- 9,482 ft elevation
- 11.5 miles hiking round trip (with majority of the incline happening in the last two miles.)
- Tallest Volcano between Shasta and Crater Lake, it is believed to have erupted 20,000 years ago.
- You can see the snow capped mountain from almost anywhere in Medford (Cate's middle school is named after it!)
I had heard survival/brag stories from friends who've climbed the summit, (some having climbed multiple times), but I felt confident it couldn't be "that hard." Let's just say I ate a slice of humble pie as I literally found myself crawling, like a baby, over boulders whimpering my way along. I'll try not to get too ahead of myself here.
The night before, we packed up healthy snacks to keep us going and energized, and unhealthy snacks to keep us motivated and happy. The kids laid out their layers of clothes and fell asleep quickly with a naïveidea how hard the next day's hike would be.
We woke up at five and entered the dark trail head at 7:00 AM, with flashlights in tow. Cate and Johnny told scary stories about the headless horseman, while Wills and Matthew tripped over every stone in the path. Ha! The hike commences on the Pacific Crest Trail, and the old growth interchanging the new was so breathtaking and magical. It was amazing scenery.
The first three miles were challenging, and left us huffing and puffing in sections, but I was pretty proud of the kids for keeping such a good pace and keeping strong.
The fourth mile, pushed us as it felt we were climbing stairs and zig-zagging past the tree line.
The last mile and a half were simply put: brutal. There were a lot of boulders we needed to climb over and sliding rocks that made footing tricky. When we got to the first view of the volcanic cone, it was breathtaking and we mistakenly thought we were almost done! We continued on the ridgeline, scaling boulders with shaky legs and scraped hands. The trail was hard to follow, it was marked by white spray painted dots, and sometimes arrows, every twenty feet or so.
John was the real MVP here. He stayed with Matthew the WHOLE time, holding his hand and convincing him it was a game. Matthew was in the best mood despite being past exhausted and he climbed up the mountain just one step at a time. William loved scaling all the big rocks and he felt like Kion from Lion Gaurd. Caity was tired and sore, but was in good spirits and was up to the task (especially since John's coworker told us there was NO way our kids would be able to finish the hike...she had something to prove!) Johnny kept checking to make sure everyone was doing OK "Mom, is there anything I can do to help you?" He was the most resistant to hiking this, and even though it was hard for him, I was so impressed he didn't complain. None of them did, really. Meanwhile, I kept thinking "People do this for fun?" I knew if I didn't make it to the top, the kids wouldn't either, and that is what drove me to keep going. I wanted them to feel that accomplishment. Rosco was past exhausted and limping along, poor guy.
I can hardly capture the elation when we reached the summit. The average adult finishes the ascent in four hours, we did it with little kids in five and half. I felt incredibly proud of those kids. They did it! We signed our names in the book and cheered and looked over the beautiful views almost entirely blocked by smoke, ha! At that point, it didn't matter, because we were so happy to be done climbing.
We began our descent, which turned out to be quite a bit harder for me. My legs were shaking from fatigue, I felt dizzy from the elevation, and the slippery rocks made me so nervous (especially because I was herding four kids through a potentially dangerous terrain.)
Well, in true John and Mary fashion, we lost track of the trail, and exited the ridge too early. We weren't so lost that we weren't in the general direction we needed to be, but lost enough to stop and say a prayer. John brought a GPS that helped us, but it kept glitching which was a little nerve-wracking. For two and half hours we wandered trying to find the trail. We whooped and hollered when we found a while dot on a rock marking we were back on the path! It was another mile and a half of the steep, shifting rock decline, then we finally got to the tree line and I didn't care how steep it was, so long as I didn't get any more ground rock filling my shoes.
We were in good spirits as we put wagers in as to when we would arrive back to the van. I felt so much joy when we finally rejoined the Pacific Crest Trail, and we had more ups and downs (instead of just "downs"), and we even experienced some flat terrain. We walked until the sunset and William and I were last to exit the forest in the dark of night, which may I add, terrified us! We took a total of twelve hours to complete the hike. Despite the decline typically being an hour shorter, ours was an hour and half longer because of our little detour.
We collapsed into our car seats, and groaned in painful delight. We did it. Our entire bodies ached, but we did it. The soles of our feet felt tender, and we all stunk. One by one, kids fell asleep, dreaming of getting home their own beds.
At home I took a long bath in Epsom salts, and it felt so good to be clean, warm, and not-walking. John and I ended the night on a date of Taco Bell and The Office before we crashed in bed. As we fell asleep we kept cracking up at all the cute things the kids were saying while we hiked. It was such a fun moment to share with him. William, Johnny and I played "Would You Rather..." and their silly, sometimes gross scenarios were so funny. "Would you rather drink pee or the sweat drained from my socks?" Boys. Ew. We also laughed about how once we got to the 3.3 mile marker on our descent, Cate took off her shoes and hiked the remaining distance barefoot. Then Matthew's commentary was something else. "Mom, I need to hold your hand, because you're not good at hiking, like me, right mom? Don't worry, I'll help you, I can do complicated things. (Compwicated fings)" John and I were joking that John would have a hump back from all the times he had to one arm lift Matthew, because he couldn't take three steps without slipping. At one point Matthew told John, "I'm so glad you and mom are married, because you both are so nice and so fun." That just warmed my heart. (I'm glad we're married too.)
1 comment:
Wow! What an adventure. Glad you guys did it, survived, and have some awesome memories to share. THIS (your post) is what childhood and family memories are made of. Life is Good :)
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