Weekend Hike in the Cascades with the Boyz

Because we had such a great time last year with

Dad, brothers and nephews on a fifty-miler in eastern Oregon, this year's follow up hike (20 miler) over a weekend in the Three Sisters wilderness area seemed like a good idea...and it was. Here Dad and I are on top of the world, or at least on top of the South Sister (3rd highest peak in Oregon). We could see from Washington to California. Dad was born in '35. You do the math. If you are anywhere near my age, then my dad can still beat up your dad, end of story.

The Cascades are active volcanos, so there is a lot of lava rock which we (Dad and I especially) found could be a little sharp, he with his finger, and me with my leg. I had crossed a stream to retrieve a fly the brookies couldn't resist, slipped on a rock, and looked down to discover what my tibia looks like. When I got home that night I had to tell Anna how my leg got cut and I had to go get some stitches. This is what she got to see. No, I didn't retreive the dry-fly.

"It really hurts! (sniffle, sniffle) What? I'm not sure what you can do to help Anna, maybe...well if you really wanted to... a backrub would probably help take away some of the pain, (sniffle)."

She was concerned, so I reassured her that the ER doc did an excellent job getting me numb, and was really amazing with the suture, and he was crazy smart and good looking and I don't know, I just really liked the guy. I mean, I just knew I was in really good hands. Did I mention smart, and good looking, and really strong, too, and awesome, and smart.

Good thing I didn't sleep through that lecture. Thanks dad and brothers for bringing some suture kits along (dental nerds). We used one suture the day before on my Dad's finger (compliments of David).

"This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you".

The gloves are not because of OSHA regulations and me being worried that I might spread blood born diseases to myself. After three days of dirty camping and eating fish out of a pan, gloves were available and seemed like a good idea.

Another reason to look forward to the resurrection.

Moral of the story: 1. Don't go into the wilderness without a suture, hemostats, a syringe, some sharp scissors and a disinfectant. 2. Don't step on a big sharp stone with wet shoes and slip, and

3. If you fish on the Sabbath, you may be given extra opportunities for growth.