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!!

A High Note Pivot

 

The art of the pivot is something I am embracing more and more in my life. Instead of seeing the situation that is "not going as planned" as a bad thing, I try to see it as an opportunity for a new plan - possibly even a better plan. 

This is a big help in dealing with disappointments; because let's face it, "not going as planned" happens quite frequently. And of course if we are talking about hiking, the factor that is most likely to wreck any plan is weather. 

And so it was last weekend, when our aspirations of seeing Garibaldi Lake went belly up after the forecast went from "maybe it will be okay" to "hell no." It can be hard to make the pivot when you've struggled and invested in getting competitive permits and also payed for a place to stay in the incredibly overpriced tourist town of Whistler BC.

In fact, because the Whistler RV Park (the only place we could afford) does not offer any sort of refund for your first night's stay, our pivot was going to have to include still going there. There has to be a good day hike close by that would still make the trip to Canada worth it, right? 

Was there ever! Yes, it involved spending even more money because it was right in Whistler and required a lift ticket...but "when in Rome" as they say.   

Thankfully the forecast for Sunday looked far better than Friday/Saturday (when we had our defunct permit) so we were hopeful to maybe stay dry and get to see the views instead of just clouds. 

Heidi taking pics of clouds. Wah wah.

 

The Cloudraker Sky Bridge was super cool though

And not at all scary, IMO

 

Okay, sometimes there's no avoiding disappointment; though honestly it was very minimal. The mountains played peek-a-boo all day, and it was exciting to have them reveal themselves slowly...kind of like a burlesque show where you are wondering if a nipple is going to finally pop out. 

Sadly, we never got the full monty from most the peaks, but it was still an extremely beautiful day. I may even argue that Cheakamus Lake is as vibrant a blue as Garibaldi - but I do hope that someday I'll know for sure. My "things to know" list about the High Note Trail is below if you're thinking about making the comparison yourself. Happy "only slightly disappointing" trails! 

 

THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT HIGH NOTE:

1) As I mentioned, you need the $75 Summer Alpine Experience Pass. There is no cheaper option; but the good news is this gets you unlimited access to all the lifts, including the Peak to Peak. You can buy it online, but you still need to pick up the ticket right there at the Whistler Gondola, so I'm not sure if it saves you that much time. (Though there is a "paid in advance" window, so it might. For us it didn't, as the line was short for any of the windows.) 

Nothing says Whistler like this guy!

2) You need to take the gondola up 20 minutes to the Roundhouse Lodge, and then hike down a bit to the other lift which takes you to the tippy top. The second lift does not open though until 11 am, so we had some time to kill.

Second lift (Peak Express) is short, but kind of thrilling! No kids under a certain height though

We decided to take the Peak to Peak over to Blackcomb Mountain and do the short one mile Alpine Walk Trail. I'm glad we did, because we would have been too pooped if we waited to do it until after doing the High Note. And if I was going to pay $75, you know I HAD to do the Peak to Peak Gondola! It was really amazing and Sammie loved the glass bottom. (See video of the day on my YouTube.) 

3) The High Note Hike is stated as 6.4 miles with 2.5 K in elevation. There are shorter or longer variations you can do though, like the "Half Note" or the "Musical Bumps"

4) There is a little section (after you pass the turn off for the shorter Half Note) I had read about that sounded sketchy, and it probably was at some point. But now it has "reinforcements" and isn't scary at all. 

5) There is a small section near the end where AllTrails wants to take you where you shouldn't be going. There's a big sign at that intersection that is trying to make sure you don't take this stupid detour...we ignored it of course. ;) We made it down okay, but it was dumb. Trust the sign.

Smile! This is marmot central...we must have seen at least 20

6) You know I love ending a hike at a bar, and the Umbrella Bar at the Roundhouse Lodge did not disappoint! (Except for the prices...ugh) There were signs saying it closed at 4:45 pm, but thankfully we walked up there to check it out anyway and found it's open later on the weekends. 

7) You should stop to check out Brandywine Falls which is right off the Hwy near Whistler. It's less than a mile round trip, but most importantly it's FREE PARKING! A miracle! ;)  

It's Okay Being a Medium Dog

My friend, Heidi, once owned a shirt that said, "If you can't run with the big dogs, then stay on the porch!" She has been hiking and backpacking since childhood, and she's one of the most bad ass people I know. So when I suggested we switch her Tanks Lake trip plans to the extended Alpine Lakes High Route, she of course didn't blink an eye. 

It seemed a logical thing to do. We had three days - so instead of gaining all that difficult elevation and then turning around and going back, why not do the loop and enjoy the high country while we were already up there? We had two cars, so leaving one at each trailhead meant cutting out the three miles of road walking required. In total we would only be adding a couple extra miles to the itinerary while gaining more than twice the amount of scenery. 

The trip reports for this loop made it sound SO amazing...but there were also a few concerning warnings like, "straight up going to kill somebody." Eek. Though maybe those are just namby-pamby "little dogs" yipping. Stay on the porch you babies! ;)

So I turned to my favorite website of NWhikers.net to ask the opinion from the true Big Dogs. The information they gave confirmed that indeed the Alpine Lakes High Route was over my pay grade. I hated wimping out on Heidi after I got her all pumped up for this amazing trail; but I know and accept I'm a medium dog and I don't really aspire to enter the hiker big leagues. Plus Janet was coming along, and though she is a stronger hiker than I am, I was pretty sure several miles of navigating through talus and "brush-covered ledges with cliffs above and below" was going to be out of her comfort zone too. 

Instead we thought we'd try our hand at the smaller "easier" loop suggested by the folks on NW hiker. We could leave our stuff at Tanks and go around the back side up to La Bohn and then down the waterfall and back up again to Tanks. Except after taking a look at that waterfall as we made our original way up to Tanks, we knew that was a hard no. 

Though, what would it hurt to see if we could make it to La Bohn? It was only a couple of miles after all. Medium Dogs should at least be able to do that.

The above picture of Williams Lake is where we waved the white flag. With no real trail to follow and some talus to get over, it took us two hours to go a mile. Go all the way to La Bohn?! HA!!! Can you imagine if we tried to do the full Alpine Lakes High Route with it's 8 mile section of nothing but difficult route finding, talus fields AND 3k of elevation gain? Holy shit, we'd probably still be up there! 

The part of me that really wants to prove it's bad-ass-ness sure got put in it's place on this trip. And that is well and good, because having fun (along with the benefit of not dying!) is much better. You'll find our itinerary for an enjoyable 3 day trip (actually it was 4 days in my case) for anyone else in the medium dog category. Happy "know your limits" trails! 

Sammie wanted to play Lion King ;)

TRAIL LOG:

Day 1) Because I had Saturday off but both Heidi and Janet didn't, I decided to start without them. They would just meet me at my campsite in the morning which was at about 5 miles in.

It took me only two and a half hours to hike it, so I assumed they would do it in just 2. Of course there is zero cell service, but I knew they expected to be starting at 7 am, so I planned to be ready and waiting for them by 9 am.

Day 2) At 9:45 am, there was still no Heidi and Janet, so I assumed there was a problem. I forced myself not to imagine the "they were killed in a car accident" type of situation but a more reasonable "the alarm clock didn't go off" type of situation...but y'know, sometimes it lingers in the back of the head. But whatever the problem was, it wasn't going to help if I just sat there. So I came up with this solution:

I figured they would catch me, because I'm so much slower; so when I made it the 3 miles to Jade Lake with still no sign of them, I began to worry a little. But this is quite a climb of about 2.5k, so they were doing it just as slow as me. In fact, they made it to my campsite just minutes after I left and were not far behind me the whole time!

This gal recognized Sammie! So I made her take a pic to prove I have a fan ;)

Fortunately they knew I was waiting for them at Jade because these nice guys let me use their Garmin to send a message. I know, I know, I just need to bite the bullet and buy one.

Recruiting more Sammie fans, haha. Thanks guys!!

The next mile is a nice break with not much gain and pretty meadows, and then you get to the rock scramble. This turned out to be not as bad as I was expecting, though the hardest part is figuring out the best route because there are many cairns guiding you in different directions. We had a couple young guys coming down advise us to just "go up the gut" which I still have no idea what that means. (Must be a Big Dog term ;) 

When we made it to Tank Lakes I was pretty beat, but Heidi and Janet were extra beat because of their extra miles and very early start. Even so, Janet had the energy to push up the hill on the far side of the lake because she was sure there had to be a good spot up there. Heidi and I were groaning, but we obeyed and followed her up and found she was right. This is about a 12 mile day with 4k if you do it one shot. For me it was only 7, so splitting it up is really nice.

Day 3) We slept in and didn't get going on our day pack outing until 9 am. I don't think any of us were super gung-ho about getting to La Bohn, but we were curious about trying. The challenge of route finding was actually really fun until we hit the serious talus...then it was like "this sucks." 

Making our way back was WAY faster, so we decided to keep going on the Alpine High Route (it goes the opposite direction from the intersection to Tank) and just go as far as felt comfortable. 

Right around Iron Cap Gap felt good enough - maybe a mile? We got back to camp to have plenty of leisure time cooling off by the lake (which we had to ourselves!) and enjoying a cocktail before making dinner...it was so nice to be relaxing and not scrambling over rocks and wondering if we were going to die.

After dinner we felt like exploring more, so we followed the trails that meander out and about. As we were looking at our maps and trying to figure out what lake we were looking down at, we noticed a "Tank Lake" that was up further and behind us. Hummm...this must be what makes it "Tank Lakes" instead of just "Tank Lake." Should we try and find it?

It was actually not that hard, but dang, the mossies up there were super excited we showed up. So after a short photo shoot, we headed back. In total we probably didn't even hit the 5 mile mark, but what a fun day we had.   

Day 4) I taped my knees before we even started because I knew the hammering downhill was going to be murder on them. But of course it was much faster than going up, mostly because we took a different route and eliminated almost half of the rock scramble. We didn't even realize it until I was taking a video of Glacier Peak and saw the rocks we came up were to the right of us. I tried to take videos from then on of the places which would lead you to the easier route, but it really is hard to see unless you are going down. 

AllTrails will get you there, but to the right is easier

But you can watch them on my YouTube if you think it might be helpful. The last five miles felt like forever as we knew they would, but the promise of a burger and beer at The Whistling Post propelled us forward at lightning speed. Except, no burger to be found there; which is probably for the best because I'm trying to eat better due to a bout with diverticulitis. Sucks getting old.  

It still tasted good!

Side note: my friends had the rest of the week off, so while I headed home they were doing the long drive around to the Marmot/Jade/Dip Top hike. But when they went to start the next day, Heidi realized she left her boots in the parking lot at this hike's trailhead. (East Fork Foss/Necklace Valley is where you start to get to Tank Lakes) They were brand new, so if by chance someone finds them, please leave a comment! (UPDATE: shoes have been returned, thanks to the cutest hiker couple responding to my plea on my other favorite site of WTA. The hiking community is the best!)

They still made it happen, just a later start than expected