Reliving a moment in time,

Horseshoe Meadow

Reliving a moment in time, it is time for a stroll down memory lane, or in this case, an early morning start to a long day of walking. Sometimes our walks started early in the morning, at our home, gear stowed, bag packed and ready to go, the anticipation of a new adventure, keeping you hovering on the edge of sleep, but not this day, it was different. We are high in the Eastern Sierra Nevada's, hovering between 9 and 10 thousand feet, it is September and the temperature is in the high 30's, with the crisp dryness that is only present in this slice of California's giant range of 14,000 foot granite slabs that guard the central valley of California from the great eastern desert's of Nevada and Utah. This is the same area I spent my magical summers of youth in, those vacation's which forever made me love these mountains and the mystery they contain. You slowly wake, at first hearing nothing, then the twitching of blades of grass against your tent, then the scurry of some insect running along the edge of your tent, and you just roll over to see if sleeping on the ground has left the imprint of a stiff leg or cramped foot. It is time to start the walk, and that means your gear starts getting put away and then a breakfast and you will be off into the trek of the day! The trip had been planned for several weeks but had almost been canceled due to permitting problems, it seems the most direct route for our intended high point on the summit of Mt. Langley up to the Cottonwood lakes was booked out for the Labor Day weekend, but the trail up from the trail head out over Cottonwood pass was available, the trip was longer but more scenic!

 My intent at this point should be for you to understand something about these posts, they are informational about hikes, but the intent is not to give you a blow by blow, and 

"How we did it" view, it is to convey the reason I trek anywhere, it is the connections with nature, friends and life, so just in case you want to get a blow by blow of the whole trip, it's not here! But the camaraderie around the meals, the fun of figuring out just how and what you eat, the moments when you feel the cool mountain breeze on your face as your breath starts to get shallower and shallower as you labor up the trail. Then as you catch your breath and rest and look back to see a vista, that just takes your breath all over again! It is the glimpse down into a stream and seeing the tadpoles and water spiders as they dance across the surface of water. This is the essence of outdoor adventure. If my friends read this I hope they remember the grit of the trail under their feet and the incredible light feeling when you drop your pack! 

The hike out of the trail head is easy and gradual and my friend's Clark and Michelle new exactly what we were about to do for the first part, as we had used this exact same trail as a warm up for last year's Whitney adventure, starting out at 10,000 feet and climbing part way up the pass had given us a good hike at elevation to prepare us for that summit and we were eager to head out! But the trip out had a few surprises that we had missed last year? When you slow down, change your perspective, you see new things, and as the trail wound it's way up and around Horseshoe meadow we discovered just off the trail a rancher's high mountain cabin. This of course meant we had to explore!

We were just like kids trying to imagine what the people were up to who had used this and how long ago it was that had been since those shadowy people who had obviously been living in this area had abandoned the project that would keep them up here! But we needed to sling our pack's back on and continue up the trail to our first goal the top of Cottonwood Pass! The other surprise was just how much harder it was to climb the same trail we had been ascending before, but with just a lunch in our lighter day packs and not our full compliment of gear and food for a three day trip! But climb we did and topped the pass in just a few hours from our start at the trail head!

Clark and Michelle reach the pass!

I love the trail markers in the wilderness, they point off in directions like fingers from an adventure in OZ! Especially when the elements have had time to move them around a bit, having a map, a real picture of your general direction and a compass are not a good idea, but essential when heading on these trails, these are well traveled trails, and they all look good, until you have headed the wrong way for a couple of miles!

Now it is off to our first stop,  Chicken Springs lake and a well deserved trail lunch on the shore of a High Sierra Lake! You can see that it is  the trip and not the peak that is the Incentive for a trip to be fun!

Hope you are getting a little bit of the feel for what Hiking and Backpacking are about! Give me some time and I will take you on a lot of adventures!