This is a trip I’ve been planning on and off for about a year. The Sierra High Route is about 70% off trail and runs "about" 195 miles (because it’s a route and not a trail) from Sequoia National Park to Twin Lakes outside Bridgeport. It stays along the ridges while the John Muir Trail (which I’ve hiked twice) runs through the canyons from pass to pass. While I don’t have the time right now to tackle the entire trail, I’ve created a series of loops that I can try to do over the years. This one starts and stops at North Lake outside of Bishop. I’m super excited and also a bit unsure of how much snow I’ll be waking on. The timing is tricky for a trip in early June. Too much snow and some of the passes could be impossible at my skill level. Too much melt off and the many hundreds of small streams on this loop could become torrential rivers unsafe to cross.
Day 1
After barely making it to the Mono Visitor Center by closing time because of all the spring road work, I made it just 3 miles into the back-country today. I started at the Northlake campground and I hiked up to Lamarck Lakes Trail. Just a hundred yards out of the campground the trail splits. Left to Lamarck Lakes and right to Piute Pass. My loop will start to the left and come back on the right.
Uneventful 1700 foot ascent today that started through the new aspens and ended, for me, at Upper Lamarck Lake at 11,000 feet. I’ve got a great camp spot overlooking the lake and looking up at the southern end of the Glacial Divide. My goal tomorrow is to climb Lamarck Cole at right around 12,900 feet. I say “about” because I anticipate it being covered with snow and ice and the actual lowest point might not end up being the safest spot to cross the Col. We shall see. I think I’ve figured out what route I’m taking tomorrow morning, but from the map alone and a 2 mile distant view, I’m sure my plans will change as I get closer.
It’s pretty chilly right now. I would say it’s in the low 40s. I’m going to give sleeping out a try tonight and I did not set up my tent. It’s my favorite way to camp when it’s possible. There are very few bugs out so I’m not really worried about that. First star just showed itself. I’m listening to the waterfall at the back of the lake as I lay here. As the breeze blows eastward towards me, the waterfall gets louder and as the breeze dies down the waterfall quiets its song.
I’m wondering what the other side of the Col is gonna look like tomorrow morning when I get to the top and get to peer westward towards the bottom. I expect to be awed by the inspiring Darwin Canyon itself. Darwin sits just one canyon east of Evolution Canyon, my favorite canyon on the John Muir Trail. Surprising to be allergic to something here, as I’ve been sneezing since I started hiking. Never had allergies in the Sierras.
Day 2
Woke up cold numerous times and tweaked my sleep system a bit. Fell right back asleep each time. Thinking it got down to the low 30’s or high 20’s last night. And the allergies I walked my way through yesterday, not allergies. I’ve got a cold. Must have picked up a bug before I left school. Oh well. A cold can’t kill me. (Famous last words).
Supposed to leave early this morning. Didn’t happen. Continuous sneezing and a pounding head. Lots of water helped a bit with the head but the sneezing and runny nose got worse and worse. Very slow miles. Tons of post-holing today, sinking sometimes to my shins and others to my waist while the trail I was supposed be able to follow to the Sierra High Route was deep under snow.
Lamarck Col was tough. Ice ax and crampons the entire time. No slips. Everything looks way sketchier from down below. Once up on the angle, it just takes focus, but it really wasn’t scary today. Maybe tomorrow ;)
I’m stopped at upper Darwin Lakes right now and I just saw a bald eagle wave at me as it banked far above. It did one loop around the upper lake and then headed down the canyon to the lakes below.
The trek down the western side of the Col took hours. There was no trail at all. Boulders, ranging from the size of basketballs to the size of VW Bugs had to be carefully navigated as I descended. Spending time in the outdoors and picking through boulders like this, I can’t help think about Aaron Ralston and his misfortune. I stepped on, pushed off of, and braced myself against hundreds of rocks today. A few even moved slightly and settled back with a hallow echoing. But the only way to go was forward.
Darwin Canyon is absolutely amazing and very much like the JMT Evolution Canyon which is just south of where I am now. It’s amazing that about 1 mile over the the ridge I’m sitting under lies the John Muir Trail and PCT with all its traffic and its beat up trail. But here.... no trails to beat up and I haven’t seen more than two marmots and the bald eagle in all of Darwin Canyon.
About 15 minutes before I got to lower Darwin Lake where I will called it for today, I hit another steep snow stretch and had to put on my crampons on and pull out the ice ax. Although there was a lot of taking off and putting on, my snow gear seemed to be working well for the most part. The front attachments of the ultralight crampons were slipping lose but I could just reach down and pull on them.
I’ve made it to Lower Darwin Lake. Well... the last time I pulled one of the front connections of my crampons, they snapped. I haven’t started working on it for the night, to try to jimmy it for the rest of the trip. But, I do need to do something with it as there’s tons of snow and tons of need for crampons. I don’t see that changing for the rest of the trip.
Over my 8 hours of hiking today, I made it just 5 miles. The terrain coupled with my cold made it a very slow day. I’m already way behind where I’d scheduled to be but I’ve also thrown my schedule out. Everything now will be based on 1-Safety, as the terrain requires constant decisions and evaluations; 2-Health, as my cold is getting worse and the going up and down thousands of feet a day really “messes with my head”; 3-Timing, as I need to make sure that wherever I get to, I can get back out by the 12th to not miss all the important “end of 8th grade” events that start on the 13th.
Just before 6 and I’m going to work on some fixes for the crampon and the make some dinner. Maybe more later.
It’s amazing how raw my finger pads are. It’s a feeling I’ve never had before. I’m sure it’s from touching, holding and grazing thousands of granite rocks over the two days. Very unexpected. Fixed the crampons with a special tape called "Tenacious Tape". Put duct tape on top of that. Went ahead and did the straps on the crampon that didn’t break yet either. Just in case.
It’s cold night but I’m all toasty in my down jacket by beanie. My tent is set up tonight in hopes sleeping much warmer than last night.
Day 3
Slept much better but up still woke up a little bit cold. That’s not surprising since all of my water bladders and bottle are about 1/2 frozen this morning.
Woke up sneezing and didn’t feel like eating, so packed up and was gone by little after eight. So much easier this morning with much easier walking across still frozen and level snow. No snow equipment needed for a while. Later on, I used my crampons. But I’ve got to figure out a better way to secure them so they don’t slip around. At least the tape held.
Upon taking a break a ways down the canyon, I saw that there was another side canyon I could use as a cut off and kind of make a more direct route to join SHR. It meant that I missed actually “touching” the JMT but that was OK. I’ve touched it a few times. The canyon was beautiful and dropped gently. Finally, I got to the point I could make a northern turn and join the SHR.
The first three miles of the route was just north and above McClure Meadow on the JMT. I wondered how many hikers were below me, on the 10 or so mile stretch that I could see, and were hiking the entire 225 mile JMT or the 2650 mile PCT.
The three miles passed pretty quickly walking on forested benches between 10,700 and 11,000 feet. As the forest thinned out and the ridge turned to the right, I was able to get my first glimpse at my next obstacle; Snow Tongue Pass. Sitting at 12,200 feet, this I knew would present the biggest obstacle of the trip.
If was this very pass that James Hutchison and his four cohorts crossed in 1904 towards their first ascent of Mt. Humphreys on the eastern side over Glacier Divide.
The climb was tough. I thought coming down Lamarck Col was laborious but ascending Snow Tongue proved to be twice that. Boulders and snow. Nothing else. Constant post-holing sometimes making it very difficult to extract myself from waist deep holes. It took two hours from Lake Frances at the base to the summit. But oh the summit was wonderful. To the northeast was the towering hulk of Mt. Humphreys. At 13,986 feet, it has proven to be one of the most difficult to reach summits in the Sierra.
The part I was “ready” for after reading about this route, was the look virtually straight down on the backside of the summit. When James Hutchinson got to this point and looked down he noted that “the prospects were far from bright.” Hutchinson and his men decided to descend by ascending another 50 feet or so from the pass. And like his group, I did the same. It was no less steep here but, descent was much more possible. I avoided the extremely steep and snow filed “tongue” to my left. and instead picked my way down a combination of boulders, small rock and very loose scree for about 300 feet. At that point the dry land stopped and the snow began. It was about a 45 degree slope and it was about 1:00 pm now. I had tried to time it so I’d be here at just this time. By around now, the snow would have had sufficient time to soften up from its nightly freeing over but....it wouldn’t be so soft that I would sink. I got out my ice ax and prepared to glissade the additional 600 feet to Wahoo Lakes. And that’s just what I yelled the entire way down. Using my ice ax as a sort of rudder to steer me towards the left I enjoyed the ride a little kid only dreams of.
After the glissade, I walked on surprisingly firm snow for about a mile. It’s a crap shoot out here with the snow. Just when I think I’ll be able to tell the firmness of the snow based on time of day and directional exposure.... I’m wrong.
I decided not to camp at Wahoo lakes as there’s too much snow. That means a longer day for me getting out into the Humphrey Basin, but I can see from Wahoo that the basin is all but free of snow.
5:00
Sitting next to Piute Creek now and it feels good to have gotten down Snow Tongue Pass. I’ve set everything out to dry while making some dinner. It was very windy with wind gusts blowing at least 40 miles an hour. After eating, I put all my clothes back on, most still as wet and cold as they were when I hung them up, and hiked for about 30 minutes till I find found a nice little windbreak behind some pine trees and rock. It’s obvious that miles mean something very different out here on the non-trail route.
Tomorrow I think I’m going to walk to Puppet Lake. It’s not too far and definitely closer than I was planning on making it tomorrow. But the miles are slow. So I think I’ll hike the miles to Puppet Lake and then hang out for a while and do some nothing. I’ve got to hike over Puppet Pass to get there. So there’s that too.
Day 4
Good night of warm sleep at 11000 feet. Woke up to my water with a good 2 inches of ice on the top. I guess it IS cold out here. Taking it slowly this morning and airing out all my clothes on natures clothesline, called trees. Looks like a relatively easy walk today to Puppet Pass. There’s a summit about a mile off the pass called Pilot Knob I may try to hit before descending the pass to Puppet Lake for the night. We shall see how the hours go.
My cold is much worse today. I left about 8:30 and headed up north east towards Puppet Pass. It was a beautiful walk through Humphreys Basin. This has got to be one of my favorite basins in the Sierra and I must return to explore more. It’s hard to believe I’ve never been here before. As I walked over the rolling hills covered with erratics, or granite boulders, I noticed that my cold was still getting worse. It was causing a headache and incessant sneezing that made it difficult to move forward. I took frequent breaks and also had to cross the outlet of Desolation Creek which was running heavy and high. It took off my boots and put on my water crossing shoes and made the crossing. At about halfway up Puppet Pass, I stopped again at Mesa Lake to take pictures. From this vantage point Snow Tongue Pass looks impossible. Mount Darwin behind Alpine Col looks massive. All eight miles of Glacial Divide was visible from this point.
The final push to Puppet Pass wasn’t too hard or too sketchy. There was patchy snow that I did my best to walk around so not to test it’s stability. It’s amazing how firm the snow is for the first few hours in the morning and then how soft it gets later on.
The top Puppet Pass, at 11,800 feet, had a beautiful view into the next basin. I could see all the way up to Lake Mesa surrounded by a myriad of famous peaks including Seven Gables, Merriam Peak, Royce Peak, Mount Gabb and Bear Creek Spire. Unfortunately, I could not get down into the basin safely. I suppose I could’ve, had I had the wherewithal today. But the cold has really slowed me down. My plan tonight would’ve been to stay at the bottom of the pass at Puppet Lake and then tomorrow morning climb back up the pass. Down would have been possible. Not easy. But possible. I would use my ice ax in one long glissade. But coming back up tomorrow morning... a very hard, sketchy icy up.
So I decided to skip it and mosey back the long way towards the middle of Humphreys Basin. And mosey I did. Looking around and wandering around. It seemed to go on forever and ever with huge peaks surrounding me.
I’m standing out tonight thinking about a lot of the reading I’ve done in the past year. Josiah Whitney‘s party and other explores. Accounts of Hutchinson making some of the same very climbs I’ve made.
The fact that where I’m standing right now is the same place explorers stood in the late 1800s early 1900s amazes me.
They came with no maps, GPS, or information of any kind. They were true explorers. One hundred or one hundred and fifty years ago this place looked almost identical to what it does today. Sure, the basin has had its share of rockfalls, avalanches and fires. But my guess is that if you plopped James Hutchison here today... he wouldn’t be able to tell a difference. Just as if you dropped me into the basin in 1890, I wouldn’t know the difference either. Hard to believe some things change so much while others stay virtually the same.
Short day tomorrow as I’ll either be hiking just below Piute Pass or all the way out depending on how I feel. I'm camped within a mile of the trail tonight and still haven’t seen a single human being I stepped on the trail on Thursday night. This is exactly what I wanted and what I needed. Perfect escape after a flurry of activity. Having a cold isn’t great. But I’ve got to say, if I had to choose where to have a cold anywhere on this earth it would be right here.
Day 5
Woke up on and off with the chills last night. I know it was just as cold last night, but it felt colder. Wondering if I had a bit of a temperature last night as well. Once the sun hit my tent at 6:30 it warmed up quickly. What also was quickly apparent was that my foggy head needed to head out. I just didn’t want to take the chance that my energy levels would drop further preventing me from getting out on time.
Packing slowly, I took in my surroundings once more. As I stood atop a large rock gazing at Glacier Divide, somewhere in those thousands of feet and eight miles, a rock broke loose and brought with it tons of others. There was no possible way to find the rupture with the naked eye so I stood and enjoyed the crashing sounds that turned to rumblings for almost a minute.
The hike out was pleasant. Not much snow to contend with and only sank a few times. The view from Piute Pass of Glacier Divide was my last for this trip, but I’m sure not my last forever.
A half a mile before the North Lake Trailhead, I passed two day hikers coming towards me. We greeted each other, as they seemed in quite the hurry. Two people in 5 days.
Yeah....I’ll be back.
Day 1
After barely making it to the Mono Visitor Center by closing time because of all the spring road work, I made it just 3 miles into the back-country today. I started at the Northlake campground and I hiked up to Lamarck Lakes Trail. Just a hundred yards out of the campground the trail splits. Left to Lamarck Lakes and right to Piute Pass. My loop will start to the left and come back on the right.
Uneventful 1700 foot ascent today that started through the new aspens and ended, for me, at Upper Lamarck Lake at 11,000 feet. I’ve got a great camp spot overlooking the lake and looking up at the southern end of the Glacial Divide. My goal tomorrow is to climb Lamarck Cole at right around 12,900 feet. I say “about” because I anticipate it being covered with snow and ice and the actual lowest point might not end up being the safest spot to cross the Col. We shall see. I think I’ve figured out what route I’m taking tomorrow morning, but from the map alone and a 2 mile distant view, I’m sure my plans will change as I get closer.
It’s pretty chilly right now. I would say it’s in the low 40s. I’m going to give sleeping out a try tonight and I did not set up my tent. It’s my favorite way to camp when it’s possible. There are very few bugs out so I’m not really worried about that. First star just showed itself. I’m listening to the waterfall at the back of the lake as I lay here. As the breeze blows eastward towards me, the waterfall gets louder and as the breeze dies down the waterfall quiets its song.
I’m wondering what the other side of the Col is gonna look like tomorrow morning when I get to the top and get to peer westward towards the bottom. I expect to be awed by the inspiring Darwin Canyon itself. Darwin sits just one canyon east of Evolution Canyon, my favorite canyon on the John Muir Trail. Surprising to be allergic to something here, as I’ve been sneezing since I started hiking. Never had allergies in the Sierras.
Day 2
Woke up cold numerous times and tweaked my sleep system a bit. Fell right back asleep each time. Thinking it got down to the low 30’s or high 20’s last night. And the allergies I walked my way through yesterday, not allergies. I’ve got a cold. Must have picked up a bug before I left school. Oh well. A cold can’t kill me. (Famous last words).
Supposed to leave early this morning. Didn’t happen. Continuous sneezing and a pounding head. Lots of water helped a bit with the head but the sneezing and runny nose got worse and worse. Very slow miles. Tons of post-holing today, sinking sometimes to my shins and others to my waist while the trail I was supposed be able to follow to the Sierra High Route was deep under snow.
Lamarck Col was tough. Ice ax and crampons the entire time. No slips. Everything looks way sketchier from down below. Once up on the angle, it just takes focus, but it really wasn’t scary today. Maybe tomorrow ;)
I’m stopped at upper Darwin Lakes right now and I just saw a bald eagle wave at me as it banked far above. It did one loop around the upper lake and then headed down the canyon to the lakes below.
The trek down the western side of the Col took hours. There was no trail at all. Boulders, ranging from the size of basketballs to the size of VW Bugs had to be carefully navigated as I descended. Spending time in the outdoors and picking through boulders like this, I can’t help think about Aaron Ralston and his misfortune. I stepped on, pushed off of, and braced myself against hundreds of rocks today. A few even moved slightly and settled back with a hallow echoing. But the only way to go was forward.
Darwin Canyon is absolutely amazing and very much like the JMT Evolution Canyon which is just south of where I am now. It’s amazing that about 1 mile over the the ridge I’m sitting under lies the John Muir Trail and PCT with all its traffic and its beat up trail. But here.... no trails to beat up and I haven’t seen more than two marmots and the bald eagle in all of Darwin Canyon.
About 15 minutes before I got to lower Darwin Lake where I will called it for today, I hit another steep snow stretch and had to put on my crampons on and pull out the ice ax. Although there was a lot of taking off and putting on, my snow gear seemed to be working well for the most part. The front attachments of the ultralight crampons were slipping lose but I could just reach down and pull on them.
I’ve made it to Lower Darwin Lake. Well... the last time I pulled one of the front connections of my crampons, they snapped. I haven’t started working on it for the night, to try to jimmy it for the rest of the trip. But, I do need to do something with it as there’s tons of snow and tons of need for crampons. I don’t see that changing for the rest of the trip.
Over my 8 hours of hiking today, I made it just 5 miles. The terrain coupled with my cold made it a very slow day. I’m already way behind where I’d scheduled to be but I’ve also thrown my schedule out. Everything now will be based on 1-Safety, as the terrain requires constant decisions and evaluations; 2-Health, as my cold is getting worse and the going up and down thousands of feet a day really “messes with my head”; 3-Timing, as I need to make sure that wherever I get to, I can get back out by the 12th to not miss all the important “end of 8th grade” events that start on the 13th.
Just before 6 and I’m going to work on some fixes for the crampon and the make some dinner. Maybe more later.
It’s amazing how raw my finger pads are. It’s a feeling I’ve never had before. I’m sure it’s from touching, holding and grazing thousands of granite rocks over the two days. Very unexpected. Fixed the crampons with a special tape called "Tenacious Tape". Put duct tape on top of that. Went ahead and did the straps on the crampon that didn’t break yet either. Just in case.
It’s cold night but I’m all toasty in my down jacket by beanie. My tent is set up tonight in hopes sleeping much warmer than last night.
Day 3
Slept much better but up still woke up a little bit cold. That’s not surprising since all of my water bladders and bottle are about 1/2 frozen this morning.
Woke up sneezing and didn’t feel like eating, so packed up and was gone by little after eight. So much easier this morning with much easier walking across still frozen and level snow. No snow equipment needed for a while. Later on, I used my crampons. But I’ve got to figure out a better way to secure them so they don’t slip around. At least the tape held.
Upon taking a break a ways down the canyon, I saw that there was another side canyon I could use as a cut off and kind of make a more direct route to join SHR. It meant that I missed actually “touching” the JMT but that was OK. I’ve touched it a few times. The canyon was beautiful and dropped gently. Finally, I got to the point I could make a northern turn and join the SHR.
The first three miles of the route was just north and above McClure Meadow on the JMT. I wondered how many hikers were below me, on the 10 or so mile stretch that I could see, and were hiking the entire 225 mile JMT or the 2650 mile PCT.
The three miles passed pretty quickly walking on forested benches between 10,700 and 11,000 feet. As the forest thinned out and the ridge turned to the right, I was able to get my first glimpse at my next obstacle; Snow Tongue Pass. Sitting at 12,200 feet, this I knew would present the biggest obstacle of the trip.
If was this very pass that James Hutchison and his four cohorts crossed in 1904 towards their first ascent of Mt. Humphreys on the eastern side over Glacier Divide.
The climb was tough. I thought coming down Lamarck Col was laborious but ascending Snow Tongue proved to be twice that. Boulders and snow. Nothing else. Constant post-holing sometimes making it very difficult to extract myself from waist deep holes. It took two hours from Lake Frances at the base to the summit. But oh the summit was wonderful. To the northeast was the towering hulk of Mt. Humphreys. At 13,986 feet, it has proven to be one of the most difficult to reach summits in the Sierra.
The part I was “ready” for after reading about this route, was the look virtually straight down on the backside of the summit. When James Hutchinson got to this point and looked down he noted that “the prospects were far from bright.” Hutchinson and his men decided to descend by ascending another 50 feet or so from the pass. And like his group, I did the same. It was no less steep here but, descent was much more possible. I avoided the extremely steep and snow filed “tongue” to my left. and instead picked my way down a combination of boulders, small rock and very loose scree for about 300 feet. At that point the dry land stopped and the snow began. It was about a 45 degree slope and it was about 1:00 pm now. I had tried to time it so I’d be here at just this time. By around now, the snow would have had sufficient time to soften up from its nightly freeing over but....it wouldn’t be so soft that I would sink. I got out my ice ax and prepared to glissade the additional 600 feet to Wahoo Lakes. And that’s just what I yelled the entire way down. Using my ice ax as a sort of rudder to steer me towards the left I enjoyed the ride a little kid only dreams of.
After the glissade, I walked on surprisingly firm snow for about a mile. It’s a crap shoot out here with the snow. Just when I think I’ll be able to tell the firmness of the snow based on time of day and directional exposure.... I’m wrong.
I decided not to camp at Wahoo lakes as there’s too much snow. That means a longer day for me getting out into the Humphrey Basin, but I can see from Wahoo that the basin is all but free of snow.
5:00
Sitting next to Piute Creek now and it feels good to have gotten down Snow Tongue Pass. I’ve set everything out to dry while making some dinner. It was very windy with wind gusts blowing at least 40 miles an hour. After eating, I put all my clothes back on, most still as wet and cold as they were when I hung them up, and hiked for about 30 minutes till I find found a nice little windbreak behind some pine trees and rock. It’s obvious that miles mean something very different out here on the non-trail route.
Tomorrow I think I’m going to walk to Puppet Lake. It’s not too far and definitely closer than I was planning on making it tomorrow. But the miles are slow. So I think I’ll hike the miles to Puppet Lake and then hang out for a while and do some nothing. I’ve got to hike over Puppet Pass to get there. So there’s that too.
Day 4
Good night of warm sleep at 11000 feet. Woke up to my water with a good 2 inches of ice on the top. I guess it IS cold out here. Taking it slowly this morning and airing out all my clothes on natures clothesline, called trees. Looks like a relatively easy walk today to Puppet Pass. There’s a summit about a mile off the pass called Pilot Knob I may try to hit before descending the pass to Puppet Lake for the night. We shall see how the hours go.
My cold is much worse today. I left about 8:30 and headed up north east towards Puppet Pass. It was a beautiful walk through Humphreys Basin. This has got to be one of my favorite basins in the Sierra and I must return to explore more. It’s hard to believe I’ve never been here before. As I walked over the rolling hills covered with erratics, or granite boulders, I noticed that my cold was still getting worse. It was causing a headache and incessant sneezing that made it difficult to move forward. I took frequent breaks and also had to cross the outlet of Desolation Creek which was running heavy and high. It took off my boots and put on my water crossing shoes and made the crossing. At about halfway up Puppet Pass, I stopped again at Mesa Lake to take pictures. From this vantage point Snow Tongue Pass looks impossible. Mount Darwin behind Alpine Col looks massive. All eight miles of Glacial Divide was visible from this point.
The final push to Puppet Pass wasn’t too hard or too sketchy. There was patchy snow that I did my best to walk around so not to test it’s stability. It’s amazing how firm the snow is for the first few hours in the morning and then how soft it gets later on.
The top Puppet Pass, at 11,800 feet, had a beautiful view into the next basin. I could see all the way up to Lake Mesa surrounded by a myriad of famous peaks including Seven Gables, Merriam Peak, Royce Peak, Mount Gabb and Bear Creek Spire. Unfortunately, I could not get down into the basin safely. I suppose I could’ve, had I had the wherewithal today. But the cold has really slowed me down. My plan tonight would’ve been to stay at the bottom of the pass at Puppet Lake and then tomorrow morning climb back up the pass. Down would have been possible. Not easy. But possible. I would use my ice ax in one long glissade. But coming back up tomorrow morning... a very hard, sketchy icy up.
So I decided to skip it and mosey back the long way towards the middle of Humphreys Basin. And mosey I did. Looking around and wandering around. It seemed to go on forever and ever with huge peaks surrounding me.
I’m standing out tonight thinking about a lot of the reading I’ve done in the past year. Josiah Whitney‘s party and other explores. Accounts of Hutchinson making some of the same very climbs I’ve made.
The fact that where I’m standing right now is the same place explorers stood in the late 1800s early 1900s amazes me.
They came with no maps, GPS, or information of any kind. They were true explorers. One hundred or one hundred and fifty years ago this place looked almost identical to what it does today. Sure, the basin has had its share of rockfalls, avalanches and fires. But my guess is that if you plopped James Hutchison here today... he wouldn’t be able to tell a difference. Just as if you dropped me into the basin in 1890, I wouldn’t know the difference either. Hard to believe some things change so much while others stay virtually the same.
Short day tomorrow as I’ll either be hiking just below Piute Pass or all the way out depending on how I feel. I'm camped within a mile of the trail tonight and still haven’t seen a single human being I stepped on the trail on Thursday night. This is exactly what I wanted and what I needed. Perfect escape after a flurry of activity. Having a cold isn’t great. But I’ve got to say, if I had to choose where to have a cold anywhere on this earth it would be right here.
Day 5
Woke up on and off with the chills last night. I know it was just as cold last night, but it felt colder. Wondering if I had a bit of a temperature last night as well. Once the sun hit my tent at 6:30 it warmed up quickly. What also was quickly apparent was that my foggy head needed to head out. I just didn’t want to take the chance that my energy levels would drop further preventing me from getting out on time.
Packing slowly, I took in my surroundings once more. As I stood atop a large rock gazing at Glacier Divide, somewhere in those thousands of feet and eight miles, a rock broke loose and brought with it tons of others. There was no possible way to find the rupture with the naked eye so I stood and enjoyed the crashing sounds that turned to rumblings for almost a minute.
The hike out was pleasant. Not much snow to contend with and only sank a few times. The view from Piute Pass of Glacier Divide was my last for this trip, but I’m sure not my last forever.
A half a mile before the North Lake Trailhead, I passed two day hikers coming towards me. We greeted each other, as they seemed in quite the hurry. Two people in 5 days.
Yeah....I’ll be back.