August 27-30 Hiking Club at Mammoth Lakes

Saddlebag Lake

At the trailhead

Duck Lake and Pika Lake

On the Duck Lake trail

John Muir Trail 2015: Piute Creek to LeConte Canyon, and Back over Bishop Pass

Day 5:  Reflection on Wanda Lake

This year's JMT trip was 7 days again, 58 miles, encompassing the northern part of Kings Canyon NP. This is our longest segment yet, returning over Piute Pass to restart our progress down the JMT.
This trip is also commonly referred to as the North Lake-South Lake 'loop', even though it's an end-to-end trip with beginning and ending trailheads not far from each other on Bishop Creek.

Day 2 In Humphreys Basin

After a thunderstorm on Day 1 prevented our crossing 11,423' Piute Pass, Day 2 is a 14-mile day to catch up, but skies were clear.

Day 2 on a creek crossing in Humphreys Basin

At the end of Day 2, we reach the San Joaquin River's south fork and camp by Piute Creek at 8000'.

Day 3 on the footbridge over the San Joaquin

On Day 3 we follow the trail up the San Joaquin, reaching the mouth of Evolution Creek and starting the big climb into Evolution Basin that will eventually lead us over Muir Pass.

Evolution Creek at end of Day 3

Day 4 in Upper Evolution Basin

Our fourth campsite at elevation 10,852 at Wanda Lake was very scenic, with our tents on pads set among glacial boulders. I even found some obsidian tool flakes here, evidence of early native American trading.

A very scenic campsite at Wanda Lake

Day 5: Looking down at Wanda Lake on Muir Pass ascent

On reaching 11,955' Muir Pass, we toast John Muir at the summit hut before dropping into upper LeConte Canyon.

Day 5 on Muir Pass

Rock monster demands to be fed!

On Day 6 we awake in the forest in LeConte Canyon, hike down to our trail junction at the backcountry ranger station, and leave the JMT for the Bishop Pass Trail. We haul the 2000' of switchbacks up into Dusy Basin for our final night on the trail.

Day 7: morning breaks over the Palisades

Day 7: Breakfast in Dusy Basin

Day 7: Scenic Upper Dusy Basin

Day 7: we cross 11,972' Bishop Pass

Dusy Basin was a photographic delight: a wide, high glacial basin floored with alpine flowers, beneath the spear-like Palisades and white fluffy clouds.

Upper Dusy Basin

We're now 75% complete with the JMT. Next year is the rest of Yosemite, then in 2017 the big 8-day segment behind the Palisades - 68 miles with no resupply.

First real pack trip: 35 years ago this month

So this week while on the JMT, I remembered that my first pack trip was 35 years ago this month. It was 1980, I was 19, had just finished high school, and though I was no longer a boy scout, I went on this trip with my old Troop 281 of Hygiene Colorado. Actually, my dad and I set up the shuttle.
So the group split and started on both sides of the Indian Peaks Wilderness, which straddles the Continental Divide south of Rocky Mountain National Park, crossing 12,550' Pawnee Pass, with a key swap at Pawnee Lake.

Yeah that's me

Backpacking fashion of the 70s was dirty blue jeans, a baseball cap, and a bright orange external frame. My addition to the look was the same western boots I spent every day in. Yeah, it was the only footwear I had, so my feet didn't blister. And to honest, at 19, physical discomfort is not really so noticeable anyway. You also have no compunction about walking across log bridges in such smooth-soled footwear with a teetering frame pack on.

With Scott and Eric on Pawnee Pass. It was cold and starting to rain. Of course. That same sign still stands today.

We spent three days to hike from Brainard Lake to Monarch Lake, with overnights at Pawnee Lake and Crater Lake, about 20 miles probably. At the time it felt like a huge trip, to cross over the divide on foot and come out on the other side. We met my dad and my brother Shawn at Pawnee Lake and swapped keys. One of my fondest memories is from Crater Lake, sleeping under a sky filthy with stars.

Crater Lake. From left: Scott Story, Scott Hill, Roger Brickman, me, Eric McRobie, Don Brickman. Photo by Bruce Story.

My cook stove was the size of a small coffee can, and fueled probably weighed over 3 lbs, my poly-fill bag was just warm enough, and I had no tent. Afterward, shuttling back across Trail Ridge Road in RMNP in the daily hailstorm, I was glad to not be out in it anymore, but that trip was my start in backpacking. The next month I climbed Longs Peak on an overnight with Bruce and Scott Story, and then I started planning my own trips.
Big thanks are owed to Scoutmaster Don Brickman and Bruce Story, wherever they are, for setting up this first trip.  Bruce took these photos too, and I remember him fondly for being a great dad to his kids and a friend to the rest of us. Sadly, Roger Brickman died in 2006 of a brain tumor, leaving his wife and two daughters behind.  And like many troops, Hygiene Troop 281 has apparently dissolved in the last couple of years due to declining membership. But I hope that the contributions of the dads who led it are still felt in the lives of the young men who participated.

Spotted While Hiking

On my local hike, I've seen lots of animals around sunset, and in July I sometimes see tarantulas, but this was new. Tonight right on the trail I found a tarantula hawk dragging away its prey. The tarantula hawk is a giant wasp that preys on tarantulas - sort of.  It's one of the nastiest tales in nature. 

June 13: Hiking Club on Echo Mtn

Hiking Club had a group of 12 to climb Echo Mountain above Altadena, but the marine layer was thick enough to cover even the summit! No matter, we had fun anyway.

Ruins of Echo Mtn House

Our group by the old bullwheel that drove the cable incline railway

Photo in the drizzle

Upon sumitting, I recognized Ric and Jen Serena, two of the filmmakers who made the outstanding JMT film, Mile...Mile & A Half.  They and their artist companions busted their humps hauling high-def recording gear down the entire length of the John Muir Trail in the heavy snow year of 2011. While hikers like me count ounces, these guys hauled really heavy packs loaded with cameras, audio equipment, mikes, batteries and dollies, recording for 25 days. They did it in hi-def first, did it all, did it best, and after spending two years in postproduction, released their highly anticipated (by people like me anyway) film in October 2013. And there they were, on the summit, for me to get to express my full appreciation.
MMAAH is now on Netflix, iTunes, or you can watch the entire film on YouTube for a few dollars.

Memorial Day Weekend at Joshua Tree

Sunset

Four days of hiking at Joshua Tree National Park!  My friend Nina spent two weeks in the LA area, and so a JT trip was in order.  We explored some of the park's newer trails on the north end, spent two days hiking off-trail routes including climbing the highest point in the park, Quail Mountain; and a day spent hiking in the south end of the park to Lost Palms.

Remote inscriptions from a 1920's homesteader

1849 inscription, this one was a mystery

Warbird plane wreckage from 1999 on Quail Mtn summit. That's San Jacinto Pk and Mt San Gorgonio behind

Bighorn sheep on Quail Mtn, this hike was the trip highlight and offered a chance to practice cross-country map & compass navigation

Lost Palms Oasis

Lost Palms Oasis

May 16: Hiking Club in Fish Canyon

Fish Canyon in the Angeles NF offers a route into the wild and empty northwest corner of LA County, and our May outing with the Honda Hiking Club was an 11-mile dayhike through the narrows of Fish Canyon (two of them, really), with a lunch stop at Rogers Camp. Afterward was supper at the Rose & Crown pub in Valencia.  A good time was had by all.

At Rogers Camp

In the narrows

  

Miner's Lettuce on the PCT

After the good rains that our local mountains received this spring, a lot of greenery has emerged and the Miner's Lettuce on the PCT by Sawmill Mountain looks particularly healthy right now.  The shady miles on the north-facing slopes are currently covered in a carpet of this edible plant.

April 10: Hiking Club in Santa Anita Canyon

Hiking Club had 18 out to hike the 10-mile Mt Zion loop, with a stop at the historic backcountry Sturtevant's Camp. A good time was had by all.

Along the way

The resupply pack train at Sturtevant's

March 21 on Mt Baden-Powell

Came back today to try out my new trail crampons on 9400' Mt B-P, and they not only did the job, but were a lot of fun, and got me to thinking about their use to extend the season in the Sierras. On years the Sierras have snow, I mean.

The north-facing slope of the mountain

Love these

Summit view of the tallest peaks in So Cal, from left 11000' San Gorgonio Mtn (57 miles away), distantly visible in the notch is 10800' San Jacinto Peak (73 miles) and 10000' Mt San Antonio (also known as Mt Baldy, 8 miles)

March 7: Hiking Club at Bear Canyon

On Mt Baden-Powell X36, this time in winter

This is the earliest I've ever climbed 9400' Mt B-P, but since weather is in the 80s lately, I figured I had a shot on the snow. I found it to be not without risk but doable. I started about 1:00pm to ensure the snow was softened up. I saw a few others coming down as I went up, and I finished before sunset. I've heard it said that the ocean can be seen from the summit but I'd never seen it, but here again, in winter when the air is dry and clear, the low afternoon sun sets up a shine off the water that highlights the ocean very well.
I could identify the Channel Islands, including Santa Barbara Island 95 miles southwest, and 11,000' Telescope Peak in Death Valley NP and 12,000' Olancha Peak in the south Sierra, both about 130 miles north.

The summit register box, and ocean shine

Catalina Island at left, and tiny Santa Barbara Island right of center

Across to 10,000' Mt Baldy

February 13: Poppies

Due to the recent rains, the grass is a foot high in places, and poppies are blooming in the hills outside of town.