Past Sierra Adventures 1

Lately I haven't been doing much hiking in new places to add to this blog, so I thought I would share some old memories and photos of wilderness trips of years past. Though they are not a big deal compared with the hiking and climbing that lots of people are doing these days, they were pretty exciting to me. After the years of backpacking trips with the scouts, I wondered about the possibility of backpacking by myself. Mostly I wondered whether my mind could take being alone in the wilderness for days without going nuts. I thought that maybe I could.

In 1973, I was married and we had a kid on the way, and I felt like I was soon going to be tied down forever and it was my last chance for some mountain adventure, so I planned a 3-day solo trip in the Bridgeport area. I was going to start at Twin Lakes, and do a loop around Sawtooth Ridge. It would require several miles of cross-country hiking including two high passes which were questionable. In those days, there wasn’t much information available about off-trail routes, and I had practically no climbing experience, so I wasn’t sure if my plan would work.

On a mid-July afternoon, I arived at Twin Lakes and started up the Horse Creek trail. After a mile or two, I left the trail and continued on a fairly good use-trail which led up a long talus slope. I stopped to rest in a beautiful little meadow at about 9200 ft. elevation, unpacked and walked around taking photos as the sun was setting.

View down Horse Creek from the beginning of the talus slope and a passing hiker

Meadow near first night's camp

Last stretch to Horse Creek Pass

The next morning I continued up the canyon up long talus slopes and snowfields to Horse Creek Pass at about 10700 ft. It wasn’t too hard until the last bit where the snow was steep, which made me nervous, and I scrambled around it on some steep scree. About a half mile across the head of Spiller Creek I could see Matterhorn Pass, and it looked like a problem. There was about 100 ft. of nearly vertical granite below the saddle. I began trying to climb a crack near the middle of the face, but it was too difficult and I realized how foolish it was to take chances being alone in a remote place.

Matterhorn Pass from Spiller Creek side

At the top of Matterhorn Pass

I looked around and noticed a little gully going up far to the left that might work. Luckily it did, with just a bit of scary exposure near the top. The far side was steep, but not bad, and then there was a long snowfield down into Matterhorn Canyon. Then I was back on a trail over Burro Pass. I took a long lunch break in a meadow, and then one more pass to cross, Mule Pass. There was a lot of snow, and I lost the trail several times, and very tired by now, I finally got down to Crown Lake.

Looking back to the east from near Mule Pass

descending toward Crown Lake

As I passed the lake, I stopped to talk to a couple of young guys camped there, and they invited me to come back later and smoke a joint with them. I found a campsite a bit below them, and later went back to take them up on their offer. Three of us were crowded into a tiny tent, smoking. Then one of them got out a butane stove and lit it. A flame shot out of it about 3 ft. long, and we all totally freaked out.

Back at my camp, stoned and still a bit freaked, I suddenly wondered where my wallet was. I dumped everything out of my pack and searched everywhere, but didn’t find it. I was thinking that it must have fallen out of my pack back at my lunch stop, but that was way too far to go back for it. So I went to sleep very bummed about it.

Juniper on the way down from Crown Lake

The next morning, I looked once more, and the wallet was right in the side pocket of the pack where I had put it. Maybe getting stoned in the wilderness wasn’t such a good idea. From there it was a long but easy downhill hike back to Twin Lakes. It had been a fun, successful trip and I didn’t mind being alone, although it was only a couple of nights.