Re: Tehipite Valley in late August--Stream crossing info
Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 10:37 pm
I thought a lot of things. And yes, I took photos. Wanna see them? The bugs were out of this world bad. On par with Alaska, maybe. Ants, gnats, flies, mozis, wasps . . . every freaking annoying insect you can imagine. The mozis were particularly bad. I was bit hundreds of times, no kidding. The hike in sucked. It was ugly, hot, and buggy. All the trees down made for slow going. We got a late afternoon start or we would have been in the valley the first day. If the trees were cleared you could make it pretty quick, I'd imagine.
Once we got to the valley overlook it all seemed worthwhile. Damn. That's one fine looking valley. The descent into the valley itself I didn't think was all that bad compared to the rest of the trail. But, it has it's problems to be certain. We only saw two snakes and bear tracks. One other party was there with us. They were quite nice. The river is beautiful. I'd love to kayak it someday (gonna have to master the whitewater thing first). I really enjoyed the views. Particularly of the gorge of despair--I saw a peak up there that I really want to climb and saw the potential for what looked to be some amazing canyoneering routes. I'd love to go try them. We found that the heat of the valley was quite energy sapping during the day and spend most of our time lounging around camp and fishing. I'd like to come back sometime when it isn't quite so hot.
When we left we made it back to the car in one painful day. The mozis were insane. The worst of the entire trip. Nothing fazed those little blood suckers. I'm coming back. I need to summit the dome, I've been thinking about trying to climb the obelisk. And perhaps, if my dreams come try I'll learn how to aid climb and try one of the seldom done aid routes on the face.
Once we got to the valley overlook it all seemed worthwhile. Damn. That's one fine looking valley. The descent into the valley itself I didn't think was all that bad compared to the rest of the trail. But, it has it's problems to be certain. We only saw two snakes and bear tracks. One other party was there with us. They were quite nice. The river is beautiful. I'd love to kayak it someday (gonna have to master the whitewater thing first). I really enjoyed the views. Particularly of the gorge of despair--I saw a peak up there that I really want to climb and saw the potential for what looked to be some amazing canyoneering routes. I'd love to go try them. We found that the heat of the valley was quite energy sapping during the day and spend most of our time lounging around camp and fishing. I'd like to come back sometime when it isn't quite so hot.
When we left we made it back to the car in one painful day. The mozis were insane. The worst of the entire trip. Nothing fazed those little blood suckers. I'm coming back. I need to summit the dome, I've been thinking about trying to climb the obelisk. And perhaps, if my dreams come try I'll learn how to aid climb and try one of the seldom done aid routes on the face.