Time to be a trail rat

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RoguePhotonic
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by RoguePhotonic »

Just saying I am alive once again! I'm back at VVR again 83 days into this trip. Had major changes when I got to Tuolumne Meadows but that section from Mammoth to Yosemite Valley was glorious beyond words!

I went one day into the last bit of the Sierra High Route and camped at the Great Sierra Mine due to the no camping locations and when I woke up in the morning I just thought "You know... I am just not feeling any more major cross country right now". So I turned around and planned a different and easy route around to the South which turned out to be a good thing because that major storm hit right after that so it would have sucked on the High Route.

I went to Cathedral Lake then did a summit of Cathedral Peak. Yes with no climbing experience and no gear and alone. Now you can call me crazy like all the climbers up there did but I made it to the summit and down alive! :cool: Then I had planned to summit Cockscomb but the weather was too bad for that or Clouds Rest so I went to Echo Lake then up Echo Creek to Nelson Lake and Reyman Lake which had me in camp most days before it rained on me.

Going forward with the major bush Whacking route down Goddard Creek then Cartridge Creek and Murro Blanco so should be fun. I think I am going to go ahead and go to Tehipiti Valley while I am at it since it's later season and there is no reason not to!

I'll be here one more day then I wont have anymore internet until I get home so we'll see what happens!
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by Wandering Daisy »

Great to hear from you! Thanks for the update. Sounds like you are really having a wonderful experience (good days, bad days, interesting days, boring days, challenging days, easy days) and making good decisions.
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by Cross Country »

I'm not one of the climbers and I think you're a little bit crazy (not literally). I really respect what you accomplish. What you do would never have been my cup of tea but I still respect the hell out of it. My goals were to reach the best looking (on a map), most difficult to reach fishing spot (normally a lake) and fish it. I would go the easiest route (of the difficult routes). Being there, fishing there sleeping there living there (temporarily) - that was my thing. You overcome serious challenges and your the man.
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RoguePhotonic
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by RoguePhotonic »

I wanted to do a summit of Mt. Goddard on the way back but i'm not sure if I will because of the extra days of food and lack of knowledge on routes. Earlier I was thinking of doing the route over Wanda Pass but it would be a detour and getting back on route might be hard. Rick Sanger told me about the typical Western ridge route but I know nothing of it. Either way I am already planning to have 9 days of food as I leave here so I might just skip it. I'll just make up my mind today.

My planned route back was going to have me resupply again at Silver City Resort but they have almost no food at all in there and certainly not good stuff for hikers so not sure what my plan will be leaving Cedar Grove.

Time will tell.
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RoguePhotonic
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by RoguePhotonic »

Success! 95 days in the Sierra!

Got home on Tuesday but had to get internet again.

It was a weird sudden ending to the trip because when I got back to Cedar Grove I had planned to do the route over Harrison Pass - Milestone Pass - Colby Pass - Lion Lake Pass - Lion Rock Pass - Sawtooth Pass and be done around October 13th but when I got the weather report saying snow as low or lower then 7000 feet and Milestone Pass is 13,000, Harrison at 12,700 I thought it was time to call it putting an end to one hell of a hike.

Made it through with only sustaining one significant injury. I'm not sure exactly what but I was forced to leap from a log and slammed into another tree and for over a month if I extended my arm all the way and tried to pick up much it would hurt in the elbow area so I must have damaged something good.

Of course you may have guessed it but I did not take the triple bush whacking route. I did Goddard Creek and it took so much out of me and was far worse than anyone said. Even when Rick Sanger told me I would not be walking on ground and that I would be walking on bushes. It was far worse! I did dismay at not at least doing the Muro Blanco because Rick had told me the trick to it was in late season the river drops down and you can just take the rocks down river but I had no information at all on Cartridge Creek and I kept going back and forth the closer I got to the Middle Fork of the Kings to go forward with my route or take another one. The thought of bush whacking up 4000 feet in 4 miles after Goddard Creek was too much. I also fell behind schedule and I did not make it out of Goddard Creek until a day after I had planned. Ultimately I went to Tehipiti Valley and then took Granite Pass out.

So after all my route changes I did only 37 passes of the 58 I had planned. I think I did around 800 miles of the planned 1000. I may have only had 4 days of rain last year but I had some where around 17 days of rain this year.

Of course i'm already working on a trail report but it will be a small book by the time I am done. I also have over 4000 images to sort. All in good time.

Success! :partyman:
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The Other Tom
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by The Other Tom »

Congratulation, Rouge. Glad you made it ok. Sounds like an epic trip. Looking forward to the "book" with illustrations. :nod:
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Troutdog 59
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by Troutdog 59 »

Kudos on a truly epic adventure!!!! I look forward tp your TR and pics!!
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Jimr
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by Jimr »

Good to hear you made it. Yup Goddard Creek is like preparing for children; no matter how much information you get from other who have been there, you cannot fathom what is in store for you :eek:

When I went down Goddard in 1989, it took 16 hours over 2 days. We stayed high on the western side trying to find a way down to the creek. We were repeatedly cliffed out and had to drop our packs and recon, then go back for the packs all of the way around the traverse of the first part of the ridge. Once we hit a large gully between two mts., we were able to work our way down to the creek. At the creek, we spent all day boulder hopping, each of us falling into the creek once. At one point, we used a large root to swing around a cliff over the creek to a boulder on the other side, Tarzan style. That's when I hit the drink. Many places were impassable in the creek bed, so we tried to scurry up the bank into the forest. The bank was so crumbly that it was nearly impossible to get up and onto terra firma. We probably did this half a dozen times. Each time, going through the forest, there were tons of wild bramble (I guess) vines with tons and tons of sharp needles. The vines literally swung out at us, grabbing onto our clothing and biting us right through to the skin. To make matters worse, my buddy was a bit on the dense side. Whenever he led, he would move a branch out of his way, then let it fly right into my face. I fired him as leader. We finally had to camp at a small wash on the bank. There was no place to hang our food bags (no cans at that time), so we used them as pillows to keep small critters away and prayed we would not have to deal with any bears during our sleep. Once we hit the forest below the fork of Disappearing creek and Goddard creek, the going actually got much better as there had been a fire there in the near past and much of the brush was gone. It was the wettest, nastiest two days I've ever spent in the Sierra.

The next day, we went over the Monarch divide, but we forgot to empty our water bottles and re-fill with water. Once we were well on the trail, we realized our water was actually whiskey and crystal light. Argh! We about died of thirst before we made it to the target stream for camp. We actually contemplated, a few times, dropping our packs and beat feeting it to the water source, then going back to our packs.

Sierra, 3 days of HE!! Kids, 15 years and they're still giving me HE!!
If you don't know where you're going, then any path will get you there.
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by Cross Country »

37 years ago I had a trip planned to go down Goddard Canyon for 1 or 2 years later. In my travels 37 years ago I talked to 2 people who had been down the canyon and subsequently decided not to go that route.
Therefore listening and learning does make a difference. You become prepared enough to change your plans, something I did repeatedly. Nearly everyone should probably change their plans once in a while.
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Coops
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Re: Time to be a trail rat

Post by Coops »

I'll be interested to read the TR. Just so you know, I went down Cartridge Creek this year from Dumbell Lakes. From Dumbell Lakes down, you're looking at a ton of talus and then some real lousy scrub bashing on top of talus. This descent turned out really painful and I don't reccommend ever coming this way unless you like that sort of thing. Once at Triple Falls, things don't let up, although at least they become flatter. The old Muir Trail does exist in here. It basically turns this section (from Triple Falls north to the Kings) into a manageable scrub bash because you can at least see your footing. However, the trail is very easy to lose and we found a few creek crossings to be comedicaly horrible (wet feet, willows, nettles, etc.). The closer one gets to the Kings the more distinguishable the old trail. I think you'd be glad you skipped this section. I will say that Triple Falls is really nice and would be quite dramatic with peak runoff, and I've never been from Triple Falls up into Lake Basin which may be more manageable than the north fork up to Dumbell.
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