Sierra '01 - Firsts, Bests, Mosts
- First Internet-Arranged Trip
- I belong to several on-line hiking
clubs, and the Sierra clubs are filled with Californians who regularly head for
their beloved hills. I posted a note in January and was immediately contacted
by a Sacramento resident who offered to join me for a week in the wild. An
on-line flight was booked at a decent price, and it was time to get serious! We
tossed routes back and forth via e-mail, finally settling on the North Fork of
the Kings River for our journey. Neither of us had been there [this was my fist west-side entry!], and the heights of
the LeConte and White Divides were high on my list of places to visit soon. In
late May we vaguely announced our intent to one of the clubs; immediately
several members contacted us, joined up, and helped hammer out the details.
Some had to drop out, but a couple stayed around, and at last count four of us -
Jim, Frank, Del and Dan (plus possibly Bill) - were set for a week of off-trail
fun.
- Earliest Trip
- The trip would start July 7, about a month earlier than my
usual starting time. This fit nicely with my other plans for the year, and the
below-normal snowpack politely retreated well before my arrival. Several items
would be new this year, ranging from sleeping bag and raingear to a different
tent (more precisely, the fly and poles from a new tent).
- Weirdest Training Regimen
- My training was both bizarre and
unpredictable. A mid-May 105-mile bike ride proved I was in decent shape, but a
strenuous day-hike on Father's Day did some damage to my 'trick' knee (the trick
is that it's the ankle that's misaligned - see the
'96 & '98 trips). After resting it a week or so I was
knocked down in the yard by our exuberant dog, straining it again!
- Lighest Big-Trip Pack
- The good news was that, with new gear and more
'filtering', my pack was about 42 lbs including cameras, a good 5-8 pounds lower
than for recent big trips. While several items were lighter, the big-ticket
items included a lighter sleeping pad (though still full length), down sleeping
bag (1½# fill) and sticking with the rainfly/poles combo in lieu of tent. The
weight went up slightly just before takeoff, when I read the 3AM weather
discussion that promised rain; that report brought out the parka and rainpants
to replace the coated-nylon poncho.
- Longest Trip (Days)
- This nine-day trip beat out the '99 event by one
day.
- Longest Solitude
- After about 9AM on day two, we saw NOBODY on this
trip until we reached the car at 4PM on day nine. My belief that all west-side
trailheads would be crowded with people was shattered for good.. for now.
- Longest Mileage?
- This isn't entirely clear, thanks to conflicting
calculations. We went about 70 miles, perhaps as much as 74. Since the record
belongs to '89 and is also marked as 70 miles, I'll have to look into this one a
little more?