TR: Onion Valley to Whitney with kids, 8/19-8/24
Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 9:14 pm
I took my 11 yr old twins (plus a friend of theirs and his dad) on a 6 day, 50 mile trip from Onion Valley to Whitney Portal this week. It was rather more ambitious than previous trips, but they did very well, coping with the altitude much better than I did and beating me to the top of all the passes (especially my daughter who was well in front). My argument is that if only my pack was as light as theirs...but they did actually carry quite a bit.
We drove down the Owens Valley on Saturday afternoon in thunderstorms, with lightning close by on several occasions, but gradually improving conditions as we headed south. We dropped one car at Whitney Portal and staying in the campground there on Saturday night (without any rain), then started off at Onion Valley on Sunday morning, and panted our way up to Kearsage Pass, feeling the altitude. The weather looked threatening, particularly over University Peak and Forester Pass, where we'd be heading in a few days.
We stayed the first night at Kearsage Lakes and had a beautiful sunset as the skies cleared. The lake was alive with fish jumping everywhere.
Monday morning we headed down past Bullfrog Lake.
Then we descended to Vidette Meadow, getting our first view of quite how far up we'd have to go to reach Forester Pass.
We camped below the trail roughly 20 mins above the Center Basin Creek crossing at about 10600ft, with a great view both up and down the valley.
On Tuesday morning, the clouds steadily built as we climbed towards Forester Pass, but we made it there in just over 3 hours, followed by a hair-raising descent down the south side of the pass and a long trek down to Tyndall Creek.
We set up camp on a very peaceful evening at Tyndall Creek, but were awoken at 2.30am by a huge thunderstorm with lightning all around. It lasted about an hour, and though we stayed dry we heard later that many of the people who had spent the night in the basin below Forester weren't so lucky. We saw one person the next day wearing a garbage bag as her raingear/pants, and many others with tales of woe (demolished tents, etc.). Even the rangers were apparently taken by surprise by the unexpectedly severe nightime storm.
The next day we dodged the hail showers as we made our way rapidly to Crabtree Meadow. Sun on Bighorn Plateau turned to threatening clouds by Wallace Creek, but we were impressed by our level of acclimatization as we climbed quickly out of Wallace Creek to get ahead of the storm. In the end we only had minimal showers, but those behind us had hail and even thunder for most of the day, with some unable to cross Forester until late that day. Conditions gradually improved during the afternoon and the rangers said that Thursday onwards would have much better weather.
We drove down the Owens Valley on Saturday afternoon in thunderstorms, with lightning close by on several occasions, but gradually improving conditions as we headed south. We dropped one car at Whitney Portal and staying in the campground there on Saturday night (without any rain), then started off at Onion Valley on Sunday morning, and panted our way up to Kearsage Pass, feeling the altitude. The weather looked threatening, particularly over University Peak and Forester Pass, where we'd be heading in a few days.
We stayed the first night at Kearsage Lakes and had a beautiful sunset as the skies cleared. The lake was alive with fish jumping everywhere.
Monday morning we headed down past Bullfrog Lake.
Then we descended to Vidette Meadow, getting our first view of quite how far up we'd have to go to reach Forester Pass.
We camped below the trail roughly 20 mins above the Center Basin Creek crossing at about 10600ft, with a great view both up and down the valley.
On Tuesday morning, the clouds steadily built as we climbed towards Forester Pass, but we made it there in just over 3 hours, followed by a hair-raising descent down the south side of the pass and a long trek down to Tyndall Creek.
We set up camp on a very peaceful evening at Tyndall Creek, but were awoken at 2.30am by a huge thunderstorm with lightning all around. It lasted about an hour, and though we stayed dry we heard later that many of the people who had spent the night in the basin below Forester weren't so lucky. We saw one person the next day wearing a garbage bag as her raingear/pants, and many others with tales of woe (demolished tents, etc.). Even the rangers were apparently taken by surprise by the unexpectedly severe nightime storm.
The next day we dodged the hail showers as we made our way rapidly to Crabtree Meadow. Sun on Bighorn Plateau turned to threatening clouds by Wallace Creek, but we were impressed by our level of acclimatization as we climbed quickly out of Wallace Creek to get ahead of the storm. In the end we only had minimal showers, but those behind us had hail and even thunder for most of the day, with some unable to cross Forester until late that day. Conditions gradually improved during the afternoon and the rangers said that Thursday onwards would have much better weather.
). I'm up to 33 days with my twins (over the last 5 years) and 9 days with my 7 yr old (last 2 summers), but it will be interesting to see how it goes as they get into the teenage years...hopefully I've started them early enough that they will come back to BPing even if they have other priorities for a few years. Out of the three of them, at the moment it looks more likely to be my daughter that will stick with it rather than the two boys.