Moments in Dirt and Ink

Sequoia National Forest Click for map. It is time for another peak, surely. The rain following the hike up Mill Creek was snow in the very high elevations and I can see the dusting on a few of the peaks nearby. If this has added to more already on the higher peaks, I don't know. Hopefully if it is there, it is still little enough to trudge through. Remington Ridge is another motorcycle trail that gets plenty of hikers. It gets plenty of the motorcycles too and I can see their tread in the trail along with one pair of boot prints on top of them all. It's some 5 or 6 miles up to the peak from here and I would again like to be back by dark. No rain expected today, it just gets cold without the sunlight. Signs at the start to make it easy to find. There are all sorts of people parked across the road from the trail and further up the road in the larger turnouts. The trail looks almost untouched today, so they are here for something else. I expect one of the area hot...

Sequoia National Forest Click for map. One of the Kern area geocachers has been slowly setting a series of "5 Mile Hikes" at the 2.5 mile mark on some of the area trails. It's really quite a nice chunk for a lot of people. I have intended to do a few of them (probably without using the cache as a turn around point) but never seem to get to it. One has been set on a trail I know from attempting to hike up Breckenridge Mountain one day after a snow storm. The top where we were trudging through ever deepening snow and the middle where we were washed with quickly melting snow were not so great, but the bottom was quite lovely. (It probably didn't hurt that our feet were dry when we first got to it, either.) Since I'm familiar with this one, I thought it would be a good one to take Timmy on. Yes, I'm bringing the cat along again. I've devised a way to easily carry him, too, since he is still 19 years old and that's quite old so I don't expect...

Sequoia National Forest Giant Sequoia National Monument Click for map. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 I am up at the first hint of light. It is easy to get up in such mild weather. Martha has not taken it as quite so mild, so I let her have the neoprene socks for the early morning foot soaking. I did mention I was overpacked. We collect ourselves together and head up the little bit of trail to the crossing to finally give it a try just as it gets light enough to see into the water. I feel like it got quieter about halfway through the night, but the water level really does not look any different. We drop down to the crossing with smooth running water consistently across a wide section and cross. It does not seem to pull much at my legs as I go. Somehow the snow melt is not even cold. Much ado about nothing. A bit of blur as the camera gathers enough light in the dawn. The trail crosses in the crescent below the broken log with...

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...

Sequoia National Forest Giant Sequoia National Monument Click for map. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 The Forest Service does not charge anyone to enter the Giant Sequoia National Monument, but we cannot get to Jennie Lakes without passing an entrance station for one of the National Parks and they want some money. Martha just flashed her pass which not only got us in free, it allowed us to use the shorter, faster line past the entrance station on this crazy holiday weekend. After finding a far parking space to wait in line to chat with a Park Ranger in Grant Grove Village, we are still an hour later than we wanted to be at the trailhead. Permits to hike in Jennie Lakes Wilderness are self issue at the trailhead and that is enough to camp within the Monument and take day excursions into the two Parks, but camping in the Parks requires a different permit subject to quotas and fees. The only space left in the lot is the overflow parking and ...

Inyo National Forest Sequoia National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 (The night was too warm even for my light quilt until a breeze came up to mix the night air a little bit. Soaking in the hot spring under the bright Milky Way was great, but now it is morning and time to hike out on an often hot trail. The moon rose a thin crescent in the dawn light, but the sun is very slow to get up after it. Since I had no photos of the spring after getting in at sunset, some in shadow would just have to do. The meadow and my late night neighbors are not yet in sun either. The main pool at Jordan Hot Spring with the cold water channel to help regulate the water temperature. The main pool is bubbling everywhere. I do not remember it having that many "air jets" a couple years ago, but it is probably not something that changes much. Little hot creeks flow in in a couple places. As much as the tub was too hot to soak in for more tha...

Sequoia National Forest Inyo National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 I left Templeton Mountain unclimbed almost two years ago and decided to try for it again. The impetus to climb this silly looking nearly perfect cone of a peak was to look for a benchmark that is on the 1905 Olancha 30' map. There are others, so I decided to add a few more to the trip to make a big loop with a return that may as well visit Jordan Hot Springs again. I stopped by the Blackrock Ranger Station to self issue a wilderness permit then got up to the parking lot just after hitting the breaks to avoid hitting a bear. Seeing the bear makes me really want to get rid of food trash and maybe food before leaving the car, but there are no trash cans or bear boxes available. So it goes. There is a beautiful hazard tree central to the lot. So it goes. To avoid walking the same trails as much as possible, I decide to head over to Monache Meadows via motorcyc...

Sequoia National Forest We climbed Sunday Peak with our backpacks weighed down with #10 cans of peaches and things out of the kitchen to get the feel of a weighted pack before going out for a three day trip. It was probably meant to shake out whoever might have signed up for a backpacking unit even though they should not have. I remember it being a sunset hike and we all had a grand time, so there was no actual shaking. I probably hiked it again in a similar way before going out on a five day trip another year. The camp is gone, but the driving directions still say to park near the sign for Camp Mountain Meadows GSA. I am rightly suspicious the sign is gone, but it has simply been replaced with one for the trail so that it is still easy to find. The area could be confusing with a motorcycle trail running past and the old camp road heading down to the meadows the camp was named for, but there is a second sign a little deeper in that makes the correct route clear. This wa...

Sequoia National Forest We stayed the night at Cedar Creek Campground, which is also a good starting point for climbing Bohna Peak. The road up the creek through the campground continues past the last site to what could almost be called a parking area and a trail continues after that. The creek quickly becomes a stunning thing of ledges and cascades. It is quite surprising after seeing it as the overtrampled flow of water over jumbled rocks and dirt that it has inevitably become within the campground. Cedars and cottonwoods along Cedar Creek. A thin canyon with tall cottonwoods. Many flowers are blooming along the creek. The trail crosses the creek often and sometimes gets very nearly into the creek. As I edge along a rock wall trying to keep my feet dry, there is suddenly an odd hole in the side. Very square and very deep and very consistant, it must be an old mine.

Sequoia National Forest I signed up for another Hundred Peaks Section outing, this time bringing along another geocacher who is not at all worried that there are no geocaches to get along the way. The planned early morning start got earlier when the weather for the weekend became known. The high for Kernville, somewhere down the hill a bit, is expected to be 104°F. Up here, 3000+ feet higher, that translates into something that is on the correct side of body temperature but still very hot. Twenty minutes after sun up, it is not yet hot, but it is certainly not cool either. I have dropped in three bags of water at 2.5 liters each to try to make it through the 12 mile or so day without drying out. I find a half liter a mile is a minimum on days that hit 90°F when on trail and these will be off trail miles. The water is heavy, but the pack is riding better than usual with the extra weight as we start up a thin track in the grass, climbing steeply up the hill. Without a t...

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.

Sequoia National Forest Sequoia National Park DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 After getting a mound of water for breakfast and another mound for hiking for the day, a procedure that seems to take forever with a Sawyer mini, Bernard is somehow still sleeping. The shaded creek is full of tiny Humboldt lilies and I enjoy my nice hot breakfast before giving him a little kick to get started on the hiking for the day. Today we climb and, as far as we know, this is the last water before the lakes at the top. The trail is a lot easier to find as we start today than it was as we ended yesterday. Humboldt lilies are among the thick green around Rifle Creek. Back out into the scar left by the 2012 Lion Fire, but at least some sawyers have come by. The trail becomes faint in places as we twist up through the forest. There are still a few big logs to jump over, but it is not so bad that the few mule prints we find on the trail seem out of place. Pistol Cree...

Sequoia National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Bernard wanted to hit the trail for a few days, which became a few less days. When he was saying 5 days, I was thinking Woodchuck Country and Blackcap Basin, but when he said we would have to be back by Monday, I quickly changed to the peaks I looked at last November and decided I could not include after all. The unknown nature of water availability was the problem then and is still a problem now, but easier to deal with on a shorter trip carrying less food. After calling in for my permit, I realized I could do the loop clockwise and water would probably be easier on the way up. We must have psychic people filling these out, because that was how my permit was already set up for me. We dropped ourselves in Lewis Camp the evening before, ready to hit the trail in the morning. Again entering Golden Trout Wilderness from Lewis Camp. I was told to expect water only at the river and lakes because of th...

Sequoia National Forest Another weekend means there are more Hundred Peaks Section outings one might decide to join if one is so inclined. I noticed one coming up was for the very southern section of the Sierras, so southern most people do not even think of it as part of the Sierra Nevada Range, and was interested in checking out the area. I told Bernard and he was extremely interested and even tried to collect a whole crew to come out. In the end, only the two of us headed up to Walker Pass Campground for the guided tour up the mountain. Looking down the wash toward Walker Pass Campground. The overall group is quite large with fifteen hikers. We climb the hill out of the campground to the Pacific Crest Trail and turn for Mexico. After a half mile on trail, we leave it for a shallow drainage. Most of the hike would be off trail according to the description. At first, it is quite easy going although still a little slower for being off trail. We pass mostly brush s...

Sequoia National Forest Locate the trailhead. DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7  |  DAY 8 A little poking around find the remains of a dead horse left just up the hill from the trail and the trail that cuts across to the Little Kern River from Willow Meadows. Away from the camp, the trail is quite obvious as it climbs steadily, once needing a little switchback. The area is burned at the top. Coming into the burn area and finding the manzanita almost completely gone. More burned trees and manzanita. The last peaks as the Great Western Divide comes to its southern end. A sign tells me where I am going and where I am coming from as I cross a trail that comes up from the Trout Meadows Ranger Station and drops down to Burnt Corral Meadows. It might make a nice alternate route back adding on about 4.5 easy miles to get there and then cross the Little Kern R...