Backpacking – BOOTS on the TRAIL

In The High Sierra ~ Mount Whitney (1982 & 1983)

2021-02-112022-01-28Posted in California Wilderness Areas, Other Adventures, Sierra Nevada (California)Tagged Backpacking, John Muir Wilderness, Mount Whitney, Mount Whitney East Face, Mountaineer's Route, Mountaineering, Sierra Nevada (California)2 Comments

Up until 2008, our adventures were retained only as memories and on 35mm slides. While our memories may have faded (just a bit), the slides haven’t – and we have a lot of them. So we’re digitizing a select few to bring some of our past adventures into the 21^st Century. The photos below are some of those old slides.

Sometime in the 1990s, we were in an Independence restaurant eating breakfast, having just come down from a climb in the High Sierra. Suddenly shouting erupted outside and I looked-up to see a man running down the sidewalk yelling and waving a piece of paper. Angst over a parking ticket? A lottery winner? As he zoomed past the restaurant and on up the street, we could hear him screaming: “Hans! Hans! We have the permit! We have the permit!” Apparently he and Hans had come all the way from Germany to climb Mount Whitney (14,494 feet (4,416 m)), the highest point and arguably the most famous – or at least the best known – peak in the continental United States. Even then, people came from all over to climb it. But the permit requirements had begun hardening in the mid-1980s and now concessionaires or rangers were around to enforce them. These two hadn’t gotten a permit in advance and were justifiably ecstatic about snagging a rare walk-up one. Considering Whitney’s current level of popularity, having that happen today would exceed the miraculous.

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In The High Sierra ~ Mount Morrison (1974-1985)

2021-01-312022-01-31Posted in Backpacking, California Wilderness Areas, Hiking, Northern California, Other Adventures, Sierra Nevada (California), U.S. National Parks & MonumentsTagged Backpacking, Day Hiking, Hiking, Mount Morrison California, Mountaineering, Northern California, Sierra Nevada (California)9 Comments

My first trip to California’s High Sierra was on a backpack in 1968. That started, haltingly, a granitic attraction to The Range of Light that has now endured for more than 50 years. The first “real” mountain I ever climbed was (appropriately) Mount Hood in 1972. I did a NOLS Mountain Guide course the next summer during which our attempt on Gannett Peak (Wyoming’s high point) was foiled by a blizzard. My first attempt at mountaineering in the High Sierra was on Mount Morrison (12,241 ft (3,731 m)) in 1974. That was the start of an eleven year long saga of uninformed optimism.

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Telescope Peak ~ Death Valley (Thanksgiving 1974)

2020-01-292022-01-28Posted in Backpacking, California, U.S. National Parks & MonumentsTagged Backpacking, Day Hiking, Death Valley National Park, Hiking, Mahogany Flat California, Telescope Peak5 Comments

Telescope Peak, at 11,049 feet (3,368 m), is the highest point in Death Valley National Park. My recent trip with The LovedOne to the park rekindled long dormant memories of my first (and only) climb of this peak. It was Thanksgiving 1974 and Wayne and I (miraculously in my case) were recent college graduates; Diane had a year to go. I think Wayne had even found a job! Why is lost in the mists of time but we decided to use the holiday weekend to climb Telescope. Today it’s typically done as a long (14 miles round-trip, 3,000 feet of gain) day hike from the trailhead at Mahogany Flats Campground. We, on the other hand, opted for an overnighter, with a camp on the ridge just short of the summit.

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Why Are You Carrying All That Stuff?

2019-12-312022-03-14Posted in HikingTagged Backpacking, Day Hiking, Hiking, ME2 backpacks, Mountaineering

In July 2017, the Spokane Spokesman-Review ran a story called “What’s in your daypack?” It’s premise was that when heading out on anything other than the easiest trail (and maybe even then), you should have with you what’s needed to survive an incident or accident. This was basically another take on the now ubiquitous 10 Essentials. Still, I felt more than a little vindicated after reading it. My years spent hiking, climbing, and mountaineering taught me (usually the hard way) to be prepared, to be ready to self-rescue if possible, to have some means of mitigating the suffer-fest (either mine or someone else’s), and – above all – to not put others (like SAR folks) at risk because I was poorly equipped for prevailing conditions.

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NOLS in the Wind Rivers, Wyoming (July 1973)

2019-04-052022-03-01Posted in Other AdventuresTagged Backpacking, Gannett Peak Wyoming, Hiking, Lander Wyoming, Mountaineering, National Outdoor Leadership School, NOLS, Paul Petzoldt, Wind River Range Wyoming6 Comments

The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) was founded in 1965 by Paul Petzoldt, a legendary mountaineer and fixture in the Teton climbing community. I had completed a basic mountaineering course with the Mazamas in 1972 and was looking for a way to learn more about mountaineering and how to get around in the backcountry. One of my rock climbing partners at the time (Kim Fadiman) had done a NOLS Mountain Guide course (now it’s called the Wind River Mountaineering Expedition) the year before, was very enthusiastic about it, and convinced me it was just what I needed. So I signed up and soon found myself at the NOLS “Lumberyard” (whose main building burned down in 1974, taking a lot of gear and supplies with it) in Lander, Wyoming on a nice day in late June of 1973.

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Gary Croan’s John Muir Trail (August 1956)

2018-10-312022-01-29Posted in Backpacking, California Wilderness Areas, Sierra Nevada (California), U.S. National Parks & MonumentsTagged Ansel Adams Wilderness, Backpacking, California, Gary Croan, John Muir Trail (JMT), John Muir Wilderness, Northern California, Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park, Yosemite National Park2 Comments

The other day The LovedOne brought home a small book from the “free” box at the library. It turned out to be a 5^th Edition (1953) of Starr’s Guide to the John Muir Trail and the High Sierra Region (purchased from the still extant Vroman’s Books in Pasadena, California). The guide’s paper dust jacket was still in good condition, so it was somewhat of a rare find (at least for us trail guide geeks). Even rarer were the notes I found inside: Log of the John Muir Trail Hike by Gary Croan (August 1956). These detailed the backpack Gary’s Scout troop did along the Muir Trail that summer from Yosemite Valley to Florence Lake. Also included were his personal gear list and a brochure for Dri-Lite Foods, one of the pioneers in freeze dried foods.[1] His troop appears to have been based in the Los Angeles area, which meant they got to Yosemite Valley on [now old] Highway 99 since Interstate-5 didn’t exist in 1956. I’ve found brief notes in old guidebooks before, but this is the first set I’ve found detailing a backpack on an iconic trail in the days before permits and crowds and freeways. That he described the same backpack I did in August of 1972, sans scouts and going as far as Piute Creek, is a remarkable coincidence. I am not, however, reproducing Gary’s notes here as some nostalgic paean to the “good old days” – as hindsight tends to accentuate the “good” and edit out the “bad” – but merely as a look at a young person’s outdoor experience in a now bygone era.[2]

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Trails of Oregon’s Rogue River (October 2018)

2018-10-122022-03-26Posted in Backpacking, Hiking, Oregon Wilderness Areas, Southern Oregon, U.S. RiversTagged Backpacking, Day Hiking, Hiking, Oregon, Rogue River, Rogue River Ranch, Rogue River Trail, Rogue Valley Oregon, Rogue Wolf Loop, Southern Oregon, Wild Rogue Wilderness

Southern Oregon’s Wild and Scenic Rogue River flows, from its headwaters at Boundary Springs within Crater Lake National Park westward for some 215 miles to pour into the Pacific Ocean near Gold Beach, Oregon. Hiking trails – some loved a lot, others almost unknown – follow the main river and its tributaries for over 100 miles. This post highlights nine such trails across the Rogue’s entire watershed. Links to day hikes or backpacks on each are provided so you can go out and experience the Rogue – in whole or in part – for yourself. Go outside, go Rogue!

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