Carter and Dani drove up from Pasadena, meeting us at Cloudburst Summit for a hike down the PCT to Cooper Canyon Falls. We had set this up as a shuttle hike, knowing that we’d lose over 1,900′ on our way to the falls and didn’t want to regain all that coming back – we…
We both woke up a bit sore from our outing yesterday, but we wanted to get a hike in anyway, if for no other reason than to get stiff muscles loosened up. We settled on going up the Blue Ridge trail near Mountain High, but by the time we got to the trailhead, it…
After sheltering in place since early March, we decided it was finally time to venture up to Wrightwood for our first visit there since February. Not that we couldn’t have made the trip sooner, but projects at home and other family priorities – as well as a desire to not adversely affect the very…
In Wrightwood for the weekend, we got a short hike in up Mt. Akawie, which sits above Cooper Canyon and north of Hwy 2 near Waterman Mountain. Named for a long-time Sierra Club leader in the Angeles chapter, the rounded peak is reached via an old jeep road coupled with a well-defined use trail,…
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…
As a final tune-up before our backpack trip in the High Sierra near Mammoth next weekend, Pedro organized a hike to Mt. Pinos and Sawmill Mountain with some friends from work, Shane and Michelle, and we tagged along since we’re all about the fun – the reader may remember that Mt. Pinos is the…
Before heading home from the cabin, we decided to take a “quick” jaunt down the PCT from Inspiration Point to some undetermined location where we’d turn around and retrace our steps – Chris’ upcoming backpack trip would average around 7-8 miles a day between 8,000′-10,000′, and he still felt the need to do some…