A little Pacific Northwest geography- the Three Sisters are a set of 10,000+ ft peaks in Central Oregon. South Sister is a fairly common day hike (5 hours or so, round trip), but Middle, while much less popular and bit longer, time wise, is also possible without ropes and/or extreme stupidity.
My friend Libby (SLU skier) and I were dropped off at the Pole Creek Trailhead about 6 am, heading to climb Middle Sister. Compliments of a trail that wasn't on our map, we had to cut cross country before we even got t0 the base of the mountain. After booking it a couple miles across some nice lava and creek beds, we got to the lakes at the base of the mountain. We summited Middle Sister about 10:15. There was a group up there that had come up the glacier side of the mountain, fully decked out with harnesses and helmets, and a little bit confused as to how we had gotten to the top in running shoes.
We were doing the hike point-to-point and the car was a ways away, so we spent about 15 minutes on top and then started down. After a couple thousand feet of alternating scree fields with larger rock flows mixed with a couple of remaining snow fields, we got back down to the ridgeline above the lakes at the base. We followed a creek southwest out of the saddle between South and Middle Sisters and followed it until we found a trail. That trail fed into the Pacific Crest Trail, which we followed south around South Sister. We managed to hit the Wickiup Plains- dry flats next to an obsidian flow- at the hottest point in the day. From there, we swung around east to Moraine Lake, at the base of the South Sister. And then we went down to Devil's Lake, to the car.
Starting point: 5200 ft
Ending point: 5450 ft
Highest point: 10053 ft
Miles: 22?
People who looked at us like we were absolutely insane: 23
-Katie
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