5 Necessities to Triumph a Backpacking Trip above the Clouds.

August 10-11, 2019 // South Sister Mountain, OR // Summit Climb - 10,358ft // Editorial Dispatch Piece for MakersFinders

Peering out the window of the plane, en route from New York to Oregon for some much needed time in nature, I was running the plan over and over in my mind. This plan I speak of was the plan for my Annual Pacific Northwest Backpacking trip and would soon consume the next 36 hrs of my life upon landing in Portland around midnight: 

 - Get home. Sleep. 

- Wake up. Get gear packed. Get picked up by good friend and fellow outdoor Junkie, Peter Davis. - Drive 3ish-hrs from Portland to Central Oregon. 

- Hike 4 miles up to Moraine Lake

- Set up tent before it gets dark. Make Dinner. Crash. 

-Wake up at sunrise. Make Coffee + breakfast. 

- Summit the 10,358ft South Sister mountain. 

While no plan can really be "that” simple, what helped me take full advantage of this experience (and what may help you on your future backpacking expeditions) is making power moves with the essentials you bring along the way. What you’re about to read is the story of my most recent backpacking adventure, and along with sharing my journey, I’ll leave you with 5 essential items that made my excursion all the more incredible.

Around 6pm, after driving for 3 hours through a weather-induced cocktail that included fierce streaks of lighting, intense hail and unrelenting rain, we reached the Devil’s Lake Trailhead (AKA the starting point of the South Sister Trail). After the sketchy weather we just drove through, we considered sleeping in the car that first night, but, thank God, the conditions cleared up enough in time for us to make the executive decision to SEND IT! So, after cinching up our bags and spraying ourselves in DEET to ward off mosquitoes, we were off to Moraine Lake to make camp. Although this was about a 3-mile trudge mostly uphill with some heavy-ass backpacks and diminishing daylight, we both knew it was a call worth making as Moraine sits right at the footsteps of the South Sister Summit Trail, and would give us a great leg up on the next morning’s summit attempt. It was about 30 minutes until sunset, as we neared the lake and we were absolutely drenched in sweat from the elevation gain. The wind began to pick up, so we scrambled to get camp set and dinner made. After assembling our tents, we boiled some water on the Mountain Safety Research/MSR Pocketrocket 2 Stove. This stove from MSR is a fantastic bring along and will dramatically change the course of your trip. It’s lightweight, heats water in a matter of minutes and the self-ignite is trusted to start, even through crazy wind. Over the last few backpacking expeditions, bringing along this little stove and the lightweight fuel canisters have turned out to be quite a clutch move in serving up some warm meals and coffee out on the trail, even through rough conditions (as the ensuing night turned out to be…)

Look, I’ll be real - I may have purchased my tent last year for $20 (our campsite pictured above, my tent is the green one on the right) …. I know.. I know - there’s a lot of nice backpacking tents out there. But, since I’ve been living in New York City for the last couple of years, a nice tent wasn’t at the top of my priorities when I made this purchase, and though it did its job well on last year’s trip, that trip was also dry... So, around 3 am on this year’s trip, the rain returned in full force and partnered up with the already howling wind.. it was here I realized that when tested against the elements, a cheap tent is NOT something to rely on. After about 45 minutes of continuous rain, water seeped through the dinky rain flap covering the top vent of my tent and dripped on me. While fearing I was in store for a cold-soaked sleepless night, I had an epiphany. MY HAMMOCK! While hanging on a tree wasn’t going to solve any problems for me that night, I had instead quickly draped the water-resistant hammock around me and my sleeping bag. My Youphoria Hammock kept me warm and dry throughout the night and though I had already been in love with it since the first time I used it for a godly power nap in Yosemite awhile back (pictured above // credit: Justin Hartney), this year, I came to see it in a whole new light. Its multi-functionality makes it the perfect item for any backpacker or outdoor adventurer. 

The rain had let up on us a bit as day broke, and after taking in a pretty chilly sunrise, I woke up Peter, who claimed to have one of the best nights of sleep in his life (he brought a nice tent...), and we proceeded down from the campground to the lake, which also marked the start of the trail, and prepared breakfast. While Peter was heating up water for breakfast on the stove, I peered up towards the mountain into a daunting mixture of clouds and fog that shrouded the entirety of the once horizon consuming rise of the South Sister. Once the water was boiling on the stove, I ripped open the top of my Mountain House Breakfast Skillet and handed the pouch to Peter, who then proceeded to pour a decent amount of water into the pack, close it up then set it aside…For those of you wondering what’s going on - Mountain House is an Albany, OR-based freeze dried food company that dishes up outdoor adventurers (as well as doomsday preppers) every kind of meal you could practically imagine. Each meal is packed in a lightweight vacuum-sealed pouch, that just needs hot water to create a wholesome dining experience. I got turned on to the stuff a few years back and can confidently say this is a quintessential staple for food to bring when backpacking. In addition to the breakfast skillet (my personal favorite), a few of the other meals I’ve tried out on past adventures include chicken fried rice, biscuits and gravy, chicken fajita bowl, and raspberry crumble (uh-huh. You heard me, raspberry crumble). So after fueling up on a warm breakfast and chugging a cup of instant coffee served up in my rugged and reliable GSI Enamel Mug - perhaps one of the most nostalgia-inducing camping products of all time - we packed things up and hit the trail.

About an hour after we set out, and roughly 1,000ft in gained elevation from Moraine, the dense fog that once covered our entire view cleared away, revealing our first glimpses of the beauty that was all around and below us, and our first full peak of the summit (no pun intended) and the path that lay ahead. In front of us lay perhaps the most arduous portion of the hike. A portion so infamous, it's commonly been referred to by the local hiking community as, “The Climb.” The Climb marks the beginning of the rest of your life on this hike. With those first views of summit encouraging me, I was fooled by the climb’s steep demeanor, loose rocks and numerous switchbacks into thinking I was closer to the top than I really was. Not only that, but after about an hour of trekking upwards and quite a bit of water consumed to replace the dust that had begun to fill my mouth, my water had completely run out. 

With still quite a bit to climb to the top and newly depleted water resources, you could imagine I might have begun to worry in this situation...however, thanks to one last essential brought along, we were all set to conquer the remainder of the hike. As I clawed my way up to the ending of The Climb portion of the trail, we had made it to Teardrop pool, a tiny emerald lake sitting near glacial snow at the crater of the South Sister. At nearly 10,000ft, Teardrop Lake is also claimed to be the highest lake in the entire State of Oregon and was a conveniently placed pit stop for us to replenish our water supplies with the help of Sawyer’s Squeeze Bag Water Filter. Weighing in at a meager 3oz, this filter kit from Sawyer is remarkably easy to fold up/pack away, and very simple to use. All you need to ensure you’ve got purified water is fill the pouch with water from the lake (or whatever your source), screw the filtration cap on and drink. Truly a lifesaver.  After filling up our bottles with fresh water, taking in and photographing the stunning panorama views of Central Oregon and the surrounding Cascade Mountain Range, we were ready to take on the last major challenge.

Commonly referred to by the local hiking community as the “Cinder Cone” portion, this remaining push to the top of South Sister Summit Trail is no joke. Though it’s shorter than The Climb, the Cinder Cone portion involves much more technical skill and patience, due to the inevitable slipping and sliding you will encounter on the copious red lava rocks that make this portion of the mountain. You will want to make sure you’ve got a solid pair of boots and some hiking poles to get up to the top of the crater unscathed. As we made it up this last challenging portion of the hike, I had turned around at one point to notice an amazing sight. Those panorama views of Central Oregon that we were just enjoying at Teardrop Lake had disappeared completely behind endless mounds of clouds that had rolled in. To make the moment even more breathtaking, at this point in the hike we had also reached an elevation high enough to actually be above the clouds. 

When we finally made it atop the endless sea of loose rock that was the Cinder Cone portion, we were graced with views of the back part of the peak that featured the tallest point of the mountain. This is a view that is not often seen. You really have to be up this high to see this further back portion and we were locked in to climbing it and conquering this beast. After walking through the snow-covered crater of the South Sister, and carefully navigating up to the back upper ridge, we then leapfrogged from one of the ridge’s large boulders to the next and were finally plopped on to a relatively flat surface next to a rock with an elevation marker embedded within it. I kissed my hand and slapped it proudly. 10,358ft.

In the span of just over a day since landing in Oregon, I had made it atop the South Sister. My first 10k mountain! All around me at this elevation lay uniquely cloud spotted views of the other Sister Mountains; North and Middle Sister. Behind them we caught glimpses of the more cloud covered Mount Jefferson, as well as taking in views of Broken Top, Black Butte, Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Bachelor, Mt. Washington and Mt. Hood. After high-fiving Peter probably 6 or 7 times, chatting in triumph with a few other folks who had recently hit the summit, and snapping some pics of our accomplishment above the clouds, the partly cloudy conditions reverted back to an almost white out coverage and the wind had picked up a bit. We figured that this was our queue to head back down the mountain and proceeded across the snow that covered the top crater. It was like we were in a blizzard up there... in August! When we made it back down to Moraine Lake, a view that earlier in that very same day covered in a sea of fog, was now a clear blue sky and I was taken aback by views of the glistening lake, trees and mountains all over the horizon. Not a bad first 36 hours back in Oregon!