Wow. Glad you are OK. I’m hiking kings peak in a couple months. Certainly not as steep, high, or technical. I just hope most of the snow is gone by then.
Wow. Glad you are OK. I’m hiking kings peak in a couple months. Certainly not as steep, high, or technical. I just hope most of the snow is gone by then.
"You interns are like swallows. You shit all over my patients for six weeks and then fly off."
"Don't be sorry, it's not your fault. It's my fault for overestimating your competence."
Are those pictures coming through ok now?
The last one was excellent.Originally Posted by bluegoose
Wow BG. That is a harrowing story.
My son was looking for alternatives to hike a couple of weeks ago, when it was raining in our Cascades. He looked around Shasta and found what he thought might be some easier hikes. I'm glad he didn't travel down there; that doesn't sound easy at all.
Yes!
"There is no creature more arrogant than a self-righteous libertarian on the web, am I right? Those folks are just intolerable."
"It's no secret that the great American pastime is no longer baseball. Now it's sanctimony." -- Guy Periwinkle, The Nix.
"Juilliardk N I ibuprofen Hyu I U unhurt u" - creekster
And thanks to OG's comment about non-caloric silicon-based kitchen lubricant (which I had to look up), I even understood the 3rd one.
I'm happy you didn't die.
"Nobody listens to Turtle."-Turtle
I join with Surfah and others (the vote was something like 23-10) that the awesome story is better with bg surviving.
I made my annual pilgrimage to the San Juan mountains in SW Colorado a little earlier in the year than usual in order to attend a nephew's wedding in Utah on the front end of my trip. Before I headed for the trail, my wife suggested that I call the forest service to make sure my planned trail head was even open due to the large amount of snow the mountains received over the winter and was visible from the valley. Of course I ignored this advice before departure and found the forest service road that leads to the trail head closed due to high water. So I referenced my map and found an alternate trail head on a different road away from the river that would take an extra day to reach that part of the continental divide trail (CDT) that I wanted to hike. But I hiked into packed snow drifted across a sloped ridge and turned around after doing a mini "bluegoose" and sliding 20 feet or so down the mountain a few times. Nothing like that Mount Whitney adventure but enough to get my attention and turn around since I was alone and read about Lebowski's boot spike recommendation too late. Those spikes may have gotten me across the ridge but I still had another 1K feet or so to climb to get to the CDT and figured I'd be at least knee deep in snow by then.
So I changed my plans and found a lower elevation hike to go on and had a great time. Here are some pics.
Turnaround point at about 11,500 feet.
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No snow at the lower elevation, but encountered a lake in an Aspen grove from snow melt where the trail was supposed to be.
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Scenic river view.
IMG_0280.jpg
Plenty of water.
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Mountain lake destination. Saw a bald eagle fly across the lake before I could reach my iPhone and take a pic.
IMG_0246.jpg
“Not the victory but the action. Not the goal but the game. In the deed the glory.”
"All things are measured against Nebraska." falafel
Glad you made it out safe. I went to the San Juans a couple years ago. It was awesome. I'll have to look at where we went. Where were you planning to go?
That's some good looking country.
Looks awesome, great pics.
Oh yeah, you could have raced right over that with the micro-spikes. No problem.
"There is no creature more arrogant than a self-righteous libertarian on the web, am I right? Those folks are just intolerable."
"It's no secret that the great American pastime is no longer baseball. Now it's sanctimony." -- Guy Periwinkle, The Nix.
"Juilliardk N I ibuprofen Hyu I U unhurt u" - creekster
I’m doing Kings Peak in a few weeks with my 11y old. I suspect there will still be snow up there. I think I’ll get some of those.
"You interns are like swallows. You shit all over my patients for six weeks and then fly off."
"Don't be sorry, it's not your fault. It's my fault for overestimating your competence."
Beautiful pics, PBW!
I wanted to hike south of Wolf Creek Pass in the South San Juan Wilderness. Ellwood Pass was supposed to be my trailhead and was planning on hiking into Crater Lake off the CDT and then continue south past Summit Peak. When the forest service road was closed, I went on the west side of the continental divided to a trail to Quartz Lake that I'd hiked several times earlier but never that early in the season. Was hoping to connect from that trail into the CDT but it was still under several feet of snow. Ended up going farther south in SSJ wilderness NE of Chama, NM and entered at the Elk Creek trailhead and did a shorter hike to Duck lake and other lakes in the vicinity.
The sad thing is that I saw those micro-spikes at REI while shopping before my trip and thought about buying them. But decided against carrying the additional weight. dumb, dumb, dumb. Also didn't bring my water/canoe shoes for the same reason and ran into that makeshift lake in an Aspen grove. Fortunately, I was able to navigate around it and was able to get across some high water streams without wading. I really should have expected different conditions in the mountains in early July than last year when I backpacked after Labor Day. The San Juans got a lot more snow this past winter. While attending the wedding in Utah, MIL texted me that Wolf Creek Pass on Highway 160 was closed for a day after a snow storm and that was where I was heading the following week. Still not enough to get me to call the forest service though. duh. I did visit their office in downtown Pagosa Springs after my hike and they were most helpful and had a laugh at my attempt to climb quartz ridge and hike the still-under-the-snow CDT without spikes or snowshoes. And you guessed it - asked if I was from Texas: GUILTY.
“Not the victory but the action. Not the goal but the game. In the deed the glory.”
"All things are measured against Nebraska." falafel
My annual trip just got cancelled. I am really sad about this. Just too much snow this year, even in August.
My wife and I did this hike Saturday. 20.8 miles from the Idaho side of the Tetons over to the Wyoming side. Great hike with spectator views. I'd never been up Cascade Canyon before and it's well worth it if you're looking for hikes in the park. At the top is one of the most beautiful campgrounds I've ever seen. Anyway it was a very enjoyable day.
https://www.strava.com/activities/2628369201/overview
Day hike, or did you camp somewhere?
"I think it was King Benjamin who said 'you sorry ass shitbags who have no skills that the market values also have an obligation to have the attitude that if one day you do in fact win the PowerBall Lottery that you will then impart of your substance to those without.'"
- Goatnapper'96
I’ve hiked up cascade from the Wyoming side but never gone all the way over. Campground at the top is amazing
"You interns are like swallows. You shit all over my patients for six weeks and then fly off."
"Don't be sorry, it's not your fault. It's my fault for overestimating your competence."
I love Jenny's Lake but we haven't done that hike. Well done.
"Guitar groups are on their way out, Mr Epstein."
Upon rejecting the Beatles, Dick Rowe told Brian Epstein of the January 1, 1962 audition for Decca, which signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead.
We need a hiking thread, this is for backpacking.
It was just a day hike. We camped at the trail head and took off early Saturday morning.
Algonquin Park 3-day Canoe Trip
My brother in-law, nostalgic for his childhood, started a yearly canoe trip a few years ago. He has daughters who won't go, so he has co-opted my boys as his own for the past three years. This year I was able to join them. I took a lot of pics. Here's a sample ... I'll post more later:
Recently returned missionary son—longest portage we did was 780 meters
First nights dinner
Worlds without end
Last edited by tooblue; 08-22-2019 at 01:21 PM.
Looks like fun, Tooblue. Keep the pictures coming.
"Friendship is the grand fundamental principle of Mormonism" - Joseph Smith Jr.
That sounds like a great tradition, tooblue.
More shots from the canoe trip ... There are isolated camp sites on the hundreds of lakes in the park. Situated very far apart and limited in number, you have to book a spot on every lake you travel to a couple of months in advanced.
At our first camp site there was long grass growing on a slope down to the rocks and the shore. We all laid down and looked at the stars
My 55L pack
Our first morning ... the mist rising from the lake
the mist got heavier as the sun rose higher in the sky
On this particular lake there were 8 loons—they could be heard through out the night
Will post more tomorrow
Last edited by tooblue; 08-23-2019 at 06:50 AM.
The second day we paddled for about 2.5 hours to our next destination, set up camp and just hung out. There was a beautiful sunset followed by a crazy night of massive thunder storms and heavy rain. No one stayed dry in their tents ...
Next morning the mist was thick
We then had a long day of paddling and portages ...
My fifteen year old, after watching both his 20 year old and 16 year old female cousins carry a canoe by themselves on earlier portages wanted to do at least one portage on his own. My brother in-law shadowed him. This portage was 220 meters.
Here at our last launch headed back to the main dock and our drive home
Looks awesome. I know a guy who used to do a 2 week canoe trip somewhere in Minnesota every year. He owned 8 canoes himself and a trailer to haul them all. He'd organize the entire deal - round up 14-16 people to go and have them each pay around $1,500 to cover the costs of food, fuel, permits, etc. They'd drive from Utah and then usually make a couple of stops sightseeing along the Canadian border on their way home.
He said he started by doing canoe trips into Shoshone in Yellowstone each year - but he found that going to Minnesota there were fewer issues with wind and mosquitos (really?). He enjoyed portaging to get a couple of lakes in and said that for most trips, by day 2 they were deep enough into the wilderness area that they didn't see another soul until they were coming out again.
Great pics, tooblue. That place looks beautiful. How were the bugs up there?
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