Sierrapaloosa 2003

“Departing 1:15 PM from Sac. I hope that is a good time. There are not a lot of planes leaving in the afternoon. I did one search to depart at 2:30 PM and the cost was going to be $1,200.00. I freaked. It was because I was using two different airlines. I ended up paying only $224. I think that is a good price.”

“So you got the Saturday return, eh? That'll make things easier”

“Bear, read your e-mail.

Hikerchic, the price of the permit is $50 each paid in advance, or 1 / 14 (That's one divided by the number of people who go) of my hamburger and beer when we get out.
Your choice.”

“Hey Poppa - If you aren't an axe murderer and don't mind 3 silly dogs I will pick you up at the airport and let you sleep at my house. Others will be here too. Where are you coming from?

Yo Bear!!! are you thinking of joining this jaunt? 5 or 7 days? Where do you want to fly into? If Sacramento (and 7 days), we can work something out.

Anyone else in or around Sacramento want to join the welcoming committee???”

“Yo Bear - If you are interested in the 7-day trip, the airport of choice if you want to fly into the LA area is Ontario. Orange County (a.k.a. John Wayne) is next best. It looks like Nav and I will carpooling.”

“Heck I'd be headed in the wrong direction but it sounds like your place is going to be rockin on Thur. nite. Are you within taxi distance of Sudwerks?”

“NO FAIR!
You people in No. Cal. can't start partying until us folks from So. Cal. can join in!!!”

“jvz, I think Pepper rode her bike to Sudwerks when we went. Sudwerks it is, Thursday night!”

“Pepper-

I will accept your wonderful invitation. I have two dogs myself and don't mind share a room with them. I will leave my axe at home. I doubt if the airlines would let me on with it anyways.

I hope you have a little more floor space somewhere. I spoke to Bigrob last night and he is going to need a place to crash if he can get the time off. We spoke about sharing a room together.

I thank you for the invitation and my wallet thanks you.”

“I wish I could help but I live in Stockton! I have a little floor space for probably only two people if there isn't enough room at peppers. I'm south of Sacramento for you out of staters. If some of you need to squirsh in the car until you get to Stockton about 45 minutes later, I can add a few people in my car. jvz lives in Lodi which is between Sacramento & Stockton so we can carpool together too if you'd like. Orrrr if they're are enough cars traveling down my way and there's enough room, I could hitch a ride with someone else? I'm open to anything!

Jvz, I'm with you! I want to go to the party in Sacramento!!!! Where is Sudwerks? I've heard of it but I don't think I've been there.”

“we got our JMT permit todaaayyyy! yippee!

now, anybody wanna do a resupply for us? :)”

“Hey y'all, I'm close enough to git in onda fun!!!”

“. . . for the 5-day trip!

Whooo Hooooo!!!!!

Now that the wedding is over, I'll work on the stats and get some e-mails out! (starting next week)”

“I still haven't got my permit. :(”

“They must not like you wing. 8^)”

“Ok Navi! I'll buy your burger and beer after the trip!

Hey, I should post my offer for a ride or getting a ride on the carpool thread.”

“they took the money out of my account, so the permit must be on the way.”

“Sudwerks it is. Hey Nav how about sending up some of your sudrageous brew. That man makes it like it ought to be made! Hikerchik its right on the frontatge road if you take off at Maze and go rt. then left and up a mile or so on the frontage. We'll have to carpool up there. My wife DD's for me on beer-a-thons and I reverse the favor on wine and Margarita nites. I, Pepper and Rockman(Gordon)and Phaedras had a day up there last year about this time.”

“My days off for the trip have been approved, but I do not want to get airline tickets until I know for sure that I will have a ride to and from the trail head. If anyone is able to help me out please let me know, I will be very grateful. Also as BigPoppa mentioned in an above post, I could use a little floor space to crash out on once I arrive in Sacramento. If no one in the Sacramento area is able to help out I could fly into another town. I had intended to arrive in Sacramento to meet up with BigPoppa who I met on the KY RRG trip but I can alter my plans if needed. Thanks”

“I got my permit - it's for July 2nd, so the 3rd must have been full. I was planning on going up that way on the 2nd to acclimate anyway, so it works out fine. I'll probably head in late on the 2nd and just hike a few miles - then the others will catch up on the 3rd.

My permit is for 6, so if anyone wants to go in on the 2nd let me know.

wingding@earthlink.net”

“BigRob - I think you'll be okay flying into Sac. As it stands:

aussie is arriving at 9 am Friday 4th and departing at noon Saturday 12th

BigPoppa is arriving at 8 pm on the Thursday 3rd, and departing at 1:30 pm Saturday 12th

I am driving in, in time for dinner, on Thurs 3rd, and in no rush to leave. I will either be bring LadyHiker with me (if she's in no rush to get home) or she will be arriving with her truck, if we need it.

So I think you'll be okay for a lift to and from the trailhead. Keep an eye on the Carpool thread, on the trip page. And, there will be a few of us crashing for the night, on Thursday.

See if you can get your return departure time for afternoon, on the Saturday, so we will be able to get you there in time.”

“BigRob,
Get the ticket and fly into Sac. I am sure all the California TT'rs are going to take care of us. You can't beat that California hospitality. I just wish they would quit giving me organges and Grapefruit. Everytime I visit that state, peole are giving me fruit. What is up with that?”

“tarbubble, ask WLD to resupply you. Turnabout is fair play.

hikerchic, you only get to pay 1/14th of my burger/beer.

jvz, I plan on brewing up a batch of "Campfire Ale" next weekend. Should be ready for the pretrip meeting.”

“The-Nav

So do we each owe you $50 or do we need more then one permit? How much do we owe you for the permit? I confused. ( I guess I should put the crack pipe down)”

“or maybe i'll modify my trip and do some extra exploring while still spending the last few days with the group. I've already been to Bearpaw Meadow and Hamilton Lakes, so I might go in over Blackrock Pass and hook up with the rest of the group after that.”

“WLD is starting before me and finishing after me. he needs his first resupply the day after i start. if i could, i'd happily do a resupply for him.

we've got a taker for the first resupply (Polar Bear rules!!), at LeConte. hopefully, getting somebody at Charlotte Lake will be easy... worst-case scenario, i'll hump the food in myself just before we start.”

“I looked on the trip planning page and there ssems to be about 12-15 for sures and at leat 5 each maybes. Are the permits full? Whats the chance of joining the ramble???”

“My permit is not full, but I'm going in on the 2nd.”

“tarbubble, you're a bigger man than me. 8^D

BigPoppa, the price of the permit is $50 each paid in advance, or 1 / 14 (That's one divided by the number of people who go) of my hamburger and beer when we get out.
Your choice."
Seriously, the permit cost me $15 for 15 people. No big deal. chip in and pay for my burger. Fair?

10 Bears, I have a permit for 15 people. There are now 13 "For sures". As the time gets closer I'm sure this number will go up and down. Or someone can get another permit to cover more people. Anyway, sign up NOW! Welcome aboard.”

“Nav,

I can handle that. That seemed like an awful expensive permit. I was thinking "Hell for that kind of money, the Park Ranger better meet at that top with a cold one". Nav, I will even buy you fries with that burger.”

“Fries!?
coool!”

“1 Snow Nymph
2 SnowDude
3 Windwalker
4 WingDing (has permit for 7/2/03)
5 Tango
6 LDhiker
7 Hikin Mike
8 Wannabp
9 landscaper
10 Tekapo
11 Naked Ape

This list doesn't include those that are signed up for both trips.

I've been distracted lately, but next week I should be able to work on trip planning”

“I haven't posted on this thread recently but I see that I should make a commitment within the next week or two.

I think I will be coming and bringing my son on the 5-day trip. We are both in good shape so we shouldn't hold anyone up.

For the five-day trip what is the best airport to fly into?

And another question that my son keeps asking...any possibility of someone joining us for a day-hike of Mt. Whitney on the 8th, or maybe an overnight the 8th/9th? (Note that I have no idea about trails, etc. other than that a dayhike is possible.)”

“Fritz - 8th of what month? I assume you were lucky enough to get a permit.

If you have the permit, you should get some takers.”

“Fritz - 8th of what month? I assume you were lucky enough to get a permit.

If you have the permit, you should get some takers.”

“No, I don't have a permit. When I posted I didn't know a permit was required. Since my post, I have been reading trip reports, etc. It looks like a permit for a dayhike, esp. midweek, is not that hard to get.

I was referring to July 8th, right after the 5-day trip. I now think that is probably too much, but maybe the 9th after a ret day is doable...I understand most dayhikers start between 2am and 4am.

Probably too much, just a shame to come out there and not at least consider the option.”

“Fritz - After you come out you have lots of things you can access in the Western Sierras including Yosemite. Taking in more groves of the Giant Sequoias would be highly recommended...and they are only on the Western side.

It takes about 4 to 6 hours to drive around to the Eastern side. But if you did, you would have access to a lot of trailheads and some spectacular scenery. But you would then have to drive back across somewhere to get to a major airport.

I can't speak to the difficulty of getting a mid-week permit for Whitney. I am sure others can report the skinny on that.”

“Or maybe I'll do a layover day in the area of Nine Lakes Basin to do some exploring - then I'll camp with the group at Little Five Lakes on the 3rd night.”

“Sorry I haven't posted with all this discussion of Northern California hospitality going on. It sounds like my house will be the crash pad for several people the night of the 3rd. I live a couple of miles from Sudwerk so if anyone else in the Sacto/Davis/Woodland/Lodi/Stockton etc area wants to show the Sierrapaloozers a good time that might be a good place for burgers and beer. Let's keep that discussion open as the trip gets closer. I am sure that we will be able to cram an extra body and bags into a car to get to the trailhead. It sounds like we will have several cars available. I imagine the configurations of sleeping and driving will change many times between now and then. Depending on when we get off the trail, I might want to pedal-to-the-metal it home just because I can. On the other hand, I might want to camp out another night. More options to ponder. Plenty of time for pondering.”

“Pepper - Do you know what the drive time is from your area to the trailhead?”

“Mapquest says Davis is 230 miles from Visalia which is where I recall we will head east. I don't remember how far from the trailhead we would be then but it is pure freeway miles that far. Time depends on how heavy your foot is.”

“I didn't sign Josh up but... he wants to go on this one and maybe Nathan too. If I need to pull my own permit let me know.”

“This trip is getting bigger and bigger. This should be a good one.”

“Hey windwalker! It will be nice to see you and your sons again!

Ok, Navi, you got it! I'll buy the meat and pickles! Someone else can get the buns, and the other fixin's. Hell, I'll buy you a beer too!”

“Alas, they don't sell beer in Silver City.
Good burgers, but no beer.







we'll just have to save some homemade "Campfire
Ale" for after the trip.”

“Yes, that's what I'll do - spend some extra time in Nine Lakes Basin. If anyone else wants to go in on the 2nd and spend some extra time at Nine Lakes Basin and then camp with the group on the 4th, 5th and 6th I have room on my permit (5 spaces).”

“hikerchic, are you coming now? Have you switched over to the "fur sure" side?”

“WW, I have them on the list. That leaves 2 more openings. I also have someone from another site that's a "maybe".”

“Please count me and my son Ian as definites for the 5-day trip.”

“Navi...do you know if they still sell pie by the slice at Silver City?”