Not any more

I don't have mountain fever anymore, no sirree. Mountain blisters, yes. Mountain aches, yes. Mountain photos, oh yes.

In fact I can't begin to post them here so I will have to refer you to my FB page for the full album.


But here is a shot that you won't find over there. But b/c you are my faithful readers I will share it with you. This is me after hiking to the top of the South Sister, 10,380 feet high. Third tallest peak in the Oregon, behind Jefferson and Hood. Congratulations. Some gentleman actually recited all this to me just as I stepped up onto the highest spot. Thank you very much, sir.

This icy mountain stream was cooling my burning feet. But I will spare you any further discussion of my aches and pains and instead share a few interesting things we saw along the way.


For one thing, I'm pretty sure I caused this lady to crash and fall. I was innocently calling up to my youngun and her buddy to turn and smile for me which seemed to tip this gal off balance. I'm sorry, dear!

We also came upon this cute and giggly couple. This young man proposed on the top of the South Sister. Good thing she said yes, it would have been a long hike down if she hadn't!


Then there was this sweet lady, probably about my age. Turns out we know her auntie that lives just down the road from us. Had a nice chat with her. Turns out this is her 16th time up to the top. I wonder what is on her bucket list??!!


And when you get to the top it's actually a big flat snowfield. You have to hike across it and then up that little point at the top left of this shot to actually reach the peak. Hubby wasn't so sure we needed to do that once we had ascended the last of the difficult part. I told him he had no choice in the matter.

That's my youngun and the other teens crossing over ahead of us. They had to wait an hour for us to catch up with them at the top. But I'm sticking with my tortoise theory.


And because he always puts up with me and found me a nice hobbling stick on the way down, and let me lean on him when I realized rescue helicopters cannot land at this altitude, I will end with this fabulous shot of him.

Oh, and one more thing. See that much lower, jagged mountain on the far left with a little bit of snow on it? Well, we attempted that one when we were 30 years younger and just couldn't quite make it!!