High Sierra Topix

We still have a chance to get "caught up." We still have February, and March can be a good month for snowfall in the high country. It has been unusually warm for winter here on the east slope.

I love it when someone starts a post about long ago! For me, the college semester ended about the third week in May. Two friends and I grabbed our packs and drove to the Whitney Portal. We got a late afternoon start. I remember Lone Pine Lake and Mirror Lake were ice free. We camped above Mirror Lake that night. They didn't have as many regulations back in those days! The next day we we headed up the trail, and didn't see anyone on the trail that day! Trail was pretty much snow free all the way to Trail Camp. Consultation Lake was frozen. After going up a few of the switch backs, we finally encountered snow. We ended up making a straight shot up the snow to Trail Crest. Once at the top of the pass, there was no more snow. The trail was dry all the way to the summit. It was a beautiful, sunny day with little or no wind. The three of us stood on top and enjoyed the view for many hours. A beautiful sunset over the Great Western Divide. We spent the night on the summit of Mt Whitney. The next morning, clouds began to build, and thunder could be heard getting closer. So we packed it up and headed back down, still, not seeing anyone on the trail that day. An amazing trip by today's standards; having the entire trail, and the summit to ourselves.

1977.... Got married to my husband, Rick, on April 9, 1977. Honeymoon ski trip to Tahoe and then Mammoth where neither place had enough snow to really ski on. We hiked instead. Ended up coming home Ap.13 thru Tioga Pass. Had no idea at the time how crazy that was.

hmm.. the average age of people on this site is what? i'm guessing 50. Lot of info to give, not much time left. yeah, i'm over 50

Over 50????

Well seasoned?

Experienced?

Still breathing? Heck yes!

If you are still looking down at the grass, it's a great day!

Remember the good old days when you could sit around a camp fire?
"Take only pictures; leave only foot prints."
Leather boots that always gave me blisters!
Listen to John Denver;
I never heard of a trail quota; a mountain yellow legged frog; or a bear can!
Kelty external frame backpack.
The big snow storm in August 1972.
Share stories with others your age!

I have had the opportunity to visit so many beautiful places in the Sierra over the years.
Over 50??
Yes. I just walk a little slower these days.

I was born in 77 los robels hospital in thousand oaks CA. That was quite a trip! Yes I do notice there are fewer people my age on the trail. Double edged sword.....i feel solitude might be easier to come by but will there be less awareness. I hope not.

I was 8 in the summer of '77, not living in the US, so no memories of the Sierra then. Good point on the average age of backpackers but I think a lot is to do with having kids. I didn't backpack at all from soon after I left college (when work, marriage etc started keeping me busy) up until a few years ago when my kids were old enough. When the kids are small you either have to be incredibly dedicated (eg llamas) or have a very understanding spouse!

I agree with Tim's post, marriage, work and KIDS can distract. I was 23 in 1977 and did my first overnight trip (not in the Sierras). Finally (with a very understanding wife, who is far better outdoors than I will ever be) got back out in 1982 with 3 boys between ages 5 and 7 using three burros to carry the gear and went out of Florence lake to Goddard Canyon. Used burros for 3 trips in the Sierras, then switched to llamas (by then with 4 boys) for at least 5 trips in Wyoming. Finally, in 2000 switched back to actual backpacking in the Sierras. In fact last summer my wife and I did an out and back from Mcgee Creek trailhead to the Peter Pande Lake (in the Silver Divide area). so, yes we are older now, a little slower now, yet we still enjoy the experience.

I got my first taste of backpacking in 1977 when I was 11 and in the Boy Scouts. You'd think they would teach you the proper way to pack and what to carry (or not), so I recall a trip we took somewhere out of Camp Wolfeboro, near Bear Valley and Highway 4, when I was carrying a pack that must have weighed 50+ pounds, and I didn't weigh much more than that, so I wasn't liking the whole back packing thing very much. The scenery was great, as was the company, but I recall we got bargain freeze dried food and we ate the same thing the whole trip: Chicken a la king, nasty, glue-like stuff for dinner and pilot biscuits with "cheese" for lunch. Crappy food and exhausting hiking: no fun. It took a while of recovery after the trip to learn how to do it right and to eat better, but no thanks to my troop for that.

I got a good laugh out of Fly Guy Dave's post!

I learned about Pilot Biscuits in 1972. Are Pilot Biscuits still around? Not that I want them...Archeologists will unearth some of my Pilot Biscuits that are buried in the backcountry in a future dig. I thought they were already petrified when they came out of the package that contained them. Rich-Moor tried their best to come up with a variety of "substances" you could "just add water" to and put on a Pilot Biscuit. I remember dreading lunch by the third day! I tried their Chili Mac on a trip in 1974. I couldn't keep it down! My partner on that trip told me that I was making it really hard for him to eat the stuff while the sounds I made resonated in the backcountry! I haven't eaten any chili mac since that day! Yeah, it might be light weight; but taste must have been an after thought back in those days!

Seems to me that everything was a glue like substance back then! Whatever you ate stuck to the roof of your back!

That was a year of luck for myself and a buddy who did our 7-day dream loop in late June of climbing Tehipite Dome and walking down the MF Kings. We went up Blue Cyn, dropping down to the buckthorn-hell of Goddard Ck and saw one rattlesnake after another every 1/4 mi. Then further dumb luck was wading across the MF Kings at Simpson Mdw at such low water that early in the season.

Walking down to Tehipite Valley, we saw even more angry snakes buzzing across the trail until we collapsed in TV and sat up all night watching out for them. We climbed the infamous switchbacks and walked out all the way to Rancheria only to find our VW van was dead and had to hitch a ride with a logging truck all the way to Fresno.