High Sierra Topix

Sweet report - your photos really bring back how nice that weather got after the tropical storm blew through. After your wedding, will you & Andrey be able to get your wives out, or will you join the ranks of Mav, Jim & myself as solo dogs?

Hobbes wrote:Sweet report - your photos really bring back how nice that weather got after the tropical storm blew through. After your wedding, will you & Andrey be able to get your wives out, or will you join the ranks of Mav, Jim & myself as solo dogs?

Good question...I'm working on my lady to get into this life, though I likely burned her out on it already down in Peru a few years ago. I've discovered that it's a good idea to ease her into it. Andrey's lady likes getting into the mountains and hiking, but the backpacking side isn't her favorite so far. Thankfully both of them are willing to let us part ways for a weekend here and there, in fact they probably appreciate a bit of time away...

Thanks for the great report! I was just sitting down to finally start posting mine, but reading about your journey and looking at the beautiful photos provided yet another reason to procrastinate. Many thanks for letting me try your panoramic camera mount at the meetup. It was good to meet you, Andrey and the rest of the HST crew. I'm already looking forward to next year.

I can change her if I just go slow enough

Yeah, that oughta work

What a great trip report, MN2CAPisco! Us guys from Bako get a lot of bad pub because of where we have to live because of our jobs. Thanks for making it just a bit more difficult!

Bluewater wrote:It was good to meet you, Andrey and the rest of the HST crew. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Likewise Andy! I admit I'm looking forward to your TR, no rush though as I'm sure it'll be nice to reminisce later in the year when I'm dreaming of this great summer trip.

Jimr wrote: I can change her if I just go slow enough

Yeah, that oughta work

Slow is the name of the game! I struggle with that though

richlong8 wrote:What a great trip report, MN2CAPisco! Us guys from Bako get a lot of bad pub because of where we have to live because of our jobs. Thanks for making it just a bit more difficult!

Thanks Rich, was great to meet you out there! I contend that Bakersfield is a great place from which to explore the Sierra...equidistant from either west side or east side trailheads, plus the difference between the heat and air quality of where we live makes the mountain experience that much better.

Wonderful TR and pictures MN2CAPisco! Hopefully TR's of this Meet-up, will entice others to join in on the fun and adventure, taking advantage of meeting like-minded, mountain loving members, which in turn evolve into lifetime, and meaningful friendships!

MN2CAPisco, nice report and photos! Especially the 360 panos. Seems like just last week...

Nice, Roger. Outstanding photography! I like that you captured Lake 11,445 in Nine Lakes Basin. The middle-elevation benches of Nine Lakes Basin were a real highlight for me, scenery-wise, on this trip, and yet people seem to mention this location only in passing.

I'll get to my own report, one of these weeks.

- Elizabeth

Day 1 Saturday Mineral king ranger Station 8am took ½ hour to get permit then up to trailhead to wrap my car to protect it from the marmots. Started hiking 9am way to late in my opinion but there was NO way to get my permit the day before as my drive was 6 ½ hours and I got off work at noon left house at 2:30 slept at trailhead in car. Parking lot was almost full, worked my way up the trail to the old trail to glacier pass right where one would cross the creek, go left instead, 1st part was easy to follow, then I second guessed myself when I saw a trail still going up the creek so I traversed to it and ended up on the main sawtooth pass trail, by the time I made it to Glacier Pass the clouds had moved in and decided it was unwise to try and get Sawtooth and Needham peaks so went down to Spring lake on a nice use trail and set up my tent as Hands and knees pass was next and I didn’t want to be anywhere near a ridge with a storm coming . Good call within a ½ hour the rain began followed by amazing lightning/ thunder /hail all around me and VERY close!

Day 2 Spring Lake to what I call Lippencott lake. I took awhile to get going due to the rain, worked my way up Hands and Knees pass maybe a little class 3 at the top but easy route finding, the other side was very easy, traversed over to the ridge between big and little five lakes then down to Little 5 lakes found the Black rock trail after some navigational errors then veered off trail towards the other little 5 lakes where I saw a bald eagle right above me! I was going to go to Eisen peak from here but already the ridges were looking like rain so went back to the trail and followed it to the big arroyo patrol cabin where a group of younger folks were holed up due to the rain. From there I went North on the HST till I could work up to the slabs to Lippencott Lake north east of Lippencott peak. Before I got to the lake it started raining again. After I got there I walked all over to find a flat non rocky camp spot, if there is one at this lake I could not find it. I made a platform out of flat rocks to set up my tent it worked very well and kept the bottom of my tent dry as the copious amounts of water came down from the sky. Day 3 lippencott Lake, peak to heart lake Nine lakes Basin. Woke up and it was still raining was not sure I was going to be able to hike this day as the granite slabs I needed to go down would probably be to wet, then it got somewhat nicer around 8 so decided to go for Lippencott peak not to bad from the north side, go up to the saddle class 2 ramps then traverse and up to the peak got into some class 3 but could have probably avoided it. Beautiful from up there with all the clouds around me but wanted to get down and past the granite slabs before the rain started again.

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