Category Archives: Camping

My 70th birthday trip over Mono Pass and down Mono Creek: part 2

California, Camping, Photography, Travel

(For part 1, go here)

I have not hiked extensively anywhere but the Sierras – I have hiked a little in the Andes (Peru), the Atlas Mountains (Morocco), The Alps (Switzerland), and the Canadian Rockies – but I am still convinced nothing compares to the Range of Light as John Muir called the Sierra Nevadas.

Most mountain ranges, including all of the ones above except the Sierras, are sedimentary rock, layers of brown or reddish- brown rock, lifted up and then eroded by glaciers or water. The Sierras are different, at least, the core of the Sierras; they are bright, almost white, granite. Gleaming towers of pure granite; meadows lined with glacial polished granite; with giant erratics left behind by the retreated glaciers. All in what is essentially a very high desert. It is intoxicating.

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And, as we went over Mono Pass, we were all pretty much intoxicated. The rock was almost white and the sky was dark blue; we had miles to go to get down into the valley, but lots of time.

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Time to look at the wildflowers that were blooming in the high spring, time to take a dip in Trail Lake, or just relax.

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But, with all the intoxication and all the time, we didn't get camp setup until late and finished cooking dinner in the dark. Tired and happy campers.

   

My 70th birthday trip over Mono Pass and down Mono Creek: part 1

California, Camping, Mono Pass, Photography, Sierras, Travel

Sometime during the last year, I decided to celebrate my 70th birthday with a trans-Sierra hike. I am not sure how, or why, I came up with this scheme, but I did. Now we are back and I am whooped, but I am still glad I came up with the idea. It did turn out to be more logistically difficult and a harder hike, for me, than I originally expected.

Part of the difficulty was that the leaving and arriving trailheads are six to seven hours apart and part of it was that, after going over the pass, the runout on the westside – for me – was still a three day walk. I am still pretty stiff and sore. But, and it is a huge BUT, the trip was very worth it.

When we Googled the fastest way from ,the west trailhead to the east trailhead, Google took us through Yosemite Valley. That just didn't seem right. Through Yosemite Valley on a Saturday, on a free weekend – that just couldn't be the fastest way. When we finally got past the denial stage to the grief stage, we knew we were in trouble. But, when we got to the tunnel view at sunset, we pretty much felt we had lucked out. 

This was the place, after all, immortalized by Ansel Adams.

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When we got there, the other lucky tourists were all, in the perfect light, taking pictures.

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When, Ansel took his picture, he must have waited hours for the right light. Standing there with a huge 8×10 camera on a sturdy tripod, a light-proof cloth over his head. We just blew through. Drove up, walked to the edge, stuck the camera in roughly the right direction, and then got back into the car and drove away. It seems both slightly cheap in the ease and liberating at the same time. The digital age is a whole new photographic ballgame. So to speak.

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*     *     *     *     *     *     *

 There were five of us on the trip and I started early, Monday, morning, walking the first part of the trial with a friend and, then, alone.

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The trail is gorgeous, leaving Mosquito Flat and slowly working up towards the pass. As we walked, we spread out along the trial and then gathered for lunch just before the final push towards the pass.

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To get an idea of the scale of the area, double click on the pic below. The small dots are members of our group.

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I say final push, I think for everybody else it was a stroll and , for me, it was slow but not that hard. After the pass, we started down – duh! – and met up again at the very high, very barren,  Summit Lake.

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From there we dropped into the Mono Creek drainage. The canyon, or valley – certainly not a canyón – opened up below us. Continued here.  


Meanwhile, back on the Home Front…

California, Camping, Sierras, Travel

Steve and Michele (with Beth and Howard) went over the hill to the Eastern Sierra along Highway 395*. The plan was to drive as high as we could and spend a couple of days hiking. The first day, after taking a day hike at the top of Sonora Pass, we got to a very small lake, on the east side, at about 10,000 feet,

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overlooking Bridgeport and Mono Lake.

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We spent the night there (some sleeping better and longer than others),

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and, the next day, went for a short hike above the lake,

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before moving on to another lake.

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The next day, we hiked up into the John Muir Wilderness.

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The first night had been windy, but, the last couple of days were perfect weather. Warm in the day and cold at night, with a glorious, still, morning the day we left.

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*the Sierra Nevada Range  runs along the eastern side of California's Great Central Valley – the largest flat area in north America. The Range sloops gradually up to the east until it crests at the ridgeline. In the southern Sierra, the passes vary from 8,000 to 12,000 feet and the mountains go to 14,000. From the crestline, the Sierra drop down to Highway 395, forming the highest, steepest escarpment in the world. Starting at 395, is the fastest way to get into the highcountry.**

**above timberline.