A friend, teaching colleague and avid backpacker asked me if I wanted to backpack with him earlier this Summer to California’s Emigrant Wilderness near Yosemite NP. At first, I was reluctant because it had been nearly eight years since my last trip and my equipment was old and untested.
That problem was solved when he loaned me a backpack, tent and sleeping bag. I didn’t have to worry about a stove because he already had one that would serve both of us. It was up to me to shop at my local REI and Sports Basement stores for freeze dried meals, hand washing products, new under socks and a few other useful items for the trip. Ok, I had the stuff that I needed. Let’s go!
The first day was no fun. Getting used to the altitude, the heat, the weight on my back made the first day a drudge. By the time we completed a challenging climb first thing the next morning, I was getting acclimatized and my conditioning was starting to kick in. We covered a lot of ground over the next three days and a good deal of the food weight was gone by then. I could do this! My boots and socks kept my feet healthy and happy and I was a happy camper!
Fire became a small factor in our trip, but it was a much bigger factor statewide. We were seeing smoke from the Fire.
My friend invited me along on another trip that he and another friend and backpacking buddy had already planned. That September hike was called off because of fires in and around Yosemite.
But, we weren’t done trying to squeeze in one last Summer 2021 Sierra backpack trip. So, we put a trip together to the Hoover Wilderness and eastern Yosemite out of the Twin Lakes area near Bridgeport, CA. during the first week of October. I had learned from my first trip of the Summer and had trimmed a few pounds from my pack. This time we had to carry our food in Yosemite approved bear canisters. The first day was smokey, but over the next two days, the winds picked up and the temperatures started dropping.
Thanks to modern technology, we received updated weather forecasts that showed us that a storm was approaching with snow as part of the package. We made our decision between our first and second pass crossing and the decision was to head back the way we came back to Twin Lakes. That decision shortened our trip by two days and about 25 miles.
After dinner on our last night out, we huddled arounds Kelvin’s small transistor radio and listened to the last four innings of a Wild Card baseball game between the Cardinals and Dodgers. What a sight, two Giant fans and a Dodger fan staring down towards the dark ground straining to make out the words from the garbled, sometimes barely audible signal.
Shortly after settling into our tents for the night, the wind picked up and the pitter patter of little rain drops began whacking our rainflys. It’s a good thing they were up. It would have made the night much more unpleasant.
The next morning was a short hike out to Twin Lakes. After a little cleaning up, we hopped in Kelvin’s Subaru and started the four plus hour drive home. it turned out to be a six plus hour drive home when we got to the foot of Sonora Pass only to find that it had been closed an hour and a half earlier due to the forecast of snow that we had learned about up the trail a couple days before.
So, we proceeded north on Highway 395 to Carson City where we got on Highway 50 and made our way home via South Lake Tahoe. This route took us through some of the devastation caused by the Caldor Fire. At one point, I counted five chimneys that had once helped keep the houses they were a part of warm.
Kelvin drove the entire way as we bantered a bit between CD’s of Tom Waits and Roy Zimmerman. He dropped me off at home around 8:30 amidst a little additional car drama.
Thanks to Kelvin, my love of the wild places was renewed and my commitment to restoring the planet were refreshed and strengthened. And, the realization that the wild places off the road were still accessible to me were the highlight of the past year and a half.
The pictures that I took in the Gaia app have proven to be hard to transfer from the app to my computer, so it may be only words for now. I’ll add photos later if I figure out how to do it!