Moments in Dirt and Ink

Kings Canyon National Park Inyo National Forest Click for map. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7 Two more days in the plan, but probably only one more day for the execution. I expect to stare at one more mountain that would be a perfectly reasonable climb, and then not go up it. The climb would make it late for getting out, so staying one more night would be nice, and the extra day would make time to go up one more little peak on the way out. Or I can just hike out today. I have minor, but unfounded, worries about leaving the cats with a first time carer for a week. The one needing pills can be a nuisance. So I may bail on the plan. Meanwhile, out in the Dusy Basin, it is looking like a very nice morning indeed. Surrounded by mountains, it is time to find the pass. I guess the bit at the left. Climbing higher, but still a few trees. There are lots of lakes, creeks, po...

Kings Canyon National Park Click for map. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7 The rain stopped halfway through the night, and, eventually, so did the dripping through the ceiling. My bag and myself even dried out a little and certainly managed to get a bit more comfortable. It is a testament to just how bad my sleep has been that this probably was the best so far. My fellow soggy hikers have a weather report for the next few days that is uninspiring and seems to lack sun for today. They head off anyway, but I take a long while to get collected again. The appearance of the sun changes things. I quicken up to try not to miss more minutes of bright sunshiny day only to stumble over the lack of any fuel for my stove. I can remember remembering to grab it and stuff it in and taking it out and setting it by the bear canister in the night, but now it is nowhere to be found. Cold breakfast ...

Kings Canyon National Park Click for map. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7 A lot of people have told me that Evolution Basin is the prettiest bit of the Sierras. There was even a day hiker coming up toward Piute Pass who said so. Today I will see it for myself. My shoes are not a lot drier after the night that seemed to have a bit of dew. My other camp sites were definitely a lot drier. It does not matter anyway. Crossing the tributary just up the trail while keeping my feet dry only lasts until finding the second, larger part of it. Who needs dry feet? And with the day's inaugural splashing, I head on to more meadows. Arriving at McClure Meadow. McClure Meadow is extensive and green and the creek sits within it like a long lake. I stand at the edge of the water for a while before noticing the flicker of ears in a nearby grasses. There is a small deer sitting behind it hid...

Sierra National Forest Kings Canyon National Park Click for map. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7 Today is a travel day without any mountains to climb. Well, a get down to the trail and then travel day. My plan to get back on trail is to go over the low spot west of the outlet and work my way down tending left to get to less steep areas of the canyon. Just getting to the low spot needs a round-about route as the direct way seems to have a bit of water topped by a wall of snow. The view back up to Pilot Knob from nearby camp. Climbing up and around for a low spot. Heading down among the rocks that make a lovely terraced flower garden requires some rather careful stepping. Halfway down, my stepping is not quite careful enough. Trust in one particular rock is rewarded with it slipping down a chimney it was sitting in the top of for a couple feet. It could be worse, th...

Kings Canyon National Park Click for map. I cannot pass up stopping by the big trees when we are so near and somehow Martha has never seen them. My original desire was to head up to the Garfield Grove, but the extra day for that is not working out after all. Considering how today is shaping up, it would have been a bit hot for the hike. My father seemed relieved to a surprising extreme to not have to find a different ride to the airport, so it works out for everyone to cut off a day of adventure. Instead of that remote grove that we might have all to ourselves, we head over to the paved and fenced Grant Grove, which we will have to share with tourists that arrive by the busload plus those in dozens of cars. It was once part of the General Grant National Park, one of the first four national parks, but is now a part of the much younger Kings Canyon National Park. Importantly, it has sequoiadendron giganteum, and some of them are quite large ones. The grove has a paved wa...

Kings Canyon National Park Sequoia National Forest Giant Sequoia National Monument Click for map. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 It was another mild night, but the mosquitoes very nearly vanished early on into it. The sun comes quickly here and the morning golden hour is really quite something. I enjoy it with breakfast and happily the mosquitoes seem to be slow to wake up. Our northerly view from near camp: the morning sun as it hits Ball Dome. Morning over Ranger Lake. We head out to the trail again and wander gently downward, still high above the valley bottom. The air seems a lot clearer today and the snow on the far mountains is much more defined. The snowy distances.

Sequoia National Forest Giant Sequoia National Monument Sequoia National Park Kings Canyon National Park Click for map. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 The night was almost too mild and a few of the mosquitoes stuck around through it. Also, I am way overpacked for such mild nights. It is what the National Weather Service predicted and what the history of a fairly local weather station confirmed, but how could I believe that in the face of knowing there is still snow on the ground? It sits in great lumps all around me. The morning brings wakeful campers, but not a lot of noise except for the one excitable dog. People seem to gather themselves up at a leisurely pace and wander away again, mostly turning back down the trail. It is the same with us, except that we are continuing out further. Jennie Lake has a nice rocky backdrop to the south. A few clearly do not yet want to get up. Far on the east side, I can see a hammock th...

Kings Canyon National Park August 1992 Day 1 My dad saw an opportunity to revisit the famous Rae Lakes loop from Roads End in Kings Canyon by taking myself and my little sister around it. Plans were for a week in the wilderness taking some time to head on down to Charlotte Lake and a day up in the Sixty Lake Basin. We got to the ranger kiosk to get a permit around the time it opened, but this was already too late to get three for Woods Creek. Instead, we got three for the less popular counter-clockwise direction up Bubbs Creek. We had day hiked up to middle Paradise Valley at one point, so this was the unfamiliar side. (I distinctly remember that hike, 14 miles and the longest I had done for many years, as the one I broke in my boots that was wearing and I later cut up on my second trip up Mount Whitney.) The permit being the last thing to pack, we set out on the trail. It starts off very easy on an upward grade next to the river that is so gradual it is difficult to not...

August 1991 Inyo National Forest Sequoia National Park I was the ripe old age of 14 in 1991, so my first trip up to Mount Whitney was not my own plan or execution. Instead, it was part of the intermediate backpacking unit at Camp Mountain Meadows. Or at least slightly higher than beginner. It may well have been my third backpacking trip ever and the previous one did not go entirely to plan . The first one was when I was 9. This one also did not go as planned, but in two ways inconsequential to getting to the goal. First, permits had not been reserved for our group, so the original plan to go in at Onion Valley and proceed south had to be scrapped when walk-in permits could not be obtained for a group the size of a Girl Scout Camp unit. Instead, we camped out at the Cottonwood Lakes backpacker camp at the trailhead (which I remember being quite crowded) and Klikitat got up at 4AM to sit next to the ranger station to be first in line when they opened. I think she said the s...

Kings Canyon National Park Sierra National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5 Sipping a bit of water helped deal with the effects of smoke in the night and the morning is clearer again. I have decided to poll the hikers I meet as to if they are through hiking or not. The two that were already at the site are JMT sobo hikers (John Muir Trail south bound) and the two who came later are the same, but hit the greater smoke to the south and are now bailing out at Muir Ranch. Crossing the bridge over the low South Fork San Joaquin River. The sign at the junction says it is 16 miles down to Florence Lake, probably meaning the trailhead, and that is essentially all downhill. I thought yesterday afternoon was a long time going downhill, this will be longer. The lost elevation is much less. A piece of the trail. It is still a little smoky out, but not so bad. The deer in the park can be very relaxed.

Sierra National Forest Kings Canyon National Park DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5 It is 2 AM and I have woken up not comfortable at all. The smoke is making my nose run which is just enough to dribble down my throat and my stomach is reacting with heart burn. Maybe I should bail. Smoke is not a healthy thing. Pulling out the map, it looks like I could get back to the car in a day. It would be even easier to do so if I get the part I already know done now. I am not sleeping or even feeling sleepy. Packing is easy and quick. Under the moon, I do not even need my head lamp. It is curious how the trail stands out in the low light as a lighter line, even as it passes over the rocks. Very small particles ground out by the passage of many shoes scatter the light a little better? It seems plausible. Whatever it is, it makes the trail easier to follow than it was in the daylight. Of course, knowing where it goes hel...

It has been too long since I've gone on a proper backpacking trip, meaning something lasting on the order of a week. The last time was in September 2003 when I went on the Y-hike with my fellow Techers. This hike is open to everyone from the pre-frosh just about to start to the graduates about to finish who are collected into four groups of different levels and limited to 6-8 people per group. There's a 12 miles a day, 8 miles a day, 6 miles every other day, and few miles hiking around so I signed up for 8 miles since that's what I've generally considered a good day. We had a plan to go out from North Lake over Piute Pass and then turn north over Pine Creek Pass and take a loop, as shown on the maps above. These are from the USGS 15' series, from the bottom right counterclockwise: Mount Goddard 1957, Mount Tom 1954, Mount Abbot 1953, and Blackcap Mountain 1962. Red dots mark the path and numbered purple dots mark the campsites used. Day 1: We've done all o...