Time to be a trail rat

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Troutdog 59
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by Troutdog 59 »

Kudos on a truly epic adventure!!!! I look forward tp your TR and pics!!
Once in a while you can get shown the light
In the strangest places if you look at it right.

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Jimr
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by Jimr »

Good to hear you made it. Yup Goddard Creek is like preparing for children; no matter how much information you get from other who have been there, you cannot fathom what is in store for you :eek:

When I went down Goddard in 1989, it took 16 hours over 2 days. We stayed high on the western side trying to find a way down to the creek. We were repeatedly cliffed out and had to drop our packs and recon, then go back for the packs all of the way around the traverse of the first part of the ridge. Once we hit a large gully between two mts., we were able to work our way down to the creek. At the creek, we spent all day boulder hopping, each of us falling into the creek once. At one point, we used a large root to swing around a cliff over the creek to a boulder on the other side, Tarzan style. That's when I hit the drink. Many places were impassable in the creek bed, so we tried to scurry up the bank into the forest. The bank was so crumbly that it was nearly impossible to get up and onto terra firma. We probably did this half a dozen times. Each time, going through the forest, there were tons of wild bramble (I guess) vines with tons and tons of sharp needles. The vines literally swung out at us, grabbing onto our clothing and biting us right through to the skin. To make matters worse, my buddy was a bit on the dense side. Whenever he led, he would move a branch out of his way, then let it fly right into my face. I fired him as leader. We finally had to camp at a small wash on the bank. There was no place to hang our food bags (no cans at that time), so we used them as pillows to keep small critters away and prayed we would not have to deal with any bears during our sleep. Once we hit the forest below the fork of Disappearing creek and Goddard creek, the going actually got much better as there had been a fire there in the near past and much of the brush was gone. It was the wettest, nastiest two days I've ever spent in the Sierra.

The next day, we went over the Monarch divide, but we forgot to empty our water bottles and re-fill with water. Once we were well on the trail, we realized our water was actually whiskey and crystal light. Argh! We about died of thirst before we made it to the target stream for camp. We actually contemplated, a few times, dropping our packs and beat feeting it to the water source, then going back to our packs.

Sierra, 3 days of HE!! Kids, 15 years and they're still giving me HE!!
If you don't know where you're going, then any path will get you there.
Cross Country
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by Cross Country »

37 years ago I had a trip planned to go down Goddard Canyon for 1 or 2 years later. In my travels 37 years ago I talked to 2 people who had been down the canyon and subsequently decided not to go that route.
Therefore listening and learning does make a difference. You become prepared enough to change your plans, something I did repeatedly. Nearly everyone should probably change their plans once in a while.
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Coops
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by Coops »

I'll be interested to read the TR. Just so you know, I went down Cartridge Creek this year from Dumbell Lakes. From Dumbell Lakes down, you're looking at a ton of talus and then some real lousy scrub bashing on top of talus. This descent turned out really painful and I don't reccommend ever coming this way unless you like that sort of thing. Once at Triple Falls, things don't let up, although at least they become flatter. The old Muir Trail does exist in here. It basically turns this section (from Triple Falls north to the Kings) into a manageable scrub bash because you can at least see your footing. However, the trail is very easy to lose and we found a few creek crossings to be comedicaly horrible (wet feet, willows, nettles, etc.). The closer one gets to the Kings the more distinguishable the old trail. I think you'd be glad you skipped this section. I will say that Triple Falls is really nice and would be quite dramatic with peak runoff, and I've never been from Triple Falls up into Lake Basin which may be more manageable than the north fork up to Dumbell.
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richlong8
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by richlong8 »

Amazing. Your trip seems so much more appealing, adventurous, and exciting than the PCT.(no offense) Nice to know that I am not the only High Sierra lover in Bako.

regards and well done

richard
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East Side Hiker
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by East Side Hiker »

Amazing trip, gotta say it.
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RoguePhotonic
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by RoguePhotonic »

The question now is what comes next? My goal will still probably be to try and get a trail work job next year but if not then it's out for another 100 days I guess. It would be allot nicer to have way less snow though. Time will tell but as before I will probably begin planning a "backup" hike.

I'll probably take some time before posting a report so I can do allot of it or most and also get a good amount of pictures up to go along with it.

Just got back from 4 days of trail work on the PCT with SCA so it didn't take long before I was back on the trail.
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