“You are the Buddha who never finishes anything,” Gary Snyder to Jack Kerouac after the latter did not quite top out on Matterhorn Peak..

So, last Monday, the 9th of August, found me in a bluesy sort of mood, at Sonora Pass.


I had been planning to climb the North Ridge of Coness, but realized that I live at sea level and could use a day to aclimatize. After a couple easy routes,

I found myself at the PCT trailnead. Maybe I should do a shakedown run? I thought.
I put on my shoes and fired up my ipod that shuffled into ‘Fire on the mtn’. Beautiful day, clear and cool. The terrain seemed stark,

til I looked around and smelled the Flowers;
a wimpy run, but a wonderful outing

I resolved to climb Connes the next day. I’d climbed the Harding route about fifteen years ago and jogged up the descent a few times in the interrim. I figured I needed to wyden my portfolio on this beautiful peak.

That night I bivvyed in that place we don’t talk about anymore, it was good to see my friends Lynne L and Dave Y, we hung out well into the dark sharing stories and reminiscing, largely about friends who aren’t here anymore. A sacrament of times of sorts, of the past long ago and recent.

4:45 came early, good thing I had Coffee reeady in a thermos. I laced on my Scramblers, and tuned into Coltrane.


The dawn was gorgeous, the lake Calm, not a sasquatch in sight...




after an hour of plodding I ran into a pair of climbers/pbackbackers on their way down.
“You’re up early”
minimal interchange and we all went on in our own private reveries.

the route ahead,
Somewhere in there is where I went astray. Croft’s description mentions going left around the second tower and from where I was I figured I could go even further left, avoiding all kinds of obstacles.



unfortunately I verred far enough left that I knd missed most of the route and ended up once again on the descent route,


Since I was there I slogged to the summit anyway, realizing that it was the road that was the thing, but part of the road was the top.
i can always come back for the specific route...

On the summit (9:17) I savored a Cadbury and listened to ‘Gaint Steps’.
-Forgot to take summit photo, though....


I was struck by the view of ((I giuess) North peak [edit, MT Conness see comments], what a line! I didn’t know at the time that they were looking for poor Bob Schultz over there, at the time.
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1240604&tn=0&mr=0

A casual descent was punctuated by a bald eagle soaring over Saddlebag lake, that eagle seemed to fill the sky,

anyone done this wide line?

I cooled my heels on a lawn chair with my feet propped up on the bumper off my car when a young couple starting their own adventure hiked by ( it was maybe noon) ‘You’re having the perfect day” Said the male half of the pair from behind his Giligan hat, shades and zinc Oxide, I agreed.

I stopped at TPR, hopping to see LL at her first day of work, but settled for Ice Cream. Time to move on, I picked up a Ginger Ale I had stashed in Warren Creek, tooled down the pass, stopped again for a slice of Whoa Nellie Veggie pizza, and continued south to a Bivvy, literally in Paradise, just in time for the Perseid Meteor Shower.










That other North Ridge, on that othe Mt Conness, sure looks cool....