Im Back

[sasha]

Im a day early back as on the last couple of days the wind shifted from south west to more of easterly north.. When it shifted it got realy cold and every night i seen more and more dark clouds.. Didnt want to get stuck at above 10,000ft with a rain or snow storm. As my trip already had lots of exciement. I ended up going with my best friend and buddy Murphy. He sure keeped me on my toes and very intresting the all trip.. half way on the ride i stoped to get some gas check my fluids. Everything checkes out o.k. I get in the car and start the engine and my oil light is on engine sound o.k.. From exp i figure it must be a sending unit.. Dicided to keep going.. drove the car all the way up to the top of the road. Which is a very very steep road that goes up to 10,357ft. View from the top

I stop at the top before the road goes down to the parking. There was a geocache i wanted to find. Parked the car, got out of it and with in 20 steps i felt as if im going down.. Yet the Altitude got to me...I guess going from sea level to 10,000ft in a few hour didnt agree with me.. O.k i get in my car ready to go,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, My clutch dont work. Something with the hydrolics failed.. O.k its only a couple miles and i park the car. Got there park my car and there is a CHP helicopter over head with a group of SAR showing up.

While they are getting ready i see a dog running all scared and lost. He is trying to jump into a truck. I try to catch him but he runs away. When a ranger comes over i tell her about the dog and that he might be the dog of the guy tha might have gotten hurt out there. I got no idea what happened with the dog. Later on the truck was gone and never seen the dog again. Went to sleep before 8pm. Got up in the morning and couldnt find my permit. so left with out it. Going up to cottomwood pass was long but not as hard as i remmerbered.

thats me at the top sort of tired at around 11,000ft

 

[sasha]

Got to the top, the sun was beating as if there is no tomorow. Hot and bright.

Started to go down the mountain on the other side.

Best tasting water anywhere and i dare anyone to try and say its not.. Its falling about 400ft over small waterfalls so it picks up lots of oxegen and gets filtered. Its so cold that you think your teeth are going to crack and break.

keep going down

got down to the big whitney meadow

Came across a guy that been walking for over 75miles for the last 5 days and said he got about an extra 40 to go or atlist i remember it was 40 more.. Cool guy

I ended up staying on the other side of the meadow as i didnt want to push my self with the way i felt.
my camp site

Dont know of the name of the flower but it opened up at night only.

dicided to make dinner guess what my stove didnt work. Couldnt get the pressure up, took me about 2 hours to got the water hot not boiling.. I hate my friend Murphy at that moment i almost gave up lol.. Next day after spending 2 more hours making breakfast i keeped going.

 

[sasha]

The hike to rocky basin lakes was long with lots of trees that fell over the trail. You can actualy see where the trail keeped changing every year as people keeped walking around the trees that fell after each winter.

dont know the name of this flower but it grows only at high elevation and around pine trees mostly within 6ft.

Lots of creeks from the snow melt

 

[sasha]

Found my self a great place to set up camp so the sun would shine on me early as it got cold at night..In the evening i still got some protection from the westerly wind.

there were four lake so im just going to post pics of the lakes

jsut to let you know that lake is Deep. Amazing clear water

Pics i took at night I might need to photo shop them as i just down loaded them

 

[sasha]

full moon rise

dinner

thats golden trout guys

look on the right side on the top the snow on the ridge is right above the lakes where im at

 

[ilten]

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing.
ilten

 

[sasha]

o.k i think i took enough room with pics

 

[sasha]

its hard to show in the pics the sheer size of those mountains.. I got no idea what a duck would be doing up at 10,000ft seen him there for 2 days... The frog was crossing from one meadow to the one on the other side.. For his size he had a longer walk then i did...

 

[sasha]

Thanks Ilten

 

[MRpink]

Great pictures and looked like an awesome time. If gas wasn't so expensive, I'd drive down there and spend a night.

 

[sasha]

cost me $80 from LA and back... Not cheap no more... For next trip im going to look for something closer..

 

[mystical woodsman]

Man, that was some nice sharing. I enjoyed those pics! It kind of bothers me that you went alone though. Didn't anyone else want to experience that beauty with you? Perhaps you wanted to go alone? Imagine if Murphy really wanted to make his presence known, and you were in the middle of a tight spot and broke your leg or back. Finding help much less getting back would be CRAZY.

I am not trying to jinx anyone, but sometimes probabilities can really make us not even want to go outside... I guess that is where the beauty of life lies.

Again, thanks for sharing. I am glad to know you are okay and nothing serious went wrong.

 

[bondy]

Great pics Sasha looks brilliant, did you do any fishing or is it not allowed.

 

[Chinpo]

I'm so jealous right now. Great pics and thanks for sharing.

 

[Fallbrook Forge]

looks good, what were the temps like? I'm going a bit north of there in a few weeks, Big Pine canyon, gonna hit the south fork, then on up the north to 3rd lake and on the the Palisade Glacier

 

[EmsRescueGuy]

Really Great Pictures. I am Jelous.

 

[ejes]

Thanks so much for those pics! Felt like I was there. Just great!

 

[siguy]

thanks for the pics, shame about the troubles...but i guess it worked out since you made it back alright.

looks like a good trip besides

 

[j williams]

Amazin pics man. Looks like a great trip.....Im glad to see not everything is burned up in my homestate....That water looks awesome!!!!

 

[kgd]

Excellent travel log. I really felt that I shared a little part of your adventure with all those great pictures and your running story. Good thing you have those mechanical skills dealing with your vehicle. Driving those big hills is really hard on cars isn't it? Anyhow, I know how much work it can take to upload and organize all those pictures together and build a thread like this and I for one really appreciated your efforts here.

I also understand how sometimes a picture just doesn't capture the grandeur of the first person experience. Whether it be the Montana sky at night, a set of sheer mountain cliffs or a giant old tree, sometimes a picture just can't capture the vertigo you feel when staring at it. However, rest assured that your's told a very nice story.

I also like to go solo once in a while. Much more self reflection and soul searching when you are hiking alone. These thoughts and feelings need not be constrained by a need to demonstrate social politeness to a camping buddy.