2017 Summer Hike with RoguePhotonic

[alpinemike]

Well it's that time of year for Rogue and I to set out on another adventurous hike. But alas.... it's a little different this year. Instead of me leaving before the end of his hike, he will be leaving me and I will set out solo on another section in Yosemite. He also will not be making it to the entirety of the 2nd section, which unfortunately happens to be the Meet Up Section. I'll let him fill you in on the details.

My summer plans drastically changed when I decided to take another year off from going to Graduate School. Finances were the primary reason for another year... but climbing in this beautiful range we call home certainly didn't help me want to go back to school. Hence I was able to go out for almost 2 months this year. A little less than last year's epic 81 day adventure!

So as a synopsis of this trip... I will head to Lodgepole the evening of the 7th of July. On the 8th I plan to climb Mt. Silliman. On the 9th I will climb Alta Peak and then meet Rogue at the campground that evening.

Our first section is focused on climbing Glacier Divide and Whaleback along with Midway Mtn. We climbed both Milestone and Table Last year and we'd like to finish off that part of the Great Western Divide. I have been through the entirety of the section with the exception of the upper part of Cloud Canyon which should be very snowy and incredible this year. We plan on crossing Whale Pass assuming the snow does not stop us and looping back to Lodgepole via the canyon that drops down from Colby Lake. Yes... this section will have a ton of snow and water crossings. It will be interesting to see how that affects everything.

So the 2nd section I'm all by myself in a completely new area. Well... not quite by myself. My girlfriend is joining me on this section and the following one. I've never been over Taboose and nor have I been on the JMT past the Kings River which was last year. I'm very excited for the Meet Up and I hope to share some stories of my adventures with Rogue the past 3 years.. Wow has it really been that many already. We'll be going out via Sawmill since originally Rogue and I wanted to take out both Eastside Passes in one trip. So I'll finally head over Pinchot Pass, which is one of the last 2 passes of the JMT I haven't done. Lots of peaks planned on this section and hopefully the snow isn't a major issue.

Interestingly enough I have a wedding that I had to fit into this whole summer trip. One of my better friends from High School is getting married and I couldn't miss it so fortunately all I had to do was shorten Miter Basin and it worked out quite well.

Miter Basin is a straightforward and very pleasant short section. I went there last year and injured myself and did not climb a single peak so it's time to return and hopefully get a couple knocked out.

The first Yosemite section is a chance for me to explore lots of new areas like Benson Lake and Stubblefield Canyon along with areas of the PCT I've heard good things about. We plan on climbing all the SPS peaks in the region which made me want to continue climbing the rest of them on the following section. Rogue will leave after this section.

I planned the last section pretty quickly for my interest and hiking the PCT up into Virginia Canyon and climbing Whorl and Twin Peaks. Then I decided to head on the SHR south to finish off the High Route down to Tuolumne Meadows. And of course.. knowing me I had to put in a couple peaks along the way to top it off. The last day is a dayhike of Mt. Warren and then back home in Tahoe. I'm always trying to avoid the summer season here in Tahoe...

So there you have it. I'm sure Rogue and I will check in via this page while we're out there.

PS Almost the entirety of this hike was planned while we were still hiking out there in 2016. We typically think about the places we want to visit the following year even though we're on a trip already.. you can definitely say our heads are in the mountains! A lot of these sections were born out of desire to climb peaks in areas we had been to. Or in my case I hadn't been to the Arrow Creek Region or much of Northern Yosemite. What's interesting is this is the first year in a while that we've really cut back on the actual amount of cross country travel we'll be doing. Might be nice to enjoy some less strenuous trail travel for a bit... I'm sure some of the peaks will have plenty of the loose rock, nasty chutes, snow, and the like that we're so familiar with!

2017 Trip

July 9 - 1 - Drive to Lodgepole

July 10 - 2 - Sugarloaf Creek
July 11 - 3 - Big Wet Meadow
July 12 - 4 - Cloud Canyon
July 13 - 5 - Climb Whaleback
July 14 - 6 - Climb Peak 12,200
July 15 - 7 - Climb Glacier Ridge
July 16 - 8 - Climb Peak 12,640
July 17 - 9 - Colby Lake
July 18 - 10 - Climb Centennial Peak
July 19 - 11 - Climb Midway Mountain
July 20 - 12 - Sugarloaf Valley
July 21 - 13 - Lodgepole
July 22 - 14 - Drive to Trail Head

July 23 - 15 - Up Taboose Trail somewhere
July 24 - 16 - Taboose Pass
July 25 - 17 - Climb Stripped/Goodale
July 26 - 18 – Climb Cardinal/Move Camp to Lake Below Mt. Ruskin
July 27 - 19 - Climb Ruskin
July 28 - 20 - Arrow Creek
July 29 - 21 - Climb Peak 12,180
July 30 - 22 - Climb Pyramid Peak
July 31 - 23 - Climb Window Peak
August 1 - 24 – Lake Marjorie
August 2 - 25 - Twin Lakes (Climb Mt. Wynne & Pinchot)
August 3 - 26 - Hike Out

August 4 - 27 - Drive to SoCal
August 5 - 28 - SoCal
August 6 - 29 – Sharon’s Wedding

August 7 - 30 – Drive to Horseshoe Meadows (Camp at Chicken Spring Lake Possibly)
August 8 - 31 - Sky Blue Lake
August 9 - 32 - Climb Mt. LeConte & Corcoran
August 10 - 33 - Climb The Miter
August 11 - 34 - Climb Mt. McAdie, Irvine & Mallory
August 12 - 35 - Hike out

August 13 - 36 - Layover
August 14 - 37 - Upper Thompson Canyon
August 15 - 38 - Climb Ehrnbeck Peak Camp in Stubblefield Canyon
August 16 - 39 - Climb Tower Peak & Craig
August 17 - 40 - Exit Stubblefield & Camp at Lake 8920
August 18 - 41 - Benson Lake
August 19 - 42 - Climb Piute Mountain
August 20 - 43 - Climb Volunteer Peak Camp at Rodgers Lake
August 21 - 44 - Climb Pettit, Regulation & West Peaks
August 22 - 45 - Upper Matterhorn Canyon
August 23 - 46 - Climb Finger Peaks
August 24 - 47 - Climb Matterhorn Hike out

August 25 - 48 – Start at Lambert Dome TH (Tuolumne Meadows) to Virginia Canyon
August 26 – 49 – Spiller Canyon
August 27 – 50 – Climb Whorl Mtn.
August 28 – 51 – Solider Lake (Climb Stanton & Virginia Peaks)
August 29 – 52 – Climb Twin Peaks
August 30 – 53 – Upper McCabe Lake
August 31 – 54 – Young Lakes (Climb North Peak)
September 1 – 55 – Lambert Dome TH (Climb Ragged Peak & Maybe Lambert)
September 2 - 56 – Climb Mt. Warren (Dayhike) & drive Home

[wildhiker]

I'm always envious of your hikes with Rogue. The actual hikes and climbs are too strenuous for me. What I envy is that you can spend so much time in the mountains! One of the highlights of my life was spending 6 weeks in the Yosemite backcountry in 1974. Since then, never more than a week at a time, and max three weeks total in one year. But on the bright side, I retire in 2018! So maybe I can spend most of that summer in the Sierra.
-Phil

P.S. Be careful about postponing your graduate studies too long. You may decide to postpone forever. I took a "break" from graduate school in 1975, but never went back, to my later regret.

[RoguePhotonic]

Yeah I had scaled back this year to 47 days as a sort of last great summer hike I figured I would ever be doing. I felt it was more important at this point to focus on working more and building a future. I then also had a girlfriend come into my life for the first time as a result of online dating and after 6 months more than happy together both of us were not looking forward to 47 days apart but were going to tough it out. Then recently I decided that I think it's a bad life decision to take that long again. Less money I will make working and more time apart. Her and her kids need me more than the mountains so I cut out section 2 completely since I had been almost everywhere on it and cut half of section 3.

It still gives me a good run in the mountains this year and i'm sure i'll do some more weekends trips when I get back.

[maverick]

I then also had a girlfriend come into my life for the first time as a result of online dating and after 6 months more than happy together both of us were not looking forward to 47 days apart but were going to tough it out.

Congrats Rogue!

[Jimr]

So Mike, does this mean you plan to make the meetup?

[alpinemike]

Yes sir I certainly do.

Should be there on the 28th. Look for a guy with a big floppy canvas hat that has an HST emblem sewed onto it.

[Gazelle]

Do u plan to do Ruskin from the east or the west as i may be there doing the same thing?

[alpinemike]

I plan on doing the East Ridge. I asked a question about when you're coming in over Taboose on The Meetup Topic. Sounds like you and Flamingo and myself are coming in around the same time.

[Gazelle]

I am going in on the 20th and hopefully doing Bago, rixford , gould, cotter ,dragon Clarence king Gardiner, etc then working to either window peak area or maybe Baxter area, north to well here are all the options so far too many peaks to climb
https://caltopo.com/m/3AJ8
Kristine

[CAchief]

looks like an awesome excursion. You're smart to take advantage of this time in your life to do trips such as these.

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