Onion Valley to Charlotte Lake, July 9-10, 2011

Just a few quick photos, blog blurb to come!

Ces coming up the slope, above Big Pothole.  I am standing on some dry (finally) switchbacks.

View of Kearsarge Lakes and Bullfrog Lake from the Pass

Nothing like no shoes (booties!), relatively cleaner clothing, pre-dinner apps (cheese/crackers/dry salami), while the pizza sauce is re-hydrated for dinner.  Amazing camp site!

Sunday 07/10: Reflection on Charlotte Lake, Bullfrog Lake, the view east to the Pass from the Valley.

A Little Catch up...

February is so far away, I don't even really remember what all life has thrown at me since then.
Where have I hiked, how have we raced, how many miles have I flown...?  I really need to do better with this.  Soon, my mind will begin to see these images blurry, as they fade supplanted by new, more extreme moments of beauty.

Yes, OneRepublic, this indeed is the good life!

Paddling season started and it's been a rocky year.  There are always hopes for what each new season will bring, preferable better than the last, building blocks, but when that falls short....it's really hard to keep your love for the game, especially when competition is in your soul.  I compete paddling, then I head to the hills to regain normalcy.

I have been home twice, seen the little boy, played in the rain, walked barefoot in fields that go as far as the eye can see, hugged my family, had sunburn, grew tomatoes....

 

BRADAN!!!!

Me, Cailin, Caroline!  Love my sisters!

AVILA, 3rd place Open Bradley

Evening over the Yadkin Rover Bottom, NC


What is left in store for us?  Wow, what a summer to come!  This month is nothing put paddling, with weekday evening hikes to get fresh air (I need to post some Sierra Club hikes to get my COL status updated!).  August finds us in 9-Man racing season, with three long races, and no weekends off to disappear into the hills.  Labor Day weekend, we attempt 9 Peaks, from San Bernardino to San Gorgonio. That next weekend is the US Outrigger Championships from Newport Beach CA to Avalon CA.  The NEXT weekend, we are up at Cottonwood Lakes, doing a New Army Pass to Mount Langley Saturday and Sunday, with Monday being our D-DAY, Whitney one-day summit!!!!!  The first weekend in October, we have a 4 day Yosemite trek from Tuolumne Meadows to Half Dome and Yosemite Valley.

After all this, another Whitney overnighter in the snow, then time to look homeward to NC...for good.

Yes, this indeed is the Good Life.

Snow Camp comes early in Yosemite

February 19-21, Matt and I set out for my first ever Yosemite experience.

It will be remembered for the snow, snow, snow, and, well, SNOW! What a mesmerizing land Yosemite becomes in the winter, when snow dusts the valley, sprinkling it with a Heavenly hand, marking nature as its own, displaying before us a cornucopia of awe, like an oasis kingdom that appears to only a chosen few. I am so blessed we were of the chosen. The snow clung to every tree branch and every rock like it clung to life.

We arrived at 3am Saturday morning and grabbed our heated tent at Curry Village. The next morning after a few hours of sleep, we located Upper Pines #112, the most amazing tent site in the Valley, with a direct view up to Half Dome. We shoveled for a few hours, creating our own version of Home Sweet Home. Kitchen, Tent, walkways, beer cooler: CHECK!

That afternoon we snowshoed through the valley to Yosemite Village. We grabbed some supplies and hiked the short yet breathtaking Lower Yosemite Falls trail. We grabbed a shuttle and opened a few beers as we made our way back to camp. Spaghetti down, we climbed in to a warmed tent compliments of Mr. Buddy, and crashed. Day #2 we awoke later than expected and gobbled down a tasty pot of scrambled eggs and sausage. We drove to the Lodge and prepared for our hike to Upper Yosemite Falls. We made it to the base, where the rest of the trail remained unbroken. It was an amazing accomplishment in all that snow! We hiked back to the truck, grabbed showers at Curry Village, then dinner at the Ahwahnee. Back at camp we heated the tent and crashed. We awoke to a gorgeously COLD day, packed up, and hit the road. We will be back, oh Yosemite. Yes, we will.

"It was like lying in a great solemn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful than any built by the hand of man." -Roosevelt (on Yosemite)

2011 - Welcoming the year with a BANG!

I have decided that this will be my motto this year. I will live it, breathe, it , taste, eat, and sleep this motto. I will grab a hold of every moment and not let go, letting it take me to the farthest reaches of my ambition until at the end of the year, I look back and realize that I failed to miss one opportunity that came my way, that I drank from the cup of life and let nothing stand in the way of self-discovery and the thirst for something...more.

First adventure of 2011 was the trip to Anza-Borrego and Harper Flat for Jim T's COL 2 Backpacking extravaganza. Tracy and E accompanied me on this amazing

weekend, searching for artifacts, finding native morteros and breathing in life hundreds of thousands of years ago, before the people came, before progression and hate and greed ruled, before we thought that we needed to touch every inch of this land....when life was pure, simple, and free.

And then there was Matthew Doyle ;-) Matt joined me on one adventure after another. I surely hoped he was taking all these crazy risks, or rather putting his life in my hands, not for me, but because he wanted to see the world with eager eyes. Our first really big adventure, which in essence was not so big as it was simply new and shiny and fun, as the Cahuenga Peak to the Hollywood sign hike, the same hike I started this blog on, the burn area and crazy meandering single-track looking down on the scrubby and more often times than not smoggy LA. We had a blast!

The day after our Hollywood Sign hike, Matt and Bern hit the slopes of Snow Valley for my first test at snowboarding. What an experience! I started o the bunny slop, and it took me nearly 2 hours to get from one end to the other of this meager, child-proof decline. I was more than a bit frustrated. I was cursing myself. It was torture not to figure it out. Matt took me up to the next level slope and I threw caution to the wind, figuring...why stop? Just go until you crash. And I did. I made it down twice in an hour and seriously just had a ball. I could get used to this snowboarding stuff!

February 12, 2010 I had my second and final COL1 leader hike. We went back to Warner Springs and hit the PCT south toward Eagle rock. What a fascinating place! Who knew something so gorgeous was hidden under the vise of the low desert? The prairie grasses stretched on for miles, whipped by fantastic winds and wide open spaces, smooth hills and seemingly

vast nothingness....but beauty!

I am more than ecstatic to proclaim that, surrounded by my amazing friends, Tracy, E, C, K, Cyn, Monty, Matt, and Karen x2, it was a wonderful day to celebrate becoming a Chapter Outing Leader for the Sierra Club! What a year it has been so far and it's only February!!!!!

Been a long time, been a long time....

It's been about a year since I last posted, which was not the original purpose behind my blog. I wanted to document every outrageous adventurous step I took in my life outside of North Carolina. Tragically, I have failed at keeping up with this oh so simple task. Two months in to 2011, my resolution is to post weekly my latest deed, or really, lack there of. Either way you look at it, this nomadic sunset traveler needs to get back on course. There are too many sunrises out there I am missing! So, to be fair, let me introduce the 2010 to present, year plus two months, in review.....

I started out 2010 taking the Sierra Club Wilderness Basics Course down in Escondido, CA. Our first adventure, "Desert Car Camp," took us to Anza Borrego Domelands, just of S22 and East of Borrego Springs. This was my first look at ABSP and was it ever a view to behold!

Our next adventure was back to the Domelands, but for a strenuous boulder scrambling and cliff crawling, scaling, tip-toeing, sliding experience. We hiked in over 4 miles, scrambling up and sliding down, finding shelter in the wind caves, hiking in the slots, dry waterfalls, baked in footprints, up ridgelines, down sand dunes ...totally into a world that has been left silent and preserved, where nature rules supreme and man must always sleep with one eye open...

March 2010 brought rains and Mountain "Rain" Backpack for the Sierra Club. We ventured out to Warner Springs, CA, and the Pacific Crest Trail for an over night flood extravaganza. We hiked in four miles to our camp site in a steady rain, had an hour of respite to set up camp, then set out for four more miles in knee high water, mud, and intermittent rain or cold downpours. We turned around at a spring on the PCT where through hikers can usually expect water and can fill up. We returned four miles to camp, fulfilling a 12 mile day. The rain continued through dinner and we had a few minor near hypothermia issues. After getting everyone settled in for the night, we awoke to a gorgeous sun-filled Sunday and a beautiful four mile hike back to our vehicles. We ended the adventure at the Julian Pie Company!

Snow camp took us to San Jacinto. By now, eight chicks had trimmed to six and we were with Lee's group! All groups were to head to Round Valley but after a brief bit of "um, we must be lost," we re-oriented our maps and changed our permit to Tamarack Valley campground. We arrived as the only group staying in this gorgeous, quiet camp, where snow was as high at the roof on the latrine.

We delegated tasks, finding sites for tents, then building a snow kitchen, purifying enough water for the whole group, and then digging out the bano. By this time, we were ready for dinner and bed. While it was snow camp, we stayed all warm and toasty in the bomb shelter, even needing a little A/C as the night crept along. Sunday found us scaling the snow-covered summit of Cornell Peak, staring out at the gorgeous views of the San Gorgonio ridgeline. Our group hiked the farthest and arrived back to the tram the LAST group to finish, and all around amazing trip!

In July 2010, four of the Chicks summited Mount Whitney, elevation 14497. We started just after 3:30am, and completed the 22 miles after 9pm that evening. It was a mentally exhausting experience that will forever mark the transition of remedial hiking to that of a seasoned adventurer. I will devote a whole blog to Whitney when I can....it deserves its own space in my hiking history!

The paddling season had begun and we tossed in a few more hikes throughout the summer, Marion Mtn to San J, Humber Park to San J, both of which took advantage of campgrounds in the SJSP area. Both campgrounds are highly recommended, Marion and Idyllwild.

We summited San J last in August 2010, right before the US Outrigger Championships to Catalina. While we did not produce an outcome anywhere near the perfection of the 2nd place victory of 2009, our boat did cross the finish line first of all Dana women's team boats. The next day, I coached a men's masters team to a third place victory in their channel crossing. It was an honor to be a part of their experience!

Following the end of the outrigger season, the girls prepared for their second ascent of Mount Whitney, scheduled for October 3, 2010. Tracy had injured herself during the season, and E and Collin were unable to make the trip. Instead, Patti and the hubby joined us for what turned out to be the craziest Whitney summit attempt we could have dreamed up. Hell, we probably could not have even come up with all the scenarios to this one! Again, I plan to post a whole blog with pictures on the Whitney experiences. But for now, a brief synopsis:

4am START

4:30am Lightning and Thunder

5am Torrential Downpour

6am Sunrise over Outpost Camp and the rain has subsided.

7am we make it to Trailside Creek, cold and windy, but sun

8am we make it to Trail Camp, filter water, eat, frigid temps!

From here we decided that it's every man or woman for themselves. You are to hike up the switchbacks at your own pace and collect at the top or check in and move on. We all put our iPods in and left Trail Camp just after 8:30am. I made it to Trail Crest at 10am. Webster had made it about 20 minutes prior to my joining him. I had last seen Patti and Ces about 10 switchbacks down. Knowing Webster would soon pass me, I suggested I go on, saying I would meet up with him when he next passed me. He was just going to wait for Patti and Ces to arrive. This would be the last time I would seen anyone from my party for the next 7.75 hours.

I was notified about an hour later by a passerby that two women asked him to relay that they had turned around. I would later find out Ces had gotten sick. By this time, I could see about 10 feet in front of me, with solid snow (looked like light hail/freezing rain, but not wet) coming down intermittently. There was a heavy ceiling of precipitation hovering over me, but I knew I was about a mile from the hut. I forged on. At this time, I knew I was alone for the duration and really, to sum it up, had to put on my game face. It was literally, terrifying.

Just after 11am, the white-out came at us like a banshee. I could barely find the trail and knew I was close to the crevasses and rocky edges at times. I simply walked in a direction with my compass and looked for figures to appear in the mist. I was cold, but comfortable. I had listened to the same playlist nearly 10 times. I hit the hut at noon on the dot. I took a few quick pictures and scrambled down. I had not stopped moving since just after 8am. I hit Trail Crest quickly and Trail Camp was behind me at 2pm. I was on a mission. By now I was hungry and realized I needed to consume a ton of water. I arrive at Outpost Camp 4 hours and 20 minutes after I had summited. I changed clothing, socks, cleaned up, filtered water, ate food, repacked, made myself comfortable,had a weird out of body experience, then kicked my ass in to gear, and booked it to the Portal. I made the Portal at 5:45pm, finishing in 13.75 hours, a dramatic change from the 18 hours it took us to summit in July. It was daylight, and I survived my first solo summit of Mount Whitney!

November and December found me paddling Sundays at NAC, bowling in a league on Wednesdays and simply trying to find a life again. I hit the gym with Ces twice a week, paddled twice a week, and worked out at home one other day, trying to get in a few hikes here and there. I went home for the Christmas holidays where it snowed in NC HUGE for the first time in over 40 years! All in all, 2010 wasn't such a bad year!