To see the full album of pictures(because this blog post doesn’t do it justice), go here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4o4BjkHLCmi7ZoZK7

Also shout out to Teddi Tostanoski for editing all of my camera photos. You did a fanstatic job!

And now for the blog

Back in July of this year, I took a trip from one end of the sierras to the other. It was called the Sierra High Trail(Not to be confused with the High Sierra Trail).

Its an 80 mile trip that starts in Sequioa and finishes in the eastern sierras. Normally it finished through whitney portal, but since I had climbed Whitney a few years earlier, I decided to finish by going through Langley.

My GPX for the trip looked like this:

You can see the interactive map here:

https://caltopo.com/m/MQFH

Full trip it was about 80 miles. I was planning on doing it in 7 nights/8 days. I ended up combining a few days and doing it in 6 nights.

Here’s the food I packed. Yes I ate all that nutella:

The trip started out pretty rough. I was planning on leaving on Friday, since I had the first week of July off(due to a company shutdown). The plan was to drop my car off at the end, and then take a series of buses around to the beginning side. This was going to take me a full day.

The day before I was supposed to leave(Thursday morning), I realized that they didn’t run buses on the weekend!! So I had to scramble and pack everything THAT DAY, and ended up leaving Thursday night at midnight. I ended up arriving at around 7 am on friday, having gotten NO sleep whatsoever. 🙁 Very dangerous drive.

I got some good views on the drive though:

Anyways, I was able to get someone to pick me up on the east side and drive me down to lone pine, where I could catch a series of buses around the eastern sierras(through bakersfield) to get to the west side. That shuttle alone cost $80, what a rip off! But you do what you have to do….

Anyways, I eventually end up in Vasalia, which is the launching point into Sequioa national park. I had met another couple on the bus that was doing the same trail. I was excited to hike with them, and that evening we planned on getting dinner together in the city before we strated off tomorrow. Everything seemed to be going to plan except…

I FORGOT MY FREAKING TENT.

Like, holy shit. How does someone even do that.

What entailed was probably the closet I came to a panic attack: I tried to find if there was an REI nearby, nope. I went to Big 5 sporting goods to try and get a temporary tent. That obviously sucked as seen here:

Then I tried to rent a car and just drive back to SF to get my tent. It was only a 3 hour drive each way. Being the 4th of july weekend though, every car place was sold out from here to kingdom come. Nobody had any rentals.

The closet REI was in Fresno, about an hour drive away. But with no way to get there(the public transist didn’t run between those two cities), I was out of ideas…

I ended up just getting an uber to drive me there and back. It cost around $100. And I got my 1 person tent, whew. So a day late, and a brand new tent later, I *actually* start my trip!

Here are the reports from the different days. I wrote them all on my mobile phone while I was out there. Some were combined, because I was lazy. Anyways, without further ado…

Day 1 HST

Thought of two new playlist names: “bring pain, silence thoughts” and “female vocal orgasms”. The latter being all my female heavy vocal edm music.

Came blasting out of the gate with 14 miles. I was worrying most of the day that I wouldn’t have enough food. What I mean is, that I won’t fell full. I have plenty of food to keep me nourished and/or maybe lose a pound. But hey, I’m trying to lose weight anyways right?

I was a little worried about the side dishes I brought not cooking properly if I didn’t give them a 7 min boil. But basically, if I bring something to a boil, and let it sit for 20 minutes, it’s golden. That goes for both the Mountain meals and the side dishes.

And hey, the side dishes arnt that bad! Kinda bland that you’re just eating rice, but I can’t complain when I’m so hungry.

The landscapes after bear meadow where insane. I had to stop my music for a second just to fully take in the scenery. Even with my nice camera it doesn’t do the landscapes justice.

I started listening to into the void. It’s pretty good so far! Interesting how some people evaluate risk. Aka they’re way too risky.

I came blasting out of the gate with 14 miles clocked in. I want to compress at least one day so I can come home early. Tomorrow I’ll be doing 13 miles. It’ll have 4k elevatiom gain which will be tough. I’ll try to get an early start.

Today was pretty brutal, I’m not going to lie. The last 3 miles we’re just anguish lol. I’ll give myself lots of time tomorrow for breaks.

Off to read. Might do some star photography at midnight, we’ll see how it goes

Day 2/3 HST

 

Fuck mosquitoes!!! They make everything so much worse. I must have upwards of 50 bites on me. Everything iches.

What’s worse is I didn’t really bring that much/that good of bug spray. A 3/4th empty can of some no name brand. I didn’t think it’d be a problem.

Luckily, I think once I get to higher elevation they’ll go away(I’ll be at 11k tomorrow). That’s the hope anyway.

Speaking of tomorrow, I’m a bit nervous. It’ll be the hardest day thus far. Yesterday was grueling. I just wanted it to end. It was 12.7 miles with 4k elevation. Tomorrow will be 10.7 miles with 4.1k elevation. I’ll have less food which might make things a tad easier, but it’ll still suck.

Also, my thighs in the outside have been numb for two days. The part with the muscle I’ve been using excessively. I’m not sure if it’s something with my spinal injury, which would be worry some, or if it’s just me overworking the muscles. Nothing else is dumb except that part.

I also worry that it might be because of how tight I’ve had the pack on my waist. Have I been pintching a nerve? The most painful part of the trip hasn’t been the soreness in my legs, but the unbearable pain on my waist from the pack. I haven’t cut into my skin at all, but it’s really really painful each day I hike. Probably not sitting right or something. Well hopefully as I eat dinner tonight/food tomorrow it’ll get lighter.

I was so exhausted from yesterday and the day before that I didn’t take any pics! Today I’ll try and do some night photography. It’d be a waste for me to carry that 3lb tripod 80 miles for nothing lol…
According to the schedule of the people I met on the bus, they should be at this campsite tonight. I cut down a day in the trail from my fast hiking. I didn’t see them when I came in, but it’s a large area. I also didn’t pass them….maybe they went on ahead, or are still hiking in. Tbh, I haven’t seen anyone at this campsite yet.

Yesterday I saw a group of NPS workers working on the trail. It was something out of a movie how diverse they were: the beared outdoorsman, the girl who looked like she could be on a “we need YOU for the army” poster, the token black guy with long dreads, and the skinny white dude covered in tatoooes. I thaked them for their work as I went by.

Also yesterday I briefly chatted with a girl from a group that was doing a big loop that included parts of the HST. She lived in sf, originally from Oakland. We talked for a bit and went on our way. After I had hiked past them to continue on my way, I realized she had initiated the Convo, and she was from SF! Why hadnt I at least gotten her contact info? I need more friends in this space. I beat myself up for the next hour about this as I continued on…

After tomorrow, itll be an easy 8mi day, followed by another somewhat challenging 8 mile day summiting langly. Then one more day to hike out to the car.

I find it ironic that the summitng day will be one of the easier ones. Tomorrow being the hardest.

I’ll try and take it slow tomorrow. I’ve got all day, and I can get in late. For now it’s time to get some reading in! 🙂

HST 4/5

Day 4 was supposed to be the hardest day. By the start of day 4 I hadn’t seen anyone for 24 hours. I had failed to find the couple that I had met on the bus in Visalia. In fact, nobody was camping at junction meadow at all!

The day started with me fight mostioes. Fuck mosquitoes. After hiking a bit, I joined the JMT. Then for the next 2 hours, about every 10 minutes I would see people. It was like a highway of people! Absolutely crazy.

I got down to Crabtree meadow, and I will say it’s one of the most beautiful places I had seen up to this point. It’s also a junction point for the pct, jmt, and hst, so it was swarming with people. I chatted with a guy who did 22 miles in one day, finishing at 9pm. He started at horseshoe (where I’m finishing) and hiked to Crabtree. I’m doing the same itenerary but in 3 days, and summitng Langley as well.

I was a bit remise that I wasn’t going to camp at Crabtree, because the views looked steller for night photography. I told myself if where I was camping wasn’t great, I’d hike back the 2 miles in the dark with the camera equipment and do it in Crabtree. That….was never going to happen. Once I started from Crabtree meadow to Crabtree lakes, the offtrail had started, and it was slow going. 2 miles took me 2 hours.

 

But it was okay, because once I got to Crabtree lake, I was blessed with amazing views. I setup my camera for night photography; I was initially stoked that I was going to be able to get the moonrise; but after watching it rise and taking a pic or two, it became apparent that the moonlight washed out all the stars. I still ended up getting some good shots before dawn came around.

Crabtree lake was my favorite campsite by far. I had it all to myself, and it had stunning views. And of course, no mosquitos.

 

The next day(today) was completely off trail. I started hiking late, 10:30am, as I was sleepy from the night photography the night before. That was all well and good, as planned.

Today was exciting and a bit scary. It was fun to finally do some “off trail” stuff. Technically caltopo has a trail, but you’re really on your own because it’s impossible to find. Every once in a while I’d run across it, or a Carin. But in general I just followed the spirit of the trail.

 

The best part of this whole hike was Crabtree pass. It was scary. First you had to circle around this lake about 20 feet above on this 35-40 degree scree slope. Luckily there was a path there already otherwise that would have been really slow going.

Then you had to scramble up the pass. Mind you this is scrambling, with a 20-30 pound pack, at 12k feet. It’s fucking exhausting. But when you get to the top, you get the most magnificent views. Multiple Alpine lakes, multiple peaks, Newman/sawtooth peak peaking out from a window. It was magnificent. And the whole way down from the pass getting to pass different alpine lakes was awesome.

Here’s a video at the pass:

 

Sometime after the pass

The final part of today, taking the “rangers” path down towards soilders lake was steep/sucky. I slipped and fell in mud at one point. I should have just taken the desginaited trail lol. It was only like, 0.5 miles longer.

Also, a note on the book “into the void”: absolutely AMAZING book. The fact that I was suffering doing these long miles while listening to it made it all that much better. One of my top 10 books for sure. It’s crazy that in some situations I’d think, “I’d use this technique”, and then immediately after the author would say they used said technique. It made me feel like an almost mountaineer. I also realted emotional to a lot of the things he said, or how he dealth with stress. It’s interesting to see people deal with hardship in the outdoors much the same way.

Tomorrow I do langly, and the day after I hike out. I feel a bit empty: I expected to feel…idk… something more? I guess I’m a bit upset that I didn’t get some amazing night photography. It was only OK. But I learned stuff about the moon, my equipment, timing, etc. So maybe next go out it’ll be a bit better.

Honestly langly will probably be pretty easy, considering I’ll be leaving my pack at the junction. It’ll be a 4 mile 2k hike to the peak, and then a 4 mile hike down to cottonwood through old army pass. Old army is “unmaintained” but still in most maps, so should be easy to find.

HST 5/6

Written 11/3/2018

Unfortunately I don’t have anything written for these two days. But I basically hiked up to the top of Langley, camped at an awesome lake. I ended up doing one of my best time lapses here which I am super proud of.  Read more for it below.

Here are the Langley photos:

 

 

I remember coming down from langley, people were saying the path was icey and slippery. I was a bit worried…but after looking at it, what they considered “slippery” or “dangerous” was nothing of the sort. Maybe it was a bit icy earlier in the day, but at this point it was completely slushy snow. Not a problem.

I camped what I thought was away from anyone else on the far side of a lake. But just 50 feet from me another couple decided to camp as well. You have the whole wilderness, why camp there!??!

 

Here’s the timelapse:

 

Anyways, on the final day I hiked out, and ran into a group of older gentleman. Having a pack that was much lighter, and having hiked the last 6 days, I was feeling pretty light on my feet. “You make that look so easy!” one of them said to my giant pack. Thanks dude, but after 5 days and 10k+ feet for most of them, it kinda is!

I had a bit of trouble locating the correct exit for the trail. I guess I didn’t pin *exactly* where I put my car on the trail map, so I had to try 2-3 loops before I found the correct one. But eventually I did! And my worry about not locking my car was relived when I tried the door and realize I did, in fact lock the door.

After that, I went into town and had my first burger in a long time which was delicious!! And proceeded home.

 

All in all, a great trip. I liked the time alone, and hope to do it again!