I’m so excited that I’ve got half a mind to scream out loud. I’m excited about photography again recently. There is a photo contest coming up, specific to and located in Death Valley. I’m trying to figure out which photo(s) to enter. I’m limited to two entries this go around, so I’ve got to choose a little more carefully than the shotgun effect of the last one.

It’s exciting (expensive), frightening and wonderful all at once. Over the years I’ve fallen more and more in tune with Death Valley; it’s solitude and it’s quiet beauty. Few people go high up into the mountains and even fewer wander outside the tourist areas of DV. I like these lonely areas, I find serenity there and am reminded of Buzz Aldrin’s famous description of the moon as, “Magnificent desolation”. What a perfect description for Death Valley.

I’ve even applied (by submitting some sample photos) to a stock photography company.  I’m excited for a lot of reasons lately.

This was my second consecutive Death Valley Marathon/30k (first one here) and it was just as good the second time despite; pouring rain, mud, the use of the alternate running course and a lack of my running companions from last year.

A few days before the race the race director sends out an email warning us about the incoming storm and the fact that the park service may close Titus Canyon due to the incoming rain/snow.  That was disheartening, because Titus is a stunning place for a run.  When you’re running in Titus you are never more than one more bend in the canyon away from feeling like you’re all alone in there. The canyon walls are so narrow and it bends so often you are occasionally the only person in view in a specific section, which is a really cool way to do a marathon.

The canyon walls are remarkable for their multi-colored beauty and there are multiple layers of historic use of the canyon from the Native American petroglyph to old mining camps. So you get geology, history and great competition all in one race. The runners that make the trek all the way out to Death Valley for the run, both the marathoners and the 30k’ers are great people.  As a whole, they are the best race people I’ve interacted with consistently, from the director (who gave me a ride in his van when the bus was too crowded last year) all the way down to the runners who will occasionally cheer you on while running.

Well, like I said we got an email indicating that Titus might be closed for the run. In that case there is an alternate route that starts near Furnace Creek on West Side road, it’s a dirt road in the middle of a broad valley, Death Valley is scenic almost no matter where you are but 3 hours at a snail’s pace in a big valley can’t compare to Titus canyon. The day before the race we get an email stating that Titus was officially closed and the alternate course would be the venue this year.

Gant wasn’t going to be running this year, due to a flare up of his TG but he was willing to play role of race support crew. He performed his job with the gumption of a Grant. I’m on the verge of promoting him to full “R” status if he keeps this work up. So we rolled up from Gorman on Friday night, got to Texas spring campground a little after midnight and despite years of experience telling us not to sleep in the truck, we slept in the truck. It turned out to be a pretty damn good decision . All night long the rain was pouring down, but I slept well and as far as I can tell, Gant slept soundly as well.

Dawn broke and we made our way to the check in at Furnace Creek. We got our bibs and followed the bus caravan down to West Side Road. At this point it was still drizzling and in the low 50’s, the clouds were solid and there was a slight wind to the south. The day looked dismal and grey; there wasn’t much to see besides the clouds and other runners. People were wearing trash bags to stay dry and kinda warm and the race director was giving his speech about snow in Titus canyon and that was why it was closed. At that point most people were more interested in starting the race and trying to get warm than in listening to the speech. Minutes later we were obliged.

The alternate course is a dirt road with a slight down slope on the way out. Due to the rain the dirt road was a sloppy mess. The rain didn’t really stop, it let up at points but the cold was constant. On the way out there was a tailwind, which in addition to the slight down slope made for a pretty good time to the turnaround point, 1:16 for me.  Unfortunately that meant there was a head wind on the way back to the finish line and an incline. The nice thing about hitting the turnaround point and heading back was all the racers behind me. Seeing them go the other way and hearing the occasional cheer from them really helped me keep my motivation and pace up as the road got sloppier and the rain and wind was now coming directly into my face.

Eventually, there were no more runners going the other way. I knew there were 12-16 runners in front of me and a few somewhat close behind me. I passed a few in front of me and was passed by a few as well. My legs were dreading the final mile as it was the steepest climb and I hit it like concrete wall. My pace went from a mid to low 8 minute mile to over 11 for that last mile. I was out of juice and it was cold, wet, sloppy and steep.

But it was over. The post race food was GREAT, just like last year – peanut filled pretzel bits, oranges, trail mix, water, Gatorade and of course the complimentary T-shirt. I started to cramp in the cold and quickly changed into some warm, dry clothes and relaxed in the truck while Gant tried to get an inside line on becoming a Junior Race Director.

Death Valley was indeed in the process of flooding, I’ve never seen a storm like that there, the roads were covered with water, Towne pass was a snowy sight to see and I was more than glad to be warm and dry in the truck with my chauffeur race support crew at the helm.

A few hours later I was home and Gant was on his way to a half marathon in San Diego. I found out that I took 1^st in my age group and 20^th overall with a finish time of 2:40 which I was pretty stoked about.  I am definitely looking forward to my 3^rd consecutive DVM(e) next year. I’d even run the alternate course, It’s really that worth it.  Good job to my support crew and happy hypothermia homeboy as well, excellent job as a matter of fact.  The picture collection is incomplete for various reasons, don’t ask unless you’re curious in which case go ahead.

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I just signed up for the Death Valley Marathon 2009.  Exciting times indeed, the last one was just plain fun despite my inherent dislike for running in general.  It’s in stunning Titus canyon, it’s not a big race with lots of wankers and douchebags, it is just a bunch of dedicated runners (and people like me) doing what they love in a beautiful place.

Here’s another reason why I love the DV Marathon.  Without knowing it, I finished third in my age group thereby getting me a ribbon for this minor achievement.  Since I didn’t know it, none of us attended the award ceremony that night.  A couple weeks later I get a letter in the mail with the ribbon and a congratulatory letter.  Well, this year I plan on going to that awards ceremony and I’m going to go hollywood actor style in my acceptance speech.  Someone will have to physically drag me off the stage this year.

Hopefully the gimp and pimp combo will be able to overcome their fear of the outdoors or whatever the issue is before February so they can see the ceremony this year.  And as always there are tons of things left to explore in DV itself making for a really great weekend of the pimp wearing his medal and the gimp experiencing narcoleptic fits.

The last Death Valley Marathon writeup.

Death Valley Petroglyph search

I want to start today by pointing out that it’s now Monday, May 19th in Death Valley.  We ran a race two, long hot days ago.  Jared still has the same shirt on from the race.  Not saying anything, just wanted to point that out for all my little readers out there who may have overlooked it in the rush of reading this ravishingly remarkable report.

So, we awoke and it was already over 90 degrees by 7:30 in the morning.  Gant continued his stewardship of public lands that morning and then we hiked the dune.  It was high and hot, it was scenic and slow but it was fun.  Jared for some reason went native and hiked most of the way without his sandals.  The difference in temperature between the sunny side of the sand and the shady sides was palpable and I understand why he wound up like this quite often.  We eventually hit what could be considered the high point of the dunes, as long as you didn’t look to the West to see the slightly higher point that was much further away.

After we cleared the dunes it was on to a Death Valley Petroglyph search.  Gant, ever the skeptic didn’t believe that it existed.  So, we found the area in question and started hiking and looking for clues.  I was occasionally picking up two separate sets of footprints heading in the direction that told me that we were going the right way.  There is literally no reason for anyone to have been out there, except to look at this petroglyph canyon, so the footsteps were a big confidence booster for me.  But I eventually lost them, Jared caught up to me while I was looking for the prints and he found the entrance shortly.  I’ll not tell you where this is, nor will I describe it’s location outside of the clues already given.  Just a warning if you find it though, you will be watched while approaching.

It is a wonderfully tight little canyon with some great petroglyphs, all the more so because it’s so out of the way and off the beaten path.  There’s a bit of a hike required to reach the canyon from the nearest road and then entering the canyon there’s a series of obstacles to scramble over.  The obstacles get progressively harder until you hit a small bowl in the canyon.  Thankfully, the Indians apparently were also often stuck in this bowl and littered the walls with artwork.  Unfortunately none of us brought a rope and as a group we were unable to continue past the very slick, approximately 20 foot high section of water polished rock that led up out of the bowl section.

Jared, working with a boost was able to scale the waterfall and scouted up ahead and told us of a few more obstacles above.  According to to the story we heard about this canyon is that at the top there is supposed to be a bighorn sheep skull.  Jared came back reporting that he had gotten stuck at another waterfall section and had not seen any skulls.  After quite a few failed attempts and a bloodied knee I made it up that waterfall unassisted and continued scouting beyond where Jared had stopped.

It was a very serene place, as I got further and further away from the group the canyon grew quieter and quieter.  I could no longer hear any voices, all I was left with was the walls painted by untold hands ages ago.  Whatever hardy souls made a life in Death Valley had left there mark on those walls and it was humbling to behold.  For as strong as they were as a people to survive there, they are gone.  They, who climbed higher than I could and drew on rocks where I could not are gone.  The humbling aspect was that these strong people are gone and all that remains of them is the marks they made.

I never did see the bighorn skull.  I turned around and went back, I was afraid of getting hurt and nobody being able to hear me since I couldn’t hear them.  I’ll get to that skull though, someday.

We returned to camp after this little excursion.

The next day we awoke, and started driving home.  We stopped and hiked mosaic canyon along the way, at least some of us did while others napped (At least he changed that filthy stinky shirt).

Death Valley is a humbling place, I need more of it.

Here is an album of pictures from this trip.

We awoke in Grandview campground, in the White Mountains.  I’ve sung it’s praises enough previously, but it really is nice.  The only plans we had were to drive up and see the Bristlecone pines and then drive out to the Eureka Dunes in Death Valley to camp that night.  So, there was no rush as Gant and Holly matched wits that morning over the squared circle in an intense game of checkers as Jared and I packed our trash.

We eventually got to going and encountered a barricade saying the road was closed.  I personally wanted to see the Patriarch grove, rather than the Schulman grove so we went around the barricade and made some progress on the road despite the warnings.  There were snow patches that were manageable thanks to some hard work, but we eventually hit a dead end and had to return to the lower Schulman grove.  I’ve still, to this day not done the entire Methusulah trail hike and we started that but there was a bit too much snow to follow it easily so we took the old cabin trail back to the truck.

After that we filled the gas tank and Jared and I took a quick dip in the Owens.  Much to my dismay, the old rope swings have been torn down and now it’s just a jump in from shore.  Holly and Gant decided that a cool, refreshing dip in the river was not on their agenda and instead stayed stinky and sweaty throughout the remainder of the trip.

We eventually got to the Eureka dunes (Second highest dunes in the US, after some shit in Colorado that has a homoerotic name).  Jared played up my fear of snakes by throwing a belt at me, well done my good sir.  Then we got there and everyone was all depressed or something because it was hot, in Death Valley, in May.  I wanted to hike to the top of the dunes but no one wanted to.  So we played catch instead.

After playing catch, I went for a little hike into the wilderness.  Much like the baby jebus did when he was in his 30’s if I remember right.

Gant and Holly stayed up late into the night cooking some crazy concoctions.  Jared and I brought some meat, some skewers and were done cooking, eating and asleep before those two kids were done cooking.  I can’t say I don’t appreciate a good warm meal, but honestly hunger is the best sauce, sleep is the best dessert.  The faster I can get my food, the happier I am personally.  Plus cleanup and dishes and all that tomfoolery is just not my cup o’ tea I suppose.  But, to each their own.

Bridgeport, CA.  MWTC

There were four of us and a truck bed full of gear leaving Gorman.  Truck being one of the key words in that sentence with gas prices being well above $4 a gallon for the entirety of the trip.  This was a big trip including five days of camping from the Sierra Nevada to Death Valley and excursions ranging from sand dune climbing to hiking around the remains of what used to be the second largest city in California.  We played catch in hundred degree plus temperatures and found a secret canyon in Death Valley with a plethora of petroglyphs.  The trip was based around going to run the Mountain Warfare Training Challenge 10k in Bridgeport, CA.

We left Gorman at a pretty decent hour on Friday.  We drove to Bishop and stopped by Galen Rowell’s Mountain Light gallery then ate dinner at the mexican food place just behind it.  After dinner we continued north, Gant has some buddies who are camphosts up at Convict Lake in the Sierra Nevada.  They had arranged to have one of their nicest sites available for us to use the night before the race.  We pulled in, found our spot and setup camp.  Convict Lake was a really nice campground, though it’s obviously popular and overpopulated for my tastes in general.

We went for a little dinner digestion hike around the lake until we were blocked by snow on the path and then called it a night.

Death Valley Marathon

I’ve never wanted to run a marathon. There’s a few reasons for this; 1) I don’t like running. 2) Running for 3+ hours seems particularly onerus to me. The Death Valley Marathon/30k has some good points that counteract my dislike of running. 1) The run takes place in Titus Canyon, a beautifully narrow, remote section of DV. 2) With the exception of one section, which was probably about 2 or 3 miles long it’s all downhill, 15+ miles of downhill. 3) It takes place in beautiful Death Valley. So, after weighing the pros and cons being and some cajoling from Gant and Jared I signed up and decided to go for it.

The three of us were to meet up in DV somewhere on Friday night, check in and run early on Saturday morning and then spend the rest of Sat/Sun/Mon exploring. Jared and Gant both got there much earlier than me and being the high performance (read as: high maintenance) racing machines that they are, both brought race support crews to handle such tasks as pampering and pandering their fatigued little feet. So, with a full night of restful relaxation under our belts, Saturday morning dawned on Death Valley.

Seemingly on cue, when there’s a solution in need of a problem Gant came up with some unnecessarily complicated, not to mention blatantly illegal plan to get trucks and people here and there. He thought that we all caravan out to the end of Titus Canyon and park two trucks, then all seven of us pile into the last truck, with only six seat belts, hence the illegal part of the plan and drive to the beginning of the race. Somehow this was going to save us some time, somewhere along the trip. I’m not sure if it did save any time anywhere, but it did almost cost Jared and I a bus ride saving us 8 miles of running (which may have been his goal?). 99% of the competitors just took the bus ride to the start and at the end of the race took the bus ride back. Us three being that other 1% as far as I can tell. Gant’s plan pulled through though and we all made it to where we needed to be by the slimmest of margins.

Gant ran the full marathon while Jared, I and the rest of the 30k’ers were bussed up to White pass about 8 miles ahead of Gant and the Marathoners. With this head start we began the race. That extra 8 miles the marathon runners had to cover didn’t look all that interesting or fun to me. To start with it’s uphill, it’s not in Titus canyon, it’s on the approach to the canyon and it just looked drab to me, so I was personally glad I didn’t have to run it. Starting on White pass we started off downhill for about a mile or so and then began the only climb up to Red pass.

That climb was a bitch. There was snow on the ground, as we were topping out above 5,000 feet and it was cold as balls out there for the first hour or so. On the climb up to Red pass Jared left me in the dirt and I ran alone until the end of the race, 15 miles later. Once downhill on the backside of Red the entire race is a downhill or downslope. The snack tables were well placed and well stocked. The canyon was breathtaking. The requirement not to wear headphones while at first seemingly an arbitrary assholish move by management turned out to be quite nice. The canyon is so narrow at points you can hear the echo of your breath and your footsteps on the canyon walls.

This was the farthest either I or Jared had ever run. Our longest training run was 14 miles and it was rough. 18 miles went much smoother than I thought it would. When the canyon abruptly ended and we were on the final 3 miles I got my second wind. Jared was no more than 100 yards in front of me and I was flying to catch him. We ran together again for a few minutes and then I took off for the finish line. I came across the line so fast that Liz didn’t even get a picture of me doing it.

2 hours and 41 minutes after starting I was done. I felt great. Jared finished 1 minute behind me. I was 37th overall and 3rd in my age group. I am happy as hell about those results. When Gant finished at a brisk 4 hour and 10 minutes we sat around and waited for the racers to clear out the way so we could go get to the trucks that we had parked earlier, at this point I’m sure that Gant’s plan was as well thought out as my decision to enlist in the Corps.

Cut to acouple of hours later and we finally got our trucks and got out of Dodge. We went to spend the night at the Mesquite springs campground.

Here are the results.

Ubehebe crater, Teakettle Junction and the Racetrack

Sunday morning came too early, a bit too cold and with some light rain. This makes three years in a row that it’s precipitated on us in some form when visiting DV, from a snow storm on Telescope peak to snow at the Racetrack. Either way, it smelled like wet sagebrush and a new day. After another lengthy and laborious decision making process we decided to go to Scotty’s castle for the tour and then decide where to go from there after the tour.

The tour at Scotty’s castle was interesting. The castle itself was amazing and the guide did a nice job of passing along his knowledge to us. The only warning I would give is that the little deli there only takes cash, which is odd since the gift shop that shares the same building takes any kind of card.

At the Castle while Jared was trying to impress some random Rangers with his marathon exploits, without bothering them with the relatively inconsequential details like the fact that he ran the 30k, not the marathon. During this whole conversation he somehow worked some strange Palmdale desert magic and got some great information on an unpublicized canyon with the greatest collection of petroglyphs in the park.

I’m not going into details here, but we did scout the approach later that day and took a picture from afar. It’s an obscure little canyon, hardly looks like much but from what it was described as I wanted to make the hike despite the pain coming from my legs. I was outvoted and we went to Ubehebe crater and the Racetrack.

So, Ubehebe was cool. Scouted out little Hebe crater for the first time. Then after everyone got a good look at the crater and saw the location of Gant’s death defyingly dramatic descent and accompanying asinine ascent, some of us were caught napping. When everyone awoke we continued on the horrible, horrible road to the Racetrack .

Some of us climbed the grandstand , while others looked for moving rocks, and of course there was that 1% that stood around showing off medals to anyone and everyone that was looking, which I believe led us all to eventually split up. I took pictures.

Jared, Liz and I left after all that and journeyed back to a snowy Gorman. Gant and his crew stayed late into the night with raging bonfires, alcohol and hot dogs. I’m slightly jealous of them.

We are already planning a trip back to XXXXXX Canyon, in the next month or two. All in all, I loved the run and will be returning next year for it and would reccomend it to absolutely anyone, even if you don’t like running.

Album of pictures from trip

PS. I would be remiss if I did not mention the abundance of awesome that Gant produced in his Burrito Bar.

Lets get some pizza.
Another immaculately implemented and executed adventure, or not. The usual three of us had just very vague plans to go out to Death Valley and climb Ubehebe peak, check out the race track and then generally explore and see what else we wanted to do out there. This ambiguity was probably a bad idea for a couple of reasons. Even when we have a firm plan somehow between the three of us we wind up altering the plan based on the zodiac signs and the readings that Gant gets from his Earth Mother Gaia’s tea leaves… So, without a solid plan we were even more screwed, but like always it was a blast.

Day one, we left and made the long haul up to Death Valley. To break up the drive we stopped and climbed around one of the sand dunes. Gant had said that he was making us dinner, and for some reason wouldn’t say what it was and for some other reason I trusted him. Sometime around this point is where the surprise broke and he told us he brought MRE’s. After he told us this, we ate dinner at the little restaurant there in Furnace Creek instead of MRE’s. The restaurant had some staff that I wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley, but the food wasn’t too bad and not nearly as overpriced as it could have been.

After all this tomfoolery we were still at least 2 hours from the Racetrack which is at the end of a horribly washboarded 30+ mile dirt road. Along the way, we got lightly snowed on, and yes we are in Death Valley again for the first time since the Telescope peak Thundersnowstorm of 06, so snow in DV seems to be par for the course.

Eventually we got to the Racetrack. It was so cold outside that I didn’t really want to setup tent and we kind of decided to sleep (or attempt to as it turned out) in the truck. As I age, I noticed that I’m less able to sleep in a crappy position, seemingly long gone are the days of being able to get a solid sleep while curled up in a ball on the seat of a truck. But, nonetheless it was cold outside so it was carsleeping time.

When we woke up, for the last time after that horrible night of sleep we wandered the racetrack and climbed the grandstand which is a little rock outcrop out in the middle of the racetrack, which is essentially a dry lake bed. Then we went ahead and climbed Ubehebe Peak. This was a fun little jaunt, with a great view especially the day after a small storm. So the three of us got up to the top and just hung out for a bit, enjoying the views.

When we climbed down we drove out to the Southern end of the Racetrack to see the racers, which are rocks that move on their own across a flat surface (the racetrack) with the addition of a little bit of water and a lot of wind. This was a good trip turning great so far. So, we drove back up that horrible road, passing by Teakettle junction, and Gant’s first sight of Ubehebe Crater since his self inflicted quasi-suicidal climb out of the crater on it’s eastern rim. So, we kept on driving after this and then went out to check out Scotty’s Castle and were in the process of planning what we’d be doing the next day.

We were near the eastern boundary of the park, so we kind of decided to head out into Nevada and get gas, maybe pizza and then come back into the park through a one way canyon. Well, we got to Nevada and got gas but didn’t find any pizza places. However, we did see a sign for a nearby town, Las Vegas which was only 100 miles away or so. Ahhh, why not let’s hit Vegas and get some pizza.

Now keep in mind we got crap sleep the night before, it’s about 6pm now and we are driving to Vegas on a small one lane highway, so we arrive around 8 or 9. We didn’t get any pizza we just ate in a nice sit down restaurant, and since we were camping I ordered hot chocolate. After this hearty meal we hit the casinos. Jared and I sort of lead Gant down the path of gambling. End of the story, Jared was up probably 500 bucks or so at least twice, I was up the same at various points and we both lost all of it, Gant’s ATM card declined him from withdrawing anymore money after repeated trips to replenish his wallet.

So, after all this letdown it’s 3 or 4 am and none of us wanted to get a room for a hundred bucks for just 6 hours of sleep so we drive. This was nuts, no sleep and carsleep the night prior.

Thankfully we made it home safely though broker than we should have after a simple trip to Death Valley.

Again, photos in a seperate album.

Gant and I went out to tag Tin Mountain but decided it looked like a long slog.  Instead we went to Ubehebe crater and Gant defied death.  Alas, the story has been lost to the ages, like the great library of Alexandria’s wonders.

Our overall plan was to get up to the Big Pine lakes basin and remain there until Sunday morning when we would pack back to the truck and head home. Once we got to the basin there would be plenty of scenery and potential areas to explore, while leaving basecamp right in the middle, or packing it with us on a daily basis. This plan was to change though, because of one route-finding mistake.

Once we stepped off, right out of the parking lot the snow was deep. It was still relatively early in the day, so it was still hard from freezing overnight but was largely unconsolidated, which is hard to walk through even with snowshoes. We took an early break to setup a “before” picture right after the first falls, this break was a bit on the long side and hadn’t really been earned, since we were only hiking for about 20 minutes to get to this point, but it did feel good. The sun was warm and the air was cool, the view of the palisades was inspiring and the young day was looking promising overall.

As we hiked on we missed, more appropriately I missed, the critical junction of the trail we were on and the one that would take us up on the east side of the creek we were following. Mistakenly, I identified a pair of ski tracks heading over to the west side of the creek as the trail we should follow. I knew the trail we wanted was on the east side, but since I saw no sign of it we followed those tracks, which appeared to be at least a week old. On the east side of the river, we faced a horrific climb; over just more than 1/10th of a mile, we climbed over 140 vertical feet. Needless to say, at the top of that rise we were both spent.

So, at just over 3 miles and 3 hours into the day we found ourselves well short of my original goal for the first night, but too tired to continue on. We dropped our packs in a grove of trees with relatively shallow snow and took a well deserved break. After a little while we decided to explore the surrounding area a bit to see if we could find a good spot to setup camp. The winds had really been howling that day, so we were looking for a spot that offered as much protection as possible. Leaving our packs behind, we hiked north along the trail we were pioneering, since the ski tracks had long since disappeared.

After a small, very nice hike without the packs we figured that we could move further up in the canyon without too much difficulty. For the most part it was flat up there and as tired as we were, it didn’t look too insane. So after much gnashing of teeth, we put the packs back on and continued on through the snow, which had softened throughout the day which allowed us to sink in even deeper with each step. We only made it a couple more miles before finding an excellent spot in a place called Cienega Mirth. This spot had great access to the creek for fresh water; it was shielded from the wind and was well off the trail (since we had been well off the trail all day long…).

We dug out a tent pit, a kitchen, a bathroom and a shoddy system of trails between each spot and then fired up dinner. After eating there wasn’t much to do as we were both tired, beaten down and completely wore out after our hike up the hill. We got into the tent, got situated, realized the floor we had dug out wasn’t as flat as it could have been but didn’t care enough to do anything about it. We were asleep within minutes.

Friday

Friday morning arrived, right on schedule and we dragged our sorry asses out of the tent and back into the world. Since it would take a terrific amount of motivation and effort to move our campsite into the basin where we had planned for it to go originally, we made a change to the plan. What we would do instead was to just dayhike up through the canyon we were in and into the Lakes Basin to see the lakes, the Palisade glacier, the Palisade Crest and anything else that looked entertaining. Sounded easy enough, no packs on our backs, just snowshoes, camera gear and some grub.

We left camp and followed the river up less than a 1/3rd of a mile and found a summertime Ranger cabin. We crossed the river on a convenient log at that point and found the trail that we were supposed to have been following since yesterday. We followed this trail as far as it went, before it petered out too, there really isn’t much if any traffic up there during the winter, so the trails are quite indistinct.

Eventually, we found 1st lake; saw where 2nd lake was and the general layout of the basin. The Palisades were unfortunately just out of view, behind Temple Crag, the Inconsolable range wasn’t showing us its highest peak, Cloudripper and the lakes themselves were pretty solidly frozen over. Nevertheless, it was a fine spot to stop and enjoy the thin air, clear skies and empty shores of the lake. We were perched on some old structure, but we couldn’t figure out what it had ever been used for. Not too long into our break, we saw the only other human we would see on this trip. His name was David and he was ski mountaineering with his dog, Teton up to Mt. Sill. With his skis on and being able to follow our freshly broken trail he had made it to 1st lake in less than a day and had another four or five miles to go before he’d set up camp.

He broke with us for a bit, and then set off again over the frozen lake. After he was gone, we followed his tracks out onto the lake, took some pictures and started the uneventful hike back. The only thing left to consider was what we were going to do on Saturday. Since our camp was in a canyon, miles from the lakes basin, we only had one direction to go for dayhikes and no desire to move camp up to the basin. The one direction we had to go was how we had just got to first lake. If we wanted to follow our same tracks, that would be no problem, but then we’d just be seeing the same scenery (not that I have anything against any scenery in the Sierra) over again.

In the end we decided that packing up camp and hiking back to the truck to call it an early weekend was a good plan. Along the way home we would travel through Death Valley though, to take a look at some completely different landscapes and experience wildly different temperatures than what we had been through for the last two days though.

So Friday night we took some time to take sunset pictures, none of which really came out (for me at least), had some dinner, some hot chocolate and just relaxed with fresh socks and booties on in the kitchen area. As night came it got colder and colder, so we eventually got into the tent and tried to sleep. I did learn a new trick at this point though, in the past I would boil some hot water and fill my Nalgene with it then put that in my sleeping bag to warm it up before I got in. This time, I boiled water and partially filled up my CamelBak bladder and put that in my sleeping bag. When I got into the bag, I noticed that this worked extremely well as a hot pad on sore muscles and bones.

Saturday

Saturday morning again came on time, we had been in our sleeping bags for exactly 12 hours when we got out and I had successfully used a piss bottle so I didn’t have to gear up, go outside into the howling cold night and piss. Anyway, after those long 12 hours in sleeping bags in the tent we once again moved back into the real world. We broke camp and started following the real trail back to the truck. Along the way we noticed that I missed the trail junction by only 10 or 20 feet. The trail we followed back to the truck had some fresh mountain lion tracks heading in our direction. They continued all the way down to the parking lot, where we were able to get into regular clothes, shoes and relax for a bit.  We never did see the cat though.

We took the drive out to Death Valley, met some interesting people, were afraid of other people and took a hike up the Eureka sand dunes. We then tried to get to Scotty’s Castle, but it was closed by the time we got there. After this we drove back to Orange County.

Photo Album of trip