Alta Peak 11,204'... Tekdude & W W gettin'high

“Tekdude arrived at my house late friday night...James, Leslie and I got to talking and didn't call it a night til the wee hours. (1:30 AM) We got up early (5:30) and headed to Starbucks to prepare for our 2 hour drive to the trailhead 8)

On the way up we stopped to see Big Fern Springs, (which was just a trickle at this point) on the way back to the car we heard some noise in the brush just above us and a bear appeared just 10' away and gave us a couple of huffs trying to bluff us and it was working by the way ;) We walked around to the other side of the car and got our cameras out, then we heard more brush popping and here came another bear...what a way to start a trip!

We picked up a permit and some breakfast at Lodgepole and headed over to Wolverton to hit the trail.



We stopped at Panther Gap to admire the views and eat lunch...





Suffering from a lack of sleep we decide to base camp at Mehrten Meadow and climb up to Alta Peak in the morning. So we set up camp and take an afternoon nap...life is good. I woke up a little later, feeling refreshed I rolled out of my tent only to discover we had company. I said "Hey James, take a look at this"
We had a deer "IN" camp...I mean close! So a photo shoot insued for the next hour or so 8)


This is one of three gals that hung around all day.

more to come...”

“While we were out walking around the neighborhood after photographing the deer a marmot snuck into camp and helped himself to a tasty leather camera strap that belonged to Tekdude and slobbered around on my hat too. We discussed having Marmot for dinner....tastes like chicken? LOL!

Nah, we did the marmot no harm....


We hung around the meadow and the small creek next to our camp photographing for the rest of the afternoon...



...”

“We had a little fire after dinner and stayed up til 10 or so before calling it a night. The next morning...we were up and on the trail by 6:30 headed for Alta P
peak. It was a beautiful morning...


After a 2,000' elevation gain we arrived at the summit block and were rewarded with views in every direction!



After studying the landscape for a moment we started recognizing some of the prominent features from last years Sierrapalooza trip...

Very cool!



After signing the register and having a bite to eat we make ready to go back down.


Tekdude took my camera and snapped this shot of me on the summit.

We arrived back at our camp with much less effort :) Packed up the rest of our stuff and headed out.
Near Panther Gap Tekdude stopped me and said "There's a bear!"





We started and ended our trip with bears! We hiked the out from there to the car and headed over to Lodgepole for hamburgers and such and then headed for my place.. It was a great trip!”

“Nice bear!

The marmot looks a lot nastier.”

“Nice shots WW. I like the one toward Black Kaweah... ahhh the memories :-)”

“WONDERFUL report, and even BETTER pics! I gotta hike with you guys. That's a biiIIIIiiiig bear!”

“Great trip report and picture WW. Glad to see your getting out. Tekdude is a lot of fun to hike with!”

“I think bears gorgeous, majestic creatures, love seeing them. Great pic there WW!!”

“By the way, when are you going set up a trip for us on the West side?”

“Is that considered a light color for a black bear in your neck of the woods? I know they can get lighter, but is that typical for California? That first one looks like a big mo fo.”

“Nice photos WW and thanks for calling me Sunday while you guys where on the summit. That made my day!!”

“Excellent report and pictures. Sounds like the kind of trip you only read about in magazines. I'm jealous!”

“dayhiker,
more often than not, our black bears in California are brown. I am sure we have some that are actually black. But I have only seen the brown colored black bears.”

“Nice pics!”

“

WLD, in my best Doc Holiday (Val Kilmer) voice Say...When

Dayhiker...most of the "Black Bears" I see are brown like WLD said....but last year in Mineral King I saw a Blonde one...the whole bear was the same color as the light colored patch on the chest of the bear pictured above.

This sow had a large black cub (from last year?)with her as well...but the pics didn't turn out to good :(

Hikin' Mike...It was nice to talk to you again. Sorry you couldn't make this trip, but looking forward to future trips!

Thanks Y'all!”

“Thanks for the info. The only bears I've seen have been on two different occasions in the Smokies. Both of them were very dark, bordering on black.”

“Isn't there a law against two awesome photographers going on a hike like this together. You guys rock!!!”

“Got a little change in my pocket, going jingle lingle ling...”

“Hey Wind Walker, have you ever played guitar for a band called ZZ Top?”

“Sorry Buck I'm musically challenged 8)

Hey Phil...I was thinking of you when I snapped that Sawtooth Pass Pic...LOL!”

“Sounds like an awesome trip! I like the can of Pringles ; )”

“I have July 31st and August 1st open. Are you open on that weekend?”

“Or give me a call and we can work out a schedule.”

“Ok WLD....I've got to clear it with the boss ;) She wants me to take her car camping a few times this year...we only went once last year.

Are you still wanting to go to Mineral King? Lots of options there...all of them are up^ LOL!”

“MK would be great, but since you are the West Side guy. You pick and place and I will be there. I want at least one west side trip this summer.”

“Great report and pics, I'm coming out to California (Yosemite) in July, I can't wait.”

“WW, I think I saw that blonde one a few years back. She had a cub then too.
Saw a black one out of Cedar Grove, but are brown.
Plus there's a picture of one with a gray goatee above. 8^)”

“Navi - That was a blonde that we saw in Bearpaw Meadow last year..... my first I think. Most of the black bears up here are very black, some browns and cinnamons”

“That's one big bear. Jerry says he hopes you had a telephoto lens. Great pictures.”

“the view from Alta is great - we did that hike a couple years ago in November and got to slide back down the last couple miles on the snow/ice.

You sure did get some great bear pictures.

Mount Silliman is on my list for weekend trips - if anyone is interested in doing that one leavinmg from the Lodgepole area let me know.”

“Nice bear shots! and the others too! I should get out to that side sometime. If you set up a trip, I'll come”

“
Largest living creature on Earth


Isle of Light


Green Light


Windwalker pauses


Nibble, nibble


Sierra Soup


Product of 15 minutes with a tripod.


Passing through (deer in camp)


Great Western Divide


Alta Meadow


Sugarbowl Dome


Castle Rock


Silliman Peak


Alta Peak summit approach


Summit of Alta Peak


Windwalker on a precipice photographing Precipice lake”

“Windwalker -

It was an awesome weekend. It was most glorious and thrilling all rolled into one. Also, ate the rest of those pickels on the way home. They were great!

Oh, my truck is now in the shop. The vibration started to get outta hand. :0”

“About the Pringles. They fell victim to the very same marmot that ate my camera strap and munched on Windwalker's hat.

Windwalker just wiped off the hat and he was good to go, I re-tied my strap (sorta), but the Pringles were half gone by the time we got to 'em. That marmot robbed us of our Pringles. I was close to munching on them anyway.

There are no words for that merciless marmot of mayhem.”