a big climb today, and we wanted to get up most of it before the heat
of the day. What I did not know at 5:15 in the morning as we drug
ourselves out of bed was there would be no heat of the day.
We had chuckled to ourselves in the Forest Service office as we got
our permit when they said the prediction was for snow in the High
Sierras. It was 96 at the office with clear sky. The heat hung on as
we shuttled to the trail head and it was only when we got out of the
car last night that the wind whipped around us and chilled our skin.
Still, we had seen wind on the east side before without snow.
This morning the sky was perfectly clear, but the wind was still
howling and it was cold.
We started up the trail in our fleece. Usually we peel them off after
10 or 15 minutes, but not today. The wind continued to howl and the
temperature dropped as we gained altitude. By the time we reached the
pass at 11,760' it was very chilly in spite of the sun high overhead.
We found a nook on the lee side of the ridge and chatted with a dad
and his late teenage sons, then shouldered our packs and headed down
the windward side of the pass toward Kearsarge Lakes.
As soon as we came off the ridge the wind was intense, whipping dust
and sand into our eyes. We descended quickly and soon got back into
the trees. We made our way down to the lowest of the chain of lakes,
hoping to avoid camping with the other 20 people heading in the same
direction. Our plan worked and we had the small laklet all to
ourselves. It had a beautiful campsite next to the lake and good
shelter from the wind.
All I was interested in was sleep, so we pitched the tent, had a quick
snack and crawled in about 2:30. 5 o'clock came to soon. I guess I was
tired. Cooked dinner, read a little, listened to Sally play the
ukulele and climbed back into bed for the night. The snow. Hard to
snow when there is not a cloud in the sky, but it was really cold,
already down to 36 by 8 o'clock. It would be a chilly night.
So, what is so cool about the Sierra mountains? Hard to describe. Of
course there are the soaring granite peaks rising to 13,000' all
around. But it is more than that. Those grey peaks are carressed at
their feet by gentle meadows, stands of pines, small alpine lakes and
tumbling, laughing streams. Each individually is impressive, but it is
the sum of all the parts that creates the magic of these mountains.
Yet, there is more. It is the light. The nearly ever present sunshine
that pours down, sparkling the water in the lakes and streams,
illuminating the meadows, creating contrast between the ridges and the
crevesses on the granite and bathing the landscape with it's uplifting
presence. On those rare days when the clouds dominate the sky one
realizes what a mood changer the sun is.
There is one more element and that is history. The Piute Indians
traversed these mountains east to west to trade. They established the
first east west passages. Then in the late 1800's the early explorers
made inroads into the valleys and up the peaks. Soon the conceived of
a north-south passage through the high country and began constructing
what would be the John Muir trail, finishing it just a few years after
Muir's death.
And it is John Muir who so elegantly described the Sierra in his
writing that brought attention to the fledgling nation the need to
preserve these glorious wild places.
All this was done before the invention of the car. The preservation
attitude and the public backing of these ideals was well established
by the time the highway builders tried to make toads across the
Sierra. Every attempt to pierce this wilderness with pavement was
squashed through public outcry. And so today the John Muir trail runs
220 miles through the very heart of the Sierra without a single road
crossing it.
It is all these elements that set the Sierra apart from the other
mountain ranges in the US and the world and that keep me coming back
summer after summer.
Chuck
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