Eastern Sierra: August 2007 Archives

I started out on the trail at 6:50 today since we had a long climb up to Silver Pass in front of us. The climb ended up being a quite pleasant one - lots of wildflowers and scenic spots along a bubbling creek. As I climbed I noticed quite a bit of smoke to the north, and could even smell it at some times. Never figured out what it was from.

I got some of my favorite photos of the trip on the climb to Silver Pass. As the sun rose and turned the ridges and peaks orange, the reflected colors along the creek were beautiful.

On Silver Pass we met a group of three 'Old Guys' who were on a several day trip along the JMT. We joked around with them for a while and they advised us of the incredible food of Chef Roy at VVR. It made me hike a bit faster since that pie sure sounded tasty...

The descent to Pocket Meadow, and then Quail Meadow, was initially a nice hike. But as the elevation dropped the trail got very hot and dusty. I found myself dreaming of a nice cool swim in Lake Thomas A Edison before hopping on the ferry. Unfortunately, when I arrived at the lake I found it half empty. Construction at the dam had drained the lake and what was left was a muddy mess. So much for a refreshing dip.

There was a crowd of over 30 people who showed up for the ferry, so they made two runs to Vermillion Valley Resort. I really enjoyed my time at VVR. Jim, the owner, had us set up our tents (for free) outside the store, and then we set up our tabs. The place is really hiker friendly and we met several other JMT hikers who were hanging around. Chef Roy's food was some of the best I've had - and I'm not just saying that because it was my first hot non-backpacking food in a few days.

This day's stats:

• Mileage: 12.08 mi
  
• Ascending: 1901 ft
  
• Descending: 3347 ft
  
• Cumulative Mileage: 67.28 mi
  
• Cumulative Ascending: 11,113 ft
  
• Cumulative Descending: 12,132 ft
  

This was a long but enjoyable day. We rose early and hit the trail around 7 am. In no time at all we had reached Duck Creek where we took a short snack break and enjoyed the running water. A few miles later it was Purple lake, where Michael took a dip. The rest of us waited until Virginia Lake, where we swam and lounged around in the sun for quite a while. Eventually we decided it was time to move on and followed the trail down a 1000 foot drop into Tully Hole - an absolutely beautiful stretch of trail but a bit tough on the knees! We went another mile or so down the trail so we could camp near the bottom of the next morning's climb to Silver Pass.
This day's stats:

• Mileage: 13.37 mi
  
• Ascending: 2351 ft
  
• Descending: 2378 ft
  
• Cumulative Mileage: 55.2 mi
  
• Cumulative Ascending: 9212 ft
  
• Cumulative Descending: 8785 ft
  

It was a lovely, relaxing day. We had heard horror stories about the long, hot climb out of Red's Meadow, so we decided to plan a half day of hiking and only hike 7 miles to Deer Creek. We stuffed ourselves with an amazing breakfast at the Red's cafe and didn't bother getting on the trail until 10:30 am. We took our time and were happy to find that the reports of the trail were greatly exaggerated.

The first mile or two climbs gently through the remnants of the 1992 Rainbow Fire. I can imagine that on a really hot day the sun would be intense without the shade, but I found it to be a scenic hike through gentle terrain and enjoyed it. The trail then climbs through the shade between the Red Cones, two volcanic cinder cone peaks just south of Mammoth Mountain. A short while later, after meandering through the unburnt woods, we found ourselves at the nice little babbling Deer Creek.

The creek had amazing rejuvenation powers. We spent the afternoon lounging around and doing nothing - it was exactly what we needed after our previous two long days. The Bowlders soon showed up and we had a nice evening of conversation. The day was somewhat dampened by the loud group that insisted on camping practically in the middle of our group (and who plagued Marty and Cameron for many days to come). But they quieted down shortly after dark and we got a good night of sleep.

This day's stats:

• Mileage: 6.99 mi
  
• Ascending: 1620 ft
  
• Descending: 118 ft
  
• Cumulative Mileage: 41.83 mi
  
• Cumulative Ascending: 6861 ft
  
• Cumulative Descending: 6407 ft
  

I was actually looking forward to an early morning wake-up call this day since I was eager to see sunrise over Mt Ritter and Banner Peak. I wasn't disappointed as I sipped my coffee and sat on a boulder to watch the peaks glow orange as the sun rose. After nature's morning entertainment I quickly packed up so that I could rejoin the rest of the group and form the plan for the day.

Andrea's ankle was swollen and bruised so Mary (new trailname: Dr Bono) carefully taped it up so that she could make the hike to Red's Meadow, 13-16 miles away (depending on the route chosen, heh). I was feeling good so it was determined that I would run ahead and secure a campsite and get things figured out at Red's.

It was a beautiful day for a hike, but after about mile ten I was so ready for a cold beer and hot food! The last few miles descend down a sandy, dusty trail into Devil's Post Pile. It was a hot day and it seemed to get hotter with every step I took (which, since I was descending, it probably was). I finally found myself at the border to Devil's Post Pile, only a mile or so away from Red's. I took a few moments to enjoy the rock formations at the Post Pile, smiled at a few gaping families who were nice and clean, and then got a sudden burst of energy for the last half mile as I thought of what was ahead at Red's - a hot spring shower, a cold beer, a phone to call home, and a cheeseburger.

The campsite situation for backpackers at Red's isn't ideal - we have to cram in to three small campsites together, but we managed. Shortly after I arrived the rest of the group showed up and we all eventually settled in for the evening. I slammed a couple of delicious Fat Tires (NOT Coors, Michael!), cleaned up in the hot spring, and had my cheeseburger. Mmmmmmmm. At some point I organized my resupply and had a couple more beers. What a lovely evening.
This day's stats:

• Mileage: 12.4 mi
  
• Ascending: 1647 ft
  
• Descending: 3750 ft
  
• Cumulative Mileage: 34.84 mi
  
• Cumulative Ascending: 5241 ft
  
• Cumulative Descending: 6289 ft
  

Knowing we had a long Day 2 ahead of us, we started early with a 5:30 AM wake up call. Hitting the trail shortly after 7 AM I began the climb to Donohue Pass in the cool morning shade. I found the hike to be far easier than expected - I think my prior weekend at altitude helped me quite a bit on these first couple of days. I lingered in some beautiful alpine meadows and got the pass at the time I normally hit the trail, 9:30 AM.

Although it was an enjoyable day, there was a lot of time bled along the way, but starting early kept the day pressure-free. Andrea was feeling the affects of the altitude and took a tumble on the way down from the pass, twisting her ankle - this injury would unfortunately cause her to leave the trail the next day. Anna Marie and I got to Thousand Island lake an hour ahead of the rest of the group and had a windy but nice lunch break. We watched lots and lots of hikers go by, including a bit Boyscout group. Most hikers were coming from Agnew and staying at 1000 Island Lake - not many seemed to be heading South along the JMT towards Garnet, so we thought finding a campsite would be a 'piece of cake'.

It was actually quite complicated. I decided to go ahead to find a campsite for us that was out of the wind, but when I got to Garnet I found that I had to take a ~1/2 mile use trail around the lake before there were even campsites available. Finding one out of the wind was even more complicated. Although I got to the lake plenty early, I searched for a campsite, and then the rest of my group, for about 90 minutes. We all connected in the evening, but by that point we were all scattered in different campsites around the lake.

I still took time to enjoy myself at Garnet - although the wind was brutal, the views were among the best in the Sierra. Banner and Ritter tower over the western end of the lake. Late in the evening I heard a rumble and saw some dust rising from the left side of the peaks - a rockfall.

This day's stats:

• Mileage: 11.8 mi
  
• Ascending: 2431 ft
  
• Descending: 2366 ft
  
• Cumulative Mileage: 22.44 mi
  
• Cumulative Ascending: 3594 ft
  
• Cumulative Descending: 2539 ft
  

And so it begins...

On Saturday, August 4th, the six of us (me, Mary, Andrea, Anna Marie, Michael, and Kerry) set off on the John Muir Trail from Tuolumne Meadows. The advantage to starting in Tuolumne is that the trail goes along Lyell Canyon, which is quite possibly the flattest stretch of trail in the Sierra. The first-day hiker is lulled into a false sense of 'this is easy!' and 'pfft, bring on the switchbacks!' that they will be regretting as soon as they begin the climb to Donohue Pass.

We took our time meandering down the canyon, stopping to enjoy a lovely lunch break along the Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne River. We decided to give ourselves a head start on Donohue Pass by adding an extra mile and a half and 700 ft climb to the day's itinerary. This ended up being a very wise decision.

This day's stats:

• Mileage: 10.64 mi
  
• Ascending: 1163 ft
  
• Descending:173 ft
  
• Cumulative Mileage: 10.64 mi
  
• Cumulative Ascending: 1163 ft
  
• Cumulative Descending:173 ft
  

Yesterday I returned from two weeks on the John Muir Trail. If I ignore the ~8 miles or so between Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne that I haven't hiked, I've now completed the trail. At the very least, I've walked every mile of the trail between Tuolumne and Whitney over two hikes - the stretch from Kearsarge to Muir Trail Ranch was completed last summer, and the past two weeks were spent on the stretches between Tuolumne and North Lake and then Kearsarge to Whitney.

As usual, I had an amazing time on the trail and it was with hesitation that I headed home. I started off on Saturday, August 4th with an enthusiastic group of hikers - Mary, our fearless leader, and Michael, Kerry, Anna Marie, and Andrea. The group slowly shrunk as people left the trail at various points along the way, and I said goodbye to Mary, Michael, and Kerry on the 13th when I headed up Piute canyon. They should be summiting Mt Whitney today or tomorrow - I hope they have as beautiful a climb as I did! I enjoyed nearly every step of the hike - although there were definitely times when I would have liked to have been somewhere else (like that hot descent into MTR, or the last 1000 feet of the 6000 ft descent of Mt Whitney).

I have thousands of photos to sort through, so I'll likely be posting them one 'trail day' at a time, with separate blog entries per day. At first glance I'm happy with the snapshots I got - although the smoke blowing over the Sierra from the Zaca fire didn't help matters much. It did help create a nice sunset from places like Humphrey's Basin and Guitar Lake.

I'll link the following to their respective blog entries when I'm able to put them up.

My itinerary was:

• Day 1, August 4th:Tuolumne to the Footbridge at Lyell Creek
  
• Day 2, August 5th: Footbridge to Garnet Lake
  
• Day 3, August 6th: Garnet Lake to Red's Meadow
  
• Day 4: August 7th: Red's Meadow to Deer Creek
  
• Day 5: August 8th: Deer Creek to Cascade Valley
  
• Day 6: August 9th: Cascade Valley to Vermillion Valley Resort
  
• Day 7: August 10th: Layover at VVR
  
• Day 8: August 11th: VVR to Rosemarie Meadow
  
• Day 9: August 12th: Rosemarie Meadow to Piute Creek Bridge
  
• Day 10: August 13th: Piute Creek Bridge to Upper Golden Trout Lake
  
• Day 11: August 14th: Upper Golden Trout Lake to North Lake (and into Bishop)
  
• Day 12: August 15th: Car shuttling, then Onion Valley to Vidette Meadow
  
• Day 13: August 16th: Vidette Meadow, over Forester Pass and to Tyndall Creek
  
• Day 14: August 17th: Tyndall Creek to Guitar Lake
  
• Day 15: August 18th: Guitar Lake to Whitney Portal, with the side trip to the summit of Mt Whitney.