| Not having hiked or climbed anything for a "long" time, what better
namesake to explore than Long Lake. Of course this object of my
curiosity is on the eastern side of the Sierra, just up the road from
Bishop beyond the South Lake trailhead. There's a reason why I'm a
newbie when it comes to the eastern Sierra, it's a long drive to get
there.
Next thing you know, I'm packing the car for a road trip. I arrived
in Bishop late Saturday night and drove up highway 168 to the nearest
opportunity for overnight parking. I hate to admit it, I'm getting used
to sleeping in the car. Having arrived in the dark, I had no idea what
the daylight would reveal come Sunday morning. When I awoke, I drove
the short few miles to the trailhead. Bam! what a view. |
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Hurd Peak from the Trailhead |
| How could it be that I've never heard the word on Hurd? I should
just climb that thing and be done with it. Nah, I'll stick with my plan.
And the plan is just to get out and explore the area, find something to
climb when the snow is mostly gone. Would I ever learn to appreciate
that line of thinking later in the day. |
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South Lake |
| Included in the days events was a trial run on a pair of backcountry
skis (actually more of a hybrid ski/snowshoe - but they look like short
stubby skis with a snowboard binding). After getting my gear together
and donning my pack, one other guy shows up and asked about my "skis".
Turns out his name is Kurt. Kurt was very helpful conveying some local
beta of the area which was quite useful as I had not done the usual
homework before the trip. Kurt was going to ski out to Mount Goode and
back with his trusty dog. I started down the trail which was completely
dry, so I thought a good sign as Long Lake is just a few miles away
it'll be a short day. |
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Um, Dry Trail? |
| I may not be the best expert on back country travel, but I knew as
soon as I started getting into the soft and wet snow at seven in the
morning that it'll be some nasty stuff to plow thru later in the day. No
problem I thought, I have my skis to carry me across the slush. Even on
my way to Long Lake I had post holed quite a bit but I was too busy
admiring the sights to think much about it. Soon enough Kurt and his
pooch caught up with me. After a little more chatter, he was on his way.
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Tracks and More Tracks |
| Even though Kurt was the only other human I'd see during my day
tooling around Long Lake, there were plenty of tracks in the snow. Only
problem was, they'd go this way or that way - whichever way you'd have
the most faith getting to an intended destination. I did bring my GPS
and of course a map, but only switched the GPS on once under some trees
to check out the reception (a new Garmin GPS60Csx). |
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Long Lake Outlet - Note the tracks on the right |
| Before I knew it I was at the outlet (the north side) of Long Lake.
Hmm, I thought I should have planned better else I'd be back at the car
and having breakfast soon as fast as I arrived I'd be done before long
(no pun intended). Oh well, a good stretch for the legs and plenty of
beautiful mountain scenery to enjoy so I just took my time. As I entered
the bowl at the north end of Long Lake I opted to turn the lake on the
right following someone else's tracks in the snow. Now it was still
early but I became more aware of the fact I was punching thru the snow
with every step. |
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Bridging the Outlet of Long Lake |
| Blissfully there was a convenient natural bridge allowing passage
over the outlet of Long Lake, since the water had began flowing in the
warm temps (no snow bridge for me). I kept looking up at Hurd Peak,
quite an awesome view from my vantage point. I traveled a little further
above Long Lake and found a spot to take a quick break and slather on
some sunscreen; the weather had gotten quite warm with an occasional
strong gust of wind. At this point I stashed my skis to lighten the load
a little, after all as a rookie skier it would be a death wish for me to
ski the slopes above a frozen lake (think Darwin's theory of evolution).
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Looking Back at My Tracks |
| After my break I began ascending, parallel to the south side of Hurd
Peak. This is where post holing mania became very apparent. In my mind I
was still under the mistaken belief I would be back at the trail head
for late breakfast or mid-day lunch. Hah! I looked back at my tracks and
noticed the sluff that had rolled down the hill for every time I had to
stop and excavate myself from a thigh high or deeper "post holing
event". Maybe the day would be longer than I thought. |
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"Waist-Holing on Hurd" |
| Still a little oblivious to the fact the snow is getting really wet
and sloppy as the temps warm, I proceeded onward admiring the beautiful
views to Bishop Pass, Cloudripper, and occasionally wondering if I'd
spot Kurt on route to Mount Goode. The more I began punching thru the
snow up to my waist, the less I looked up at the view. From this point
on it was an exercise program - punch thru the snow, place walking
sticks parallel to snow, push up and away, drag self out of snow and
repeat. Are we having fun yet! |
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Snow Carnage |
| While there wasn't enough of the white stuff to pose any avy danger,
it was just a major pain in the ass to move. It was laughable that I had
an ice axe and crampons in my pack. Of course snow shoes would not be of any use here
either. What to do I thought, just keep moving, maybe it'll get better
(yeah, right). At a little above 11,500 feet I was still having fun
making a traverse, between the gasps for breath. |
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Can You Hear Me Now? |
| At this point it was clear that the snow would alter any diligence
to my forward progress. For the first time since I began hiking, a
half dozen years ago or so, I packed a cell phone in my pack. Looking
over my shoulder towards Bishop I thought maybe, just maybe, I could get
a connection to call and say hi to my wife back home. But no, no signal
here, no chit chat for me - time to get back to post holing
hallucinations on the side of Hurd. No wonder I haven't packed the
damned thing before. |
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The Inconsolable Range |
| While I did not know it at the time, the majestic view to east of me
was the Inconsolable Range of mountains (Bishop Pass on the right of the
image). Some tasty stuff there I'd like to come back to and visit, sans
the slush-puppies. I post holed along for a while until the fruitless
effort wore me down. I...must...get....down.....(har har). I'm thinking
Everest is out for me, as is the high point for Florida. |
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Long Lake |
| The interesting thing about post holing is there seems to be
techniques for managing the whole mess. For example, I sort of
improvised with the use of my walking sticks by placing them onto and
parallel to the snow to extract myself. Or the method of literally
crawling over the snow with the sticks to prevent post holing as a means
to ascend faster. Or how to punch thru without worrying about breaking a
leg (that is by crimping a leg between two rocks under the snow). I
could go on and on, but in all seriousness, traversing a wet,
slushy mountain side in warm temps with deep snow seems like a very
likely place to get injured or just plain stuck. I may have been just a
few miles from the trail head, but it just as well could have been tens
of miles away with the slow-going travel and potential for injury. |
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Bishop Pass (I presume) |
| So as I descended and made my way back to my stashed skis I was
really getting exhausted from post holing on each and every step. I
couldn't wait to put the skis on and glide my way back to the proximity
of the trailhead. There was one location steep enough where I could
glissade a few hundred feet, what mess of snow I left behind. I
kept looking back thinking it would make a fine picture as though some
airplane struck the mountain, but I was just too beat to deal with it.
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A Look Back at Hurd Peak (the actual summit out of
view) |
| Well my skis were still right where I left them. Before long I had
them strapped to my pack for the walk back across the outlet of Long
Lake. I took a look over my shoulder at Hurd and snapped a photo knowing
I'd be back after reading up on the peak. Obviously it isn't the tallest
mountain around, I think it just looks great and it reminds me a bit of
Mineral Peak (from Mineral King). |
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Final Tracks Out |
| By now the energy expended in my post hole hell have pretty well
wore me out. I was so happy to have reached the gentle down hill slopes
which I could ski out of the forest and back to my cushy automobile, a
short couple of miles away. The first few hundred yards was great,
slowly gliding past so many post hole opportunities <grin>. I got the
hang of it quickly, right up until a ski caught a protruding obstacle,
causing me to do a summersault at which point the left ski binding broke
away from the ski. There I was, half buried in snow, one ski on, one
broken ski off, and as I looked across the valley there goes Kurt and
his dog effortlessly returning to the trailhead sailing across the snow.
I have never had a more miserable two mile walk back to a trail head,
but I'd do it all over again for a wonderful yet short trip into the
mountains. |
