u/TheDorkNite1

I have done a few hikes now in the eastern part of the mountains. I have loved the scenery, but the trails themselves...I must have bad luck with my choices.

It's not the steepness, though this year in particular has been hard for some reason for my ability to handle steep trails. It's the consistency of the trails. The extremely rocky texture has been killer on my feet. The worst have been the metamorphic rocks in the overall area of Tioga Pass, after 5-6 miles of hiking on that terrain or more I feel more exhausted and pain than on some of my significantly longer hikes elsewhere.

In any case, I may be done for the year, but I plan on returning next year to try out some longer trails. I wanted to try out Virginia Lakes and June Lakes, and hopefully do some more in the Long Valley Caldera. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Visited a few new sequoia groves over the weekend.

Black Mountain survived a major fire in 2017, though not without casualties. The grove "champion", Black Mountain Beauty, even lost some of its trunk/volume from the fire. I did not visit this tree as the end of the road (where it is kind of located) was blocked off and I did not have time to hike in, find the tree, and hike back out.

Overall it was a nice drive.

Admittedly not much of a hike, but was a nice little walk towards the end of one of my days exploring Alpine County.

Amazing views from up top. Didn't recognize Round Top at Carson Pass from this angle. Incredibly windy.

Returned a few hours later for the last picture from the nearby plain. Was still incredibly windy. Wanted to do the night photos from up top but the weather made that impractical.

Did pretty good! Echo Lakes to Mosquito Pass was by far the best hike though I was stupidly breaking in new shoes that day. I took much longer than I should have but it was worth it. My only "complaint" was that I got there at 5:30 AM and only found one open parking spot at Echo Lakes...insane that the lot was full already. I could have hiked in from a little further away but I'm glad I didn't have to.

Managed to mostly keep to myself throughout the trip. Other than the above, no parking problems and very few getting around in general. Leaving the last day was...interesting. Took more than an hour I think to get out of South Lake Tahoe.

Also...If you were the person I saw in the distance hiking Tallac in the dark after the fireworks...respect.

This month I did something incredibly dumb. 

Been suffering from some mystery illness since the start of summer break. No idea where it came from, but by Thursday night it seems to have mostly abated. Because of the illness and other factors, I had not had a chance to go hiking in almost three weeks. Going stir crazy, I packed up my stuff and left that evening for Pinecrest.

Waking up the next morning was…rough. Poorly slept, but still felt good. I had my medication with me, including my cough/sore throat spray, just in case.  I’ve hiked worse while feeling terrible anyway in the past. Took everything, had a quick breakfast, drove out to Eagle Meadow. When I arrived there is when mistakes started to really be made.

Eagle Creek was higher than I expected. I drive a compact that has trouble with the splash guard CONSTANTLY. I didn’t want to risk there being a problem (more on that later…), so I parked on the side of the road, got everything ready, and struck out.

My goal for this trip had been a simple one. Park at Long Valley Creek, hike that trail to the end and back, and then hike up to the Bennett Juniper. I had wanted to see it last year after hiking out and back to Cooper Cabins and when I tried to drive to it Long Valley Creek was definitely too high at the time, so I turned around. Always another year, right? 

But already there was a problem. Parking at Eagle Creek instead of Long Valley Creek would mean another 3 miles round trip. Extra hour of hiking or so…manageable. But the hike to Long Valley was strenuous for some reason. I chalked it up to the lack of sleep as well as my inhaler taking a bit longer to work. I then did the entire Long Valley trail, and it took a lot longer than anticipated. It’s only 500 feet of elevation gain, but it was seemingly incredibly tiring. I took more of the cold medication, and powered through back to the start of the trailhead near the Long Valley Creek crossing. It was now close to 11 am, and I was at least an hour behind schedule and quite tired.

I was sitting there alongside Eagle Meadow Road, thinking about my choices. I was leaning towards giving up for the day. Something was clearly wrong with me, and I was genuinely a bit worried of trying to hike the almost 4 miles uphill to the Bennett Juniper and then back…and then someone drove by. They saw me, asked my plans, and then offered to drive me the entire way to the tree. I thought about it…well it would be half of the remaining miles, and almost entirely downhill…I should be fine. I accepted.

I wasn’t fine. I was very not fine, in fact. After the tree the four miles back, even almost all downhill, was surprisingly stressful. I only stopped to try to find one of the old uranium mining prospects, but the rest of the way was a straight shot all the way down. And it sucked. More people drove by (the wrong way) asking if I was okay on my hike back down. My wife later told me that it’s possible I looked genuinely bad and in distress. I don't know the names of any of the people who stopped, including the name of the person who gave me a ride, but I remember all of the faces. If you're reading this, thank you for caring.

I eventually got back to my car, downed a Gatorade and a can of peaches, and started my car….dashboard lights lit up like a Christmas tree. I wanted to at least get back to the highway. I did eventually make it all the way home. And of course I later realized that it was the cold medication that was likely affecting my performance.

I was stupid. I was reckless. And coming on the heels of something else stupid and reckless I did a few weeks ago…Clearly I am not making good decisions. Luckily I have plenty of time while I figure out my car and recover from this to chastise myself. 

Pros: Fucking beautiful views. Truly. Long Valley was amazing. I didn’t know that, even towards its end, you can see the Three Chimneys, Dardanelles, and even Mokelumne Peak. I wish I could climb to the top of the Three Chimneys just to see everything better.

Cons: Everything else I mentioned already. 

I started near the site of the old mill, followed Alltrails up an older forest road. Eventually it transitioned to a significantly smaller but still easy to follow trail. Cowpies "helped" distinguish the route at times as well.

Plenty of second growth around, just like the rest of the grove. I eventually started seeing this one particular old growth (though small) sequoia tree in the distance. You can see this tree from the other side of the basin quite well.

I just thought it was interesting that such an obvious trail was not marked on any map, but it is what it is. Eventually I will return to this grove and more fully explore it, trying to find the rest of the remaining old growth.

For a not-often seen angle of the grove....

Would have been an incredible view before the grove's near-destruction. I hiked up from Stump Meadow to this spot.

I'll eventually share the rest of this particular adventure