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CALIFORNIA HIGH-SIERRAS

This Page Last Updated : 06 December 2004 19:53

One of my favorite areas in the whole world is the California High-Sierras. This August (2004), I participated in my third consecutive one, and I am hoping that I will be able to join them in 2005, even though I will have to travel from Washington state.

I first fell in-love with the area on my first backpacking trip with Boy Scout Troop 119, out of Ventura, CA in August of 2002.

2002 50-MILER

I joined Troop 119 as we drove the 5+ hours from Ventura to Lone Pine, where we got a wilderness permit for myself, 2 other adults and 5 boys, all of whom are at least 14 years old.

We drove up the side of a mountain to a camping area at about 8,000' elevation, and camped for the night. This was my--and Neil's--first backpacking trip of this length. Tim (the Scoutmaster at the time) had done it a few times before, and his father-in-law had done it many times over the past 20 years or so. Tim had it down to science.

We cooked using the 'Patrol method' where we all eat the same thing, share the load of food, cooking gear, etc and then share the duties of cooking and cleaning over the 10 days we were to spend in the mountains.

The next morning, we headed down the trail. I was so excited! Among the boys were 2 or 3 that had never done one of these either. The other boys had done a couple/few of them in the previous years.

The rest is a story in which I will continue at another time, so check back to hear the rest of the story.

MORE SIERRA STORIES COMING SOON...

We started at the Cottonwood Trailhead on Saturday and stopped for a rest at one of the Cottonwood Lakes for lunch.

Neil makes his way up the trail (Left) and Tim scans the horizon with binoculars (Right).

The rest of us lounged around as we ate lunch and took in the scenery.

After a somewhat grueling introduction to the Sierras, we had arrived at the top of New Army pass, a pretty barren and desolate place, seemingly far-flung from the green meadows and trees of Cottonwood Lakes left behind a couple hours earlier, and Rock Creek ahead of us.

The sign at New Army Pass...

Troop 119 atop our first pass of the 2002 50-miler hike.

L to R: Neil, Tim, Jeff E., Scott, Jeff A., Josh, Ian, and myself.

Heading down the backside of New Army pass into Rock Creek (not to be confused with another area called Rock Creek further North)

Our first night on the trail, we spent at a campsite--complete with a bear box--at Rock Creek. This was the view looking back towards where we had just hiked from. New Army Pass would be around the hill on the left.

Our watering hole where we pumped our water. Surprisingly, we don't pump water nearly as much as you might think. Many of the places to access water sources in the high Sierras are far enough up and out of the way of people and critters that pumping is often not necessary. Some people pump no matter what, but we have always exercised a little discretion and in the 3 years I have been with the Troop, I haven't seen any problems.

A meadow a little past Rock Creek.

About midway through our trip, we stayed camped at a well-populated area called Crabtree Meadow. It's an intersection for the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail), the JMT (John Muir Trail) and a spur trail heading towards Mount Whitney.

My little bungalow in the mountains...

Perhaps on the neatest places I have ever seen in the mountains was Crabtree Lakes. This was the view looking North East from our campsite. Crabtree Lakes sit about 12,000' in elevation.

This was the view looking East.

Our campsite is just out of the picture on the left. The rocky area is where the creek trickled every so slightly down towards Crabtree Meadow.

Cooking dinner...

This was my home for the two nights...

As the sun began to set, we were treated with a brilliant view as the alpenglow settled on the mountain across the lake from us. Taking shots like this with daylight film and no tripod was a bit tricky, especially without a split neutral density filter, so I had to do the best I could.

Since this was such a dramatic locale, and it sat on a sparsely traveled spur trail that didn't go anywhere but these lakes, we decided that it would make a good spot for our lay-over day. A lay-over day is a day in which we don't hike--a rest day. The boys wasted no time entertaining themselves by rescuing rainbow trout that were drowning in the remnants of the creek that flowed from the lake.

There was my SS Minnow... I mashed a rock into the bottom of this piece of wood, bored a hole to put the branch in to act as a sail, and then watched it meander slowly across the lake to the other side.

The lake was quite cold, but that didn't stop the boys. Here, Jeff A. swims out to a rock a few hundred feet from the shore line.

 He got onto the rock--which is just barely submerged and I snapped pictures as he hammed-it-up, producing what I call the 'Jesus pictures'. If you can't figure out what I call them the 'Jesus pictures', then you should break out you Bible and re-read the section on miracles. Look under 'W' for 'walking on water.

Of course, Ian couldn't resist. He also thought he was better at it! The whole scenario reminds me of an old joke about Jesus, a disciple and a Rabbi stuck in a rowboat, but you'll have to ask me about that one...

As many of you know, one of my favorite photography subjects is trees. The High Sierras has many aesthetically pleasing trees of which I can let my camera enjoy a feast of film. I ventured up, onto a hill overlooking our campsite and Crabtree lake and snapped these as the sun was slowly drifting below the western horizon.

Another view somewhere in the Sierras...

After our lay-over at Crabtree Lakes, it was time to head back down to Crabtree Meadow so we could rejoin the trail heading up to Mount Whitney. The last stop before heading up to Mount Whitney and then out the Whitney Portal was Guitar Lake. Why is it called Guitar Lake, you ask? Because from above, it's shaped like a Guitar, of course! Guitar Lake sits at about 13,000' in elevation (well above the timber line).

Guitar Lake has become synonymous with suffering among those of us on that hike. We got into Guitar Lake early, which was good, because it allowed us to grab the good campsites. After all, we had only hiked a few miles from Crabtree Lakes, to the meadow, up to Guitar Lake, so we rolled in quite early in the day.

The problem was that it was hot. Dang hot! And, there was no shade, no trees, no place to hide from the sun beating down on us. Nothing other than a big, lopsided rock that a couple of us could barely sneak under--that is, if we didn't mind all the marmot terds laying around. What's a marmot, you also ask? A rodent similar to an enlarged groundhog is my best description. They're only found at high elevations which is why most people have never seen one (including me until this year).

We sat in the sun, with nothing to do for hours, trying not to fry. You can just barely make out some of our tents near the edge of the lake, to the left.

As the sun slowly set, something weird happened. The whole Guitar Lake basin started getting very hazy. It quickly became apparent to us that there was a forest fire somewhere not too terribly far off, and the smoke had risen and drifted, but not high enough to get over the mountains, so it rose up to about where we were and started filling the basin. It was a little un-nerving, but there was no immediate cause for alarm. After all, we were getting ready to head to the only way out anyway.

That night, Tim talked me into sleeping without my tent. Let me give you folks a little background. I'm from the east coast, where it's always been my practice to bring a tent no matter where I'm camping, no matter what season. Anywhere between Maine and Florida, you will need a tent! If you don't need it for weather, you will need it to keep the bugs, or critters away. Silly me, it never occurred to me that you get away with sleeping without a tent, and not get soaked or eaten by bugs.

With Tim's theology of camping in Southern California newly, and firmly planted in my brain, I left my tent in its storage bag for the night, and decided to brave the bold mountain air. Oh, did I mention that I have been using a summer sleeping bag? What's that you say, "It's August, that's all you need!" My thought exactly...well, my thought before I started the trip. I soon discovered that at the high elevations it gets cold. At Crabtree Lake, it had gotten down into the lower 20's. It's not like I was completely unprepared, because I had planned for cold temperatures by bringing appropriate clothing, but my sleeping attire and my summer bag were no match for the brisk night I was in-store for.

That night, the wind blew down the mountain like an avalanche...and just as cold. It was a spectacularly clear night and the stars were dancing above me, but the wind was getting the best of me. I tried wrapping some ground cloths around me, which helped cut down on the wind, but I was still cold. As it was, I just toughed it out and never bothered trying to set my tent up. I favored staying in my bag rather than braving the elements to set-up my tent, and I managed to stay warm enough that I could sleep.

In the morning, we would point ourselves towards this...

The next day, we started on the trek up a number of switchbacks to the trail fork below Mount Whitney.  At the pass below Whitney, there is a junction of three trails, one coming from Guitar Lake, another heading out the Whitney Portal (Read: exit) and another heading up to the summit of Whitney. We dropped our packs there--as is customary (thieves are not very common in the wilderness) and headed the 2 miles or so to the top of Mount Whitney.

And, this is the view looking east from the top of Mount Whitney, the highest point of the lower 48. We hiked every bit of its 14,494.61 feet!

We spent about an hour or two up top and then headed back to the trail fork to grab our packs and continue on, on would be 100% downhill from there--not as easy, as you might think. We had been planning to stop at Trail Camp just below the major set of switchbacks that bring us down from the trail fork to the basin below Whitney. When we got there, we were not very impressed. It was crowded, dirty and smelly. We made the decision to keep going and find someplace else to camp. We stopped at a couple of suitable places, but after the second one, made a group decision to just head on out because we were only a few miles from the portal.

By the time some of us got within a mile or two of the portal, we were just about running. That last day, which started at Guitar Lake, took us to the top of Whitney and out the portal netted us about 14 miles total--for one day!

It was an interesting experience to emerge from the woods after 10 days. I admit, in my gradually growing age, I had become one of those people that felt the need to get in touch with what was going on in the world and catch the news, on TV, radio or newspaper.

This is a poster than I made up, using the picture above. I have a much larger version that I can email for anyone who asks. I really like how it came out. I did all the graphics myself.

CAMP CHAWANAKEE

Ahhh yes, summer camp!