Sierra Secrets

[Mike M.]

Bumping this topic up with updated photos.

Mike

[Wandering Daisy]

If you tell (a picture is worth a thousand words), it is no longer secret!

There's a lot of information on the Sierra, more so now with the internet, so I suspect most of our "Sierra secrets" are already known. Unnamed lakes, streams and peaks stay secret longer than those with a name. The way I find my own secret place is by studying maps and finding something that looks interesting (also can get a good idea from Google Earth). The fun part is that when I finally get there, it still is full of surprises! And often the "getting there" is even more interesting that the actual destination.

One advantage of being old, is that I have been able to experience the wilderness before the internet, or even most guidebooks and even one place where the only topo was a 1903 30-minute USGS map, full of errors, including streams flowing the wrong direction. Got lost on that thing for 3 days!

I too refuse to pay the outrageous fees now from Photobucket. You are very dedicated to go back and re-do your old reports. I have thought about that, but decided it was too much work.

[BaneSierras]

IMO this is the kind of story that drives so many people to the Sierras to uncover these hidden gems. These stories and knowing it may take years to find them for yourself. And maybe it's not the place itself, but the solitude and knowing you know a place intimately enough to find it. Keeping it a secret is actually doing the next person a favor because there's less joy in finding it if someone tells you right where to go.

I remember reading a story in backpacking magazine many years ago about these college kids that wondered off looking for this area where a drug plane dropped a bunch of weed and cash or something and they ended up finding a beautiful valley and waterfall and cabin complete with John Muir sketch book. Obviously an old lure but the fantasy of it is intriguing and I like to think there was a little bit of truth to it.

Thanks for sharing (and for not sharing). I'm still a Sierras rookie, going on my first wilderness trip there next week.