So today we began the trek up and out of the Kern River Valley. My brother Shad and I did this same trip 19 years ago (the fact that I can I did anything 19 years ago and remember it is fairly depressing). It is funny how he and I remembered certain things. Some things we remembered, some we remembered differently and some we had forgotten completely. It seems the hardest parts were the parts we had completely forgotten.
The climb out of Junction Meadow was very steep and pretty tough....especially when I saw that the trail we were on was on the same mountain that Jonathan and Shad had made me climb the day before. We laughed about that. Its a good thing I'm nice and don't hold grudges! The climb was tough but once again the views were outstanding. When you're up that high the mountains almost start to look unreal, like they're from another planet. God is amazing and has created some amazing things on this earth. I'm so glad I get to enjoy them once in a while in settings like these.
The climb up and up out of Junction Meadow. Chase and Jerel
We reached the junction with the John Muir trail and met up with several other backpackers there. One was quite chatty as I remember. I kept wanting him to stop talking so we could move on but he kept on going. Funny what we remember. It was fun to see the mileage to Mount Whitney go down on each sign we saw. At the beginning of the trip it was almost depressing to see signs that said Mount Whitney 70 miles but when you get to a sign that says its only 15 miles or 8.3 miles like the sign below...it gets pretty exciting. At this junction we met a guy and his dad that had been hiking for 18 days. They had hiked the entire John Muir Trail. Pretty impressive. I think that should be our next trip....right Shad?
The rest of the day was some more intense hiking...I think mostly because I kept anticipating we would be to our stopping spot sooner than we were. We arrived at Crabtree Ranger station just as it started to rain. We found a nice place to set up camp with a view of a very pretty meadow and an incredible view of Mt. Whitney.
We arrived fairly early in the afternoon. Due to the rain we set up the tents and climbed in Shad's tent to play cards. It was nice having a tent big enough that we could all sit in during times like these. I mean...don't get me wrong Jonathan you're great but I'm sure we'd both get tired of being crammed in a tent together all afternoon during a rainstorm. (Jonathan and I shared a small tent...though somehow it was bigger than the one we took on the 2005 hike).
We had a fun time at Crabtree. Our friends Mark and Maria joined us at Crabtree as well. We had lots of fun chatting with them and just chatting with each other, playing cards, exploring the ranger station and the pit toilet in the meadow.
After the sun went down we star gazed for quite a while. It was chilly but the stars were incredible. We stared at the sky for a quite a while just enjoying the beauty and the wonderment of being such an insignificant part of the world. As people sometimes we think we're so important, but when we're out in nature we realize that we're just a very small piece of the world, still important but maybe just not as much as we thought.
The climb out of Junction Meadow was very steep and pretty tough....especially when I saw that the trail we were on was on the same mountain that Jonathan and Shad had made me climb the day before. We laughed about that. Its a good thing I'm nice and don't hold grudges! The climb was tough but once again the views were outstanding. When you're up that high the mountains almost start to look unreal, like they're from another planet. God is amazing and has created some amazing things on this earth. I'm so glad I get to enjoy them once in a while in settings like these.
The climb up and up out of Junction Meadow. Chase and Jerel
We reached the junction with the John Muir trail and met up with several other backpackers there. One was quite chatty as I remember. I kept wanting him to stop talking so we could move on but he kept on going. Funny what we remember. It was fun to see the mileage to Mount Whitney go down on each sign we saw. At the beginning of the trip it was almost depressing to see signs that said Mount Whitney 70 miles but when you get to a sign that says its only 15 miles or 8.3 miles like the sign below...it gets pretty exciting. At this junction we met a guy and his dad that had been hiking for 18 days. They had hiked the entire John Muir Trail. Pretty impressive. I think that should be our next trip....right Shad?
The rest of the day was some more intense hiking...I think mostly because I kept anticipating we would be to our stopping spot sooner than we were. We arrived at Crabtree Ranger station just as it started to rain. We found a nice place to set up camp with a view of a very pretty meadow and an incredible view of Mt. Whitney.
We arrived fairly early in the afternoon. Due to the rain we set up the tents and climbed in Shad's tent to play cards. It was nice having a tent big enough that we could all sit in during times like these. I mean...don't get me wrong Jonathan you're great but I'm sure we'd both get tired of being crammed in a tent together all afternoon during a rainstorm. (Jonathan and I shared a small tent...though somehow it was bigger than the one we took on the 2005 hike).
The rain let up and we went exploring (the 14 year olds are at it again). Some of us soaked our feet in the stream. Now let me explain this. You learn very quickly on a trip like this that you take your feet for granted. When you add a backpack to your body and then walk all day with your feet sweating in your shoes, they get hot. Hot feet = bad (blisters, etc). So backpackers will often soak their feet in the ice cold streams to keep them cool and free from sores. It hurts but it feels really good. The stream here at Crabtree was mighty cold because we were camped mighty high. But you could probably tell that by the looks on our faces below.
When we got back to our campsite after soaking our feet we noticed a bunch of animals in the meadow and couldn't make out what they were. They looked to big to be deer. So of course we went on the hunt. I'm sure we were quite a site to see, trying to walk quietly and slowly in order to not scare the animals but sneaking around when your body just isn't working right isn't the easiest. Turns out they were just big deer but they were cool just the same. There were also several marmots wandering around the meadow but I didn't get a picture of any of them.
We wandered over to the ranger station and searched out the pit toilet we had been told existed there. This was important because from this point on there are no pit toilets and you can't go #2 outside. So what does one do you ask? You use a WAG bag. Yes you have to poop in a bag and then carry it with you until you exit the wilderness. So we all took advantage of the last pit toilet. This one didn't even have walls around it. It was just open to the meadow. A little disconcerting.
When we got back to our campsite after soaking our feet we noticed a bunch of animals in the meadow and couldn't make out what they were. They looked to big to be deer. So of course we went on the hunt. I'm sure we were quite a site to see, trying to walk quietly and slowly in order to not scare the animals but sneaking around when your body just isn't working right isn't the easiest. Turns out they were just big deer but they were cool just the same. There were also several marmots wandering around the meadow but I didn't get a picture of any of them.
We wandered over to the ranger station and searched out the pit toilet we had been told existed there. This was important because from this point on there are no pit toilets and you can't go #2 outside. So what does one do you ask? You use a WAG bag. Yes you have to poop in a bag and then carry it with you until you exit the wilderness. So we all took advantage of the last pit toilet. This one didn't even have walls around it. It was just open to the meadow. A little disconcerting.
After the sun went down we star gazed for quite a while. It was chilly but the stars were incredible. We stared at the sky for a quite a while just enjoying the beauty and the wonderment of being such an insignificant part of the world. As people sometimes we think we're so important, but when we're out in nature we realize that we're just a very small piece of the world, still important but maybe just not as much as we thought.
1 comments:
Dad says he's glad he didn't go because you guys were playing cards!!
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