Words about science and hiking
Up and out early to make the 8 miles and 3000 feet up to Forrester Pass, the high point of the PCT. Brother Dave and I made this hike 40 years ago, but none of it looked particularly familiar. I remember that we camped at a cold barren windswept lake below the pass, but could Read More …
Up at 3:30 today to climb Whitney. Yesterday’s terrific (in the sense of terrifying) storm left me with a strong desire to avoid being caught above timberline should there be a repeat. Although there had been stars out when I answered nature’s call earlier in the night, the sky was filled with unpromising low clouds Read More …
Well, that didn’t take long. Two days ago I was sweltering in the desert. Today I sat through one of the most intense and thorough downpours I have ever seen. It was only 12 or 13 miles to Crabtree Meadows, the closest point to Mt Whitney that PCT hikers are allowed to camp, so I Read More …
A very fine day for hiking. Most of the smoke had cleared overnight, leaving the sky a sparkling blue rather than a dirty gray. The water at Poison Meadow Spring gushed pure and cold out of the mountainside, belying its ominous name. The weather appears to have turned, and I saw clouds for the first Read More …
Some substantial climbing today from my camp at 8300 to a ridge at 10500 and then back down a few hundred feet. Enough climbing to move from the dry Sierras to the high Sierras. There is shade now, and the occasional green meadow. But I am still being followed by smoke from the big fire Read More …
Left Kennedy Meadows early after last night’s bacchanalia. The store lets hikers hang out on the deck all night, but cuts the power when they close up at 5 pm. A local just down the road, however, has an outdoor theater set up in the woods, complete with surround sound, and hikers are welcome to Read More …
Made a quick few miles today to the store at Kennedy Meadows, the last resupply point on the PCT before the high Sierra, and thus a hiker gathering place. There are probably 40 hikers here from all over the US and the world – Canada, Germany, Japan, France, Mexico. Quite a happy agglomeration although certainly Read More …
Another hot day, but the climb out of Chimney Creek Canyon rewarded us with our first sight of the High Sierras. Although it did not actually make the hike any cooler, the sight of cool blue peaks clad with snow gave a promise of relief from the heat. For those who have been hiking in Read More …
It’s hot. Way too hot for hiking. Temps are in the high 80s and low 90s with a cloudless blazing blue sky and only intermittent shade. And this is not the worst of it. The lower elevations behind me are in the 100s, and water carries of over 30 miles are required. I’ve talked to Read More …
Poor sweet innocent doomed California. It has given its gifts so easily, so willingly and now lies ravished and plundered, stripped bare of its riches and soon , perhaps, to be abandoned. There were gold nuggets for the taking, big trees for timber, rich farmland needing only water from its cold rushing rivers to make Read More …