Some of my friends and I got together for a loop hike in the Three Sisters area in late September of ’79. Four of us had climbed Mt. Hood together the previous May and knew we were all in about the same condition so mapped out a pretty tough schedule over a four day period.
We crammed everybody and everything into my car for the short trip up to the TH from where we all met up in Bend and started out on the trail mid morning, Friday, Sept. 21, 1979:
On the way to the TH as we passed Mount Batchelor Ski area:
Here we are on the way: Me, Scott, Dave and John.
A little farther up the trail we get a good view of the South Sister: Scott, Dave, Rob and John:
It was only about 4 ¼ miles from the TH on the Cascades Lakes Hwy to our first night campsite at Green Lakes so we all decided to knock off Broken Top to make it a day. This was my first hike with a heavy pack so I was glad to get it off and make my way up the peak unladen! (We were all a little tired but that was mostly due to the weight of a short case of beer in most of our packs!)
None of us had ever climbed or even hiked in the area before so it was all new to us – we were pleasantly surprised to find a well defined hikers trail as we gained the ridge NW of the summit. I held back to get this shot as the group made the final pitch: Of course, in nothing but running shoes and shorts, we all had to be careful of the very sharp rocks!
The summit pinnacle was a bit daunting but we all successfully scrambled up and I set my camera on a rock for this pic: From left to right, my brother Dave, Rob, Scott, me and John:
I was out of film so one of the guys took pity on me and gave me a roll of color film after that summit shot - wow!, modern technology!
We were up with the sun the next day and broke camp for the next leg up to Chambers lakes between the Middle and the North Sister:
This next pic taken on a similar trip taken in 1995: My brother Dave on the shore of Green Lake:
On the way cross country to Chambers Lakes:
Once camp was set up my brother and I decided to climb the Middle Sister. We were not too prepared for how cold it turned out to be but managed just the same. I had grabbed a shirt before I left and it came in handy on the summit! A T-shirt at 10,000 feet in late September just did not do the trick. (My legs were fine, though, as I remember. - I noted in my log that the wind was about 20 MPH and the temperature was about 40 degrees!!)
The next morning was really cold but otherwise the weather was great and we headed down toward the west to intersect the PCT and a return to the TH.
Here we are on the way down toward the PCT: Scott, me and Dave:
Another pic as we continued on our trek:
And another:
We finished off the third day with over 12 miles of hiking and camped just a couple miles from the TH. The next day our motley crew headed out and headed back to the grind of our jobs all the time thinking of what would be our next adventure. We would all get together again in the Wallowas, but that is another story…..
Approx map of our journey. Total approx. 33 miles and 9,800’ vertical.
