Moments in Dirt and Ink

Sierra National Forest Click for map. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7 Another poor sleep, but that is what it is. Today is a day to grab a peak. First up is getting back down to the main trail. Packed up, I follow the trail I found beside my camp back to the snow field and then make my way downward toward where I know the rest of the trail is. Staying on trail does not last long. As it climbs, I head down, aiming at the outlet of Summit Lake. These lakes often have a rather rocky outlet that can allow for an easy crossing. There is more snow, and then the slushy area of melt water below, to navigate to get there. The rest of Humphreys Basin stretched out below. Today is easy, just cross it and pop up the bump at the end, Pilot Knob, a bit toward the right. I can see the trail just up from some rocks on the other side, so it is not far to go to get there once on the correc...

Owens Peak Wilderness, BLM Link to map. The scheduled Hundred Peaks Section hike was hitting in a sweet spot weather wise between far too hot the day before and a storm rolling in the day after and I was wanting to get a bit further afield than I have been getting recently, so I signed up. It does tend to mean a far too early meeting in a remote parking lot after already driving nearly two hours and then another few hours to get to the trailhead. The road up cannot be too bad as the Subaru made it. Watching it get there, often with a wheel floating a foot in the air, was certainly entertaining. A large rock leaving nearly enough road to get around right at the end seemed the most difficult obstacle, but was only a problem for the vehicle with the longest wheel base. It does not seem like a very early start as we collect at the marked trailhead. Looking back down the road up Indian Wells Canyon. Plenty of desert out there, but we are already up in the pinon pines. ...

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...

Inyo National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6 This morning, I pack up most my stuff into various bags to leave at camp. We will be coming right back here in the afternoon, so no need to carry it. My worries about the weather coming later cannot hurry anyone else and the bright blue sky overhead does nothing to help my case. Climbing back out of the bowl of the lake to what is a bit like a ridge running through Williamson Bowl is just as hard as coming down. There are some things that look like trails, but they finish as soon as they start. At the top with many miles of Owens Valley visible, some realize they can call their spouses to say that they can stop worrying about what might have happened yesterday and start worrying about what might happen today. I realize that we want to go down to the lakes below tomorrow and take the time to scrutinize the route. It seems like all routes cli...

Sequoia National Park Sequoia National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 The rain overnight was not so bad as we feared it might be. It was actually stopping as we set up and cleared off overnight only to cloud up and rain again shortly before morning. None of the rain was particularly hard. It is clearing again as we get up and everything is drying quickly. First, we have to finish what was supposed to happen yesterday, a short jaunt up and over Coyote Lakes Pass. Trail wraps around the edge of the meadow to a well established campsite, then gets headed toward the pass. It seems to make perfectly straight lines as it switchbacks up the last couple hundred feet. Water can flow here, but currently it is a dry meadow moistened by rain. Coming up to the north side of Coyote Lakes Pass, which is not so big, especially if starting out at around 10,000 feet. Looking back over the bowl that is the headwaters of Coyote Creek.

Inyo National Forest (map link) DAY 1  |  DAY 2 It seems like it should be colder than this in October at 10,000 feet. There is not the slightest sign of frost anywhere. Today, we can day hike up the last of the mountain, then grab the rest of our stuff on the way down and coast the rest of the way out. First, we have to get started and it is quite a late start. Ah, but the sun is upon us as we do. The night warmer than expected does not translate into a very warm day. Red and White Mountain with sun long before it gets to us on the other side of Big McGee Lake. Starting out in the still cool, but now sunny, fall air.

Inyo National Forest Locate the trailhead. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7  |  DAY 8 The early morning comes with burning eyes and a stuffed nose and allergy medicine only partly helps it. It is a very poor sleep after not particularly good sleeps. My start is late, but I am not in much of a hurry. I have a 5.6 mile climb along trail to get to the top of Kern Peak and an even shorter way down, hopefully partly on trail, to get down again. Once packed up and supplied with a bit over 2L of water, it is time to climb slightly and find the faint, but clear trail along the top of the slight hill I was sleeping on. It seems to take random turns as it wanders through the trees past yellow painted tin can tops nailed to the trees. Sometimes another, even fainter, old route can be seen beside the current route. The trail drifts up to a saddle this way, then splits. A "K...

Inyo National Forest Map link. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 The downright pleasant night at Thunder and Lightning Lake turns into an even more pleasant morning as the sun crests over, from our perspective, low hills. We are slow to get up because while we have decided how we will go after the mountain again, we have not decided if. We got close to it and saw it and saw views like what it should have, maybe there is something else interesting around. But really, what else are we going to do? It is just too nice a day not to and we are so close. Once settled, it is not long before we are packed up and starting up the inlet area of the lake to reach the flat above. It looks like there are a couple tough spots, but we do not find them as we climb. Bernard, Linda, Menzo, and Bhagwan climbing up and out of Thunder and Lightning Lake near the inlet. Bhagwan still leads us heading up to the flat above the lake. The climb was a lot easier than expecte...

Inyo National Forest Locate the trail head. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Day two. The morning started too soon when the moon dropped down to a particular angle and the tent and fly were just not enough to block the light. Eventually, I decided to try to get a few photos and look for alpine glow in the morning twilight. There wasn't really anything but ordinary sunrise lighting. The view from my tent in the morning twilight as the first birds start to chirp and the bright just past full moon still hangs in the sky. Dial the exposure compensation way down and I managed to grab a hand-held photo of the moon, scars and all, setting with a few tries. Brightening rocks as the sunlight moves down the valley wall and a waterfall of snow melt.

Yosemite National Park Map link. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6 Ah, morning. Time to attack Half Dome for the rest of us who haven't already done it the same day as Clouds Rest. I got up plenty early to beat the heat and find out a little bit about a local bear in the area. This bear, it seems, likes packs. In the night, one of our group awoke to this bear chewing away on his son's backpack. He shooed off the bear, which the bear obligingly did while carrying the pack, empty of everything but a pair of dirty socks. He gave chase since that is sort of a needed piece of equipment, ending up plunging through the nearby meadow with its sounds of water flowing in stocking feet generating a very dirty pair of socks in the process. The bear did drop the pack after a couple short chases and it was retrieved, muddy but still quite serviceable. While we were listening to this tale, another member camp...

Yosemite National Park Map link. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6 After trying to ignore the bright moon light, the morning light finally came and with it a moment for breakfast and breaking down camp. The plan for today is to head up and over Clouds Rest to camp down at the intersection of the Sunrise and Muir Trails near the spur to Half Dome. Sunrise at Sunrise Lakes isn't quite as good as the sunset this time of year. Hiking up out of the lake basin, we quickly come to a junction with the trail in from Tenaya Lake. From there, there is a general gentle drop to some lakes and meadows and one marked creek on the map. I left getting water to the creek since I prefer to get water from them rather than lakes, so I stopped at the first creek to get some. It was little more than a trickle, but I found a good spot to take from. It turned out that there was a larger creek further on just as we ...