Day 28-The Last Day

Friday, August 13, 2010 - Day 28
Stats for the day: started at Soldier Lake (10,650') at 7:00 - ended at Twin Lakes (7,200') at 1:20pm. Total ascent 1577'. Total descent 4724'. Total Distance 10.0 miles. 4 hrs 40 mins walking.

If I had known it was Friday the 13th before the day started, I might have been more nervous. We had made it 27 days without a mishap of any significance and now we had just two passes left to climb and descend before the exit out Horse Creek. I have to admit to being a bit nervous about Stanton Pass as my memory of the guide book description was the descent on the north side was a little dicey. Having come this far, I did not want to blow it on the final day.

We were up at 6, as usual, but we were out of camp a bit quicker, by 7. The approach to Stanton was a lovely walk over a shallow pass and a traverse across the typical meadow, slabs and streams of the Sierra above 10,500'.

As we approached the headwall up to the pass, Andy referred to Stanton as the "Stinger", the pass that makes sure we respect the High Sierra right up to the last moment. The climb to the pass looked less straightforward than some of the others we had approached, but proved again that the ramps and ledges that are hidden from below manifest themselves once you gain the rock.

From the pass we could see Horse Creek Pass in the distance, a gentle slope up to the 10,600' pass. The route down was steep and jumbled and it was apparent it cliffed out to the right, so we angled left and found a route down to the requisite boulder field at the base of the headwall. Hopping boulders we soon hit the meadows, then traversed right into the Matterhorn Canyon angling toward Horse Creek Pass. The willows in the canyon were thick on the broad valley floor, so we traversed the side of the valley to gain the west to east pass.

The east side of Horse Creek Pass was a jumble of snow and talus made of metamorphic rock, not the typical granite we had mostly experienced to date. We started our descent, expecting to follow the v shaped notch of a valley continually downward, but within a quarter mile a 75 foot high "dam" of rock debris blocked our path. It was an easy walk to the top to clear it, but surprising to see the valley completely blocked as if two huge avalanches of rock from each side had conspired to block our path. No water gathered behind this "dam", but snow many feet thick still lie in the bottom.

The rest of the route down was a series of use trails through the upper canyon floor and a steep drop of 800 feet to another gently sloping stretch of canyon. 2 miles brought us to the trail that in a mile and a half brought us to the Twin Lakes parking lot and the end of your 28 day adventure.

We needed to get Karen's car back to Tioga Pass by 3 to meet her and Matt, so we piled in after a end of trip photo and headed out of the crowded resort that is the end of the trail. We picked up two 18 year old kids hitchhiking, a guy and a girl, from Germany as we left the resort. They had been in the backcountry for 40 days, hiking from Sequoia on the JMT, extending it north to Twin Lakes. They were interested in Mono Lake, so we agreed to drop them at the visitor's center there as it was right on our path.

Milk shakes in Bridgeport slowed us a bit, but we made it to Tioga only 15 minutes late where Matt and Karen were waiting. They had had a lovely hike through the Saddlebag Lake area while we were finishing the SHR.

We traded cars, and soon we were speeding along in the VW toward Reno, a hotel, a shower and a pizza.

Simply put, the finest mountain adventure ever! Incredible route. Incredible scenery. Incredible weather.Incredible hiking companions. I would do it again in a heart beat.

Final stats of the trip (distances, times and elevations recored daily with GPS):

Miles of cross country travel: 113

Miles of trail travel: 110

Total Elevation gain: 67,359

Total Elevation lost: 66,631

Total Hrs Actually Moving: 117

Total Distance: 223 miles

Total Zero Days: 4 (Marion Lk, Bear Lake, Reds Meadow, Twin Island Lakes)

Total Days When Rain or Hail Fell: 4 (Grouse Lake, Muir Pass, Bernice Lake, Reymann Lake

Total Passes Crossed: 33 (Grouse Lake Pass, Goat Crest Pass, Grey Pass, White Pass, Red Pass, Frozen Lake Pass, Mather Pass, Cirque Pass, Potluck Pass, Knapsack Pass, Bishop Pass [twice], Muir Pass, Snow Tongue Pass, Puppet Pass, Feather Pass, Bear Lake Pass, Gabbot Pass, Big Horn Pass, Shout of Relief Pass, Duck Lake Pass, Dear Lake Pass, Mammoth Pass, Nancy Pass, Iceberg Lake Pass, Glacier Pass, Blue Lake Pass, Vogelsang Pass, Reymann Lake Pass, Elizabeth Lake Pass, Conness Arm Pass, Sky Pilot Pass, Stanton Pass, Horse Creek Pass)

Day 27 - Last Full Day

Thursday, August 12, 2010 - Day 27
Stats for the day: started at Cascade Lake (10,340') at 9:00 - ended at Soldier Lake (10,650') at 3:20pm. Total ascent 2641'. Total descent 2508'. Total Distance 5.71 miles. 3 hrs 46 mins walking.

This is a bittersweet day. It is the last full day of the SHR. Tomorrow we do about ten miles, finishing at Twin Lakes where the car is sitting. Although I should be brimming with gratitude at having the opportunity to spend 28 days in this incredible wilderness I am feeling sorry for myself at having to have the trip end. Extending it would be no good, because we have accomplished what we came for, to traverse the length of the High Sierra from Kings Canyon to Twin Lakes, doing as much cross country travel as possible. Mission accomplished. As I have repeated many times in this blog, it has been spectacular. And it has been fun.

The side benefit is the shape I am now in, probably the best since my Sheppard days in the early 70's. Today we ascended 1200' to Sky Pilot Pass (11,600) in an hour's travel, descended 2500' to Virginia Canyon and then ascended 1400' (from 9200' to 10,600') in an hour twenty with full packs and no tired legs, no sore muscles and little fatigue. As Gary and I discussed today, it is a downhill slide from this point. There is no way to maintain this level of fitness while working eight hours a day at sea level. What can we do with it before it slips away? A one day climb of Rainier? Perhaps. So if the goal had been to get in shape, it is done. To lose weight? Done. We will know the final tally when we step on the scales tomorrow. To have a great time with good friends? Excelled.

With all the goals met, there is an extreme feeling of accomplishment. To dispel the empty coming-to-an-end feeling the solution is the next event to look forward to, and hopefully something is cooking in the hopper for the future.

The Sierra is beckoning us to stay with a perfect evening and night. It is eight as I write this. The crescent moon is on the horizon above the sun who is making all the mountains around us shimmer in alpenglow. There is not a

breath of wind. The air is still and not a sound is heard, not even that of running water. Not a mosquito. It is warm enough to sit half out of the sleeping bag in total comfort. The first stars of the evening are beginning to appear. It is as peaceful a place on earth as can be imagined. The most spectacular evening of the trip. The Sierra is saying, "I have more of these if you will just come back." Indeed we will.

Notes of interest about the day:

Coming up out of Virginia Canyon I flushed three fawns out of the bed in the brush, the last one jumping up no more than five feet in front of me.

At lunch at Shepherd Lake we spent time watching juncos, finches and ouzels feeding in insects at the outlet.

Sky Pilot Pass was talus on the south side, quite steep at the top and on the north we found it easier to traverse east out of the pass and then descend the talus.

The north side of Sky Pilot was geologically fascinating. The west side was white granite. The east side was black metamorphic rock. They met exactly at the bottom of the ravine which was a very sharp v shaped valley. Black and white.

Day 26 - Why The Risk?

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - Day 26

Stats for the day: started at Sierra Mine (10,720') at 7:30 - ended at Cascade Lake (10,340') at 1:30pm. Total ascent 2764'. Total descent 3246'. Total Distance 5.90 miles. 3 hrs 46 mins walking.

As Andy, Gary and I hiked out of Tuolumne Meadows yesterday we saw a park ranger coming towards us on the trail. As we passed I gave my usual greeting, "How are you today?". Her response sums up my feelings exactly, "Another perfect day in paradise". Indeed, we have been walking through paradise now for 26 days. So much so that we might be a little numb to the shear beauty we see in every direction every moment. Countless waterfalls everyday. Flowers of all colors, shapes and sizes. Soaring peaks of granite with serrated ridges separating glacial carved cirques. Hanging valleys with rivers cascading down slabs of granite so smooth their polished surface gleams in the sun. Heather meadows, tranquil and warm crossed by babbling clear, pure streams.

We began to count how many perfect place to camp we passed each day. It proved fruitless. There were too many. Great views, perfect meadows, tranquil lakes, stately forests, hanging ledges all beckoned us to stay longer and enjoy their attributes.

So when my sister Karen and her husband Matt joined us yesterday afternoon for the final five days of the trip it was rewarding to see anew the countryside through their new eyes. They delighted in the terrain, the peaks, the ramps and ledges and the views. They helped me to again realize at a base level what incredible mountains we are traversing and what an honor and gift it is to have the time, good health, and friends to do so with.

But, all this beauty carries with it risk. A falling rock, an ill timed misstep, a slip on steep snow, a missed boulder hop or a swift stream crossing can turn this paradise into a very hazardous place. We were reminded of this three days ago at Vogelsang when we watched a helicopter airlift a hiker with a broken leg suffered by a slip on snow and again today with a more tragic ending.

We had seen and heard a helicopter circling the Mt. Conness massif all morning as we approached the great mountain from the south on a traverse of steep rock punctuated with ramps and ledges. We climbed up Conness's east ridge from the south and then descended the steep north side, all the while watching the helicopter appear to search the area. We passed a few hikers near Conness Lakes that told us a 60 year old man had been missing since 10 o'clock the previous morning and that they were part of the search party.

As we pulled into Cascade Lake, our intended camping spot for the night we came upon two gentlemen, one with the sheriff's office as told by his uniform. I asked the other gentleman if he knew the man that was missing. He told me it was his brother. "Oh Shit", was my inappropriate reply.

I immediately told them we were trained in search and rescue, would be

in this location the rest of today and all of tomorrow and we would do anything we could to help.

The sheriff told us the high areas were being searched but the low areas had not been covered well and that he might have fallen in a hole between boulders in the rocky terrain or be lying in their shadows, unseen by the circling helicopter.

I introduced myself and they gave their names, Fred and Dave. It was Dave's brother that was missing, Bob.

We quickly found a place to camp, dropped our packs and began organizing how we would search. I spotted someone sitting on the far hillside in a red top which matched the description of the missing man. He was sitting near a boulder and appeared to be flashing something to get attention. Andy, Gary and Matt headed off in that area while I ran to find Fred to ask if that was one of his searchers. Turned out it was. The four of us reached the man and talked with him for a while as he described what was being done and that there wasn't really anything for us to do as more searchers would be in the area tomorrow. It had been really cold the previous night (we knew, we had frozen our tails off with strong winds and a low of 28) and he doubted Bob could have survived the night in only a light fleece and shorts. A few minutes later his fears were confirmed when his radio picked up his partners saying they had found Bob's body in a gully at the base of a cliff and were requesting body bags and a litter.

We volunteered to help with the evacuation, but they had enough of their own team members on the ground to handle the litter, so we returned to camp, sobered by the outcome. A few hours later, as we were finishing up dinner the search party wheeled the litter containing Bob's body past our camp.

So "Another perfect day in paradise" came to an end with a reminder, one of many we have had during our 26 days. The Sierra is called the Gentle Wilderness and in many respects it is. But, we must respect the fact that it is wilderness and understand the inherent dangers and risks it contains. We can rely on experience and skills earned over a lifetime to lessen the risk, but must also be aware that it is always there.

Day 25 - Leaving Tuolumne

Tuesday, August 10, 2010 - Day 24
Stats for the day: started at Tuolumne Meadows (8,660') at 8:30 - ended at Sierra Mine (10,742') 17 1:30pm. Total ascent 2224'. Total descent 547'. Total Distance 8.66 miles. 3 hrs 35 mins walking.

A morning at Tuolumne Meadows means The Grill for breakfast and therefore sleeping in. We pushed back our get up time to seven instead of six because the grill doesn't open until eight.

We dropped out packs on the thru-hikers table at 7:45 and stood in front of the closed sign on the grill door, first in line. As eight approached the crowd gathered and by the time the hand slithered from between shade and screen of the door to flip the closed sign over to the open side there were 25 people lined up.

With breakfast of eggs, hash browns, ham and biscuit in hand we walked by the hungry people in the cue and found a sunny rock near our packs to enjoy our meal.

With breakfast finished we headed out of the bustle of Tuolumne for the backcountry. Our path did not exactly take us to wilderness straight away; we walked the first three miles on a trail that paralleled the Tioga Pass highway and then crossed it before we got away from the car noise. When we reached the meadows of Gaylor Lakes it felt line we were back on route

except for all the people who hike into these lakes that are only two miles from Tioga Pass.

We had to play the "Land Administrative Shuffle" for camping tonight. Yosemite National Park does not allow camping north of the Tioga Pass Highway so we had to get out of the park, but just across the border is the Monroe Natural Area that does not allow overnight camping either. But bordering both in a triangle lies some private mining holdings from earlier in the century in the Inyo National Forest. I found if we tucked ourselves in here we met all requirements to camp legally. As it turned out there was a nice pond, a running stream of water and lovely meadows; a nice place to stay at about 10,800'.

The wind was strong and cold all afternoon. So after dinner we retired to our bags to warm up and in my case record the day's activities.

Day 24 - Coming of Age

Monday, August 9, 2010 - Day 24
Stats for the day: started at Reymann Lake (10,062') at 7:45 - ended at Tuolumne Meadows (8,660') at 10:30am. Total ascent 642'. Total descent 2013'. Total Distance 5.08 miles. 2 hrs 12 mins walking.

With visions of the Tuolumne Grill in our heads all night we awoke to 30 degree temperatures and thick layers of frost on the tent and equipment. We cooked breakfast as we waited for the sun to appear over the ridge. When it finally hit us we were able to dry the tent and finish packing, then climbed the 600' ridge to exit the lake and descended through a neat chute in the bluffs into the Elizabeth Lake basin. We found the trail and quickly followed it the 2.3 miles to Tuolumne Meadows store and grill.

Today was my coming of age! For years I have watched the thru hikers (PCT and JMT) congregate on the two picnic tables in front of the Tuolumne Store, sorting gear, resupplying their bear cans and swapping stories. Today, Andy, Gary and I deposited our packs on those very same tables, proud thru hikers in our own rights (SHR) and sorted our gear, resupplied our bear cans and swapped stories with other hikers. A day to be long remembered. ;-)

We also got to the grill at 10:30 and had ham and eggs, hash browns, biscuits and buckwheat pancakes for breakfast (second breakfast), then when they switched to the lunch menu at 11:30 we entered again for hamburgers and fries. In the late afternoon I was driving the van to our exit point while my sister Karen followed in her van which we left there so I missed dinner, but Gary and Andy had vegetarian chili and a salad.

With gear sorted and repacked Gary, Andy and I are camped at the backpackers campsites while Karen and Matt are in my van spending the night just outside the park. They will hike into Gaylord Lakes from Tioga Pass, saving about 8 miles of trail walking that Andy, Gary and I will do on this their first day out. We will meet them tomorrow about 1 PM at the uppermost Gaylor Lake, then continue out of the park to camp for the night near the Sierra Mine site. We have to wedge ourselves outside the park because they don't allow camping in the area, yet outside the Monroe Natural preserve which borders the park. So we are tucking ourselves into a nice little corner outside both but in the Inyo National Forest high on a ridge where camping is allowed.

Day 23 - Weather

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Stats for the day: started at Bernice Lake (10,220') at 8:30 - ended at Reymann Lake (10,062') at 1:00. Total ascent 1898'. Total Descent 2067'. Total Distance 6.61 miles. 3 hrs 13 mins walking.

The weather has taken center stage again these last two days. Previous to that it was so consistently sunny everyday for a week and a half we really gave it little thought. But, it is six in the afternoon, I am sitting under the tarp at Reymann Lake, it is 43 degrees and the inch of hail that fell between 2:45 and 3:45 has not all melted away yet. It is cold.
We were aware of the high possibility of thunderstorms today, not from any weather service, but from the amount of dew that coated every surface this morning. It signaled a lot of moisture in the air. By 9:30 we were seeing small cloudlets beginning to form in the cloudless blue skies. Both the dew and the formation of the clouds in mid morning says "Thunderstorm"! But, experience told us we had until mid-afternoon before the skies would open upon us.
So we took our time this morning drying the dew out of everything, leaving camp an hour later than normal, at 8:30. Instead of retracing the trail back out of Bernice Lake we climbed cross country up into Gallison Basin to view this magnificent meadow. We then joined the Vogelsang Pass trail and we were soon at the High Sierra Camp. It was deserted. I walked into the dining room and found the remnants of breakfast still on the tables, but no one present. Back outside, one of the college age kids working at the camp came by and we found from him that someone had broken their leg that morning just across Fletcher Creek from the camp, not more than one hundred yards away. They were expecting a helicopter at any minute to land and whisk him away to the hospital in Mammoth. No sooner had he finished the account than we heard the beat of an approaching helicopter. The pilot circled once, hovered a minute to check the winds, then set down across the creek, tucking the bird in between boulders and trees. We waited for him to lift off with his subject, but after 20 minutes we lost patience and returned to the dining hall, hoping to buy candy bars and socks even though the sign on the door said closed. The nice kid discussed the SHR with us and talked about the joy of working at Vogelsang, then consented to sell us our goods. We finally left Vogelsang about 11 and headed down the trail to Tuolumne Pass, where we would leave the trail to head cross-country for Reymann Lake. At the trail junction we met a scout troop of about a dozen kids and five adult leaders. We struck up a conversation, thanked them for bringing the kids to the mountains and donating their time. We told them we were all Eagle Scouts and about Camp Sheppard. They were very interested in a climb of Rainier for their older kids and took my name, email and phone number. We shook hands all around and headed up to the pass that leads to Reymann Lake. It was now noon and the clouds were building, but certainly not threatening yet.

We met a young man in his late twenties at the pass scoping out climbing routes on the cliffs above Nelson Lake. We chatted a few minutes, then parted. We dropped into Reymann Lake about 1:00 and enjoyed lunch in bright, warm sunshine, after which we discussed putting up the tarp, but decided the thunder would announce the expected rain and we would wait for that call. Andy and Gary promptly sprawled in the meadows and were lulled into a deep sleep by the warm sun. I plugged my iPhone into Gary's solar panel and began writing emails as it charged, intending them to be sent the next time I got cell service.
The first indication I had that something was amiss was my iPhone dropping in charge rather than gaining. Next, I heard the first patters of raindrops. I woke Gary and Andy and we quickly erected the tarp as the rain started to intensify. Where was our thunderous warning? By the time we had it secure it was pouring rain mixed with hail. It was 2:45. Snug under our shelter we cooked up some hot tea and enjoyed Mother Nature's fury as thunder crashed and hail up to half an inch in diameter hammered against the tarp and collected in ever deepening piles on the meadow. An hour later the storm subsided, but the temperature was decidedly colder. Clouds still threatened more hail and rain, but we took advantage of the lull by photographing the summer flowers surrounded by hail and snow. The fish were not biting and by 4:30 we retired to the tarp to cook dinner. Again we noticed how cold it felt, so I set my altimeter watch out to get a reading. It promptly dropped to 43 degrees.
We went for a short walk to the outlet of the lake to warm up a bit, then put up the tent, intending to warm ourselves in our bags, which Gary and Andy did. I wrapped my sleeping bag around we while seated on a bear can under the tarp and wrote this entry.
So, the Sierra's are ordinarily a warm, weather friendly place to hike and camp. But, just as we were reminded the day we drove into King's Canyon how bad the weather can get, today also bumped us back to reality.

Day 22 - Sunrise

Saturday, August 7, 2010 - Day 22
Stats for the day: started at Tarn Below Forester Peak (10,900') at 7:15 - ended at Bernice Lake (10,220') at 3:15. Total ascent 2882'. Total descent 3694'. Total Distance 13.0 miles. 5 hrs 40 mins walking.

We purposely stayed way above tree line last night for multiple reasons, including, stay away from the mosquitoes, stay away from people, stay out of the trees to see the stars, see the sunset on the horizon (we have not had a high west facing camp the entire trip), and enjoy a spectacular view into the Merced River drainage and the Clark Range 5 miles distant. We were rewarded with all goals met.

We slept out on the granite slabs without the tent, a light cold breeze blowing off and on during the night. Tucked in our sleeping bags we were warm and toasty as the sun sped toward the horizon.

The sunset was magnificent as we watched the glowing orb slowly dip below the distant hills. The stars and planets were brilliant with Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, the Summer Triangle, Arcturas, and the Milky Way. But, the sunrise was the most spectacular.

I woke about 5:40am. It was cloudless. The sun was still below the horizon and the peaks of the Clark Range to the west had yet to be touched. The sky was putting on a show, demonstrating a perfect gradient fill. Directly over my head the sky was purple. Descending toward the western horizon the sky slowly changed colors, progressing through the colors of the rainbow until some distance above the top of the peaks of the Clark Range red was reached. Below the red the sky was grey all the way down to the peaks and into the passes between them. As I sat in my bag anticipating the first rays of the sun rising behind me to touch the range I noticed the color bands moving downward slowly, approaching the tops of the peaks, and the grey area beneath it getting narrower. I realized the sun was illuminating the atmosphere, and as the earth rotated toward it the bands of color were descending onto the mountains just as the sun light would descend down the mountains once it struck them.

The whole rainbow of colors descended the sky and when the red at the bottom touched the top of the peaks they began to glow with the direct rays of the sun. Slowly, this illumination then began it's descent down the mountain faces as the whole Clark Range began to glow with the morning sun.

Of course, we were not yet blessed with these warming rays, camped as we were in the shadow of Forester Peak. So, as the Clark Range enjoyed the sun's early warmth we shivered in the shadows through breakfast and packing, anticipating the moment when the sun would be high enough to clear the ridges behind us and shed it's warming rays on us. This happened in the minutes before our departure from our lofty camp and the combination of our physical exertion in walking and the sun's light began to warm us as we descended.

2.55 miles of glorious meadow traversing on a WNW heading brought us to the trail. Enroute we spooked a cinnamon colored bear that bounded across the meadow before us. We tromped on trail the rest of the day, covering a total of thirteen miles as we traversed the high trail above Washburn and Merced Lakes, then turned up Lewis Creek and arrived at Bernice Lake about 3:15, as thunderheads built above us. We quickly put up the tarp and tent, then before the rains hit Gary and I took a much needed bath with lake water and washed some clothes. No sooner did we complete our washings than the rain started to fall, so we gathered under the tarp to cook dinner. The rain never amounted to much, but the constant rumblings coming from the sky made us think a deluge was due any moment. By 7:30 most of the rumbling and all of the rain had ceased. I caught a couple fish for breakfast and was in the sack a little after 8.

Day 21 - One More hurdle

Friday, August 6, 2010
Stats for the day: started at Twin Island Lakes (9,662') at 7:30 - ended at Tarn below Blue Lake Pass (10,897') at 3:00. Total ascent 2757'. Total Descent 1857'. Total Distance 6.58 miles. 4 hrs 9 mins walking.

Another day in Paradise!! Started the day with a scramble along the cliffs on the shore of Twin Island Lake to it's outlet. I have been thinking about this outlet since the trip started as one of the crux points of the route. The outlet must be waded and is reportedly knee to waist deep. No big deal. The clincher? About 15 feet downstream from the crossing the stream tumbles down a labyrinth of rocks in a cascade. From the descriptions it sounded like a

couple of missteps and you would find yourself hurtling down the outlet to your death.

When we arrived at outlet the sun was just peeking over the mountains. What the descriptions did not tell was the part you ford was still part of the lake so the water is hardly moving, in other words, very little current.

We dropped our packs, stripped to our underwear, donned our Crocs and forded the stream without incident. It was slightly more than knee deep.

Now the route finding began again as we contoured around the end of the ridge, then began a gradual traversing ascent to a basin 350' above us. Along the route we were hailed by Marty, a lone SHR traveler we had met two weeks ago at Cirque Pass. We have been playing leap frog with him. We passed him during our Bishop resupply and the lightening storm at Muir Pass. He passed us at our layover day at Bear Lake. We passed him at Mono Creek when he went out for a resupply and today he passed us, hoping to reach Tuolumne before noon on Saturday before the post office closes so he can pick up his resupply. We won't be into Tuolumne until Monday morning when we meet Karen and Matt. We bid Marty safe traveling and let him get ahead of us far enough that we felt we had the route to ourselves again.

We traversed out of the bowl angling upward slightly, crossed a rock rib and then descended 400' into Bench Canyon, an utterly delightful U-shaped valley with meadows, trees, flowers everywhere and a meandering, singing stream at the bottom. We joyfully walked it's shores up canyon, taking pictures and enjoying the beauty.

We stopped for lunch at the upper end of the canyon, and put map and compass to work in locating Blue Lake and Blue Lake Pass, our two objectives on this portion of the route. We had been anticipating our having to turn west and scaling a slope, but we found the valley had already bent west and we needed to stay our course straight up the valley to reach both. The lake lay a mile off and 560' above us, the pass another half mile plus and 700' above the lake.

Upon reaching the lake we searched the headwall leading up to the pass and found an awesome series of ledges to follow in our climb to the pass. We gained the bottom of these ledges and had to do a bit of Class 4 climbing to get on them. Once on them they afforded delightful climbing.

Once at the pass we sat for half an hour enjoying the view, both west and east. Tried to get cell service to call home, but none available.

We descended the headwall across shattered stone and slabs, eventually reaching the tarn at it's base. Gary suggested we camp here rather than down at the Lyell Fork in the trees, mosquitoes and people and Andy and I readily agreed it was a grand idea. So we perched ourselves on the horizontal, smooth rock slabs for the night with a magnificent view down the Merced drainage with the Clark Range behind, watched the sun set and smiled ourselves to sleep. Only nine days left. May they pass slowly.

Day 19 - Route Finding

Wednesday, Aug 4, 2010
Stats for the day: started at Iceberg Lake (9,780') at 7:45 - ended at Twin Island Lake (9,658') at 5:30 Total ascent 3488'. Total Descent 3800'. Total Distance 9.61 miles. 5 hrs 0 mins walking.

One of the things trail hiking excludes is route finding. Following a trail is akin to one of those toy trains whose single front wheel has a deep grove in it that is placed over a long flexible rubber tube and when the train is turned on it mindlessly follows the tube.

When traveling off trail one immediately becomes more mindful of their surroundings because they must pay attention to the physical landmarks and the compass to find their way. So far we have covered 84 miles of trail and 78 miles cross country. We all agree the cross country, although far more physically demanding, is our favorite.

Today, we woke to find Iceberg Lake had completely frozen over during the night. We ate breakfast (I have had Cream o' Wheat everyday for the first 17 mornings because it is so compact, but now with food drops only 7 days apart I have switched to bulkier granola), packed our gear, and followed the trail one mile down to Ediza Lake. From here the rest of the eight miles of the day are cross country. We headed toward Nydiver Lakes, about 600' above Ediza and a mile NW. Halfway up, a band of cliffs blocked our route so we veered left until we found a heather and willow choked gully that gave us access to the top of the cliffs. From here Nydiver lay a quarter mile off and 30 feet below us. Whitebark Pine Pass rose on the opposite side of the lake another 400 feet higher. A short stop for water at the lake and we quickly ascended the pass. From here we had a fantastic view down into Garnet Lake, a long lake with many islands. A steep snowfield lay before us, so Gary and I donned crampons and wielded ice axes for the descent. Andy had left his ice axe with Craig back at South Lake, so he clambered up over the rocks to descend via the talus slope.

Once past the snow we traversed the broad upper basin above Garnet to the unnamed pass between Garnet Lake and Thousand Island Lake. A strong wind and no mosquitoes enticed us to stay for lunch, even though it was only 11:15. As we munched, a party of 4 came up from Thousand Island Lake, swatting mosquitos as they came. We chatted for a few minutes, then packed up and headed down into Thousand Island Lake basin.

A long traverse across the basin brought us to the use trail up to Glacier Pass, the entrance to Catherine Lake. We passed a group of ten kids and an adult leader working their way up the fairly gentle slopes to the pass. From the pass we dropped into Catherine Lake, a beautiful azure blue lake at the foot of the snowfield that lays between Banner and Ritter.

To this point route finding was not much. All the terrain in front of us was open meadow and easy to navigate. But, as we began to descend from Catherine on the west side of the Ritter Range the ground fell away so sharply we could not see the route ahead. At first we danced over smoothly polished granite, delighting in the cascades and waterfalls the waters from Catherine formed. At a point those waterfalls fell over cliffs we could not descend and we had to start working our way to the right to avoid them. At one point a band of 300 foot high cliffs barred our descent and we had to move way NW to find a stream valley that cut a swath through the cliffs that was passable.

Where this stream met with Catherine's outpouring the route tumbled near vertically to the valley 500' below. We were able to work our way down the right hand side a hundred feet, then traverse on ledges and sloping ground to a more moderately sloping hillside that we followed toward our destination, Twin Island Lakes. A half hour ascent through cliffs and meadows and we were at last looking down on the lake. Most of the lake was already in shadow by the time we traversed the glacier polished granite bedrock to the inlet, our camp for the night.

After dinner, as we lay in our bags in the tent we all agreed it was a marvelous day of incredible terrain and route finding, the 19th in a row.

Day 18 - The Minarets

Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Stats for the day: started at Reds Meadow (7750') at 7:30 - ended at Ice Berg Lake (9,834') at 5:45 Total ascent 4406'. Total Descent 2720'. Total Distance 13.0 miles. 6 hrs 39 mins walking.

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. True, if we line in the world of planar geometry. If we existed in a curved universe then the shortest distance is the great circle. So what universe does the Sierra exist in? We do a lot of cross country travel and spend a fair amount of time calculating the distance between our location and destination on the map, yet when we travel that distance the two numbers never coincide. Conclusion? We are in an alternate universe.

Lots of evidence exists to support this conclusion besides the discrepancy between distances. Up here there are no strip malls, no 8am garbage trucks, no freeways, quickie marts, billboards, road rage, Rush Limbaugh, or TV ads. Just meadows, rushing streams, rock fields, talus, glacial cirque headwalls, mosquitoes and snowfields. A different geometry.

Today my planning did not match our map. Where I had us hiking up the trail to Minaret Lake, our map showed us hiking up toward the Minarets one valley south then cross country across Nancy Pass into another cirque and then reaching Minaret Lake. We chose the more circuitous route adding much to the distance for the day.

8 miles of trail hiking brought us to Superior Lake. Above it, the low spot in the ridge, stood Nancy Pass. Although 11:30, we decided to have lunch on top where we could survey the route.

The rock in the Minarets is not the granite we had been traipsing across the previous two weeks, rather it is metamorphic in origin, therefore more crumbly and broken. The route up Nancy Pass was steep scree, dirt and rocks in-between rock ribs. An hour of kicking steps in scree, carefully avoiding sending rocks down on each other and climbing on rock ribs we reached the pass. The view northward showed Minaret Lake a mile or two away, nestled on it's perch of rock below the towering rock peaks of the Minarets.

Following lunch we descended 600' into the intervening valley, traversed it's floor and then ascended on rock slabs and ribs to Minaret Lake.

What a unbelievably gorgeous place! Nestled right against the towering Minaret spires, snow, rock, lake, meadows and trees create a picture perfect scene.

But our destination lay beyond, so we gawked our way past the lake, climbed the steep use trail to Cecilie Lake and then dropped 450' into Iceberg Lake for the night. We had to push ahead because we wanted to travel the snow slopes that drop straight into Iceberg Lake in the evening while soft from the days heating rather than traverse them in the morning when they are frozen rock hard.

At 13 miles (4 cross-country) and 4,400 feet of elevation gain it was a much more strenuous day than we had anticipated. But, we are on schedule and ready for tomorrow's route to Twin Island Lakes.

Day 16 - A Country For Old Men

Sunday, Aug 1, 2010
Stats for the day: started at Izaak Walton Lake (10,300') at 7:15 - ended at Reds Meadow (7,700') at 7:10 Total ascent 3702'. Total Descent 6,262'. Total Distance 22.0 miles. 8 hrs 11 mins walking.

Totals to date: 16 days, 139 miles, 42,574 feet of ascent, 39,959 feet of descent.

I don't consider myself old, neither physically or mentally, but I do know mother nature is creeping up on me. It is this ticking time bomb of the biological clock that prompted me to do the SHR this year rather than in a year or two, because you never know what will happen, be it disease, infirmity or ??

I have strong memories of my days as a hiking and climbing guide when I was 15-23, and those memories are the bench marks by which I measure my current abilities. I don't expect to be able to duplicate what I did back then, but I do strive to achieve a measure of that level of activity.

To play it safe, I formed the milages per day when planning the SHR around modest numbers, 8-10 miles per day if on trail and 5-8 if cross-country. These low numbers were also influenced by not knowing who would join in on the trip and my desire to make the trip accessible to any that might consider participating.

So far the plan has worked well, although those days when we traveled cross-country my predicted milages are about 30% less than the actual due to route finding and zig zagging to avoid obstacles. But today we threw out my plan in lust for cherry turnovers.

It was supposed to be a mostly trail day, two miles of cross country to get us from Izaak Walton Lake (10,300) to the JMT in Tully Hole, then 6 miles of the JMT to the Duck Lake trail junction. We have met many, many people when on the JMT, so we made wagers on how many people we would see during our six miles. The winner would get a cherry turnover purchased by the two losers. Andy guessed 50 people, I low balled at 38 and Gary took the middle ground at 45. We hit the JMT at about 8:30 and were to the Duck Lake intersection at 12:15. In those 3 hours and 45 minutes we passed 58 people, earning Andy the win.

We stopped at Duck Lake, our scheduled camp spot, for lunch and as we ate began to discuss the wonders of a full free day in Mammoth Lakes to wash clothes at the laundromat, eat a chopped salad at the Base Camp Cafe, eat a Subway sandwich, have a smoothie or a milk shake and most importantly, savor a couple of the world's best cherry turnovers at Schat's Bakery. To create this free day in Mammoth we would have to hike Monday's distance after we finished our lunch. By one o'clock our minds were so bent on cherry turnovers that a 22 mile day didn't seem that bad, after all we had hiked those distances back in our youthful days. So, with visions of unlimited food and a day off we set out about 1:00pm to cover the final 11 miles, 2 of which were cross country. The route had 1000' of vertical gain and 3500' feet of descent. Powered by Cliff Bars, Power Bars and gorp we crested Mammoth ridge then began the long descent to Red's Meadow, our campsite for the night, and the end of the bus run that would take us to Mammoth.

By 5:14 we were still 5.5 miles out when we got cell service, a key component to our plan, because Schat's does not bake cherry turnovers unless by special order, so we stopped to phone in our order for 7 cherry turnovers. Calls to wives also occupied a few minutes, then on the route again. With a few navigational difficulties along the way, we arrived at Red' Meadow at 7:10, just missing the store's closing at 7:00. 22 miles, 3700' up, 6,900 down. Just like old times. We aren't as old as our years might suggest. 56 is the new 23.

Wearily, with a glowing feeling of accomplishment, we followed the trail from the store to the hot springs fed shower house and after a brief wait in line for an empty compartment took a very long, scalding hot shower, the first in 10 days. Then, with dusk turning to darkness, off to the back packers campsite only to find it full. Three nice women offered to share their site with us, which we gladly accepted. An engaging conversation and a quickly cooked dinner followed. We bid our benefactors a good night and thanks and retired to our tent.

Although the muscles in legs and backs were sore and tired, it was a great day. We still have it.