Tags: spring green equinox landscape hillside wilderness oak tree shadow sun light light sun hiking backpacking camping hills
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Part 25
This photo is the last one with any real artistic value I took on this trip and the last one without smoke. After I took it we let our tents dry out in the sun from the rain we had at some unknown hour last night. Once all was dry and packed away and breakfast had been eaten we started on trail. Already the scent of smoke was in the air. We made our way down from the lake to join with the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and even before we had gone a mile the air became thick with a smokey haze, and the sunlight shone with a pink hue.
We crossed a small meadow where a doe and her fawn grazed. Then we came to the first and only creek crossing we were going to have. While here we met with a mule train and asked the guy where the fire was. He told us it was way south of us, across the Kern River Canyon and that we should be safe.
We soon reached the PCT and the smoke had really thickened, visibility was now only a few hundred feet in any direction and the smell of wildfire was strong in our noses. We continued on as the trail contoured the side of a valley where normally wide, spreading meadows could be seen far below, but now only a soupy, brownish red haze hung.
Unknown to us a thunderstorm was rising above the soupy smoke, and soon thunder echoed through the forest. We could feel the electricity in the air and knew that the lightning wasn't that far away, maybe 1000 yards or less, but there was no place to shelter, so we pushed on with lightning never far off. Surprisingly we never felt a single drop of rain that entire storm.
When it passed we stopped for a break. Hester uses medical marijuana, and when we stopped for the break he rolled one and said, “Damn this smoke is bad!” right before taking a hit of the weed.
The smoke remained bad the rest of the hike out, it did clear significantly when we reached Chicken Spring Lake, but the smell of it was still potent, and the light was still pinkish with a bright red sun. After one final push we reached the trailhead and the end. My car was still 3 quarters of a mile away at another trailhead and one kind soul gave me a ride to it saying, “You've walked far enough today.” I then drove back to pick up Hester.
As we drove back down the mountain into the town of Lone Pine the thick plume of smoke blanketed the Owens Valley casting heavy shadows and turning day into night. 13 days turned into 8, but it was still a fantastic trip. (The fire that this smoke was from was started several days earlier by that thunderstorm we had watched while we were at Upper Solider Lake.)
We got burgers in town and then went our separate ways. I went to the town of Bishop. Keough Hot Springs was closed due to the pandemic, so instead of a soak I got a private room at The Hostel California and took a hot shower. The next day I went to visit Jan who I had meet last year at Muriel Lake. Her and I are currently planing another trip for next summer, for this one we will be riding mules in and setting up a base camp somewhere yet to be determined.
Hester and his wife now have 2 twins on the way.
Tags: wilderness landscape wandering hiking backpacking camping high sierra lake water blue sky mountain mountains forest trees pine shadow light silhouette morning sunrise smokey california
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Part 24
The rest of the day was spent exploring the other tarns in the area and climbing as high as I could to the the bases of the cliffs that towered over Sky Blue Lake. A haze hung in the air, softening the light and adding dramatic effect to all the layers of the mountain peaks and ridges.
After I explored as far as I could and climbed as high as was safe I slowly made my way back to camp but first I took some time to sit beside a remote and seclude tarn. I enjoyed listening to the sound of the icy water gently lapping the talus blocks that lined the shore and the occasional wind gust whistling through the crags.
When I eventually made it back to camp I ate lunch beneath rocky ledge in the only shade that I could find. After eating I sat here for enough time for the shadow to shrink by at least a foot and a half. During which time I took fell asleep listening to the sound of the water fall above our camp.
When I awoke large towering rain clouds had gathered beyond the 13000 ft peaks. I went back to where our tents where to water proof my pack and prepare for rain. Then distant thunder rumbled. I looked up to see a large thunder cloud, but something was off. It had a strange brownish red tint to it. It was smoke, a huge plume of smoke had mixed itself in with the thundercloud. Hester had noticed it to. He used his Garmin GPS to text his wife to find out where the fire was. I was south of us at a place that wasn't on our maps, so I determined that we should be safe here. As the day went on the rain passed us by but the smoke began to settle in the basin, and it's scent became strong.
The smoke got worse, so we decided to pack up and begin making our way out and back to the trailhead. From here it was 13.5 miles to the cars, but neither of us wanted to d that distance today so we decided to make our way to lower solider lake and spend the night there, then head out the rest of the way tomorrow.
As we were making our way through the Miter Basin I noticed a set of footprints, they looked human but they were bare, without shoes, the toes clearly visible in the sandy gravel. The strange thing was they were 1 and a half the length of my foot. (my foot measures 10 inches, these were about 15 inches.) I pointed them out to Hester and he was just as confused as I was. Then we saw a second it was about 2 and a half of my strides away from the first. We saw 3 more before they faded into the grass. In awe and confused about what they were from we continued on to Solider Lake.
We arrived at the lake with about 2 hours of daylight left. The smoky haze caused the late day sunlight to look pink on the high peaks. Clouds still threatened rain so we set up our tents. With sunset the wind changed direction blowing the smoke away and bringing us a nice clear view of the stars. Before climbing in our tents for the night we watched faint distant lightning flashing over the Sierra Crest to the east (the storm was probably in Nevada, some 80 miles away).
That night the rain finally came, waking me up out of a deep sleep as it pounded on my tent, but it soon sung me back to sleep.
The morning was crystal clear and smoke free. The beautiful lake was a perfect mirror for the trees and peaks towering over it's still waters.
Tags: landscape lake water reflection wilderness pond forest mountains high sierra solider lake hiking backpacking camping wandering rocks california mirror nature earth beautiful
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