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RE: High Sierra Adventures - North Lake to South Lake Loop
Omg! I don't have the time to read it now, but be sure I will!
Upvoted and resteemed by the @Climbing-Trail!
The @Climbing-Trail is an account dedicated to give climbing, alpinism and hiking a plattform here on Steemit. It is curated by @HaTo.
Thanks again @climing-trail! I appreciate the support. Let me know what you think once you get to read through it!
First of all, I'm impressed that you are able to recall all those names! I would be completely lost! ;-)
But what an adventure! I have so many questions:
I'm not an inexperienced hiker myself, but this is at a whole other level. Great post indeed! Thank you so much for sharing!
Wow, thanks for all the great questions! For the most part I don't really have a great memory, but somehow I'm great with place names in the mountains. Probably because I'm always studying the maps... I'm kinda a mapaholic. lol. The tough part is when they start using the same name for multiple places. I couldn't tell you how many "Fish creeks" I've been to. I've stood on Mt. Morgan and had great great views of the other Mt. Morgan. Why they would name 2 mountains so close to each other the same name I've got no idea. But it happens all the time. You could hike from Rancheria creek to the other Rancheria creek or hike the opposite direction to the other Rancheria creek. It can get a bit ridiculous honestly, but somehow I am still pretty good at keeping it all straight.
As for preparation for a long backpacking trip it's not much different than a short trip, but just more food. I count out how many days I'm hiking for and setup that many meals and day snacks. Then I double check all my gear for any problems before throwing it in the backpack and I'm off. Specific preparations are more specific to the places you are going than to the length of the trip. What type of terrain you are traversing, what type of weather might be encountered, what types of wild animals might be encountered, any government rules and regulations for the area, etc. For really long trips you can have food resupplies along your trip so you aren't carrying all the food at once, but that has to play in with the logistics of the itinerary.
As far as what types of food I like to bring, my dinners are all dehydrated. I have my own dehydrator so I can have all kinds of great ingredients for my meals. I'll buy some Knorr rice or pasta sides, some dehydrated refried beans, some idahoan powder potatoes, some ramen soups, some couscous, and other stuff like that and then add all my dehydrated veggies to them. And a lot of those veggies actually come from my own garden too so thats really cool. For breakfast I usually do oatmeal with dehydrated fruit and some seeds and nuts. For daytime snacks I go with more dehydrated fruit, trail mix, some crackers, and some energy bars that I put in my hip pocket for easy access while hiking.
As for the weight of my pack it can really vary just depending on how many luxury items I bring. Things like a block of cheese and a little bottle of booze are my weakness when It comes to going lightweight. lol. For this trip my bag was around 35-40lbs.
As for bad weather, rain gear, pants and jacket come on every backpacking trip. If you are out in the time of year where you could have a big snowstorm things like crampons, snow gaiters, and ice axe should all be packed. Other than that you are just out there exposed living in whatever mother nature has to throw at you. Bad weather is really just all part of the experience, and personally I often really enjoy it.
About how far do I get from 'civilization'... as far as possible! lol. But ya, especially in the High Sierra there are lots of times where I'm well over 20 miles from any trailheads.
As for how long I've been backpacking. Over 27 years. My parents took me on my first backpacking trip when I was only 5. By 7 I had already climbed a few peaks including the highest peak in SoCal. Through my teenage years my parents had problems and we didn't go out a lot, but my mom always made sure we'd get a trip or 2 in every year. Then once I was on my own in my early 20's one of the trips my mom planned was to Mt. Whitney the highest peak in the lower 48. It was actually my 2nd trip to Mt. Whitney, but this time it really captured me. I was in awe of the grandeur of the High Sierra. And Mt. Whitney is at the end of the famous John Muir Trail so I started looking into this JMT thing. That winter I was up in Mammoth on a snowboarding trip with my mom and we planned it all out. And the next summer we hiked the entire John Muir trail from Yosemite valley to Mt. Whitney. Around 300 miles in 32 days! (I'll probably write up a Steemit post about that one someday) After that I was completely hooked and have been backpacking all over California ever since! My mom lives in Arizona and she has a big hiking club out there that she hikes with, but we still always try to get together for a trip or 2 every year! She likes to get me out there for trips in the Grand Canyon and I like to get her out here for trips in the High Sierra.
Well, I hope I answered all your questions. Thanks again for asking, and f you have any more questions feel free to ask!
Wow! Thank you for your detailed answer!!! That is a post in itself! Maybe you should write a post about how to prepare for a long backpacking trip. Something like the dos and don'ts in backpacking!
Getting out there, experiencing unspoiled nature and getting through the rougher bits is just so rewarding! It's great that you and other people love it as much as I do!
Finally I have one last question: how often do you get out every year?
Ps: I would love to hear your story about hiking John Muir Trail!!!
Ya, with all those questions I knew my reply was gonna be a long one. Thanks for the post idea! I'll think about doing a post like that. Looking back at this year I think I've got at least 80 days out hiking/backpacking so far. That does include the single day trips. I think last year was a lot more. I probably got over 120 days last year! And according to my Peakery page I've only climbed 9 peaks this year so far as compared to 28 last year. https://peakery.com/members/DerekJayRichardson/summits/#year=®ion=&order=successes&page=1 I'll just have to make up for it next year! I bet I could get 40+ peaks next year if I try. I have a friend who actually climbed 100 peaks in a year as a self challenge kinda thing a few years back. So I think 40 should be doable for me.