My friend Graham is a doctor. That means he works pretty hard. He also is the proud father of a one and a half year old. That means he works even harder. I had been working on him for a few months to come down and do a Sierra pack trip. He usually manages one a year, and we had seen some pretty cool stuff over the last several years. We set a date, he bought plane tickets, and I planned a route.

I left Mammoth early in the car to go collect Graham from Reno. On my way there the afternoon thundershowers opened up, creating the momentary monsoon that can change the character of the mountains in a matter of minutes. After an hour or so deluge, it cleared up, and I thought no more of it. Later that day I saw the forecast for Hurricane Helen, and thought that might have some impact on our plans, as it was predicted to make landfall in San Diego and then head up the East Side.

The next morning we awoke to a light drizzle. We had planned the day to prepare for our trip, and began by dropping Kate off at the bus stop for Reds Meadow. She had a resupply box that we would collect as we hiked through. This would save us the weight of all our food at once, and allow us to move faster. It also came to light that I had left a bag of food in the car at Tioga Pass, and so we went back to get that. As the day progressed it began to rain harder. This storm ended up closing Death Valley for months, and even washing out highway 395 in some spots. It is the only recorded tropical storm to hit the sierra. Learning the vent in the roof of the van had sprung a leak was an unfortunate side effect of this little hurricane.

We awoke early to clearing skies. We drive up to North Lake, and the trailhead for Paiute Pass. Although it was cold, and we were fairly sure we would get rained on the whole day, Graham and I decided to make a go of it. Kate would wait, as her back was giving her some issues. She would meet us the following day along Mono Creek. As we hiked up the trail, the day got nicer and nicer. The clouds burned off, and the sun came out. We ended up enjoying a beautiful day in the Sierra, crossing three major passes and camping beside an alpine lake, fairly exhausted.

During the night it snowed on us, but the morning was clear. We had to chip the ice off some of our gear, but were soon on the trail, trying to stay warm. We motored up over a small pass, and picked our way carefully over the other side, trying to stay off the still frozen snow that the evening rain had turned into a sheet of ice. We hiked around Bear Lakes, clockwise around Lake Italy, and up over Gabbot Pass. Then the long, complicated descent down to Mono Creek where Kate was waiting. Crossing Mono Creek generated a brief moment of excitement, as we were almost swept downstream by the snowmelt swollen creek. Graham lost one of his water shoes, and I was properly drenched.

Collecting Kate, it was only a few more miles to our camp on a sandy bench above Laurel Lake. Throughout the trip it remained a goal to camp high, in order to avoid the record breaking infestation of mosquitoes brought on by the wet winter. Because of this, sometimes we pushed a little further than we would have liked, in order to avoid the swarms of hell bugs.

The next few days were standard Sierra fare. We would wake up with the sun, make a brief breakfast and be moving within an hour. We were not following trails, so we did not encounter too many people. We were always moving either up or down, in order to get over the next divide on our path north. Route finding in places could be tricky, and reading the terrain and the maps are one of the things we most enjoy about back country movement in the Sierra. We are mostly above tree line, and the terrain is laid bare to see.

We resupplied in Reds Meadow, and then decided to stick to the Muir Trail back to Yosemite, as we were running out of time. What a change. The Muir Trail is a super highway of folks in a hurry to get where they are going! Lots of bugs too. We spent two more fun nights out before returning to the car, the van, some burritos and the hot springs. We drove Graham back north the next day, spent the night in Reno, and then headed back south to resume our loafing lifestyle.