Before leaving Bend we decided on a whim to climb the South Sister to get beautiful views of the neighboring mountains and valleys. Unfortunately, when we left the car we had not yet decided to do that, so we didn't bring our hiking boots or poles and we ran out of water on our way back down. The hike has a false summit two-thirds of the way up, so when we thought we were almost to the top of the summit we were surprised to learn that we still had another two miles of hiking on crumbling volcanic rock to get to the top. Throughout that last leg of the hike every time you would step one foot forward you would sink six inches back again. Having not adequately carbo-loaded for the trek, we got really worn out and Mel got some elevation sickness at the top but it was a beautiful view.
Our friend Greg told us recently that when you travel, you often learn more about your own culture than the one you visit. In Oregon, we learned that California provides convenience and service that we had never noticed when we almost ran out of gas. It turns out that in Oregon, it is common to have four or five hour stretches of driving with no serviceable gas pumps. Luckily, after we had driven ten miles already with the gas light on, Melanie met a nice man in overalls at the post office who let us use the town's private co-op to get our gas. He said his kids have lived in Oregon their entire lives and they still run out of gas on the highways, so we shouldn't feel too badly about it. Besides that adventure, camped and hiked a few days in the Wallowa mountains in the north eastern corner of Oregon. After having seen so many volcanic phenomena, it was great to get back to granite mountains and the waterfalls, plant life, and lakes that accompany them.
