HALT Desert Backpack

Granite Springs Backpack

The October troop outing was a backpack out to Granite Springs.  The well was flowing nicely after a few dry years.

40 Miles of Hikes

Over the last couple weekends, I got in a couple of 20 mile hikes.
The first was San Gorgonio summit via the South Fork Trail.  The north side of the wilderness has been closed for a while due to fire damage so I jumped at the chance to hike it with Mark's hiking group.  We got to the trailhead and started hiking at 8am.  The first few miles were through recovering burn areas and the trail threaded through think lilac and acacia.  The terrain turned to mostly pines when it joined with the south fork river.  It was smooth going to Dollar Lake saddle.  Another hiker and I then went ahead for the summit.  Once there, it was great weather, not windy but perfectly nice.  After hanging around for a bit, we hurried down to the saddle and caught up with the rest of the group right before the trailhead.  Overall this is a great trail and much better than Vivian Creek for a day hike.

Burn area

Dollar Lake saddle

View from the trail

San Gorgonio Summit Selfie

The second hike was Noble Canyon.  I had never done this and the weather looked to be not to hot to try it.  Arriving at the parking lot, the car thermometer read 33!  I put on my rain jacket and hurried up the trail.  It only took a mile or so to warm up as the sun came over the ridges. The trail started along oak and chapparal terrain and then along riparian when along the streams.  There was lots of flies and poison oak.  Along the way, there were runners participating in the Noble Canyon 50K.  After a short break at Penny Pines, I headed back down the trail.  Overall, this is a great San Diego hike.

View from the trail

Old mine

Prescott Visit

With Bengt starting his second year at Embry-Riddle, we had a nice weekend dropping him off.

• Downtown Prescott art walk and music on the square
• Good Thai food at Tara Thai
• Awesome cocktails at Thumb Butte Distillery
• Morning hikes at Watson Lake
• Great dinner at Saint Micheal Cafe

Crowded downtown Prescott

Petroglyphs in friends neighborhood

Sophomore dorm

Books

• Turning Points inMiddle East History by Eamonn Gearon
• Drinking With theSaints: The Sinner's Guide to a Holy Happy Hour by Michael P. Foley
• The Tree: A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live and Why They Matter by Colin Tudge
• Ramona and RoundAbout: A History of San Diego's Little Known Backcountry by Charles LeManager
• Southern California'sWWII Aircraft by Cory Graff and Patrick Devine
• Highways to History: A Driving Guide to the Historic Places of the San Diego Mountains by Christopher Wray
• How Carriers Fought: Carrier Operations in WWII by Lars Celander
• Geography forDummies by Charles A. Heatwole
• Genetics for Dummies by Tara Rodden Robinson
• The American West: History, Myth and Legacy by Patrick Allitt
• World War I: The Great War by Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius

2019 Sierra Solo Trek

Day 0 - After work I drove up to Lone Pine and spent the night at Tuttle Creek Campground.  The creek was running nicely and provided a great background noise to all the stars on the moonless night.

Day 1 -  Woke up early and headed into town for coffee before picking up my permit at the ranger station. Then headed up to the Horseshoe Meadows trailhead.  I quickly got my stuff ready and headed out on the trail to Cottonwood Pass.  It was pretty quick getting up to the top where I took a break to eat and get checked out by a load marmot on top of a boulder..  The view down into Big Whitney Meadows was quite nice.  I started down into the meadow and stopped for lunch with great views of the meadow and the nearby mountains.  From the meadow, I headed south along Golden Trout Creek to Tunnel Station.  After getting water there, I headed back up the trail a bit to a flat spot without as many skeeters.  I sacked out early.

The Marmot King

Big Whitney Meadow

More Meadow

Tunnel Station

Day 2 - The night and morning where colder than expected.  But after packing and started hiking back up the creek, I warmed up fast.  On the way to Siberian Pass, I wanted to take a side trail towards Rock Basin.  I had trouble finding the junction to the east.  I think the Tom Harrison map had it a bit farther south that it really is.  I eventually found it but quickly lost the poorly-maintained track.  I did some cross country scrambling and eventually met up with the trail as it followed Berigan Stringer.  After a few more miles I was back at Big Whitney Meadow.  After a lunch break, I headed up towards Siberian Pass. The trail was surprisingly sparse.  It was essentially a pack trail and mule droppings where the main markers.  Crossing over the pass led to stunning views to the north.  The trail headed across a meadows and crossed the PCT as I headed towards Soldier Lake.  At the lake, the bugs were awful so I headed back up trail to a place farther from water.  It was another early bedtime as I read my Kindle and counted the mosquitos on my tent.

Camp near Tunnel Station

Pines and Mountains

Siberian Pass

Camp near Soldier Lake

 
Day 3 - The night was much warmer than the first and it was easy to get up and going in the morning.  I headed up towards New Army Pass.  I met some hikers coming down from the pass and they said it still had a big cornice but was passable.  I got to the pass fairly quickly.  I stashed my bear can and tent and then headed towards Mt. Langely.  The summit trail starts on a gradual incline but then turns straight up.  It is about a steep as you can go without using climbing equipment; 2000' feat of gain in about a mile.  I also started getting the first symptoms of AMS.  2 1/2 hours after leaving New Army Pass, I reached the summit.  Awesome views in every directions.  To the north was Mt. Whitney, just a few hundred feet higher (but with many more people).  To the east was the Miter Basin and the western Sierra.  To the east was the Owens Valley and the White Mountains.  To the south was Cirque Peak. Heading down, my altitude sickness got worse with bad naseua.  At least it was downhill; but slippery.  Back at New Army Pass, I took a break to try to get better.  After a bit, I decided to get lower quickly.  Due to the snow still on the pass, there was a cairned path around the cornice that was a bit hairy, but short.  It was quick going on true path.  It still didn't feel better as I passed the wonderful Cottonwood Lakes.  Since it was still early, I decided to hike all the way to the car and head back down.  I finally got to car and drove back home.  Since AMS goes away immedietely after getting to lower elevations, I was feeling much better.  A pit stop at Subway cured by hunger and dehydration.

New Army Pass

USGS Marker on Mt. Langely

View to the east from the summit

Summit Selfie

Mt. Langely from Cottonwood Lakes

Overall it was a great, but short trip.  I hiked about 45 miles.  However, there are some things I need to work on future hikes:

• Food and drink - get better about having foods I want to eat.  Probably need to consider no-cook since dehydrated options aren't appetizing most of the time.  Also need some flavored drink powders since plain water is not appealing especially when AMS sets in
• Altitude sickness - might be time to checkout some OTC or prescription options
• Aerobic fitness - for last several years, my training has been concentrated on sprints and other anaerobic activities.  I think by doing some boring old cardio at targeted heart rates, I can increase my ease of movement, especially at altitude
• Backpack - for loads over 25 lbs and with a bear can, my trusty old G4 is not comfortable anymore.  Having all the weight on the shoulders got annoying.  I will start looking at packs that are more conformable at the higher weights.

Alaska Cruise 2019

For their 50th anniversary, my parents took us on an awesome Alaska cruise and land adventure.  Here are the highlights.

Vancouver - spent 2 days in this very nice city; took a bicycle tour of Stanley Park; took water taxi to Granville Island; explored Elizabeth Park; does not have rideshare for some reason; Hotel Blu is highly recommended

Ketchikan - first port of call; took a short nature hike to learn about the southeast Alaskan ecosystem; saw a black bear mom and her two cubs and lots of bald eagles; Bengt licked a banana slug and got a numb tongue

Juneau - rode the tram to Mt. Roberts and hiked to Brown's cross for great views; took a long hike near Mendenhall Glacier and saw a porcupine climbing a tree

Skagway - visited the NP museum; took a cool train ride up to White Pass

Glacier Bay NP - saw whales but not too closely

College Bay - saw orcas and otters; in many ways this bay is better than Glacier Bay

Whittier - docked and boarded the Alaska Railroad for the trip to Talkeetna

Talkeetna - didn't have much time here so just ate and got on the bus to Denali State Park

McKinley Princess Lodge - our first land day; did a hike up a ridge to great views; were able to see Denali from the lodge which is pretty rare especially given the smoke from the many wildfires; be sure to get the chili fries at the Base Camp restaurant

Denali Princess Lodge - took a bus to DPL; arrived in time to get to the NP visitor center; hiked to a beaver pond in light rain and saw the beaver swimming around inspecting his work; next day took an all-day bus tundra tour; saw lots of caribou, a fox and his family, a large brown bear in the distance, ptarmigan; golden eagles, Dall sheep, artic ground squirrels, and a moose right along the road; only large mammal we didn't see was a wolf but the guide said it is very rare to see them on the tour

Anchorage - took yet another bus to Anchorage and stayed at the very nice Hotel Captain Cook; the Crow's Nest restaurant is highly recommended

Three T's Hike

Mark and his group headed up to the San Bernadino Mountains to tackle the Three T's (or whatever ones we get to). We got to the Icehouse Canyon trailhead and of course it was full so we parked about a half mile down the road.  At the trail entrance, I separated from the group and headed up to Icehouse Saddle.  The creek was flowing nicely and it was shady for most of the way.  At the saddle, I took a quick break to refill my water and then headed to the first T, Timber Mountain.  It was quite steep and the short trail to the summit was a pain.  I had some food and water and stretched out a bit ad the summit.  Then it was back down to the main trail and then down a few hundred feet to a bare saddle with nice views to the east and west.  From there is was straight up to the summit of the second T, Telegraph.  The 360 views from there were fabulous, probably better than Baldy even though Telegraph is quite a bit lower.  I contemplated completed the trifecta and going for Thunder but looking down it, it didn't seem worth the effort since I had to hike back down to Icehouse to meet my friends.  So after resting a bit, it was back downhill for a while.  Then uphill again for some last torture.  Near the turnoff for Timber summit, I meet up with my group.  We then headed down to the saddle together.  From there, I got the urge to run down the canyon.  This turned out pretty fun and I made it down in an hour.

Timber summit

They should put this sign near the trailhead.

Telegraph summit

More Winter Books

• The Log of a Snow Survey by Patrick Armstrong
• Cities of theAncient World by Steven Tuck
• California Plants: A Guide to Our Iconic Flora by Matt Ritter
• The Practical Geologist: The Introductory Guide to the Basics of Geology and to Collecting and Identifying Rocks by Dougal Dixon
• Building a Bug Out Bag: Create a Plan To Get Home In the Event of a Disaster by Kevin Kiernan
• The Six Day War: The History and Legacy of the 1967 Arab-Isreali War and Its Impact on the Middle East
• The Promise of the GrandCanyon: John Wesley Powell's Perilous Journey and his Vision for the American West by John F. Foss
• Around the World in80 Trees by Jonathan Drori
• The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart
• Atlas of World WarII: History's Greatest Conflict Revealed Through Rare Wartime Maps and New Cartography by Neil Kagan et. al.
• Smithsonian Civil War: Inside the Collection by Neil Kagan
• How to Listen To and Understand Great Music by Robert Greenberg

Cactus to Clouds Hike

Over memorial day, a buddy and me tackled one of the hardest day hikes in the world: Cactus to Clouds (aka Skyline trail).
Use the awesome Hiking Guy guide, we go to the museum a bit after midnight.  The trail started steep and stayed steep.  We got a lot of light from the Palm Springs so didn't really need headlamps until a few miles in.
We were making good time but started to slow up as we approached rescue box #2.  And after Flat Rock, we were dragging.  When we got to Long Valley, we decided to skip the summit since we had been there before and also it was covered in snow and ice still.
It was a great hike but might be a one-time experience.

Parked by the museum

Trailhead

Still 8 miles to go?

This should be posted much closer to the trailhead

Sunrise

The top

Flat rock