High Sierra Topix

Hi everyone, I finally joined up after seeing useful and friendly posts on this site for a long time. I live in Claremont, CA, eastern Los Angeles County (Mt Baldy in the San Gabriels is kind of my backyard, so to speak). I sneak up to the Eastern Sierra for three- to five-day backpacking trips as often as I can, sometimes with fishing and/or peak bagging, sometimes not. I often go solo but usually wouldn't mind company. I'm looking forward to being here...

John Norvell

Hi All!
My name is Tania and I have been backpacking in the California Sierras for the past 25 years, usually at least once a year, but never for long enough it seems. Several times, I have brought friends and partners, but typically I am solo on the trail, and enjoy it that way very much. I want to thru - hike the JMT for sure, and at some point, the California PCT. I try to find new routes that are less traveled and as remote as you can get among the gazillion people in California. I have a dog, a Schipperke but he can't really do the mileage I do and so he has to stay with friends. What else do you want to know?

Welcome aboard, Tania. And thank you for the intro! What else do we want to know? Well, we love trip reports...of any kind. Oh, and with photos. Lots of photos.

Enjoy,
ERIC

My trail name is Mended Wing. I'm new to this board, but a seasoned backpacker who has enjoyed reading..er lurking here for quite some time. I did the full JMT (NOBO) in 2009 and keep going back into the high country for more.

I plan as many adventures in the High Sierra each year as possible, usually 2-3 trips of 7-10 days each. My favorite spots tend to originate on the eastern slopes, so I am most familiar with trailheads out of Bishop, Lone Pine, Independence...you get the trend. I recently ( July 5-11 2015) took a small team in from Cottonwood lakes over (old) Army Pass, summit of Mt. Langley, down into Crabtree meadows, summit Mt. Whitney, across Bighorn Plateau and back out via Shepherd Pass. Great trip despite rain, hail and constantly shifting weather. Shepherd Pass is no picnic. That being said, I'm planning to go back and get Mt Tyndall and Mt Williamson summits by the end of this hiking season.

Thanks for the add, I look forward to more conversations and trip reports.

Hi MW,

Welcome to HST! You bucked the trend, with your northbound hike of the JMT. Hope you will post a TR of your 7/5-7/11 hike, and any other TR's (2009 JMT) you may want to share with us.

Hello everyone! I'm bandguy. I just completed a trip over Kearsarge to Sixty Lakes and also from Road's End up Bubbs Creek, so I have a little new backpacking experience. (also in the past six or seven years have hiked White Chief to Ansel Lake, Roads end to East Lake, Franklin Pass-Rattlesnake-Little Clair-Soda-Lost Canyon-Sawtooth). I've stayed mostly on trail.

I'm 58 and getting pretty excited about this again-I backpacked a bit when I was much younger and now I've fired it up again. It's physically pretty hard for me but I really like it. I live in the western foothills of SEKI so I have LOTS of opportunity, though work keeps me pinned down much of the year. I really love flyfishing and have done lots of that front country, and want to learn more about that back country too. The trails I mentioned-I had lots of company, so even though I almost always hike solo I need to explore off-trail options more. I have much to learn from you folks out there, so I'll be askin'!

Hi Bandguy,

Welcome to HST! Thank you for your intro, and hope you will consider sharing your latest, or older adventures with us, in the form of a TR.

Hi everyone, my name is Jim and I just joined the forum today and wanted to introduce myself. I'm relatively new to hiking longer distances and am cutting my teeth in Desolation Wilderness. I've hiked 9 weekends in a row and feel like I'm getting hooked very quickly. Some of the highlights so far are Echo Lakes to Lake Aloha, Pyramid Peak via Rocky creek, Ralston Peak via Camp Sacramento, Glen Alpine to Mt. Tallac, and a day hiking at 11-12000 feet in Colorado with a buddy of mine. My main passion has been photography for the past few years and since I love landscape photography, hiking allows me to get to places I wouldn't have ever seen before. I found the forum because I'm interested in getting off trail a lot more to get away from the crowds and I ran across a really good thread on desolation wilderness that caught my interest. I'm also hoping to start backpacking soon and am trying to learn what I need to get started with that. I hope to contribute some trip reports, most of them so far are on my wordpress so maybe I can link to them.

Jim

HI Jim,

Welcome to HST! Thanks for the intro! Looking forward to seeing some of your photography, and reading some of your future TR's!

Hi - My name is Jeremy Notch and I've been hiking and working in the Sierra for 10 years now. After hiking the JMT in 2013 I've had the itch to do it again but it's hard to find the time. I enjoy backpacking into far out places in search of trout with a fly rod, and joined this site in hopes of learning more about the MF Kings and Tehipite Valley. The thought of catching big browns and rainbows in one of the most remote places in California is very alluring and I hope to tackle it this Sept. I'll report back with pictures and fishing stories.