The Mountain Adventures of Grizzly Tim, Marmot Dave, Seb de la Coeur, Marissawea, Tem Bicho Ali, and Jeremiah Jamie
Marissa, Seb, D-rock, Lane, and I left San Diego around 7:00 pm on Thursday. Marissa was driving her car. D-rock and Lane were planning to head back to San Diego a day before the rest of us, hence the need for two cars. They didn't trust D-rock's car and roped Marissa into taking hers (the Booty Whip/G-Ride has since been replaced by the Cuban-American Luxury Whip). Marissa's car, while it starts and runs well, doesn't have a working stereo. This was almost a deal-breaker to D-rock, but he borrowed a boom box, bought some batteries, and was good to go.
The drive up was fairly mellow; LA wasn't too much of a mess. The temperature was in the 90's most of the way. At one point I convinced D-rock and Lane (mostly Lane) that the smell of deoderant on one's body would drive bears to a ferocious frenzy; they washed at a gas station to get rid of any lingering deoderant. The drive took about five and a half hours. We made the precipitous climb from Lone Pine to Horseshoe Meadows in the dark. Tim had arrived earlier in the day, securing us a wilderness permit and a camping spot. We wandered around looking for Tim's tent. D-rock eventually found it. Tim groggily got up and welcomed us. I was happy to crawl in Tim's tent and fall asleep, whereas the others had to set up their tents first.
Everyone had a giant pancake and syrup for breakfast. The pancakes smelled pretty darn good at 10,000 feet and helped contribute to a pretty slow morning. Tim was a little grizzly, having been camping for a couple weeks. He was happy for some human companionship. As you can see in the picture, there was lots of food sorting to be done. We had three bear canisters, and probably could have used one more; they were overflowing the first day. We had three varieties of GORP. We also brought plenty of matches and lighters this time.
We set off around 10:00. D-rock started up the trail with his boom box, but decided that he didn't really want to carry it all of the way. We took a setting-off picture about 1000 feet down the trail and shortly afterwards settled into a pretty leisurely pace. D-rock and Lane slowly fell a little behind. The trail passes througg some nice meadows and occasionally runs alongside a creek. Unfortunately, creek = lots of mosquitoes. Mosquitoes would at times be the bane of the trip. Seb, Marissa, Tim, and I had lunch at the one relatively mosquito-free area we found. Clouds started to fill the sky at 11:00. The forcast called for daily thunderstorms, and Tim had witnessed them everyday from 2:00 to 5:00.
We heard our first thunder at 12:30, just as we finished the last uphill bit and caught our first glimpse of Mt. Langley. There were dark clouds around the summit; there were dark clouds pretty much everywhere. We sat around enjoying the view until the lightning picked up, and we decided that we didn't want to sit in such an open area. We skidaddled to the lakes, encountering clouds of mosquitoes and frequently waiting around at the edges of open spaces before deciding to hustle across. It started raining intermittently. At Lake 3 nearby lightning halted us; we took the packs off and waited for 45 minutes. We saw lots of impressive bolts to the south, about two miles away. Eventually Tim got sick of waiting and went for lake 5. The rest of us did too, just as Lane and D-rock showed up. Going over the last open bit we saw some massive bolts above and behind Mt. Langley. We were glad not to be at the top.
We really hustled up the last climb to our campsite from last year, at which point we huddled under a rock to escape the rain. No one was very excited to put their tent up in a downpour. D-rock and Lane showed up in full rain gear (the rest of us were still in T-shirts and such) and fortunately carried their GORP over to our shelter. People were cold and hungry and happy to have something to eat. The rock started dripping too much, so we moved under a nearby tree. Frequently the rain would slacken and we'd run out to set up our tents, only for the rain to increase and drive us back to our shelter. Eventually we just stuck it out and the rain actually stopped. The sun wasn't long in burning through the clouds.
We had a tasty lunch of salami, cheese, almond butter, honey, and bread. We had some eating to do as our bear canisters were overflowing. After lunch we sat around waiting for dinner. Tim hiked up some of Old Army Pass to make sure that it would be passable the next morning. Some went down to the lake to pump some water. Some took naps. I read about ten pages of Appointment in Samarra. There was lots of lazing around outside on sleeping pads, breathing in the thin mountain air, and waiting for dinner. We had burritos for dinner: two cans of beans (Marissa was happy not to carry them anymore), dried black bean soup for flavor, rice, salsa, tortillas, and cheese. Plain beans would have been better, as the soup was kind of gross. I had brought a film canister of spices; they helped cover up the taste of the soup. It was my job to make sure people ate plenty. I gave Lane a bad time for not eating nearly as much as everyone else. D-rock tried to compensate for her. We set up our kitchen in a wind shadow. The stoves worked well but the mosquitoes were terrible. Seb was sporting his hat with mosquito netting; it kept the mosquitoes at bay, but made it difficult to eat. He would quickly lift the netting up, eat a spoonful, and then pull the netting back down over his face. He would occasionally forget that the netting was there and try to stick food through it. We had a round of hot chocolate to close out the day.
Before going to bed, Lane decided that she couldn't make it up Mt. Langley. We had all planned to climb it the next day. Personnaly, after having seen her destroy D-rock and me hiking out of Havasu Falls, I'm sure she could have made it up Langley. Regardless, we decided to save Langley for Sunday so that we could all do a hike together on Saturday. One bonus of the new plan was the chance to sleep in the next morning. With the plan settled, everyone pretty much fled to their tents to escape the hordes of mosquitoes. Tim stayed up a bit and said that they got a lot better after everyone went to bed.
Seb woke up early the next morning and took this beauty shot of Lake Five. At 7:00 Marissa gave the rest of us a cockle-doodle-do; she was disappointed because we didn't really hear it. She and Seb had already wandered around a little bit. Even at 7:00 the sun was starting to make the tent pretty hot, so we rolled out easily. We had a liesurely breakfast of toasted bagels, oatmeal, hot chocolate, and Advil. Lane had Ramen noodles; she really likes salt.
We set off up Old Army Pass, planning to loop around over New Army Pass and make a stop for lunch on top. We wanted to be back down by noon to avoid any thunderstorms. There were quite a few other people heading up. We passed some nice flowers at the base and quickly remembered that climbing is tough at 11,000 feet. The pass tops out at about 12,000 feet. The trail was a little sketchy at times. Lane didn't like the tiny patch of snow. There were some muddy bits on the upper ledge and some of us worried that we were going to slide off of the face. Some people passed us on their way up Langley; it seemed a little late in the day to be heading up there to us.
The pass was rather barren. We cut up to the left to reach the trail to New Army Pass, which is about 200 feet higher than Old Army Pass. New Army Pass' trail is much more developed, as it is the preferred route into the backcountry. We had lunch looking down over some of the lakes in the Cottonwood basin. Really it was more of a snack; GORP, hummus, carrots, apples, oranges, and cheese. We scoped out our route up Langley. In the last photo, Marissa is looking out from Marmot Point. Tim dubbed it Marmot Point because a marmot perched there during our lunch. It is the perogative of Mountain Men such as Grizzly Tim to name such features. We descended via New Army Pass. The trail was much better. It's definitely the way to go if one is backpacking, even with the extra elevation gain.
We stopped at these funky rock formations at the crest of New Army Pass to take some rock star photos. Marissa couldn't hold back her smile, but she still looks pretty cool.
On the descent we passed the lakes we had lunched above. Tim pumped some water at an outlet stream and I skipped a rock. We had had a nice reprieve from the mosquitoes at the pass; now they were back. The sky continued to stay pretty clear, though some clouds did develop. It never looked threatening. We cut through some bogs on the way home. Marissa talked to one of her wild friends in The Marmot Maze on edge of Lake Three. Tim hustled back because he wanted more lunch.
After our second lunch we lazed around camp. Tim got another picture of everyone's favorite craggy tree. Seb, Marissa, Tim, and I played Hearts with some tiny cards. D-rock and Lane slept. We eventually gathered up our things to walk to lake Six. D-rock rigged up a slick water bottle holster. He wanted a detachable pack lid like mine. He wore his impromtu holster with pride.
Lake Six sits at the base of some big cliffs on the flanks of Langley. It is quite awesomely situated. We lazed around at the lake for a while. Tim and Marissa waded in and got their feet wet. I think the lake was pretty cold, as there was some grumbling. Tim even dunked his head, but it did little to tame the weeks of grease in his hair. Seb, ever wary of mosquitoes, got DEET in his eye. I guess he over-applied bug repellent. I had some excellent skips.
We set off for our cross country trip back to camp. Everyone pretty much went their own way. On the left is the view looking out from Lake Six. We passed a nice set of dead trees on the way down.
We set up our kitchen in a windier spot. The mosquitoes were much better than the previous night; it seemed colder and windier. We had the classic backpacking dinner; Tasty Bites and rice. Tough to beat. It was a gorgeous night. D-rock and Lane went to bed early. The rest of us sat up watching the stars. Tim and I saw lots of shooting stars. Marissa was out of luck in that department. She was just about to give up and call it a night when she saw one. At one point we saw a strange shooting star-ish type thing cross the sky; it burned big, brightly, and slowly. Maybe it was a UFO. Maybe not.
We woke up at 5:00 to climb Langley. We were worried about thunderstorms and wanted to get an early start. Crawling out of bed in the dark was a struggle. I had a very stale bagel for breakfast. I couldn't finish it, so Tim had the rest for his breakfast. We had hoped to walk out of camp at 5:30, but we didn't end up leaving until a tad before 6:00. That was fine; we were happy for more light going up Old Army Pass. D-rock got up to see us off. He and Lane were going to walk out pretty early. I stocked up on one more bottle of water as we passed Lake Four. With the rising sun, the lake and sky were beautiful. Marissa later commented that she and Seb passed a strange guy camped along Lake Four. He had waved to Tim and me. I think Tim and I encountered him at the summit and at the chutes above Lake Six. He was thinking about glissading down; crazy.
Here we are climbing up Old Army Pass, again. We were a lot faster this time. The lakes were glassy.
We made it to the top of the pass in a little under an hour. We put on some sun screen. It was colder up there in the wind. We had a snack break under another set of funky rock formations (in the middle picture) and planned our our route. We were going to aim for the snow field to the far fight, at which point we would traverse left along the sandy, broad ledge until we found a promising place to scale the cliffs.
Climbing Langley is a lot easier the second time. We took a much more gradual approach and didn't waste time finding the best route; we already knew which way to go. Marissa dominated; she could have ran to the top. You can see what the mountain is like; kind of sandy. We thought that the recent rain must have firmed up the ground. Last time it was more of a two steps up, one step down affair. We stopped for some snacks before traversing left along the ledge. The clouds were much more substantial than they had been the previous day, so we continually turned our eyes to the sky. It was surprisingly cold and windy; my metal poles were cold to the touch
After traversing the ledge we scrambled up the cliffs. Seb didn't like the climbing bits or the look of the clouds, so he and Marissa headed down. We were only thirty minutes from the top, so it's a shame they didn't keep going. Marissa has seen it before, anyways.
Tim and I pressed on. No more dallying. We didn't particularly like the look of the weather either. At least the skies were fairly clear to the south. We passed some guys who had just passed us while Seb was debating what to do. We were happy to be the first on top. Gorgeous as usual. It was very dark over Mt. Whitney.
It was a long ways down to Lone Pine. We caught a last view of Whitney in the sun, and then we were off on our way down, after thirty minutes on top. I had the faintest of headaches, even though I was incredibly well hydrated. Down climbing in the sand was ridiculously easy; lots of really big strides. We walked to the cliff edge and tried to see Lake Six. The crazy guy contemplated glissading down. Tim and I pretty much booked it down for fear of storms, but none ever materialized. The entire climb took 6 hours.
We crashed in camp, had lunch, and lazed around. Tim had a couple beers. We had been chilling them in the lake for a couple days. Marissa told us that she had felt sick on the way down and had had the taste of nuts in her mouth for the entire day. This was very funny to our oxygen-starved brains. Grizzly Tim was pretty jolly, especially after some brews. After a few hours for recovery we packed up and headed down. The Mosquitoes were disgusting. Tim went crazy in the first meadow and started attacking them with his stick. I accidentally sprayed some DEET on my face. We didn't stop once on the entire way down. It took two and a half hours, I think. We were very happy to be down in camp. I relished taking my boots and bandages off. We had more Tasty Bites for dinner, but we mixed things up by having them with cous cous. We played some more Hearts, as well as an interesting poker game invented by one of Tim's friends. During the night someone screamed about attacking bears. We didn't get up, because they seemed to go away. The next morning we drove down to Lone Pine for a fantastic breakfast at the High Sierra Cafe. It was scrumptious. Then it was back to San Diego for Seb, Marissa, and me, and off to Stanford for Tim.
Marissawea, Seb de la Coeur, Grizzly Tim, and Jeremiah Jamie looking pretty darn intimidating. Nice work Marissa. Grizzly Tim, you look ferocious.
We think Langley is the abrupt cliff face tucked way back there, left of center, but we aren't sure.
