Sometimes I can get too caught up in the details of a climb or mountain or canyon. The more details there are, the more you can obsess over them to try to figure out exactly what the experience might be. With the Inyo National Forest closure from Aug. 31 – Sept. 17th due to the fires in California, most of my backyard and frequented places were not accessible. Therefore, I found a random, non SPS (Sierra Peak Section) peak in the only National Forest open (Humboldt-Toiyabe) and decided to just go for the journey.
Middle Earth was a challenging canyon route starting at the base of Upper Yosemite Falls, descending ~1000 ft to the bottom of Lower Yosemite Falls. It tested and broke my nerves but I still had a number of firsts including my first class B+ canyon involving several swims.
In late July 2021 I went on a moderate backpacking trip out of Agnew Meadows (near Devils Post Pile) hitting Thousand Island, Ediza and Minaret Lakes. I went with a group of six of which I knew only one person, my good friend Brian who I’ve done a lot with (Shasta, Williamson, Lassen, Convict Lake and Mt. Morrison). Overall we spent four easy days going 31 miles and nearly 6,000 ft, including some day hikes that Brian and I did. (map)
I have a hard time stopping for side trips when I have a destination. However, Sadie’s love of fossils convinced me to turn off desolate highway 50 in Nevada. Another half hour down a gravel road brought us to a trilobite quarry called U-Dig Fossils. My expectations of walking around, mostly bored while looking at pieces of shale were blown away after breaking my first rock open to reveal a trilobite fossil!
Looking down from Piute Pass towards Piute and Loch Leven Lakes
Getting ready for the summer backpacking season I was excited to reach higher than 11,000 ft on this trip up Piute Pass near Bishop. The plan was to pack a heavy bag to get the feel of a multi-day trip on this 16.5 mile, 3000 ft gain out-and-back trip.
Another early season backpacking trip was met with unexpected snow conditions out of Twin Lakes near Bridgeport, CA. Our trip was planed to go 20 miles, 3600 ft round trip, ending at Snow Lake in the Hoover Wilderness however, early season backpacking never goes as expected.
The upside of a low winter is that the backcountry is accessible in early May 2021. Looking at the snow in Mammoth Lakes, I decided to give a backpacking trip up to 10,700 ft a try and hope for limited snow on our 13.7 mi, 3,800 ft adventure. At 8:30am, Sadie, pup and I all started up the little traveled Logging Flat Trail outside of Big Pine.
Walking towards our hotel room in the jungle of Arenal
As I said in my first piece on Costa Rica, my trip here was much more of the jungle-beach-tour type of event. One of the benefits of working with guides is the wealth of knowledge you can be communicated vs. going solo. I learned more about the environment than ever before in this nation containing 5% of the worlds ecological diversity.
I recently took a trip down to Costa Rica, a country with nearly zero COVID restrictions and abundant English. The highlights were definitely rappelling alongside waterfalls and some very moderate cave exploration in the Arenal volcanic region.
The cabin we were hoping to reach at Beverage Mine [Source]
An old stone cabin, collapsed tramways and mining artifacts. These are things that get my partner Sadie and myself to say yes to a 9,000 ft and 20 mile long backpacking trip to the Beveridge Ghost Town. On a weekend with complex options of High Sierra snow (early April 2021) and Death Valley heat (90+ degrees), we thought we found our oasis in the Inyo Mountains Wilderness.
