Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 20, 2012 - 10:02pm PT
|
Anders, I was up last evening working on the guidebook (Sonora Pass Highway, second edition).
As I drove up I saw a hitchhiker/backpacker and gave him a ride. He was a PCT through hiker needing a ride back up from a re-supply. I had high hopes that, just maybe, it'd be your friend. But it wasn't.
Oh well, I'll keep an eye out.
|
|
apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
|
|
|
Jun 21, 2012 - 12:15pm PT
|
"It must be awful nice to get out of the early summer heat of the desert, and get somewhere cooler and with more water."
It was like entering the gates of Nirvana!
|
|
Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
Jun 22, 2012 - 12:40pm PT
|
Assuming that Donald left Mammoth/Reds Meadow yesterday afternoon, he'd be at Tuolumne Friday afternoon or at latest Saturday. I don't believe that he has a mail drop at Tuolumne, but may be getting some supplies, and I encouraged him to spend a day in the area if he could. But he's already seen lots of meadows/rock peaks/tarns on his hike, so maybe they've lost some novelty. Anyway, he's out of contact, but if Donald leaves TM on Saturday or Sunday, he'd be at Sonora Pass in 4 - 5 days.
So if any SuperTopians are in Tuolumne on Friday evening and Saturday, check at the through-hikers camping for a Canadian named Donald, and buy him a beer. Likewise anyone who's in the Sonora Pass area about next Tuesday or Wednesday, though that may be a bit less likely.
And a bump, in the hope that mtnyoung will report on further adventures with his valiant daughters.
|
|
mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 22, 2012 - 03:41pm PT
|
Plans and preparations are coming together for our next leg. We'll start where we left off at Horseshoe Meadow and then over Cottonwood Pass. We plan on being 10 days from there to Lake Thomas Edison (where Vicki will meet us).
The current start date is July 22. Although I'd considered carrying all 10 days worth of food, three climbing partners are now going to meet us at Kearsarge Pass trail at the end of day four with a resupply (thank you, thank you, thank you, Dave, Bart and Jerome).
It's already been a great summer, but this is the event I've been most looking forward to.
|
|
mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 21, 2012 - 10:58pm PT
|
OK, it's official, I'm starting to get excited about "The PCT Volume 17," coming up starting tomorrow.
1. I've gotten 22 pounds of food to Dave for he and Bart and Jerome to shuttle in for us via Kearsarge Pass (thanks guys!!!);
2. Our gear is packed and stowed in the car (Tricia is carrying 11 pounds, Katie has 21 pounds, and I will carry 47 pounds to start);
3. We've got our permits and bear canisters (the required stuff);
4. Everyone is healthy.
5. We've got ten days and 135 miles to go (to Lake Thomas Edison).
Now I'm just waiting for six A.M. It's hard to focus on other stuff.
|
|
John M
climber
|
|
|
Jul 21, 2012 - 11:03pm PT
|
Saaa Wheeet! I look forward to the trip reports. That is beautiful country.
|
|
Joe
Social climber
Santa Cruz
|
|
|
Jul 22, 2012 - 12:02am PT
|
have fun Brad, best to Katie and Tricia...
|
|
OR
Trad climber
|
|
|
Jul 22, 2012 - 03:42pm PT
|
Best TR ever......
|
|
Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
|
|
|
Jul 22, 2012 - 10:50pm PT
|
Mighty Hiker, I read your friends's blog. Very interesting.
And then I found this:
We were warned of the major blown downs that had occurred last November in the Reds Meadow area from a storm last November at the Kick Off, and true to their word we encountered an enormous number of downed trees on the trail and surrounding areas as we started to get near the Meadows. Luckily for us, a good number of the trails around Mammoth Lakes have been cleared by the trail crews. They have managed to clear the PCT through to Tuolomne Meadows, which is our next destination. They Forest Service estimates that at least 10,000 trees fell during the storm. One of the volunteer Forest Rangers we encountered at Vermillion Valley Resort, who was at Reds Meadow earlier in the season, said that he stood on the PCT and the trees were stacked 15 feet high in a tangled mess across the trail.
*I* am that Volunteer Forest Ranger he spoke to! so I met your friend!
|
|
Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
|
|
|
Jul 22, 2012 - 11:33pm PT
|
Have a grand trip;.....family stuff is the best......
|
|
Mungeclimber
Trad climber
the crowd MUST BE MOCKED...Mocked I tell you.
|
|
|
Jul 23, 2012 - 02:46am PT
|
Miwok and I saw them leave this morning bright and early. All signals were 'go'
Though there was this one teenager type character who looked not so happy to start so early. 6:30ish, I believe, is when they pulled out to get breakfast on the way over the Pass.
Have fun Youngs!
|
|
briham89
Big Wall climber
los gatos. ca
|
|
|
Jul 23, 2012 - 10:49am PT
|
Though there was this one teenager type character who looked not so happy to start so early. 6:30ish
HAHA. Saw that coming...
Have fun guy and girls!
|
|
klk
Trad climber
cali
|
|
|
Jul 23, 2012 - 12:08pm PT
|
looks like you've had good weather for the first leg.
have fun out there
|
|
Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
Jul 26, 2012 - 12:40pm PT
|
Ken, it's a small world - although I don't think Donald has ever heard of SuperTopo!
Looking forward to the Young's daily if not hourly reports on their adventure, posted from their i-Phone. (OK, maybe not.) Anyway, have a fun, safe adventure!
My friend Donald got to Ashland on Monday (23rd). He's taking some R&R with his wife there, and should then be well-positioned to finish by early September. He got the care package that I sent him in Mammoth, most importantly including size 14 socks. Donald took only seven days from Shasta to Ashland, which is good going. People seem to hoof it through there, and also Oregon. Though with any luck he'll be able to visit Hood River Coffee company - almost everyone seems to resupply at the Oregon/Washington border.
He's working on connecting his SPOT GPS function to the Postholer blog, as others have done, so that once a day he can directly update his location, even if he doesn't post anything. So much for disappearing into the wilderness - "electronics" seem to be a popular subject of discussion amongst the through hikers.
There's apparently still a fair bit of snow above 2,000 m once you get to Washington, but warm, dry weather now seems to have settled in, so it should be under control soon.
A bit later in the season I may go out to meet some hikers as they arrive. The hike from Manning Park to Windy Joe to Monument 78 was one of the first backpacking trips I did with my father, when I was 14.
|
|
Vegasclimber
Trad climber
Las Vegas, NV.
|
|
|
Jul 26, 2012 - 05:48pm PT
|
Looking forward to hearing the next installment of this epic series!
We were just up at Cottonwood Lakes, came out on the 22nd outrunning a nasty series of thunderstorms. Hope you stayed safe and dry. Other then that the weather up in the area was absolutely stellar.
Have fun - this is one of my favorite threads on the Taco, glad to see it will continue.
|
|
Mungeclimber
Trad climber
the crowd MUST BE MOCKED...Mocked I tell you.
|
|
|
Jul 26, 2012 - 06:18pm PT
|
Anders, I don't think we'll see any electronic updates from the trail this trip.
Maybe Dave, Bart and Jerome will come back with an update from the resupply point?
|
|
mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 27, 2012 - 10:14pm PT
|
As explained below, we came out early, on our own, and safely. I started a trip report on Mudn'Crud that is entitled: "Making Lemonade." Here it is:
Sometimes life hands you lemons. And the best laid plans of mice and men (according to John Steinbeck) sometimes go awry. And on this trip our plans did go awry, at least somewhat. We didn't get ten days on the trail; because of a reawakened injury in Katie's left knee, we got "only" five. And we hiked "only" a little over 50 miles too, instead of over 130.
But they were five days in the heart of the High Sierra, among some of the most magnificent scenery on earth. We stuck together and explored the trail some more. We ate well (as we tried some new foods), enjoyed the views and talked and read and did crosswords (three of us working on two at a time). Katie (the strong, strong-willed teenager) and I (the incorrigible dad) feuded some. We even laughed a bunch (but, really, on this last subject, should a father draw the line when one daughter makes the other laugh so hard that pudding comes out her nose?).
As we drove down Highway 395 we worried a little about thunderheads building up over the crest. No-one likes to get soaked and cold while hiking. This is what we saw as we drove up to Horseshoe Meadow:
But it wasn't raining when we parked, only sprinkling, so we got going at 1:30 with the best of hopes:
The 3.8 mile hike to Cottonwood Pass was actually nicer (cooler) because of the clouds. We got periodic cloudbursts, but they gave way to sun and we dried out immediately. Once at Cottonwood we were back on the PCT:
It's a short distance from Cottonwood to Chicken Springs Lake. Once there we got truly pounded, first by rain and then by hail (at least the hail doesn't soak in):
Then came a decision that may have affected the rest of the trip. Less than five miles isn't a long way into a hundred-mile plus trip. So, do we make camp at the lake or do we continue on knowing it's almost nine miles to the next certain water? With some daylight left and energy too, we decided to move on:
That last view is out over a plateau called "Siberian Outpost," and the map shows some streams and tarns that we'd pass. We thought there'd be at least a slight chance of water, but because of the low-snow year, the whole area was bone dry. So we took our lumps and kept moving.
The hiking was easy, but soon the light started fading and then it was dark. We kept at it with headlamps, but Katie started to fall behind me and Tricia. We'd wait and she'd catch up. Finally, at about the fourth "wait," I asked Katie what was wrong: "My knee is killing me," she said. Oh. Sh#t. That's not good.
In 2009 Katie hurt her knee when the left side of a trail collapsed and left her involuntarily in the splits. We thought she'd healed. Then, last September she had to sit out the first few weeks of volleyball because the same knee acted up. We thought that had healed too. We did a 43 mile family backpack in April and she was fine (but that didn't have very much up and down movement). We'd even taped the knee before we started this trip using a special tape in order to give extra support "just in case." And now, here we are 11 miles out, and two more mandatory miles to go to water, and her knee is killing her.
Well, we made it to "camp." In the dark, still damp, tired and hurt. The girls set up the tent by headlamp in the only flat spot we could find, and I got water. Here's a photo of where we camped that I took by the cloudy light of the next morning:
It had been a tough hike, but we'd expected that. Setting up camp and cooking and eating were chores, not pleasures, but we knew that might be the case when we decided to go on; and we got it done. We'd finally gotten back on the trail, well set up for the planned nine more days in the heart of the Sierra. But were we really? I don't think I slept more than an hour that night from exhaustion, and, obviously, from worry: here we were 13 miles into the wilderness but in weather that was unpleasant at best, and, critically, with an injured 16 year old. The question went through and through my mind: What to do from here?
I could only wait until morning when we could decide.
|
|
briham89
Big Wall climber
los gatos. ca
|
|
|
Jul 28, 2012 - 02:19am PT
|
Bummer on the weather and Katie's knee. I hope she is feeling better. But way to get out there and get some more miles in and spend time with the girls. Hopefully I'll see all of you soon.
|
|
Enthusiast
Boulder climber
Port Townsend WA
|
|
|
Jul 28, 2012 - 02:24am PT
|
I notice your dog is a pack animal, bred to serve
|
|
Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
Jul 28, 2012 - 12:20pm PT
|
Sorry to hear about what happened, but it sounds like things worked out in the end.
Did the girls mention that now you have to take them to a Justin Bieber event?
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!