Little over a year ago my wife Heidi, my father-in-law Doug and my friend Dennis were climbing White Mountain when we started talking about future adventures when we started discussing the High Sierra Trail. The trail starts in the western Sierras at Crescent Meadow and cuts across the range to the Whitney Portal in the east. The trail itself is about 50 miles long and connects with the John Muir/Pacific Crest Trail which takes you to the Whitney Portal topping the trip off at around 71 miles total.
Needless to say we couldn't get it out of our heads, so we made plans last fall to do the backpack. But as we got closer to the trip some of the faces on the trip changed. Shortly after we talked seriously about going on the trip we found out Heidi was pregnant with our first child, Josephine, so she had to drop out. Then Doug had to bow out because of work commitments. In their places my brother Andrew and Dennis' co-worker Steve joined. We also worked out a plan to swap cars with Heidi's Uncle Dave and his friend Jeff, who were on the High Sierra Trail as well but going the opposite direction as us. Thus making transportation much less complicated.
We embarked on Sunday August 30th finishing a day early September 4th due to bad weather. It was quite incredible seeing such a range of environments from the lush fern meadows in the west to the moon-like environment above the tree line near Mt. Whitney. I think the only criticism I have of the trip is we moved too quickly, needing to cover so much ground each day. We could have used two more days on the trail to take our time and enjoy the scenery a bit more. However I was able to get a good survey of the area and now have an idea of places I like to go back and visit.
My favorite places were Moraine Lake and Precipice Lake, hands down. Moraine was our stop the third night and was well away from all the crowds, and just picturesque. Precipice was merely a brief stop of a long day, but it was a phenomenal lake with such incredible colors. You'll see why when I post the pictures. Walking the Kern River Valley was incredible as well. And finishing the trip walking through all the amazing granite cliffs was icing on the cake.
We ended the trip early because of sleet and lightning atop Mount Whitney the day we were climbing it. It was quite auspicious being 14,000 feet up sea level on the face of a mountain and hearing a thunder-crack in the midst of snow. It was a bit of a disappointment but at the same time now we have a great story of how we ended the trip.
It was quite a trip. And now I can say I have walked the complete High Sierra Trail. I will be posting photos from the trip on the photo blog and eventually in the best photos in the media section of the site. A larger sample of photos will also be on my Flickr account. Hope you enjoy them as much I did taking them. In the meantime enjoy these links.
Map of our intended itinerary
Flickr photo set
National Park info on the High Sierra Trail
