High Sierra Topix

John, what a lovely retrospective on the your love affair you and Judy share with backpacking and fishing. The happiness just oozes from the screen.

Very sad to hear of the cancer. I think you and I had treatments about the same time and I have so hoped that I would not get the news that you have received. But it is the most treatable cancer, so I hope that you will beat it again. Even so, it is hard to live with the uncertainty and I feel for you.

As someone who has shared my love for camping and backpacking with his wife (until her hip and leg health issues ended her backpacking) for fifty years, I really enjoyed and identified with your post. As Peter said, the “happiness just oozes from the screen.” This was such a joy to read and see the photos.

I am very sad to hear of the return of your cancer. As all of us, here’s hoping you beat it again. A friend of mine managed to get through two times and let’s hope it’s the same for you.

Thanks for all of your best wishes. As some folks know, I had written a book in the late 1990s that was a testament to the husband and wife High Sierra thing, titled "Into the Land of the Giant Brookies" (from which I derive my screen name), but I failed to get it published after shopping it around to several publishers. The role model was Fishing the California Wilderness by Mike Hayden in which all of the hiking and fishing described was also with his wife. In the years since, much of the fishing part of the book has been rendered obsolete by fisheries management changes (including no fish in the Land of the Giant Brookies). In addition the family trajectory of High Sierra fishing and hiking has come to include the kids, who are now grown up or nearly so.

Of course enjoying the Sierra with our kids is also part of living Somewhere Over the Rainbow. From the High Sierra experience reference frame this began in inverse form with my dad being my peak climbing partner and the person who introduced me into the mountains. I continued to go on trips with him after Judy and I married. When I missed a year, my mom would get pretty angry with me (as well she should have), saying that my dad really looked forward to such trips. More recently, Dawn has become my main backpacking buddy and one of the strongest hikers I've ever seen.

My dad was similar to me in that he was an exceptional athlete for his age. He also had a pretty rapid decline, in spite of his efforts to stay in shape, which resulted in a huge heartbreak for me and my brother on an off trail backpacking trip in which my dad looked at us and told us "I can't" (get up this slope with a full pack on---we had to offload most of his stuff and put it in our packs). My bro and I, who were 33 and 29 years old, respectively, pretty much burst into tears on the spot. As my bro put it "It was like watching Superman eat kryptonite". My dad was 64 at that time, the same as me, and I think he was laid low by a degenerating hip that was originally injured on a fall he took while climbing Mt Goddard with me 15 years earlier. From that point the wheels sort of came off the bus for my dad, starting with a stroke (or maybe more than one), a huge heart attack, and then pancreatic cancer that killed him at age 71.

Because Judy and I had our first kid when we were more than 10 years older than my dad was when I was born, I will have to be a LOT older if I want to hold off breaking Dawn and Lee's heart until they're of the same age as me and my bro when it happened to us;old of course I strive to make sure they're much older than even that when I ingest my kryptonite as every human being eventually does. Whereas I am in fact much stronger than my dad was at 64 I am aware how fast things can go downhill. So, when it comes to prostate cancer or anything else, I figure I can't stress/worry about that which I can't control because that's bad for my mental and physical health anyway. Rather I take care of what I can which is to be on top of things in terms of medical treatment, and to take care of physical and mental health, including having good eating, exercise/training, and sleeping habits. Whereas I've lost three friends to prostate cancer in the last two years, I also know some folks that have been doing fine with it and I'll do what I can to raise my odds. In the meantime, until further notice, I will revel in all the joys of being in those mental spaces Beyond the Rainbow , including doing things with my wife, my kids, my students and colleagues; and the High Sierra should continue to be part of it.

giantbrookie writes:

So, when it comes to prostate cancer or anything else, I figure I can't stress/worry about that which I can't control because that's bad for my mental and physical health anyway. Rather I take care of what I can which is to be on top of things in terms of medical treatment, and to take care of physical and mental health, including having good eating, exercise/training, and sleeping habits. Whereas I've lost three friends to prostate cancer in the last two years, I also know some folks that have been doing fine with it and I'll do what I can to raise my odds. In the meantime, until further notice, I will revel in all the joys of being in those mental spaces Beyond the Rainbow , including doing things with my wife, my kids, my students and colleagues; and the High Sierra should continue to be part of it.

Well John, I don't think anyone could possibly have a healthier attitude toward dealing with cancer.
Kudos to you, and thank you for another kind of inspiration. Ian and family.

Thanks for the report and photos of the beautiful fall colors, GB. Echoing others, I'm saddened to hear about the rough health news but am appreciative at the same time of your ability to still find joy in life and in the Sierra. Kpeter nailed my thoughts exactly: "what a lovely retrospective on the your love affair you and Judy share with backpacking and fishing. The happiness just oozes from the screen."

Your experience with generations of your family in the mountains really hit home for me. My dad (also 64, coincidentally) had a 2-week stint in the ICU last month, culminating in a surgery to repair an aortic dissection. His recovery has been smooth so far, but going forward his lifestyle will likely change dramatically. This was a man who farmed for a living, worked outside with his hands every day, and was stronger than most people half his age. Now the jury is still out on whether he'll ever backpack again. Even if he does, I already had my own "watching Superman eat kryptonite" moment in 2018 when my dad looked up at the ridge north of Bear Creek Spire from the talus field below, with miles of vertical boulder-hopping between us and the top. He shook his head, telling me calmly that he didn't think he'd be able to get over the pass. It was the first time in my life I had ever heard my dad say he couldn't do something.

I ended up going over that ridge 3 years later with my wife. Somehow I accidentally picked the wrong line up, forcing us to scramble up a set of class 3 ramps just south of the high point instead of the class 2 route directly over the top of the high point as has been described and taken by many here. After we reached the top my wife fumed at me, declaring the route to be way harder than I had advertised it would be. She was so exhausted she made us stop high up on the west side to take an impromptu nap at 13,000 feet, while I fretted about getting down to a proper camp by the time it got dark. She was in much better spirits by the next day, and looking back now this was one of our most memorable trips despite the inauspicious start. Type 2 fun, indeed.

All this is to say that some of my most treasured memories with my dad over the past 25 years and with my wife over the past 10 years have been in these mountains. Your post is an excellent reminder of some of the reasons why.

I enjoyed your report, especially the photos.
Based on my experience, treatment for recurrent prostate cancer is tolerable.
If you are lucky, some other malady will take you.
Memento mori.

John, thank you for the trip report. Despite the health challenges you're facing, it's wonderful to see the joy that revisiting old memories and creating new ones can bring. I hope you will have many more trips coming and stories to tell us next season. It's always a pleasure to read your posts.