We woke up leisurely on Friday morning after not the most fitful sleep. It’s funny how sounds carry in the high country – the breeze on the lake water caused it to lap against the shoreline, and to us in our tent it sounded a lot like a large animal lapping up water from…
This weekend was originally supposed to be Dani’s first backpacking trip, our destination being Honeymoon Lake, west of Bishop below Pine Creek Pass and accessed via a steep, mostly-unshaded trail. After Chris’ and Carter’s difficulties at Tyee Lakes, a relatively easier trail than Pine Creek, we looked around for an alternate, available site for…
Before last night’s early bedtime, we had discussed getting an earlier start today in order to beat the worst of the holiday traffic we expected to be heading back to SoCal, and we were both up and about by 6:30am. After a cup of coffee, Carter packed up his bag and headed off to…
Despite being quite tired from yesterday’s hike up to Lake 1, neither Chris nor Carter got good sleep. Both of us got out of our cozy sleeping bags about 7am, surprised to find our campsite already bathed in sun with a comfortable temperature in the high 50s. We made coffee, and Carter shortly announced…
Originally, we’d had a five-day trip to Mount Whitney planned for the July Fourth weekend, but with no real opportunity to train for what was expected to be a strenuous trip, we canceled it in May. Few alternatives were available for the same dates, but Chris managed to snag a two-spot permit for Tyee…
We had several different options on how to get back to the car at Agnew Meadows today, and we talked them all through the night before. We could walk the 2-1/2 miles north up to Thousand Island Lake, but the shortest trail back from there would be over 8 additional miles down the San…
Today was expected to be our toughest of the four days in the Ritter Range, about 8 miles east and then north up to Thousand Island Lake – this more than any other of our destinations was important to Chris, recalling years before hearing his dad’s stories of backpacking here in the early 60’s…
Day 2 of our Ritter Range adventures didn’t really have a firm plan. Chris for sure wanted to hike up to Iceberg Lake, so named for the perpetual ice that floats on its surface year round, but, other than that, no one had any preconceptions for how to spend our time this day. We…
Several months ago, Chris secured a permit to one of the locations that had been on his bucket list for a long time: the Ritter Range, specifically Ediza, Garnet, and Thousand Island Lakes that lie in the eastern shadow of the range. The mountain ridge lies west of the Sierra crest northwest of Mammoth…
Today became an exercise in logistics. From the start, our plan was to hike out from May Lake some 3 miles down to the Tioga Road where we could catch the daily shuttle bus at Tenaya Lake to get back to the car at Tuolumne Meadows. The shuttle, which originates in Yosemite Valley, passes…