High Sierra Trail trip report

“OK treebait, the TT'rs will cut him some slack! No need to crack the whip!”

“Up and over and into bugland
We got up the next morning and Madman was as good as new. (except the heels) The gatoraid (it DOES have medicinal uses you know) and his downing several liters of water set him right again. Lightening Rod's heels were acting up too. So far the Captian and I had gotten off light in the blister department. I had gotten a pretty bad sunburn on my right side the previous day so I decided to hike in long sleeves the rest of the trip. The climate was as such that it was a comfy decision.

Before too long we were off. We kept a steady clip heading uphill but the climb was relentless. WE stopped frequently. We also decided to make it a habit to down a nalgene of water when we hit a stream. We didn't want any more dehydration issue this trip. Being from humid Florida we were sucking water like nothing we had seen before. By the end of the trip we were all hitting between 6 to 8 liters a day depending on conditions.

The MSR miniworks was also becoming less effective at sucking in water. Hmmmmm....it's only the third day. Not good.

Sometime mid morning we hit the famous tunnel along the trail. It was pretty cool looking and the fissure gave me a bit of vertigo looking down it. Long way down there. I keep close to the wall.

Apparently there used to be a iron bridge across a fissue in the side of cirque but a rock slide took it out many years ago. The park service instead blasted a short tunnel through the fissue.

The morning was crawling on and near noonish we hit Precipice Lake.

Wow. What a cool place. A lake nestled at the bottom of a nearly sheer wall with icebergs floating in it. We really enjoyed exploring around it and took a long break there.

Before too much longer two guys show up who were camped at Hamilton and we struck up a conversation. Apparently they were hiking the John Muir Trial (again) and had decided to start by doing the HST and skipping the Mt. Whitney section. To make things more interesting they brought a fishing pole and were relying on their fishing skills to provide a chunck of their food.

Cool idea, but I'm not that much of a fisherman. Maybe next time.

We headed up the rest of the way to Kaweah Gap. It was interseting that trail went through several small meadows at such a high (to us) elevation. It was odd to crest a barren rocky area and then pass through a lush golf course green meadow. Before too much longer we topped out.

Off to our left was the U shaped Big Arroyo with an inviting carpeting of trees. To our right was the nine lakes basin. In front of us was the Kaweah peaks ridge. It was stunning. It reminded me of those "lost world" type adventure movies when the hero steps out and surveys the area for the first time. Very cool, but we aren't heros. We also checked out the plaque honoring Gen. Stewart, the founder of Sequoia NP and the naming a mountain after him.

Looking down at the Big Arroyo we decided to forgo lunch until we got under some trees. So down we went.

After a mile or so we ran into another ranger heading up to Kaweah Gap wearing a daypack so we stopped to chat. I made it point to ask about the crosscountry route we had planned for the return.

Me: So, does this look reasonable.
Ranger McGranola: Dude, that's a #&%!$en' route!
Me: #&%!$en' good or #&%!$en' you guys are freaking nuts?
Ranger McGranola: Dude, that route's the hizzy! You will be totally bomber!
Me: Ummmm...groovy.
Ranger McGranola: Well, I mean, umm..you guys look like you can handle it.
Me: Cool, english. So, how far to Big Arroyo Junction?
Ranger McGranola: Oh just down in the trees past the slabby section.
Me: #&%!$en'!

We were pleased with the responses our vernacularly gifted friend provided so we decided to forego lunch and just boogie down to camp. Unfortunately, it was further than he indicated. After an hour I asked if the guys might want to just stop and eat something. Madman was on another stubborn bent and indicated that he was beat but didn't want to stop before camp. So we continued onwards with Madman carping about how far it was from camp. Whatever.

The mosquitos got progressively worse as we descended and by the time we hit camp we understood why folks wear headnets in the Sierras. Those little bastards were all over us. Good god. We wore bandanas under our hats and put on long sleeves and zipped on the legs to our pants and applied as much bug dope as we could stand. those methods worked for about 15 min at a time. So we started a smoky fire and went about our in-camp routine.

There was a very cool old cabin at the site but it was all boarded shut. Bummer, I would have liked to see the inside of it.

The JMT guys arrived a bit later and went about fishing up dinner. They ended up landing about 4 smalling rainbow trout.

While pumping water Captain Obvious's new MSR Miniworks gave up the ghost. We tried everything to get it to work. Cleaning, lubing, inspecting.....nothing. The overpriced POS quit after three days of pumping crystal clear Sierra stream water and never came back to life. I'll stick to the PUR/Katadyne filters thank you very much. The Katadyne purification tablets worked very well but had a chlorine taste to them so we decided to keep those in reserve until Madmans filter died.

In the wound department, Lightening Rod developed blisters like Madmans set. Madman was getting blisters under blisters. Captian Obvious and I both had tiny blisters on piny toes. No biggie here.

The fellas turned in just before dark to escape the bugs and I stayed up to watch the stars. a patterned repeated for the rest of the trip. God I love those Sierra skies at night.”

“Hmmm...make that b|tchen'”

“I have a niece who delivers late/lost luggage to people for a living. I don't know how much money she makes but she lives in a really nice house--must be a lot of screw ups out there.”

“Umm, I'm not so sure this story's gonna turn out well. I just checked out the [un-captioned] photos, and I distinctly remember seeing several pictures of a snake, followed by a picture of a makeshift grave. Hmmmm....”

“Oh Oh! All this talk of blisters on blisters and now a grave. Maybe one of them walked so much his feet fell off and a marmott ate him?”

“Humanpackmule,
I'm sorry to interrupt this seriel, but if you would have the guy who bought the miniworks call Cascade Designs at at 800-531-9531, I'm certain we can get it up and running over the phone. If the filter was clogged, you can use the scrub pad to abrade away a layer of the ceramic in order to expose a fresh filtering area. If that wasn't the problem we can troubleshoot any other problem with a few simple questions. In reading the preceding posts, it sounds like this was a major downer for your trip, and I'm sorry if this product failure was the primary cause.

Rick Klug
Cascade Designs
Sales Support”

“That's way cool that a product support person chimed in. Way to go MSR.

I use Polar Pure instead of a filter, but that's pretty cool support.”

“We abraded the filter twice, no dice. We disassembled the filter and cleaned every part and re-lubed every part twice.

A PUR/Katadyne Hiker with a one year old element that had been used on several trips out performed the miniworks that was straight out of the box in every way. Volume, taste

We plan for gear failures like this as things do happen. But to bomb out on day three out of the box pumping out of clear (no vegetation or suspended silt) streams indicates a crappy product at worst and a bum unit at best.

There is always the possibility that we were just chimps with the filter but I wouldn't stake money on it as Madman and I have experience with using the waterworks filter. (never had a problem with that one)

Unfortunately our opinions are formed by our experiences and although I have great regard for the majority of MSR products and happy use many of them I will always look elsewhere for my water filtration needs. Maybe you can convince Captian Obvious.

In all fairness though if it does turn out to be operator error I will be sure to post it here.

I do appreciate a company that stands behind their products.”

“Humanpackmule,

One of the downsides of the Mini & Waterworks systems, is that they are made to be field maintainable. It is also an upside for alot of people as well. If you can get my direct line to the owner, I'd love to have him do some troubleshooting steps with me so I can isolate the issue. Not expecting to sell you a filter anytime soon...just want to see if I can get him to give it a second chance...if he hasn't already returned it.
Thanks

206-676-1497 8-4 Pac standard time.
Rick Klug
Cascade Designs”

“I am so enjoying this saga.....ran straight home from work to see if any more had been posted....and much to my delight there was......Thank You sooo much for taking the time to share this with us!!!”

“Wait 'til he gets to the part about the stoner wearing flip-flops who went up Whitney and never came back down!”

“HEY no fair treebait!!!”

“He he he he he he he!”

“all the photos are now linked correctly so you can step through them.

Coming tomorrow on the TT network.
How far would you walk for a hot bath? Up over and down the Chagoopa Plateau.”

“Only 10 more days to report on.”

“let me interject a little shameless plug here (great story by the way). I was having a hard time choosing between MSR and Pur--I was hearing as many good things about one as the other. The reason I chose the MSR over the Pur was because this Rick Klug guy is always so quick to offer assistance from Cascade Designs. I first noticed this back when I used to go to the other site. That's good customer service in my book.
The preceding endorsement was pro bono.
Ok, I didn't want to start a sub-topic. Back to the story.”

“this trip report kicks all forms of a$$!!!”

“It certainly does. Good job HPM! Make me feel like I'm back on Sierrapalooza.”

“Captain Underpants was on Sierapalooza? Dang ...I missed that.”

“LMAO.

Anyone wanna start a backpacker's airline?

I thought Hooter's did that.

This was great reading, while I sit out some rain. One front just pasted and another is moving in. Headed to the Fontana Hilton Shelter and a hot shower. Then on to CS6 and 5, GSMNP, before hitting Spence field to compete with the black bears for some pin cherries. Then it will be to the Maryville library for a few days to read the rest of your report.

BTW, tango treebait already reported that the Laurel no longer recognized "daddy!"”

“HPM can post the next installment as soon as Laurel goes down for her afternoon nap! I hope to God that's soon!”

“He's still working on it. I think he's gotten up to lunch time.”

“How far would you walk for a hot bath?
We got up a bit early the next morning, as our goal was to make it to Kern hot spring twelve miles away. Granted we are no stranger to double digit days but this day would required us to climb cross and descend the Chagoopa Plateau.

So we are packing up and Captain Obvious is walking around blinking and announces that his contact lense fell out last night.

Madman: Don't you use daily wear lenses?
Capt: Yep
Madman: And you don't take them out at night?
Capt: Nope
Madman: Huh. Well, just put in your spare pair.
Capt: I didn't pack one.
Madman: You what?
Me: You DID pack your glasses in case of something like this, RIGHT?
Capt: Nope, my glasses are so out of date that it would stupid to bring them.
Madman and I: Riiiiiiiight, stupid you say.
Capt: Hey I got a spare set coming in the resupply though.
Me: That's five days away. What will you do until then? One contact will mess with your depth perception pretty bad.
Capt: I've got an idea about that.

We continue packing and Madman and I exchange "what the hell was that kid thinking by not packing a spare set of contacts on a two week trip" looks.

Captain Obvious walks over to us and says. "Ok, got it covered." He was sporting a duct tape eye patch over his right eye. Conviently taped to his cheek and over his eyebrow.

Madman and I look at each other, look back at Captain Obvious.

Madman, Lightening Rod and I in unison: Dumbass!

So away we went. Me, Lightening Rod, Madman and the Home Depot Pirate. Arrrgh, matey!

The trail climbed quickly out of the Arroyo and we were eating up trail. I was feeling great. There were several blow downs but none of them were difficult to cross. After an hour or so we came to a beautiful little tarn and took a break. We consulted the GPS to get a location fix and the map to check the contours in 80-foot intervals and were pleasantly happy to learn that the loin's share of the climbing was done for the day. The JMT guys soon showed up and we all got to talking about past trips. It seems that these two do a bit of everything, backpacking, peak bagging, mountaineering ect. Pretty interesting stuff. But before too long it was time to head onwards.

The trail leveled out and skirted the lip of the plateau and gave us great views on the Big arroyo and the Little Five Lakes Basin across the way and Mount Kaweah loomed its reddish bulk over us in the other direction. There were great campsites, little streams and hidden lakes everywhere up there and the bugs seem greatly subdued. I would love to go back there and just spend a week exploring the Chagoopa.

Now our big debate was whether or not to stay on the HST or divert and do lunch at Moraine Lake. Before too long we found ourselves at the edge of a huge lush green meadow looking at the trail sign for Moraine Lake. While the guys pondered the question I soaked up the meadow. Perhaps more so than anywhere this meadow displayed clearly that in the Sierras, water is life. Here was this huge lush expanse of green surrounded by a dry desert-like area with gnarled trees clinging to the parched soil. It seemed like such an odd juxtaposition, like a suburban lawn dropped in the middle of the Mojave Desert, but somehow it seemed to fit in.

Basically the side trip would only add about .3 to our day but we would miss about 3.5 miles of the HST. Personally, I'm not a purist "touch all the blazes" nut. I like to see the route and what's around it. Madman was adamant to not leave the HST, mostly because of his heels. The other guys seemed to agree so we skipped on going to Moraine Lake.

While the discussion was going on a family of four from Argentina buzzed on by. The leaders were two twin boys between 10 or 12 wearing small packs, chatting about everything around them and just eating up miles. Followed by Mom and 'ol Dad who looked like a beast of burden. Poor Dad, what a load he had on his back. But there was something to envy there. He had his entire family with him, everyone was smiling and having a good time and they were all hiking a tough trail like the HST together. Some families can't even seem to eat dinner together in peace and they were out here doing this. Pretty darn cool if you ask me.

Well, they stopped for a break and we headed on. The Chagoopa would close in densely green at times and later open up dry brown and dusty and every permutation in between. A fascinating display of ecological diversity in one area.

We entered a burned out area around lunchtime. Scorched trees thrust skyward like skeletal fingers through the green of fresh undergrowth and wildflowers. Many trees had given up and had fallen against their neighbors. We walked for a while hoping to stop near water but eventually gave up and just stopped to eat.

Our goal after lunch was to find water and refill before we descended off the plateau but water was being elusive. Before too much longer we heard water and saw the telltale ribbon of lush growth that indicated water off to our left. We thought the trail would intersect it but the trail turned off to the right. Rather than miss a chance for water we stopped, dropped packs and headed for water.

I grabbed the lone working filter and a water bag, headed for the stream and stopped dead in my tracks. Right there cruising across the pine needles was a three-foot+ rattlesnake. Talk about a healthy snake. Madman and I grabbed our cameras and trekking poles and went to snap some pics. Right when we were done the Argentine family was coming down the trail so we flagged them down and made sure to point out the rattler to them. The boys were all excited to see one in the flesh and they got a few pictures of their own.

We got water and kept going but now it was time to descend off the Chagoopa. The descent was brutally steep and Madman was feeling it hard. Lightening Rod’s blisters were starting to get worse and made their presence painfully known. We started slowing more and more. Just get us to the floor of the Kern Canyon and we’ll be fine.

After what seemed like forever we reached the bottom. We took a break amid a sigh of relief and then headed on. The trail was a blessing. Nice shade and soft loamy soil but it wouldn’t last. Some cruel trail builder had decided to reroute the trail for reason along the edge of the canyon and they had made the tread way out of small cracked granite. The little bastard rocks twisted under your step and the sharp edges could be felt through our boots. Even the Captain and I who had not suffered any major foot issue to this point were wincing with each step. Twelve miles of foot pounding and now we get this at the very end? Sadistic I tell you, sadistic.

Thank GOD! The trail diverged from the trial of torture after a mile and reentered the soft-canopied turf. We were and the end of our means by the time we crossed and iron bridge over the Kern River and the canyon floor changed character yet again. We now hiked through big dry unshaded sandy patches. Come on Hot Springs, we need you now. And there it was. Off to our left we saw a nice green patch by the river and the familiar often photographed Kern Hot Springs hot tub. WOOO HOOOO!!!!!!!!

We headed past it to the camping area and set up camp. We emptied out our bear cans and grabbed our pack towels and soap and headed back to springs. We had to wait our turn but boy it was worth it. The spring itself originates under a boulder by the river and some enterprising souls had packed in some cement and had fashioned a tub just below it. How it worked was there was an inlet pipe routed to the hot spring with a wooden stopped and an outlet pipe routed to the river with it’s own wooden stopped. You would plug the drain side and open the fill side to fill and do the opposite to drain. Of course due to the design using soap in the tub was a definite no-no. The water from the spring was like a very hot bath and there was a metal bucket left so you could control the water temp by adding cold river water using the bucket. Very nice set up. We used the bear cans to get hot water and soaped up ourselves and our dirty clothes and rinsed away from the water in order to be sure our soap (biodegradable) didn’t contaminate the water supply.

We decided that those responsible for the tub needed to be canonized as saints and we settled on the holy title of Saint DeFunk.

Back at camp we felt great. We had been seeing clouds for the first time on this trip today and it looked like rain. The JMT guys informed us that it would not rain because the Sierras are a Mediterranean climate and it only rains in the winter. NNNNNNkay, my barometer is dropping, the wind is kicking up and the clouds are descending into the canyon. Looks like rain to us so we made sure we were ready. We relaxed the rest of the evening and enjoyed the wind that kept the bugs down. Lightening Rods heels were a mess, Madman’s were slowly improving, the Captain was still the Home Depot Pirate and I was just glad to be here. The fellas turned in at dark and once again I stayed up and listened to the night birds and waited for the stars.

It never rained that night.”

“hee hee, 'the loin's share!' tee-hee!”

“Yoiks! Messed that one up.”

“Wow, spellcheck really hit this one hard!”

“Don't ya just love teenage boys???.....LOL....and isn't duct tape one of the most wonderful & verstatile items in our packs???..."Necessity is the mother of invention" ....I am enjoying this story sooooo much....I wish my 17 year old son liked to pack:(”

“Capt. Obvious did not attend the Scout Meeting tonight. Why, you might ask? He spent his afternoon and evening in the E.R. With a bad case of contact dermatitis. From creosote. From moving some railroad ties around!”

“LOL...hahahahahah.....I do so love boys......LOL........”

“creosote will do that..nasty stuff...dad used to haul new poles around...yeck”

“HPM -

Your photos bring up vivid memories of when I hiked the trail a few years back. Seems like a lifetime ago. The push across Chagoopa and down into Kern Canyon was killer on the feet. We bypassed Moraine too.

I also remember the cramping during the climb out of Junction Meadow and over to Crabtree Meadows. Plus blistering. A very trying time, psychologically.

And as you've outlined, the variety of the trip was quite remarkable. Then again, each trip is different. Each has its own qualities.

What I especially like about your report is how very much your group is a part of it. That adds to the quality of your photos and report installments.

Well done. Impressive, to say the least.”

“the Home Depot Pirate. Arrrgh, matey!

That is sooo funny! I hope you have a picture of that! Gonna check now!”

“I wish I did but I don't.
Hopefully Madman does.”

“To describe the eyepatch, he put a piece of guaze over the eye and duct taped a big X over the eye. It resembled the Xs cartoonists back in the day used to draw over the eyes of characters who were dead or knocked out.”

“I am loving this thread! Breaking up the trip report and posting at different times is great. I almost forgot to search for this thread this morning. PHEW!!! Very impressive!! Thanks for giving us something wonderful to read!”

“It would be even funnier if he forgot to put gauze over his eyebrow and when he removed the ductape his eyebrow mysteriously vanished....”

“Now THAT would be something Captain Obvious would do. We were very suprised to learn that he used gauze at all.”

“He should have put a peice of medical tape unter his left eye, like all the rap guys do.

Sup, I be chillin wit my homie Captin snizzle my nizzle!”

“"The JMT guys informed us that it would not rain because the Sierras are a Mediterranean climate and it only rains in the winter."

What? I've hit rain and snow in the Sierra in all of the summer months.”

“LOL @ Wounded Knee! Good report HPM!”

“Up the river
The Kern River that is.

We roused ourselves a little later than usual due to our long day yesterday and went about the morning routine. The captian was still sporting his Home Depot Pirate stylee and we would just shake our heads and laugh when we looked at him.

Today promised to be a relatively easy day as all we were doing was heading up the floor of the Kern Trench to Junction Meadow some 7 odd miles away. Granted, topo contours can be deceiving. Almost always areas that appear to be flat on the map in reality contain some rise and fall. Typicaly more than you want.

There were about 10 groups at the springs the night before and we were one of the last to leave. A very unusual situation for us. But hey, no biggie it's only seven miles right?

So off we go.

The trail meandered from the edge of the trail to the canyon wall sometimes rising far above the river and sometimes walking the bank. For the most part the trail kept its distance and it looked to me that the reason was that the river frequently flooded and wiped out the trail. Those trail builders aren’t dumb you know just a bit sadistic at times. The river itself was very pretty. It flowed over a sand and rock bed and the deeper pools has that nice blue-green tint associated with photos of glacial water. There were several different varieties of birds in the canyon and most noticeable was the sounds of Northern Flickers, a variety of woodpecker. Occasionally we would come across a field of flowers. I’m pretty sure we hit the trial just right for flowers as we saw them everywhere we went.

At one point Madman was pumping water from one of the small streams we had to cross and he said: “Hey. There’s gold in the streambed.”

Us: Gold or looks like gold.
Madman: It ain’t pyrite.
Us: Hmmmm……….

Sure enough, there were several tiny flakes reflecting gold as us. It looked pretty cool but we left it alone and continued on. Before too long we discovered something about canyon hiking. As the day progresses the canyon walls get heated and they reflect that heat onto the canyon floor. Boy it got hot. The trail began going through very desert like dusty areas with little shade. I began to wrap bandannas over my sunburnt hands to protect them. Madman was doing poorly today and the sand was radiating heat through our boots. We also encountered a new problem, Captain Obvious and his walking style.

Now the Captain doesn’t drag his feet, he just doesn’t lift them very high. He was the first to get tuned to the trail and as such tended to be in the lead. The problem was when walking over the dusty areas his feet would scuff the uneven parts of the trail and send up big clouds of fine choking dust. All of those unfortunate souls walking behind him we forced to breath this mess. Lightening Rod was the smarted of us and he feel waaaaay back. Me, being the Scoutmaster guy and used to looking for kids who are having problems asked him if he was ok. I’ll be ok as long as I keep my distance from pigpen up there.

I turned around and sure enough there was this fine brownish cloud enveloping Captain Obvious and his legs. He truly looked like the Pigpen character from the Charlie Brown cartoons.

Madman: Jeezzzuus! I’m shooting snot rockets the size of boulders here!
Capt: Huh!
Me: Dude! Pick up your feet! Yer killing us back here!
Capt: What?
Lightening Rod: (shouting from about 100 ft away) Yo Pigpen! Nice dust cloud! It looks like an air strike from back here.
Capt: Who me?
Us: YES YOU!

It never really got any better. We just spaced ourselves out. The day dragged down on us and in the early afternoon we made it to Junction Meadow a little toasted from the reflected heat.

There really wasn’t a meadow there but the campsite was canopied by huge Lodgepole pines that gave way to a small (in land area not in size. These suckers were huge) grove of Sequoias at the junction with Colby Pass Trail. We selected a site close to the Kern River and right when we had the tents pitched it started raining. We scrambled inside to avoid the rain and we could hear Madman clearly say “Mediterranean climate my a$$.” I think we all drifted off to sleep fairly quickly.

The sun shining through the silnylon of my tarptent woke we after an hour or so. How refreshing, an afternoon nap while the rain cooled things off. I crawled out of the tent to wander around a bit. The other guys were still sacked out so I went for a walk. Interesting, I’ve been walking for five days and I feel like going for a walk. Backpackers are freaks I tell you. I ambled around the area and tried to do a self-portrait with the camera timer in the Sequoia grove. Unfortunately it did not work out. The rain came back around and I retreated to my tent.

The damage that Madman and Lightening Rod had sustained had me very worried about the off-trail section of the trip. The last thing I wanted to do was to attempt an exposed, high elevation traverse when two of the guys had hamburger feet. From looking at the Kaweah Peaks Ridge a few days ago the area seemed very loose and steep. My comfort level for the attempt was greatly diminished but we still had five days to heal. Me being a guy who strongly believes in Being Prepared (I’m a Boy Scout, remember?) I pored over the map and explored options for our return leg.

The rain subsided to the drip of after-rain being shed by trees so once again I crawled out and walked around. This time I met a young lady hiking down from the direction of Mt. Whitney. She was doing the HST from East to West. We got to talking and she was on Mt. Whitney this morning meaning she had hiked something close to 18 miles today. Very impressive. She informed me that it was snowing and hailing up there at 10am. Yikes, those big mountains sure are weather makers. I also asked her about any shuttle services from Whitney Portal to Lodgepole. She said there was one there but they charged $300 a party. Too rich for my blood, but very good to know for a “just-in-case” scenario. I also found out she worked at the backcountry permit office in Lodgepole.

Me: Pardon me if this too personal a question, but do you get creative with rocks?
Ms. Hiking Machine: What!?!?! Oh, I see you’ve met my co-worker back at Lodgepole. She’s a freak.

We shared a laugh and she headed on down the trail aiming to make it to Kern Hot Springs tonight. Hell no, not me sister. You can keep those 20+ mile days. Enjoy it.

I gathered some firewood and we had a nice fire that night with the JMT guys whom we finally got around to introducing ourselves. Their names were John and Bob and they were from Salem, Mass. The conversation stared innocently enough.

Madman: Mediterranean climate you say?
Bob: Umm…well…it sounded good didn’t it?
Madman: Yeah until the heavy dew fell, because as we ALL KNOW it NEVER rains in the Sierras.
John: Yeah, something like that but really it’s never rained on us in the Sierras.
Me: Uh oh, better head for cover. It looks like another cloud of bullcrap is coming.

We got along famously. These guys both have jobs that allow them great flexability and they use it to get outdoors. Captain Obvious was thrilled to find out that they had climbed Mt. Ranier with Ed Viesters. Apparently Ed stashes stuff all over the mountain. Our favorite story was one where they started the climb and everyone but Ed was wearing heavy mountaineering boots. Further on the paved tourist trail became a real trail and then entered the type of terrain that needs the heavy boot. Ed excuses himself and heads over behind a boulder and pull a pair of boots out from behind it puts them on and leaves his sneakers there. Further on they take a lunch break. Ed once again goes behind another boulder and pulls out a bag of chips. About an hour later one of the party mentions he’s low on water so Ed goes behind another boulder and pulls out a gallon milk jug of water.
Maybe it’s true maybe it’s not but God it was funny. We stayed up too late and enjoyed each others company. Bob and John, the very cool JMT guys.

But the Mediterranean climate thing was crap.”

“Make that Mt. Rainier.

Sheesh.”

“Great stuff...keep it coming.”

“Are you writing all of this from memory or did you keep a trail journal?”

“From memory.”

“it was a great trip”

“Hi big guy.
Up Late?”

“I'm having a great time following along.”

“I'll have you know that everyone was kicking up dust, I ... was just the worst”