Hiking Club on Clouds Rest

Hiking Club was at Mammoth Lakes Aug 16-19, and on Saturday ten of us climbed Clouds Rest, the nearly 10000' high summit behind and much higher than Half Dome. What a view! I've yet to find a better vantage point to take in so much of Yosemite. From here one can look straight down the Yosemite Valley, as well as view all the high Sierra peaks behind. It's a 14-mile R/T hike to Clouds Rest, so you need to plan for most of or all of a day.
If you view the photo in full size mode, you can see the track worn by hikers who for decades have used the cable route on HD's east side. Just off the brow of HD you can see Sentinel Dome, home of the Sentinel Dome webcam (look here, just to the left of Half Dome, during daylight hours, for that view).

Meysan Basin

The setting sun brightly illuminates the west face of Lone Pine Peak in this panorama shot, July 21 on a trip to climb Mt Irvine.

John Muir Trail: Kearsarge Lakes to Whitney Portal

July 2 - 8, six days, group of five, 50 miles. (video).  No rain, no mosquitoes, no snow, no troubles, just lots of beautiful Kings Canyon backcountry scenery.  This segment, accessed from the east side over 11,800' Kearsarge Pass, also includes 13,200' Forester Pass (the highest point on the PCT) 13,770' Trail Crest, and the spur trail to the 14,505' Mt Whitney summit.  I've now hiked 76 miles, or about a third of the John Muir Trail.

Day 1:  Bullfrog Lake

Tyndall Creek

Forester Pass

Day 4: Camp at Guitar Lake, on the west side of Mt Whitney

Day 5: On Mt Whitney

Hiking Club on Mt San Jacinto

On the summit of San Jacinto Peak with Hiking Club, June 23. Weather was perfect, not hot, but sunny and very clear. All 12 of our party summitted, this hike was 11 mi R/T from the top of the Palm Springs Tram.  A good time was had by all.

PCT Workday

After a day spent treading and clearing the PCT, in the Station Fire area of Section D.  An outstanding group of volunteers!

Pull My Finger

Here I am, demonstrating the power of a single finger, and with nine to spare, I shall be a rock-climbing force to be reckoned with.  In a climbing class with friends, Memorial Day Weekend at Joshua Tree.

April 27 / 28 Paddle Trip in Black Canyon, NV

Black Canyon is the segment of the Colorado River from Hoover Dam to Willow Beach (on Lake Mohave).  Just 12 miles, it's a fun paddle trip but by stopping for hikes it can be stretched out to an overnight trip. Black Canyon has hot springs on both sides, and visitors have improvised pools to capture the water in the canyon bottoms. There are desert bighorn sheep (we saw some) and lots of waterfowl. Put-in is underneath the spectacular new concrete arch bridge that bypasses Hoover Dam. After the trip we overnighted in Boulder City NV, a great old town with no gambling, and toured the dam's powerhouse. Here's the video.

Hike to the Top of Yosemite Falls

Here's Paully and me after hiking to the top of Yosemite Falls. What a view! It's the tallest waterfall in North America. See my Quicktime video of points along the hike here.

Hiking Club on the Mt Lowe Railway Loop

17 came out for our March 24 hike on the old railway bed of the Mt Lowe Electric Railway. The 12 mile hike takes in several historic sites including this one on Echo Mountain, site of a hotel that burned down in 1900. In the foreground you can see the rails, still in the ground, that millions of people rode on, up until the 1930's.

Hiking Club in LA

The February Hiking Club outing was again to downtown LA, to see old Main Street on an LA Conservancy tour. Yes, Los Angeles has a Main Street, and it is getting revitalized with new loft housing these days. Until just a few years ago, it was a Skid Row; now new people are moving into the neighborhood and occupying the rehabbed buildings.

Archaeology Hike in the Sierras

This weekend was accompanying Mike The Desert Rat to our stomping grounds in the south Sierras in the shadow of Lamont Peak. Today Mike was touring a small archaeology group to our previous finds. The archaeologists pointed out to us many things we'd previously missed, such as bedrock mortars, grinding slicks, and more paintings (like the one pictured above, which was under an overhang). Amongst all the lithic scatter, I even picked up an artifact that turned out to be a broken obsidian spear point. One archaeologist explained how we could know that and why. I don't collect artifacts, I consider it unsavory, so after photographing this point it was left where I found it.

At Will Rogers State Park

On a hike at Will Rogers State Park today, the weather was perfect and the air was crystal clear. Here's a photo looking out over Pacific Palisades, at the afternoon sun shining off the ocean.

Happy New Year

On New Year's Day I hiked with friends in Los Pinetos Canyon (a tributary of Placerita Canyon). Weather was pleasant and very clear. The attached photo was the view across the San Fernando Valley.

Dec 10: Full Moon over the San Gabriels

A screen grab tonight from the towercam on Mt Wilson. It's arguably the most interesting web cam in Southern CA, and it captures great nighttime images too.

Dec 3: Point Dume

Hiking Club was out today for a two-mile hike along the Malibu coast, here are a few of my photos. 27 hikers came out for the hike to Paradise Cove and a beach picnic afterward.

Nov 26 Sunset

I snapped this photo of the crescent moon and Venus from the summit of Mt Hollywood last night. (Video, no sound)

Nov 13: Hike in the Zabriskie Hills

During a weekend trip to Death Valley, I and intrepid hiking companion Nina climbed Manly Beacon in the Zabriskie Hills. On the way up, a Meetup group from Las Vegas passed us, so they were on top when we arrived. (Video, no sound)

Night Hike in the Hollywood Hills

On October 8, twelve Hiking Club members hiked to the summit of Mt Lee, site of the famous Hollywood sign. This was my first hike up there at night. The sunset was incredible and after the storms this week the weather was perfect, with clear dry air and temps in the 60's. The views of Hollywood and downtown LA were incredible.

Mt Williamson in the Sierras

For years I've driven up the Owens Valley and looked up at 14,375' Mt Williamson, and wondered about climbing it - the 2nd highest peak in the Sierras. After Inyo NF changed the rules this year to permit climbers access to the area in late summer, we discussed it and got a permit for Labor Day Weekend this year.
It's a far tougher climb than Mt Whitney, owing to:
1. Mt Whitney has a maintained trail constructed to its summit, while Williamson has a CL2-3 route;
2. Mt Whitney's trailhead is at elev 8000', while access to Mt Williamson is by the Shepherd Pass trailhead at 6300'; and so
3. Williamson's distance, terrain, and elevation gain are all much more demanding.
Our permit was for 5 days. While some experienced climbers can cover the 29 miles / 8000' of gain in a single day, we're not them. So this trip's schedule was two days each way, with a long summit day in the middle. Our foursome camped at 12000', as close as practical to the mountain, and we STILL spent 13 hrs to summit and return to camp.
Photo above shows the Williamson bowl and the mountain's spectacularly irregular and intimidating west face. Photos below: opposing Mt Tyndall, with its much more organized geometry (and ominous Batman shadow), the view down the west side chute; and Mark, Nina, Michelle and me on the summit.
You can view the video here.

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.