7 Days in the Sierras: THE MOVIE!

Am posting a Quicktime video of our time in the Ansel Adams Wilderness. You can turn down the sound, since there's some loud wind in it. The last bit is a 360 from the summit of Mt Donahue.

7 Days in the Sierras

Had a foursome for this trip, which included a hike from the Mammoth lakes area, through the Ansel Adams Wilderness, out at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite, and return on the bus. This trip was postponed by 6 weeks due to the record snowpack this year.

Still, we couldn't avoid snow, as north-facing snowpack still lingers down to about 10,500'. We spent two days on off-trail excursions to climb to 11,100' North Glacier Pass and 12,023' Donahue Peak, and found 11,000' Lake Catherine still mostly frozen over. I've never been to the northern Cascades, but right now the Central Sierras look like photos I've seen from up there. Most of this pack snow will stop melting within a month, and refreeze for another year.

August 6: Hiking Club on Mt San Gorgonio

11,500' Mt San Gorgonio is the highest peak in Southern California, and we summitted ten hikers today! This was a 17-mile round trip day, with 5500' of climb from the Vivian Creek trailhead. Everyone did well, and posed for this group photo on the summit. At the end of the hike, in the dusk, our hikers spotted two different bears in the Forest Falls area.

August 5: Bodacious swimmin' hole

Six or seven of us hiked down Deep Creek in the Lake Arrowhead area, to have this swimming hole all to ourselves. The water was great, and a good time was had by all.