Two trips in two weeks! Duck Pass and Gianelli Cabin THs
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I was able to get out for two trips in the past two weeks, after a long period of no trips due to scheduling, plantar fasciitis, and other obstacles (except for an overnight 2 miles in to Point Reyes' Coast Camp last month with my 2 nephews and their daughters; it was my 3 grandnieces' first backpack experience, which doesn't really count much as backpacking for me – though it sure was fun!).
The first trip was in the midst of a week of dayhiking around Mammoth Lakes, an annual event for the group of retirees I hike with every week in the Bay Area. They always plan a "free day" on Wednesday, so first I looked for a backpacking route that would connect the Tuesday and Thursday dayhikes, using the recently posted Sierra Mapper. It came up with a nice 36-miler between Mono Pass TH and Duck Pass TH. But somehow I couldn't convince any of the group to join me on a 3-day, 36 mile, 9K feet ascent trip…and I wasn't sure at that point if I was physically up to it either (I now know I would have been). So I downsized it to an overnighter leaving from the Duck Pass TH and going to Purple Lake, and found two others who would join me.
We left Wednesday morning from the trailhead by Lake Mary, then climbed up to Duck Pass and had lunch.
From there we passed Duck Lake,
proceeded to Purple Lake (7.7 miles in, ~2700 feet cumulative gain according to Sierra Mapper), which I'd read about after initially targeting that as our destination; it didn't seem like it had as many good sites or was as scenic as Lake Virginia, only a couple of miles further in at 9.8 miles, 3500 ft gain. I cautiously offered that idea along the way, and was happy that my companions were good with the idea of continuing on to Lake Virginia.
As we crossed the saddle between the two lakes, we started hearing distant rumbles of thunder. Somehow that saddle seemed like the widest one I've ever crossed – 1/4 mile or so, probably seemed much longer with the threat of incoming weather! We dropped down to the lake and started searching for tent sites, and just as we found some in some smaller trees, the first drops started falling. By the time the tents were up it was raining pretty hard, and about 5 minutes later the hail started, along with plenty of thunder and lightning. About 5 minutes after that, the hail shifted to garbanzo bean-sized pellets, and continued for about 40 minutes. Most of the lightning was followed 4-8 seconds later by thunder, but there was one flash that was IMMEDIATELY followed by the loudest, longest thunderclap…that got my attention!When I set up my tent, I checked the thermometer; it was at 60 F, and it dropped approx. 1 degree per minute during the storm until it hit 42 F, where it stayed until the sun started dropping. (it reached 33 F during the night)
Despite great accumulation of hail on the outside of my tent during the storm, my Lightheart Solo held up wonderfully, much to my relief. When the storm finally stopped, I was able to get out and view the wintry scene outside, then cook my dinner. The clouds gradually lifted and by morning the sky was clear.
I chatted with a couple of JMT hikers who'd been rained on the past two days, got to the lake and were able to dry out their wet stuff just in time to get it wet again when the storm hit. They were out at the lake, watching the clouds coming in from the east, which didn't look quite ready to rain, when suddenly another group of really dark clouds came from the south and started dumping.That morning, there was still lots of hail left on the ground.
We packed up and headed back down the trail, keeping an eye on the gathering clouds as the day went on – but it never really managed to do more than sprinkle a little on the way back.
I was really happy to have a 15-lb base weight, which included an extra Micropuff and my MYOG bivy (for insurance, and just to see how functional they were for me on a BP trip). This was the easiest it has ever been for me to get up that amount of elevation – I'm sure using my trail shoes rather than boots helped too, though not as much as the light pack. I was very conscious of the debt I owed to BPL in general, and many individuals in particular, for either invaluable advice on gear and techniques or for passing on their used items.
More pictures and videos at: https://picasaweb.google.com/116911809449589687623/LakeVirginiaBP?authkey=Gv1sRgCK3U5-ue_LijGg
The following week, I took a very different trip. This was with a friend who had a little backpacking experience many years ago, but hadn't done any since her boys were little (they're grown up now). I loaned her some of my older stuff, which was still far lighter than what she had used before.
After driving up from the Bay Area Wednesday morning, we left from Gianelli Cabin around noon, where elevation changes are more gentle and we had lots of options for stopping early if she wasn't feeling like a lot of miles. As it turned out we did reasonably well; 6.6 miles the first (half) day, 9 miles each the second and third days, and 5 miles the last half day (had to get back to the Bay Area for a party).
The first evening we camped at Whiteside Meadows, to the accompaniment of tinkling cowbells from the herd of bovines occupying the other end of the meadows.
Though I theoretically don't approve of having cows up there in a wilderness area, I did find they really added to the bucolic atmosphere of the meadow. We had our own private planetarium display, with the wide vista to the east, and one shooting star in particular left an amazing bright red trail across the sky.Thursday we headed for Wire Lakes, though we ended up taking a (unintended) one-mile detour to Upper Relief meadows. When I saw the unnamed lakes in the meadow where I wasn't expecting to see any, I realized I'd taken a wrong turn. It became clear on this trip that I have been a follower so much recently that I wasn't attending to details like checking routes, and would kind of absent-mindedly head down a trail at a junction without being certain of which trail I needed to take, assuming that I knew it better than I did! After that little detour (which was beautiful and resulted in us seeing areas and chatting with people we wouldn't otherwise have encountered) we were able to get to upper Wire Lake in plenty of time to explore the area, climb up the ridge northwest of the lake and look down on beautiful Spring Meadow, and enjoy the lake (which we had completely to ourselves as far as I could tell).
Friday morning we headed back towards Chewing Gum Lake, which got fairly crowded by evening, though everyone was quiet and unobtrusive. On the way there we encountered a cowboy driving "our" cows from Whiteside meadow to a new grazing area (Post Corral Canyon?); it was interesting to see his 2 dogs working the herd, but the number of rocks that had been kicked into the trail by the cows was distressing to see. I felt sorry for the trail maintenance crew there! After we got to Chewing Gum Lake and camped, a ranger ended up booting a few people out of campsites that were way way too close to the water (not us!); we had a nice chat with her. The afternoon was warm enough that we both went for a swim (it's a shallow lake, and pretty warm). I slept outside of the tent that night, for the first time, in my MYOG bivy – lots of condensation inside around my head, where I was breathing, but otherwise a very nice experience.
Saturday morning we chatted with a couple of Minnesotans who were camped nearby; one of them commented that my pack looked "pretty light" – even though I was carrying way more than I had on the previous trip, so my friend wouldn't be overwhelmed :) I later commented to her that he couldn't have paid me a more flattering compliment! I encouraged him to check out BPL (he said he was carrying 60 pounds for a 4-day trip, oy!). As we headed back out, there were dozens of people heading in, mostly with little kids, mostly going to Powell Lake (2 miles in) or Chewing Gum Lake (4-5 miles in). We were glad not to be sharing a lake with them, but it was really nice to see so many families getting out with their kids backpacking.Complete trip album: https://picasaweb.google.com/116911809449589687623/EmigrantTrip2014?authkey=Gv1sRgCPeHgq_FquGrpAE
Of note: the lack of mosquitoes on these two trips was remarkable to me – I've never backpacked with so little mosquito presence!
Though I theoretically don't approve of having cows up there in a wilderness area, I did find they really added to the bucolic atmosphere of the meadow. We had our own private planetarium display, with the wide vista to the east, and one shooting star in particular left an amazing bright red trail across the sky.
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