High Sierra Topix

THat was an awesome journey. And the pics were incredible. I don't think I"ve ever seen bucks that big in the Sierra. Thanks so much for sharing.
ts

SweetSierra writes:

I'm so used to seeing your reports with your puppy companion. You must have felt his absence.

Ya, I missed Bearzy a lot. The Coyotes, and all the other animals were cool, but not one of them would go fetch sticks in the lake. Having Bearzy with me during the climbs would have been challenging. He is a great boulder leaper, but on 3 of the climbs, he would have had to be tied up near the summits. I believe he would have cruised up the Mountaineer's Route pretty easily, and could have pranced along the Russell ridge if I let him, but that would have made the route twice- no, three times as scary! There are a lot of people that Love Bearzy, so if he were to pop off it would really matter.
I think like most dogs, Bear's favorite trips are the ones that explore nice dirt trails, shady forests, and wet meadow and lake lands. This trip was often hot, dry and rocky. Thanks for thinking of him though.


Next best thing
And here are those Bighorn behinds on the ridge: They were cool to see too-- can you see them? (click to enlarge) Do you believe me?


Here you can see one tiny sheep figure on the skyline, right of center: (okay, these are not award-winning images), but there she is.

*Yawn* not impressed. Wildlife, scenery, spectacular scrambling, monster fish... sure. But where are your skis? IF YOU'RE DOING IT WITH SKIS ON YOU'RE SKIING!

Wow. Great looking fish, and what an amazing climb up that razor thin ridge of Russell. I tried watching the video you linked and had to turn it off. I probably would have fallen from my chair to the floor from my vertigo! The picture of Center Peak reflected is awesome.

That is one amazing trip with enough neat hiking routes, classic climbs, and good fishing to last several seasons. How did you manage to do all this starting out with just 35 lbs on your back?

Giantbrookie asks:

How did you manage to do all this starting out with just 35 lbs on your back?

Well, as robertseeburger pointed out, I went way too light on the spirits, and I still refuse to pack cans of beer- that's too much like carrying water. Knowing your passion for beer John, we assume that your 50lb packs- along with the giant fishing kit, include at least a few tall cans of store bought beer, and maybe even bottles of your home-brew! My pack weight is normal enough for a light eating guy practicing restraint.

*though never hungry, I did come out weighing 168, which is 12 lbs. light.

Harlen wrote: ↑Sat Aug 29, 2020 8:12 am*though never hungry, I did come out weighing 168, which is 12 lbs. light.

Dang, 12 pounds lighter sounds significant but I guess that's only 6-7%. Is this typical for you on longer trips? I suppose now that I think about it, I can remember one summer when I was backpacking a lot more than usual and was about 25 pounds lighter than usual.

windknot asks:

...12 pounds lighter... Is this typical for you on longer trips?

Yes it is. I felt I ate well, especially with all the fish. I found the fish meals filling, but someone here once posted that fish are low calorie, and it's not realistic to just take oil and lemon-pepper, and expect to hike far, and live on fish??? I think it sounds great to count on fish-- breakfast, lunch and dinner, but I've never done it yet.

Harlen wrote: ↑Sat Aug 29, 2020 8:12 am *though never hungry, I did come out weighing 168, which is 12 lbs. light.

So is this the 'boxer's weigh in' style weighed upon the return home? The reason I ask is that sometimes we're short a bit of liquid and food, owing to the long drive home (I stay on the dehydrated side), so I always figured the "official weigh in" was after I ate dinner when I returned home. Measured that way I think my largest weight loss was in 1980 when I went into a Taboose-Split-Prater trip (overnight only) and went from about 178 (went in extra heavy for that trip but in top hiking form) and weighed in after dinner at about 168. Although only two days there was minimal food consumed on that trip and we burned a ton in those two crazy days

Recently my base weight has been much leaner. I'm usually dead on about 160, which is what I was before I left on my 8-day trip (ate like crazy in two days following Deso trip to increase from 156). I weighed in at 150 for the "boxer's weigh in", after returning home from the 8-day trip (first time I checked this), but after fully hydrating and eating a big dinner, I was 156. So in my book I lost 4 lbs rather than 10. My wife was a bit freaked out by the 150 which is in fact the lightest I've been my entire adult life, but I assured her that it was sort of like the boxer's weigh in thing and was temporary. Ever since I started bringing the excess food I have tended not to lose too much on these trips. I think on the 3-day Yosemite Inside Out, Todd brought so much food (and we had ample fish on top of that) that I recall gaining 2 lbs on the trip (measured my traditional way) and I think I've come back with zero change on several trips.

I find that eating a lot of fish does seem to help reduce my weight loss on trips, because my biggest weight drops (again measured after return-home dinner) have been trips where we ate relatively minimal fish supplements. I also find that the protein + fat in the fish seem to give me better endurance hiking. Judy and I noticed that long ago (1994) when we had either released all are fish, skunked, or camped at a fishless place for the first five days of a trip. We felt that we were dragging a bit so we resolved to make sure to keep and eat some fish the next day. It really seemed to us that we hiked stronger after that. More recently on my 7-day 2019 Clark Range trip with Dawn we had fish pig-outs on only two days and those were the only strong hiking days of the trip for me (days 3 and 7).

That is a hell of a trip and a great trip report. I'm not a climber and those couple photos of the exposure, i.e. straight down are a pretty good reason why

Thanks for the report and happy birthday