2013 Expedition

[RoguePhotonic]

The smoke is nasty! Was horrible coming into VVR and you cannot see much right now. It was up in the Hilgard Branch Yesterday also.

As for me I am back at VVR because the last section went nasty on me! So I went up Bear Ridge, climbed Volcanic Knob and then went up to the summit of Recess Peak with my full pack on and on down to Hilgard Lake. My first big mistake of this section was when I left VVR I forgot to buy any fuel for my stove so I was stuck having illegal fires far above the fire line in order to cook my food. That night at Hilgard Lake it started pouring on me at about 1am and the winds were crazy. Half my tent stakes pulled out of the ground and because it was so crazy out I did not want to get up and fix it which turned out to be the biggest mistake I have made out here! My tent completely flooded and my sleeping bag was soaked completely from my feet to my knees. Luckily it wasn't very cold though. Almost everything else in my tent was soaked and all my TP got soaked completely so they were just big blocks of mess. Since it was raining in the morning still climbing Mt. Hilgard was out of the question. This really sucked because for some reason I wanted to climb that one more than any other peak I have planned. So I decided to retreat down into the Hilgard Branch so that I could get a big fire going and dry out my stuff. This worked out fine but after many hours of my TP sitting by the fire without any noticeable effect I weighed my options and decided to retreat back out to VVR 4 days early. It's a shame since that was going to be a cool section all around and after doing the hardest part of carrying my pack over Recess Peak it should have been all easy from there!

So now I think I will stay here at VVR until Sunday morning. Doing that will put me back onto my planned schedule. It's all tough going from here! No more light pack resupplies! 16 days when I leave here. This stay here may be the last time you hear from me until early September when I reach Cedar Grove and even there they don't keep the WIFI on very often. My only other option would be to head down to Bishop Creek Lodge and pay for some WIFI but I doubt I will.

[RoguePhotonic]

After a complete deluge here at VVR I went and checked my tent to find the water splashed all through out the whole tent soaking everything and splashing mud all over everything. I just can't win.

Hopefully this smoke wont ruin all the views of my next section. It's been really bad at VVR.

[TRAUMAhead]

Pwned

[canukyea]

That is a long time without the internet. Best of luck on the rest of the trip!

[Fishon]

Ran into RP resupplying at VVR this afternoon. We talked for a few minutes discussing the next leg of this summer's expedition. Sounds like a good time.

[AaronRDavis]

Hey Rogue, it was nice meeting you at Ambition Lake a couple days ago. You ended up being the only person we saw during our whole trip. Hopefully you continue to have a safe trip.

[norcalhiker]

Following along. Always impressive. Have a fun, safe summer!

[SSSdave]

Well got into VVR a day early which is never a bad thing.

So what have I been up to? First of all I have to say you bastards! lol. If I had known going around Lake Eleanor and up that creek was so bad I wouldn't have done it! I camped my first night in about half a mile past Frog Creek. It then took me 4 hours to just reach the inlet in a total bush whack micro cliff nightmare! It ended up taking me 4 days to reach Twin Lakes. ...

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.99278,-119.83247&z=15&t=T" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

No one goes up Eleanor Creek that way for a good reason. Pretty obvious just looking at the topo. One has to climb about 1000 feet above the reservoir minimally to get around the glaciated bedrock brush especially manzanita infested steep canyon wall. Frog Creek inlet is a nice place to be when trout season opens. Most sane approach is to go to Laurel Lake and then drop beyond the noname ponds. Still not a route for amateurs that can't read a topo carefully because getting off the least gradient route can easily deliver mini cliff outs.

[TRAUMAhead]

Update on Rogue:

Despite all your hopes I am still very much alive out here although I think a am more skinny than I have been in many years! Got 28 peaks climbed so far including one that I was the first to climb it in 33 years so yes I do remote stuff! 41 days left if all goes well!

[RoguePhotonic]

Lol you beat me to it Chris. Yep alive and well. Been following most of my route pretty close. The next section will take me out longer than any trip before. Hopefully the weather will hold out well enough although I have already had 34 days of rain.Ill see if I cam post more in a bit. They dont keep the net on here all the time.