penninsula, that is a - long-tailed weasel, mustela frenata. I've probably see an average of one every summer even though I don't look for them. One will most often see them in high country meadows. They are small and thin in order to fit into the same hole as their prey which can be mice, shrews, chipmunks, pikas and other really small mammals. Once saw an incredible chase right at South Tufa that lasted a couple minutes with the weasel chasing a chipmunk up down around over an area of tall tufas. Finally the weasel caught the munk right out in a flat open spot in front of me.
Pine martens are on the other hand are a lot more rare. In all my years, I've only seen one and that was a half mile out on the Agnew Meadows to Shadow Lake trail.
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I've had a 9-day late July Taboose Pass trip charted out on a spreadsheet for a few years now. Would not be going over that pass in just one day though given my huge weights haha. So just to contrast the way penninsula went about it I'll offer my own strategy for tackling the Sierra monster. First unlike his trip once up over the pass, as a base camper, I would stay in that general area because that is where all the most interesting peaks are with craggy peaks and colorful metamorphic rocks.
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=37. ... ize=l&s=50
The trailhead is at 5,440 feet and the pass at 11,570 for at total of 6,120 feet. Thus when planning that effort some unusual strategy was needed. Sunrise at that time of summer is right at 6am. I readily night hike. Outdoors I tend to wake up and get going most every day at dawn or somewhat after 5am so getting up an hour earlier is no big deal. Thus I might start the hike at maybe 4:30am and hike until reaching the creek where forest is shown at the 3 mile point just below 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) or maybe 1,900 feet uphill. I'd expect it to take about 3 hours going slow and stopping alot. That would then be about 7:30am. Carrying 75 pounds as I do, I know from experience if I kept hiking I could probably go another 500 feet before really starting to drag and would only end up stressing myself too much that would limit what I did later. So would probably stop by the creek in a shady spot below trees and eat breakfast and nap for an hour.
By 8:30am it would however tend to be warming up. I'd then go another 1,000 feet even more slowly that is somewhat less than a mile along the rather open exposed slopes along that creek until finding a pleasant place with some shade. Even though it is brushy without many trees, I'd expect to find at least some small boulder shade. That would put me a bit below 9,000 feet and half way to the pass at maybe 11am where I'd bivy for several hours taking a dip, napping, eating lunch, napping, eating, more dips in the creek, and likely reading a paperback. One key is 9,000 feet is usually quite a bit less hot than 8,000 feet more so than 8,000 is from 7,000. Then late in the afternoon at maybe 6pm, I'd continue up. Key is having the patience to rest long periods as a hiking strategy to revive one's body because the mental tendency is to not to wait around in the middle of a day. Something I've learned to do in order to in the past get my medium format 6x7mm and now my 4x5 view camera up mountains. That area of course goes shady early so I'd hope to reach at least the 10,000 foot area another mile ahead by 8pm or about 3,850 feet for the day. The last two years I've done 3,300 foot days while stopping midday only 3 hours. My experience stopping 6 hours is that if I have rested well, and haven't stressed my body earlier, that I can add some surprising more vertical and mileage though not anywhere near like after a full nights sleep. The body simply takes time to repair and revive itself.
Although the fishermen's attitude like penninsula may be that camping at the 10k elevation along Taboose Creek is likely rather useless, just the opposite is the case for this serious photographer. I've spent a good amount of time looking up at the pass area from down in the Owens and the colorful rusty metamorphic rocks about that area look fabulous and very craggy. Nothing to work during the first day but rather the next morning due to its east facing orientation.
The next morning would be up before dawn and by time sun hit all those gnarly cliffs, I'd have climbed up several hundred more feet and had time to survey something most worthy to set up my view camera for in order capture some decent warm early light on that rock maybe with some of the creek and some wildflowers in the foreground. And before the early morning got too harsh, I'll have reached the pass zone 1200 feet or so above where I camped that also looks like a rather promising photography zone with several small ponds and likely interesting wind scoured tundra conditions. After a good rest at the pass I'd expect to easily continue onto the east Mt Ruskin basins where I plan to work and camp the next couple days. After that I would be making short base camping moves around to Bench, Marjorie, and west Striped Mtn. Oh and I would want to bring at least minimal fishing gear haha. ...David
I consider my experience a bit of a fluke, since I don't intentionally seek out risky situations. There are climbs I'm sure I could do that I've passed up because of the "what if" factor.
