The Talusdancers Gang returned for this years “big trip” last Friday – the trip described in the previous post on this blog. We’ll post more details – and probably photos – later on, but for now here is a very brief summary.
Thursday, July 29 – The “gang of four” assembled in the eastern Sierra, camping at Onion Valley and enjoying the traditional trailhead barbecue.
Friday, July 30 – We got a reasonably early start, at least by talusdancers standards, on the trail up to and over Kearsarge Pass (11, 700+’) and arrived at our camp site at Kearsarge Lakes.
Saturday, July 31 – We descended from Kearsarge Lakes, passing Bullfrog Lake and then joining the JMT to descend to Vidette Meadows for lunch. We then headed on up the canyon to our camp at the Center Basin “Trail” junction along Upper Bubbs Creek.
Sunday, August 1 – This was the highest day of the trip, as we crossed 13, 200′ Forrester Pass. The ascend is long and steady, but this is certainly not the most difficult Sierra pass aside from the altitude. Everyone was on top by lunch time. Following the quick descent and longish slog past high lakes and on toward timberline, we arrived at our familiar (from previous trips) camp at Tyndall Creek.
Monday, August 2 – Today we visited country that none of us had seen before, or at least that none of us could recall. We left Tyndall Creek and followed the route towards Lake South America, passing through a mosquito-infested valley and climbing a steep and little-used trail to ascend its headwall before dropping to another lake and finally making a quick visit to Lake South America. We had contemplated staying there, but it was quite barren and exposed so we headed down and toward the Great Western Divide, finally arriving at a stunning campsite in the area of a series of small, unnamed lakes. Yes, more mosquitoes…
Tuesday, August 3 – We descended this upper Kern drainage area, passing through a very beautiful area of small lakes, rocks, trees, and meadows – finally reaching the junction with the trail back toward Tyndall Creek. This trail ascended steeply back to the ridge that we had climbed out of Tyndall the day before, and we finally arrived back at the same campsite where we stayed on August 1.
Wednesday, August 4 – We began our exit from the highest country today, ascending the gentle trail to the Sierra crest lake at Shepherd Pass. Following lunch we launched ourselves over the pass and into the tremendous descent towards Anvil Camp, passing over a small but intense snow field near the top of the pass, carefully picking our way down the steep couloir, and then past rock fields to our camp site.
Thursday, August 5 – On the final day we started early, doing the initial descend down Shepherd Canyon before climbing the ridge over to the Symmes Creek drainage to eventually emerge – after much descending! -at the base of the Sierra. A drive to Mammoth for dinner at Roberto’s followed.
Friday, August 6 – Headed home. Time to think about next year’s trip!
