Changing Seasons - Trip Report

“Left the house at about 11:30 on Friday, earlier than planned, hoping to have some time to stop and enjoy the scenery in Yosemite on my way to the eastern Sierra. But traffic sucked, so ended up just blasting through. It was really smoky all the way throught the park anyway - not many good views. After leaving the park, enjoyed the brilliant yellow aspens in Lee Vining Canyon - nice!

Showed up at Snow Dude's door in Mammoth a little before 5, and we walked down to a restaurant and had a big dinner before driving to the trailhead at North Lake. After hanging out enjoying the stars for a while, Rick arrived, and we all chatted for a while before climbing into our vehicles (or onto the ground, for Rick) and heading off to sleep at about 10:30.

I got up at around 6:30 or so and saw Snow Nymph - she had just gotten in at 4:00! Once Snow Dude and Rick got up, we agreed we would be glad to let her sleep for a while, since we were only hiking a few miles up to Upper Lamarck Lake today. GirlRider brought her car over after a while - she had gotten in at around 11 and had parked in the other lot. I made a couple of lattes for myself with my mini-espresso maker - Snow Dude took a pic of me doing that!

We headed up the trail around 10:30 under a clear blue sky. It was a beautiful day with no sign of the storms that a few dayhikers warned us about earlier in the morning. We took our time getting up the trail, taking several breaks and enjoying the leisurely pace. We got to Upper Lamarck Lake (elev. 10,918) at around 1:30 or so and scouted campsites for a while above the south edge of the lake. After that, we just relaxed, set up our tents, and enjoyed the beautiful autumn day. We started making dinner about when the sun went behind the peaks to the west. I had a 4-course dinner: soup, Enertia Mousilauke Goulash, Enertia blueberry cheesecake (the newer one), and cookies and hot chocolate. The pepper grinder I won in a bet from Geobeet worked great, and added some delicious flavor to the first two courses - thanks, Geo!

After dinner, we all just hung out and enjoyed the moon-free starry night. It was getting a little cold, so GirlRider headed into her tent at 7:30, and I went to mine at around 8. I futzed around for a while and finally went to sleep around 9. I was awakened by roaring wind at around midnight, then by falling snow at 3:30 or so.

I finally woke up for good at around 5:30. At 6 or so, I fired up my stove for some coffee, and saw a bright flash outside my tent. Snow Nymph was out taking pics of everyone's snow-covered tents! Since our peak-bagging dayhike was cancelled due to snow (about 4 inches or so!), we took our time packing up. I discovered that I can essentially take down my REI Half Dome plus-2 from the inside out, which was good with the snow falling and wind blowing outside!

We finally headed back down the trail at around 10 or so. It was a little tricky with the 4 inches of snow covering everything, but we prevailed, and thoroughly enjoyed witnessing the transition from autumn to winter on the hike down.

My drive back was longer than planned, since Highway 120 was closed. Fortunately, the next trans-Sierra highway to the north, Highway 108, was open. It's a terrific, beautiful road that goes over 9,624-foot Sonora Pass. It was snowing and blowing up on top, but not really sticking to the road, so it was a pretty easy drive. It rained most of the way back, and I got home around 7 or so.

Excellent trip! Photos here!”

“Whoo Hoo, snow! Thanks for sharing the report and pictures!”

“LMAO!!!!!!!
Too Funny!

Looks like a fun time!”

“I have a video of the wardrobe malfunction, too - oops, it's at home; will post tomorrow....”

“I love fresh snow on a trail. Great pictures.”

“Ghoulderman-- I'm intrigued... how did you take your tent down from inside out?!
and is it possible to set it up that way as well?
last edited: 10/18/04 3:04:15 PM”

“awesome fall hike!”

“Pink: The tent body is hung from the poles with clips and the fly is put on top of the poles. The poles go through grommets in straps at the corners of the ground cloth, tent body, and fly. So all you have to do is take everything out of the tent body (including yourself) and put it (and you) in the vestibules, then unclip the tent body from the poles. Next, undo the corner strap grommets of the body and ground cloth from the poles, but, of course, keep the poles inserted into the strap grommets of the fly. Now the body and ground cloth are completely free of the fly and poles, so you can just fold 'em up. Actually, REI points out that you can just take the fly and poles with you as a minimal shelter if you want (although I noticed that you wouldn't save much weight, since the body doesn't really weigh much).”

“Hey! It was great hiking with you! Too bad we missed doing the peak, but waking up to that snow was pretty awesome. By the way, you've got me wondering what you caught on that "wardrobe malfunction" video clip!”

“Hah! I'm trying to put the video on my home page for downloads right now, but I'm having trouble connecting via ftp - arrgh! It's almost 2 megs - want me to email it to ya'?

It probably doesn't violate any FCC standards....”

“LOL! Funny.
Sure, email it to me. :-) We didn't even know you were taping us. All I know is that it took both myself AND SnowNymph to get my rain pants off!”

“OK, you've got mail!


And get your pics posted, will ya'?!”

“Here are a few: http://community.webshots.com/album/202626485DMFAFN

Unfortunately my battery died Saturday afternoon (I know, rookie move) so I wasn't able to capture the whole trip. Anyway, enjoy!
last edited: 10/18/04 11:59:32 PM”

“Nice pics, Girl! I kinda forgot to take any of Upper Lamarck until it was too late - doh!”

“Photos: North Lake to Upper Lamarck Lake backpack (fall colors and snowstorm)

I took some fall color photos (10 at the end of the album) and also photos of the Sierra from Hwy 395 showing the snow/storm near White/Boundary Pk, Big Pine, Onion Valley, Whitney (I'll remove these in a week or so).

Marty, send me the video too! Now I have to see what we did. I thought it was only a picture.

It was a fun trip, guys!”

“Wow, excellent pics, Snows! I really liked the early morning tent shots with the flash - you can almost feel the snow coming down in those. Nice one of me makin' lattes, too!

And here's a link to "the video."
last edited: 10/19/04 10:54:25 AM”

“Jeez, I didn't think the snow made things all that difficult on Sunday, but I guess it was for some hikers out of Fresno (other side of the mountains, but lower elevation than where we were). Let's hope for a happy ending....”

“Just checked the map. Rae Lake is less than 12 miles from where we camped at Upper Lamarck Lake....”

“Yikes. Hope those guys are ok. From the article, sounds like they are 3 days missing now. :-(”

“-Snow Nymph-
Your pictures came out great (as usual)! I love the 6:00 am tent shots. Very surreal.”

“Loved the photos. The fall color is gorgeous.”

“I got a call from the ranger this afternoon asking if we had seen anyone on the trail Sat/Sun. A solo hiker is missing so they're calling everyone might have seen him.

Last night I got an e-mail (subject "Same trip, same pics") from another solo hiker that went in at Sabrina and camped at Hungry Packer Lake. He was going to climb Mt Lamarck from that side, but hiked out like we did. Maybe he saw the missing hiker. I gave the ranger his e-mail. Maybe he has info that might help.

Hope they find him.”

“I watched the news last night. Now there are 3 groups missing, the Rae Lake group (12 miles from us), a group aiming for the area just outside the southern tip of Yosemite (maybe 5 miles from where BowlderSon and I camped at Chain Lakes this time last year), and a group near Whitney. They said the snow is around 3 feet deep - not sure why they haven't just put on packs and snowshoes and walked in to try to find them.

The TV report was talking about the Whitney group and said they are all very experienced. They were talking with someone who said the one woman in the group was planning to "only" carry 41 pounds. "So that's pretty minimal for winter clothing, right?" "Right!" I think I'll call them up and tell the reporters that 41 pounds - and particularly if that was the group's lightest pack - would be considered by many people a heavy pack for winter travel!”

“I have always been concerned about finding the trail, or the way back, after snow since I rely more heavily on following a trail than identifying landmarks on the topo unless I am on a cross country jaunt. I would like to hear others' tips and experiences with waking up to vanished trails.”