High Sierra Topix

jdunne wrote:There was also this very old timer - I think his name was John Brown or something like that. He had a private inholding across from the Kern Canyon Ranger Station and he would complain about the motorcycles.

Glad the motorcycles are gone. Ran into a number of unhabituated bears just before Kern Canyon in those meadows. Great area for early season hikes. I always went in there in mid MAY, and once I even saw a tiny bit of snow.

I liked the easy spring spigot water access at the Trout Meadows RS.

Ah, his name was "Henry Brown." Memories have a way of nagging one until they pop out. He always rode his horse and led a pack mule. I wish I had that piece of real estate... He always stopped in at Trout Mdw to talk and water his stock before the last push north.

At Trout Meadow in 1973 someone (the trail crew?) had rigged a hot shower. We used it and finished just in time before a downpour. We slept in a tent cabin on a mattress on the floor. The beds swayed badly. It was a treat for the last night of a 16 day trip. We had, however bathed 2 and 3 nights before at Kern Hot Springs (which was much better).

The shower was there when I was there, and it was quite a nice feature. I loved the little spring box that fed it. I used to keep beer in the spring box. In those days, we had a packer who would ride in every week with supplies, and carry out all the garbage I collected. She would bring me beer. She also brought me a puppy once, which grew up at the cabin and which I subsquently had for 16 years.

From what I can see in the picture above, it looks like the shower is gone now. At least I can't see it and the shower should be in the picture from the angle its taken.

Thanks for posting the photos & memories. I never had the chance to meet Jim Jenkins but was heavily influenced by his writings & during the early 80s, when I was living in So Cal, took many of the backpacking & bicycling journeys he recommended in his books. In the early 90s, I wrote a short article about Mount Jenkins for California Explorer & got to interview his mother. You have to wonder about “what might have been” had he not been lost in that tragic accident. He must have been intensely passionate about the Sierras to have been willing to hike the trails with a mileage wheel to get more accurate distance figures for his books.

I hope at some point the Forest Service considers maintaining the trail again from Mineral King to Coyote Pass. That’s some wild, wonderful country. The chaparral in the lower reaches, though, is out of control. I don’t know what that thorny stuff is, but we hiked thru some of it in 2009 & it is brutal.

Jim was a very cerebral person, and very serious about the Sierra. I was a pleasure to work with him.

I also worked with Jim Shevock. He was at Grey Mdw in 1978 (I believe). Shevock made some very important botanical discoveries in the Golden Trout, and later in other areas.

the three Jims...

A few more pictures for the memories.

I don't have permission to look at the pictures.

This is "Saint" Diane in our camp-site South of the ranger station on the Kern.

jdunne wrote:I don't have permission to look at the pictures.

You have to be logged in. Not my rules.