Sequoia National Park, High Sierra Trail backpacking trip - day 1
07/01/07 08:04 PM Filed in: travel | backpacking
After two weeks of gear
planning, one week of tedious weighing, and a year of
anxious down time since we last backpacked, Chris
& I made it to the High Sierra trailhead with our
45-pound packs, excitedly ready to begin our first
back-country trip with significant milage!!
*photos taken at Crescent Meadow trailhead*
Crescent Meadow to 9 Mile Creek
Sunday, July 1, 2007
The plan really was to go as far as we could, for as long as we could, with 7 days worth of food on the High Sierra Trail. The trip was an experiment to see what our limits were with milage and altitude. With some pretty hefty hiking trips planned in September, we were more than ready to start some serious training. Although I’ve been a slave to cardio at the gym since January, that doesn’t exactly translate to trail miles.
Would we hike 10 miles or could we hike 60? It was time to find out.
*map of the first 1/2 of our proposed trip*
It was 11:05 am, the very beginning of our hike having left the trailhead swiftly behind, we tackle our first incline through Crescent Meadow. Temperature is a pleasant 78 degrees at 6,700 ft, because of cool breezes within the Giant Sequoia Grove. Being surrounded by trees as old as 3,000 years, widths up to 35 ft, height easily in the 200 - 300 ft. range, was a nice bonus to start our journey with. In the distance we hear the shrieking of ravens, chickadees and multiple brewers blackbirds forging on the bugs that lay just beneath the thin layer of pine needles covering the very dry, Sierra earth. The first few miles of the hike consisted of views peering out into the Kaweah Gap with giant peeks reaching 12,000 ft. capping the distant horizon.
*view of Kaweah Gap facing south-west, opposite our route*
*view of Kaweah Gap facing north-east, in route toward Hamilton Lake*
About an hour into our hike, we were walking along a rocky ridge, in route with a very large builder to the left that blocked our view of the trail that turned behind and around it. I was completely absorbed with the changing views, trying to take extra note of every wildflower, bird and butterfly we passed, while doing my best to keep the same elevated pace as my husband. Chris, on the other hand, was leading the two of us through this trail, very focused and very much alert, so when he suddenly stopped, which immediately stopped me, and turned back to look at me with a crazy expression then proceeded to turn back to face the trail and scream GO AWAY BEAR!! - in one slow-millisecond these events unfolded. Before I could get a good view of the bear, I saw what looked like his rear end scurry down the mountain with a dust cloud following him. As quick as we noticed him, he was gone. I was pretty shaken up by the closeness of the encounter and the size of the bear; which seemed to stand a good 4.5 ft. high on all fours. At that point on, I attached my bear-bell to my hiking pole. Those of you not familiar with a bear bell, it’s a small, very annoying, loud, bell meant to be used to make yourself heard on the trail. The loud, annoying ringing after that incident calmed my nerves as we hiked further into the wilderness.
Approximately 3 miles into the hike, getting anxious fighting those not-so-dull-yet aches, we decide to take a short break at Panther Creek.
*Panther Creek rest stop*
Back on the trail, we crossed small streams, saw multiple waterfalls and discovered ever changing aromas like the Jeffrey Pine tree’s syrupy pancake smell and the wild peppermint plants growing in vast patches beside the trail.
*view of trail within the forest & one of many waterfalls*
We kept hiking, stopping at Mehrten Creek about 6 miles into the wilderness around 4:00 pm. This area was very pretty and offered a gorgeous cascading waterfall with campsites directly in view with the giant peaks of the mountain range across the valley. We soaked our aching feet in the cascading waterfall, the water was ice cold but brought the numbing feeling that would soon give a feeling of renewal to keep us going forward. It was a nice option to camp there, but the area was also very exposed, we both still had the urge to keep hiking on. Another 3 miles to the next back country campsite at 9 mile Creek seemed doable, so we went for that.
Finally, at about 7:30 pm we made it to the 9 mile Creek back country campsite. The area was very secluded in the forest, beautifully located, again next to a rather large waterfall. Having the campsite all to ourselves, we placed pretty much everything into the food storage box, and doing so we couldn’t help but read a large note posted on the back of the large metal box that read “Caution - this area experiences frequent bear sightings!” At that moment I realized, this was the most back country site we have ever set our tent up in. We walked over to the falls and saw a female mule deer & her fawn, walking up the other side of the steep waterfall’s ledge. The place felt very wild and untouched. This is truly bear territory.
We set the tent up at dusk and prepared our first freeze-dried dinners by gas stove, Mountain House’s turkey tetrazzini. We ate in the dark with our headlamps constantly looking outward for nightly visitors to the campsite. I admit, I was scared, but shortly after dinner I managed to curled into my sleeping bag and fall asleep - sometime around 10:00 pm.
*photos taken at Crescent Meadow trailhead*
Crescent Meadow to 9 Mile Creek
Sunday, July 1, 2007
The plan really was to go as far as we could, for as long as we could, with 7 days worth of food on the High Sierra Trail. The trip was an experiment to see what our limits were with milage and altitude. With some pretty hefty hiking trips planned in September, we were more than ready to start some serious training. Although I’ve been a slave to cardio at the gym since January, that doesn’t exactly translate to trail miles.
Would we hike 10 miles or could we hike 60? It was time to find out.
*map of the first 1/2 of our proposed trip*
It was 11:05 am, the very beginning of our hike having left the trailhead swiftly behind, we tackle our first incline through Crescent Meadow. Temperature is a pleasant 78 degrees at 6,700 ft, because of cool breezes within the Giant Sequoia Grove. Being surrounded by trees as old as 3,000 years, widths up to 35 ft, height easily in the 200 - 300 ft. range, was a nice bonus to start our journey with. In the distance we hear the shrieking of ravens, chickadees and multiple brewers blackbirds forging on the bugs that lay just beneath the thin layer of pine needles covering the very dry, Sierra earth. The first few miles of the hike consisted of views peering out into the Kaweah Gap with giant peeks reaching 12,000 ft. capping the distant horizon.
*view of Kaweah Gap facing south-west, opposite our route*
*view of Kaweah Gap facing north-east, in route toward Hamilton Lake*
About an hour into our hike, we were walking along a rocky ridge, in route with a very large builder to the left that blocked our view of the trail that turned behind and around it. I was completely absorbed with the changing views, trying to take extra note of every wildflower, bird and butterfly we passed, while doing my best to keep the same elevated pace as my husband. Chris, on the other hand, was leading the two of us through this trail, very focused and very much alert, so when he suddenly stopped, which immediately stopped me, and turned back to look at me with a crazy expression then proceeded to turn back to face the trail and scream GO AWAY BEAR!! - in one slow-millisecond these events unfolded. Before I could get a good view of the bear, I saw what looked like his rear end scurry down the mountain with a dust cloud following him. As quick as we noticed him, he was gone. I was pretty shaken up by the closeness of the encounter and the size of the bear; which seemed to stand a good 4.5 ft. high on all fours. At that point on, I attached my bear-bell to my hiking pole. Those of you not familiar with a bear bell, it’s a small, very annoying, loud, bell meant to be used to make yourself heard on the trail. The loud, annoying ringing after that incident calmed my nerves as we hiked further into the wilderness.
Approximately 3 miles into the hike, getting anxious fighting those not-so-dull-yet aches, we decide to take a short break at Panther Creek.
*Panther Creek rest stop*
Back on the trail, we crossed small streams, saw multiple waterfalls and discovered ever changing aromas like the Jeffrey Pine tree’s syrupy pancake smell and the wild peppermint plants growing in vast patches beside the trail.
*view of trail within the forest & one of many waterfalls*
We kept hiking, stopping at Mehrten Creek about 6 miles into the wilderness around 4:00 pm. This area was very pretty and offered a gorgeous cascading waterfall with campsites directly in view with the giant peaks of the mountain range across the valley. We soaked our aching feet in the cascading waterfall, the water was ice cold but brought the numbing feeling that would soon give a feeling of renewal to keep us going forward. It was a nice option to camp there, but the area was also very exposed, we both still had the urge to keep hiking on. Another 3 miles to the next back country campsite at 9 mile Creek seemed doable, so we went for that.
Finally, at about 7:30 pm we made it to the 9 mile Creek back country campsite. The area was very secluded in the forest, beautifully located, again next to a rather large waterfall. Having the campsite all to ourselves, we placed pretty much everything into the food storage box, and doing so we couldn’t help but read a large note posted on the back of the large metal box that read “Caution - this area experiences frequent bear sightings!” At that moment I realized, this was the most back country site we have ever set our tent up in. We walked over to the falls and saw a female mule deer & her fawn, walking up the other side of the steep waterfall’s ledge. The place felt very wild and untouched. This is truly bear territory.
We set the tent up at dusk and prepared our first freeze-dried dinners by gas stove, Mountain House’s turkey tetrazzini. We ate in the dark with our headlamps constantly looking outward for nightly visitors to the campsite. I admit, I was scared, but shortly after dinner I managed to curled into my sleeping bag and fall asleep - sometime around 10:00 pm.