seeing No Name Lake from the top and enjoying the views from then on; so I think I'd advise CW even if you are doing the loop.

Anyway, we passed the Green Lakes, then started climbing again for a bit. We decided to go ahead and take the short detour to see Golden Lake, then continued on to camp at Park Meadow. It might have been close to 9 miles total including our detour, and I don't know the elevation number, but it was pretty minimal. 

One of the Green Lakes

 

Day 4) This day started with Heidi's sleeping bag giving itself a bath in the adjacent stream...you'll need to watch my YouTube video to get that story. After that excitement, we made sure to veer off the loop right after leaving camp and took the Green Lakes trail for 5 miles where we would meet Janet at the Pole Creek intersection.

Janet, who lives near Portland, made this whole plan possible because she had Sunday (this day) and Labor Day off. She's crazy enough to want to drive the 3 hours just for one night - plus then drive us back to our car...but we know hiking addicts ignore drive times. Anyway, we were all trying our best to figure out when to be at said trail intersection and hopefully not make the other party wait too long. (Janet had 2 miles to hike on the Pole Creek Trail) Unbelievably, we all arrived at the EXACT same time! Then it was up another 5 miles to stay at Camp Lake, where we were greeted with a naked man doing yoga on the beach. Never a dull moment! 10 miles for the day, with the just over 1k elevation at the end.

Sloth reunion!

Day 5) Thankfully, we had all discussed before bed what the logistics of going for the summit this day was going to look like, and had all agreed it was too big a whale to conquer in our time frame. People have summited from this lake (instead of the more common route you can find on Alltrails) but we learned from our previous trip together just how much our navigational skills are lacking -- it really does add on A LOT of time. Instead we had a leisurely morning, and then did an up and back to Chambers Lakes. 

We were a bit shocked as we looked at the trail leading up there...I know we were all seriously considering backing out...but many people do it WITH FULL PACKS; so we didn't want to be babies.

We gotta go up that?!

Ugh though! Not fun. But the rest of the 2 mile up and back was quite nice, and then it was pack up the stuff and head the 7 miles back to Janet's car. Nine miles total for the day, and then a whole lot of driving to pick up Reba (she was so dirty and not happy - but thankfully still there with no flat!) and then go to Janet's for the night. 

There were several stream crossings

Day 6) Drive the 4 hours home. There is no way I could have driven 8 hours after a full day of hiking - so THANK YOU JANET!!

Here's to not doing Middle Sister!!