R06 TR: Oct 2006 Late season trips that could have gone bad

[Gogd]

The jeep story reminds me of what I used do when driving manual transmission vehicles to the trailhead: park the vehicle such that the front end points downhill in case you have to push start it. You can push start in reverse, too, but it is harder to steer.

Ed

[jrad]

I wasn't looking for this thread - just reports of Fall Color. While I'm here, I must say my "Halloween Trips" in my mid-30s to mid-40s (my peak years) were always my most memorable trips ever. I only did 7 I think but never once in those week-long treks, saw even a single fresh boot print anywhere and on one far Southern Sierra trip I estimated I saw 100,000 bear prints over about 40 miles of sandy trail in Little Kern Watershed. (Apparently a lazy young adult bear).

Every trip, but one (which could have easily killed me!) I had wonderful late Fall weather. They are remembered as spectacular periods of grand solitude (but with hard, LONG nights) . Indeed I often felt I had (and did have) easily 300 square miles of CA all to myself, nobody being closer than 10 miles away, I'm sure.

I certainly wouldn't do it nowadays - no way! My fingers and toes get way too cold unlike back then.

In those days (mid-1980s to early 1990s) ALL I had for weather forecasting was, usually, a tiny transistor radio which intermittently picked up KCBS - San Francisco, which offered only 3-day forecasts (unreliable!) and sketchy connection to the rest of the world. Certainly, this was well before GPS and the idea of a Garmin or other SOS device was not even a dream yet (I now carry a Bivy Stick just in case somebody worries).

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... drive_link

NOTE: Knowing the far S Sierra to have better late Fall weather for longer, I did ALL the trips in the Kern River watershed except "My best trip ever", a loop (above link) starting near Wishon Reservoir, 3 miles from the dam and on a road NEVER plowed ... which caused me great anxiety when I got in a whiteout/light snow storm in the Ionian Basin about 35 miles from my car and a second snow 2 days later in the Blackcap Basin-Woodchuck Country the last day after having soaked my heavy down parka with sweat early in the morning. I had no permit (not required back then after September 30), told nobody where I was headed; took most of 3 days to get back to my car.

[Harlen]

jrad, Cool trip I am dying to follow--that is, your (above link) Woodchuck to Tehipite, Simpson Meadow, Muir Pass, Ionian Basin and return. What pass did you use to cross LeConte Divide? Congratulations on your epic of long ago, Ian.

[jrad]

jrad, Cool trip I am dying to follow--that is, your (above link) Woodchuck to Tehipite, Simpson Meadow, Muir Pass, Ionian Basin and return. What pass did you use to cross LeConte Divide? Congratulations on your epic of long ago, Ian.

It truly was a real mountaineering adventure, which is something one CAN do in the Sierra if one works at it unlike in Canada, Alaska, Tropics and such where one has to work to AVOID serious (and deadly) adventure! I have long known that a difficult hike with a group or just one friend can become a minor adventure if done alone especially in the off-season. So I'd definitely recommend this route which was as best I can recall (it's been 45 years and I never sketched out an exact map): https://caltopo.com/m/VH4BQP4

NOTES:
- at Camp 1 my neck was so strained from the 60+ pound pack that it was crackling quite a lot and I said to myself - "I think I'll quit and drive up to South Lake Tahoe instead of this!"
- my breakfast view from Castle Peak (still Indian Summer) was the finest forest view of any I've seen in the High Sierra (still is, I think, healthy unburnt forest to the N as far as one can see).
- the drop into Tehipite Valley is AWFUL (ZERO as in NO break) - relentless nearly 100% (30-45 degree) downhill for over 3 miles!! The only trail that has brought me almost to tears (1975, 1977, 1979) and a trail I could not do again w/o lots of serious training (I'm 78 almost now). Your thighs will be bouncing on their own after a bit. People do it; but it's awful.
- TAKE ICE AXE! Or walk well above the first 2 large lakes in Ionian Basin. Crossing above Lake 11592 is the only time in my life I've been truly terrified. One slip would have meant unavoidable death. And this was at the very end of the entire Dry Season. The snow slope was gentle but hard as ice and I could not have stopped a single misstep and slide into open water with zero chance of extricating myself (no beach, rocks, nothing ... just a drop straight into what looked like deep water and no nice powder snow to dry off in and no fire possibility anywhere near).
- Have a sturdy tent. I had a $20 A-frame single wall thing (1-season "tent"). I took a walking stick, the idea being to find a tree for the other end ... but in white-out in the middle of the afternoon I had slammed it into the ice in frustration and so had a 3-foot tall piece of stick and the nearest tree miles away. Took over an hour to "pitch" the silly thing. There was zero wind else it would have blown down and I likely would have frozen in the very, very long night which had me in a state of moderate terror until midnight when I popped my head out to see a gloriously clear, dark sky full of stars.
- Of course, forget challenging Mother Nature needlessly; She can crush you, even in the Sierra, so damn easily. In all my late October trips, I never had to deal with worse than lows in the teens. There was the one time atop Mammoth Crest with 40 mph wind about 10 years ago - I felt like my eyeballs were starting freeze, in the sun! With wind chill, it must have been well below 0 degrees F. Luckily I was hiking as fast as I could (nearly getting blown over) down to Lake George TH and nearby creature comforts.

In a word, as I said, my best trip ever. I could not do it again (cannot take the cold nearly as well as I used to do).

[Harlen]

jrad wrote:

So I'd definitely recommend this route which was as best I can recall (it's been 45 years and I never sketched out an exact map)...

Jrad, I just followed along you great route on the Caltopo. It all looks very fine till you are leaving Ionian Basin. I've also crossed Valor Pass a couple tmes, but never connected it the wild way you did. That seems a gratuitously wild high route, weaving your way along the ridges.... but that's a contradiction in terms. It looked like you were just high on being up high, and didn't want to come down; not even to wander the south shore of Martha Lake. Kudos again for you amazing trip, Harlen.

[jrad]

jrad wrote:

So I'd definitely recommend this route which was as best I can recall (it's been 45 years and I never sketched out an exact map)...

Jrad, I just followed along you great route on the Caltopo. It all looks very fine till you are leaving Ionian Basin. I've also crossed Valor Pass a couple tmes, but never connected it the wild way you did. That seems a gratuitously wild high route, weaving your way along the ridges.... but that's a contradiction in terms. It looked like you were just high on being up high, and didn't want to come down; not even to wander the south shore of Martha Lake. Kudos again for you amazing trip, Harlen.

I meant I'd recommend the general loop, not the exact route. Sorry. Indeed, I don't recall the exact route I took except for the fact that I am sure I did not drop down southward or drop northward to Lake Martha and kept up high, weaving back and forth more or less as shown (in lots of fresh snow). I also remember how gentle the pass was that I crossed - Valor Pass (the name I recall) being the only option for that. I looked at Lake Martha on the map but (on the ancient USGS topos) it looked cliffy (possibly difficult to get down to) and totally in the wrong direction. In fair weather and not under pressure to get to my car before it was too late (6+ month trap by un-plowed snow!), that probably would have been a very nice side trip. But I just wanted to get out of the Ionian Basin as fast as possible (after the near windless snow "storm" cleared, leaving a foot or so of fresh snow).

Also, I did a very similar loop route from the exact same parking area (not even a TH, just a wide place in the road where the trail took off), less going up Castle Peak but for sure down to Middle Fork Kings, Muir Hut, Ionian, etc., with a friend in 1975 with snowshoes in late June. We had tons of snow above 10600 or so and crossed the first 2 lakes in the Ionian Basin on snow covered ice until we started hearing cracking! Yikes. We also stayed on the ridgetops, even going so far as to climb up Mt Reinstein (in boots - snowshoes were used only for the 2 lakes). So, from that trip, I was used to the "high route" I guess.

[giantbrookie]

The jeep story reminds me of what I used do when driving manual transmission vehicles to the trailhead: park the vehicle such that the front end points downhill in case you have to push start it. You can push start in reverse, too, but it is harder to steer.

Ed

OK since this thread has been revived, I can't resist. I still park my '92 Pathfinder facing downhill for the same reason (did it a few weeks ago at High Rancheria).