We again woke up pretty early, and we took advantage of our isolated camp site to start packing things up soon thereafter – so much for the best laid plans. As the sky started to brighten, we got up on some rocks above our home away from home for a clearer view of the meadow,…
Day 3 started with some coffee at our campsite while we waited for those around us to stir before packing up our stuff – the net result of that delay, however, was that we were not remotely ready to go before they blew the 7am conch shell summoning HSC guests to coffee, nor were…
Day 2 found us awake pretty early as neither of us had slept particularly well – temps had been in the 40s overnight, but perhaps the 20-degree sleeping bags we’d brought were a little too warm at this low elevation, especially during the first few nighttime hours when it was still quite toasty in…
Much as our hiking adventures in Maui three years ago centered around our walk through Haleakala’s crater, most of our various hikes this year have been oriented toward preparing for a six-day backpacking trip in the high country of Yosemite National Park. Until this year, Chris had done a handful of backpack excursions, but…
We decided to spend a couple of nights in Bishop on our way north to begin our Yosemite trip, so Sunday’s agenda called for a short hike to stretch our legs and tune up a little. We looked at literally dozens of options, in the end settling on a 5+-mile out-and-back exploration up the…
We’ve been gradually accumulating our backpacking gear over the last couple of years, and one of our first purchases we made were sleeping bags – they have down tops but synthetic bottoms, the idea being that down loses its insulating value when compressed whereas synthetics do so less. Our pads are lightweight air mattresses…
We knew we wanted to do some sort of day hike out of Pear Lake on Saturday but had yet to decide on exactly what. Alta Peak was an attractive destination, but the clear presence of snow not only on the approach slopes but in the visible chutes and on the ridge dissuaded us…
We’ve been hiking with full packs the past couple of months in preparation for our upcoming six-day backpack trip in Yosemite, and this particular weekend had long been slated for a shorter practice excursion, a shakedown cruise of sorts to prove out both our gear and our ability. We’ve had a wilderness permit since…
As on Mother’s Day a few weeks ago, Father’s Day found us driving up the Kern River Canyon in the early morning, this time bound for Sherman Pass, a little more than an hour’s drive northeast of Kernville. Sherman Peak, elev. 9,909′, lies 2-1/2 trail miles northwest of the pass and was the destination…
Being busy with other commitments on Saturday left us with Mother’s Day as the only day to hike this week, and we decided to pay Mill Creek a third visit, not having been up this way for almost three years. There was a 20% chance of rain in the forecast, which we took to…