111 Days In The Sierra

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RoguePhotonic
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Re: 111 Days In The Sierra

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WEEK 15

MAP

Hiking along Fish Creek I was amazed by the destruction of trees from the windstorm that had happened the following winter. Nothing but a tunnel of trees where 800 had come down in this short stretch. The rest of the hike out normally is hot and sandy in places but there are plenty of nice watering holes to dunk a hat into and stay cool.

As I passed the Rainbow Falls junction I decided to go take a look from the top to see what the water levels were looking like on this dryer year. I set up camp just at the boundary of the pack station outside the national monument in order to save 20 dollars for camping.

Continuing a trend for the third year in a row I had planned the most luxury resupply and layover of the whole trip by staying in the Sierra Nevada Lodge in Mammoth for 2 nights. Since the shuttles were not running I made the hike over Mammoth Pass which is a rather easy hump. I secured a ride into town saving myself another 5 miles of walking. Naturally I ate all the food I possibly could and left having spend 500 dollars.

When it was time to get back on trail I walked the road back to the trail head and made the slog back up and over Mammoth Pass down to Reds Meadow store where I took a break and enjoyed some refreshments before taking the trail into King Creek where I set up for the night.

On this day it was time to do a lake tour so I took the trail up to Fern Lake and over to Anona where I took cross country past Gertrude Lake and up to Ashley where I took lunch. Ashley is probably the most scenic of all these lakes. Now time to visit Noname and Holcomb. Leaving here I stayed high on the hillside above Superior Lake and up to the first of the two Beck Lakes. I decided to take the North shore and it was a rather tedious mix of talus to get around. The upper lake was my destination for the night as I found a poor campsite at this scenic yet some what bland lake.

Leaving these lakes in the morning I decided to try the South shore of the lower Beck Lakes which wasn't much better and had one location where I had to shimmy along a vertical wall with my body flat against using hand holds high as I could reach above.

My next goal was Nancy Pass which was a rather straight forward walk to the top offering nice views of the more extreme end of the Minarets.

I continued onto Minaret Lake leaving Deadhorse Lake as the only unvisited one. This whole region of the Sierra seems to offer one amazing lake after the other with such a dynamic background. This having been my third trip from Minaret Lake to Cecile Lake I decided to try and take the standard route on the far NW shore rather than up past the little tarn lake. It worked well enough and had me talus hoping the shores of Cecile in short order. When I got to the outlet area I peered down at Iceberg seeing a rather different contrast than the snow covered mess from the year before. Thankfully I was able to locate a nice campsite on the NW shore among one of the only patches of trees here. As I relaxed that evening I saw a Douglas Squirrel working the tiny amounts of trees here. I felt bad for the poor little thing with such a tiny food store so I put some peanuts at the bottom of his tree and waited. Finally he came down and inspected the bounty and promptly turned his nose up at my peanuts and went on his way. Hmmph I thought...Too proud to take hand outs.

Day 7 of this week could not have ended with a greater task as I stared up at the mighty Clyde Minaret looming above me. Time to take on a peak greater than any that had come before!

I decided to first go straight into the walls above my camp. This immediately led me into high level technical class 3 with possibly some easy class 4. Once up this though it was a nice stroll up the slope with the cut over ramp being obvious. Once I was on it I made my way up to the chute where the rock route begins. But I had a problem. The chute before me was obvious but so was a path that crossed directly over the chute. I had no idea which way I was supposed to take. I made the wrong judgment and crossed over the chute and took to the NE face. I came to a section of rock that was semi inverted which I thought I could not get up. I decided to give it a try and was successful but with a price. It had been so difficult that there was no going back. This clearly was not the rock route as the move had been class 5 and my only choice was to push forward. I began climbing up a very narrow ledge system and took a video of me leaning against the wall on a 6 inch ledge with about 1000 feet of air below me.

The next move involved making a step up which was higher than my knee with only a small piece of rock to hang onto. Luckily another 20 feet of mostly vertical class 5 took me back into the chute where it clearly was all major class 3. From here it was a continuous scramble of class 3 until you reach the top of the ridge. Traversing the ridge I reached the only piece of class 4 that you must navigate if you don't lose your way and it did not give me any trouble. A few more paces and victory!!! Talk about a summit where you feel on top of the world with how steep down the views are.

After soaking up the views for as long as I could I made my way carefully down. 3 points of contact is a must on this descent as more than once I had multiple holds break at the same time with both foot and hand holds going together. What I remember most about this descent is getting past one difficult obstacle after another and looking down and being no where near finished.

Once I had made my way back down near the wall I had first come up out of my camp I had no interest in going back down it so I began trying to make my way down some grassy hillsides but I was lead into extremely dangerous conditions and I turned back and climbed my way further South where I believe the traditional route up is and made my way down and back to camp feeling a sense of accomplishment and ending another week.
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RoguePhotonic
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Re: 111 Days In The Sierra

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Well it took 3 and a half years but this trail report is now complete. Thanks to those of you who actually took the time to read the whole thing. I'm sure not all of it was interesting but hopefully the times it was made up for the in-betweens.

WEEK 16

MAP

The route from Cecile to Iceberg is a rather tedious talus / scree scramble. A use trail is worn in the steep hillside to ill effect. The result is very loose scree and sand where I have fallen and almost fallen many times. The views however do not disappoint after the toil of getting to the North shore.

From here I dropped down to Ediza and then down Shadow Creek to the JMT super highway and once again hiked past Garnet and 1000 Island Lakes on my way to Davis Lakes. I carefully studied the foot prints on the trail leading to my lake and decided that no one was at it which made me happy. Getting there I was not surprised that once again nearly every lake on this range is beautiful. I laid out in the open for the night as very high winds pounded me all night long.

Leaving here I rounded the Southern shore and climbed up to get a look at the upper Davis Lake. From here I crossed a small saddle to the NW and dropped down past Rodgers Lakes and on up a drainage here until I topped out slightly above the largest of the Marie Lakes. Another beautiful if not desolate lake but luckily the shore line was easy to navigate and it was easy climbing up to the next of the Marie Lakes. I tried to round the SW shore but coming around a bend I was completely stopped by a large ice wall so I scrambled up the slope which was not difficult but the rock was turning back into Ionian Basin so it was rather tedious.

Arriving at the unnamed lake below Rodgers Pass an icy wind was blowing heavily. I scanned the area for a place to camp but there was pretty much nothing. A couple rough patches of ground that were hardly big enough for a body were scattered around. After carefully checking the area I picked a spot next to a large rock that I thought might help cut some wind. I began picking rocks out of the space and after about an hour of work I had cleared a patch just big enough for my body. I took a freezing dip in the lake and contemplated the ridge ahead. The route I had placed on my GPS showed Rodgers Pass slightly South above the year round snow field. It did not seem logical to me and I knew by the terrain that I could not scale the ice field. A slight feeling at the back of my mind told me to just turn around and go over Donohue and to hell with this path. It just didn't feel right. I decided to push forward though and take the more logical option on the North side of the ridge which of course actually was Rodgers Pass. I finished my book in the icy cold wind, burned the rest of it up and fought off the cold all night.

The morning brought no rest from the cold as the wind still blew. I wore my gloves as I hiked to stay warm. Although Rodgers Pass from a distance looked like a tedious talus climb it actually was quite easy and it took no time at all before I stood on top. The initial drop was easy enough but before long I was in the thick of a scree / talus nightmare. It was once again a highly unstable slope that demanded major caution. I constantly had to plan my route in front of me based on the nature of the slope. A physics puzzle game really. Any route could be taken but which way would avoid starting a major landslide. I took steps and kept my gaze up above as more then 25 feet away the slope would come my way as I moved. The view kept me company and I snapped plenty of photos. "Damn these gloves" I thought as taking the lens cap off with them was very difficult. Since it was warm enough now I took them off.

After a long difficult descent the slope was finally losing it's steep grade. The rocks were larger talus and I was 50 feet from the bottom. Looking back now I realize I was over confident. I had let my guard down. I stopped meticulously picking my way and was moving too quickly. What exactly happened I will never know. One minute I was walking along and then a rock seemed to have rolled on me. I was completely airborne falling flat on my back with my head facing slightly down hill. I impacted firmly on top of a rock that bashed into my whole tail bone region. Immediately I was extremely dismayed. I have always had problems with my tail bone to the point where I often while laying on my back in bed I would lay on top of my hands to elevate my tail bone off the ground because of pain. I could hardly have hit a worse spot. As I began to get myself up I noticed my hand was covered in blood. I'll never know what I impacted my hand on but the damage was done. I knew immediately that it was bad because of how the flesh looked through the blood. As I was getting myself up right I began going into a familiar state of shock that I have experienced before. After a couple times being injured I associated the condition with your brain thinking your more injured than you really are. I immediately tried to fight it and thought I should get to the water to wash my wound and that the hike would help focus my mind. Unfortunately as soon as I stood up my vision flashed black and I could hardly stand from dizziness. I stumbled a few paces and sat down on a rock trying to focus as hard as I could. It was no good! I'm going down I thought. The world began to fade with my ears ringing, sweat began to pour over my entire body, my vision began going white to the point where I could hardly see and the dizziness took me to the point of passing out. In a last desperate attempt to control the situation I pulled out my camera and began recording a video log of myself. I talked to the camera about what was happening and it helped to focus my mind. Slowly the world came back. I at first was going to hold my hand up to help slow blood flow but not wanting to cover my arm in blood I simply let it drape. As I result a large pool of blood had formed at my feet during this ordeal. Looking back at this video there was a frame showing blood running down a rock where I fell and generally splattered all over the place.

Finally pulling myself together I moved down to the water. It was hard to walk from the pain in my tail bone region. I washed the blood off in the lake and tried to stop the bleeding. I thought my skin looked a bit odd in a couple places but I thought it was just from the cut. I didn't know at the time that it was rocks in my wound. I used an antiseptic wipe, applied antiseptic cream and bandaged the wound up good. I already knew at this point that my injuries were too severe to keep hiking. The reality that my hike suddenly was over was too strange to comprehend fully. At the moment it was all about the easiest way out of the wilderness. Unfortunately there was no easy way to go. I was stuck in the middle of horrible cross country terrain in a remote basin. The only clear route was to make my way down the Lyell Fork to the trail and make my way out over Volgelsang Pass.

My original plan for this area was to head for the outlet of this lake and down to the others. My map however showed what looked like easy terrain if I went around the North side of the lake and straight out of the basin. I got everything on and began to hike. Stepping up at all was painful and I took a short stride. Small shore line obstacles made the journey right from the start difficult. By the time I was getting closer to the other side of the lake my finger hurt badly. The only thing my medical kit was missing that could have been useful at the moment was pain killers. My bandage was already becoming soaked in blood. Although the situation sucked I couldn't help but stop and admire the view and snap a couple photos. Once I had rounded the lake and reached the next smaller one the Western shore did not look good. It was a bit of class 3 rock. I began to move Eastern around the smaller lake on a much longer route but as the terrain became frustrating I turned back and in a very painful move traversed the class 3. I then made my way to the West a bit and was stopped in my tracks by a small cliff about 15 feet high the entire length of the navigable terrain. Damn it! I looked up and down and although I know I could have made it down normally in my current condition it was just impossible. I turned back greatly dismayed to the smaller lake and went over to it's South shore to a small saddle. Cliffs! More Cliffs! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!. There was no choice. I had to make my way back over to the large lake and to it's outlet. By the time I had gotten there I had blown two hours getting to a location that would have taken me 10 minutes from where I had fallen. I began moving down the outlet on tricky terrain. It was about 1pm and I hadn't eaten lunch yet so I gave in and found a place to sit. That was the only positive thing that I actually was able to sit if I could find the right rock. I began to eat but I did not have an appetite. Dwelling on my wounds again the state of shock began coming on. I fought it off by singing a song I like and focusing my mind solely on it. Not being able to eat anything I didn't rest long and moved on. Slowly I made my way down the outlets between lakes over difficult rock. Every move hurt and this terrain was easily as bad as Ionian Basin or worse. What a place to be hurt I thought. As I moved along the outlet of the 3rd lake down I passed another balloon. I stopped but could not muster the strength to pick it up and pack it out. Not much further once again I ran into a mess of cliffs. The only real way down looked a bit dangerous. Once again pissed I made my way down. I passed between two small lakes here and off to a long lake facing North and South. Could I just walk around the lake and be done with it? Well of course not. Cliffs surrounded the area and I was forced to climb up high and make my way through annoying intermixed terrain. Worse was the need to take a crap was creeping up on me. How I was going to pull that off was beyond me. From here it was time to go down to the lower meadows which was my goal for the night. And what did I find in my way other then a very large talus field that was difficult and quite painful to navigate.

After fighting every step of the way in constant pain I reached the first larger meadow as the sun set. I looked everywhere for a camp site but could find nothing. I pushed on to the smaller meadow and finally came onto a small camp that would have to do. I hardly had time to do anything before the last of the useable light had faded. I had a fire but it's smoke steadily blew over the only location to sit in the camp so I had to stand. Getting water was a very painful experience. I groaned in pain both from kneeling down and far worse from standing back up.

My bandage was completely soaked in blood and it had run out on my finger some. I had to plan properly a schedule for my bandages because I only had enough supplies to wrap it 2 more times. I washed it up with soap and water and made do with a worse wrapping than before. Once again I didn't feel much like eating.

Just getting into bed was a difficult task and I clearly could not lay on my back at all. Luckily I was able to lay on my side and stomach and get some decent sleep.

The following morning I was hoping for improvement with my tail bone but as soon as I tried to stand and I groaned loudly in pain I knew there was no change at all. After a difficult pack up where even tying my shoes was a chore I was on my way again.

The rest of the terrain to the trail was not horrible but had plenty of small obstacles that kept things irritating. Once there I'm not sure I had been more happy to just be on a trail. Finally "easier" terrain. It was a long slow and painful trek when I suddenly came up on a trail crew camp. I wandered in and asked if I could bum some medical supplies off of them. They had already packed them up but got them back out for me and gave me enough to cover redressing my bandage for a couple weeks. They didn't seem too interested in me so we kept our exchange to a minimum and I went on my way. Moving down the switch backs to Lewis Creek I nearly fell down a couple times which would have been no fun!

After about a mile and a half I ran into a Ranger who had already been informed by another hiker I had talked to that I had been hurt. He wanted to check out my injuries. I attempted to pull off my bandage but it was no easy task. The cloth was so completely dry caked into the wound that it was a horrible experience to try and pull it off without ripping the thing open. I just kept dumping water on it until I was able to get it off. Along with the bandage a little rock pulled out of the wound. The Ranger got on the Satellite phone with the primary doctor in the valley and of course the main concern was infection. The rocks in the wound only concerned the doctor more. After a very long exchange with spotty reception the Ranger got out his knife and helped dig two more rocks out of the wound and we dressed it back up.

He tried to convince me to hike out to the valley which was the direction he was headed so he could stay with me but I really didn't want to do so. It was allot further and a whole lot of switch backs and check dams. Ultimately with the simple question of "if I leave you are you worried at all?" and my response of "no". We parted ways.

I didn't know if I could make Volgelsang Lake on this day but that was my goal so slowly I made my way up and over the pass and down to the lake as the sun set. Despite being hurt I was in peak condition physically. The year before I had found myself going down hill after 80 days on the trail but this year it wasn't the case. I could hike up hill without ever needing to stop. Something that made having to go home just that much worse. Knowing that I was so ready for every route I had planned that still lay ahead.

At VoIgelsang Lake it had plenty of campers and was very cold. I'm not sure what anyone thought of me as I ever so slowly kneeled down in pain and groaned getting back up. Maybe he is just old is what they thought...

After another frigid and painful morning I continued on this rather dull section of trail passing more people the closer I got to Tuolumne. When I reached the junction in Lyell Canyon I ran into a guy I had camped with at Tuolumne the year before. Always the same trend of running into people again and again.

I made the final slog across my unplanned finish line and into the backpackers camp. I left some hikers rather agitated that I had no intentions of seeing a doctor when I got out. It's just not something I do unless it's literally a matter of life or death.

I painfully tore open the bandage on my finger and continued to monitor for infection while gathering a second opinion from a Ranger.

I called family for a ride and they tried to have me wait a few days until another member of my family had a day off simply because they would like to go. Finally I convinced them it was not a good idea to remain filthy in the mountains while trying to fight off infection so I secured a ride for the following day. Unfortunately for me I got the news that the last person I would ever want to live with me had moved into my house while I was gone. Wonderful I thought. Injured, hike over and home to a far worse living situation.

Meeting up with my ride and cruising down 395 once again I stared out at the great range before me. Only I had to marvel at everything I had done. 111 days ago I had begun this journey. So many wonderful days, so many horrible days. From the great peaks to the gateway passes I pushed forward. When I fell and bled I got up and kept going. When I was thrown to the ground harder I got right back up and kept going. I had walked for hundreds of miles across this beautiful but unforgiving range. It tried to kill me and customized my finger forever but wounds heal and fond memories last forever. And this range certainly has not seen the last of me...
Last edited by RoguePhotonic on Thu Apr 14, 2016 6:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 111 Days In The Sierra

Post by ERIC »

What a report. These things are timeless. Doesn't matter how long it took, it's quality. And much appreciated!
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Re: 111 Days In The Sierra

Post by dougieb »

Incredible. I went to Lyell Fork and Hutchins Creek last summer and it was just gorgeous back there. I can't imagine getting injured out there though, all by myself. Phew... glad you're safe and that you're still getting out there. Did that injury affect your mentality at all or inspire you to get a personal locator beacon or anything?
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RoguePhotonic
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Re: 111 Days In The Sierra

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It certainly rooted me back in carefully picking my way through talus fields rather than flying along like a nimble cat. As for a beacon nope. I know that if I had not been able to walk in that location that I'd probably be dead right now but I still do not really value my life. If I die out there then I still have the attitude of so be it. I was almost killed twice in 2013 although a beacon would have done nothing there.

I always joke with people that maybe this will be the year where I never come back. And who knows maybe it will.
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Re: 111 Days In The Sierra

Post by Troutdog 59 »

Fantastic write up Rouge. Thank you for taking the time to share the journey with us.
Once in a while you can get shown the light
In the strangest places if you look at it right.

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Re: 111 Days In The Sierra

Post by balance »

Greetings RoguePhotonic

John Muir lived to be 76. Norman Clyde made it to 87. You can live as they did and enjoy your golden years, as they did.

Peace
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AaronRDavis
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Re: 111 Days In The Sierra

Post by AaronRDavis »

Thank you for sharing your trip with everyone. Your photos often become my computer and phone wallpapers.
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Re: 111 Days In The Sierra

Post by dandaman49 »

I always thoroughly enjoy reading your reports rogue!
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