Weekly newspaper of Three Rivers, California, and Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks
Hiking
This is a continuing series about a mother-and-daughter thru-hike on the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada Mountains from July 19 to August 13, 2015. Previous installments and additional photos are here.
Day 10: Tuesday, July 28
Purple Lake to Fords Creek - 11 miles
One of the best parts about backpacking is the freedom to choose where to pitch a tent. Jennie and I have always been picky...
This is a continuing series about a mother-and-daughter thru-hike on the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada Mountains from July 19 to August 13, 2015.
Day 7: Saturday, July 25
Rosalie Lake
0 miles
It was headlamps off in the tent at 9 p.m. the previous night, and we didn’t stir again until 9 a.m. Our bodies obviously needed the rest and repair after six consecutive days of hiking an...
Day 6 / 11.5 miles
Rush Creek Trail Junction to Rosalie Lake
No storms today. They had relented... for now.
We were up before daybreak to pack up the campsite. Rush Creek kept us company with its constant, upbeat flow. This waterway is pristine, fed by ice melt and lakes of the remote Ritter Range.
This hiking day would be an incredible journey of views, but such expansive scenery comes with a...
This is a continuing series about a mother-and-daughter thru-hike on the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada Mountains from July 19 to August 13, 2015. Other installments may be read here.
Day 5 / 10 miles
Lyell Canyon (elevation 8,900 feet) to Rush Creek Junction (elevation 9,670) via Donohue Pass (elevation 11,073 feet)
The first item of business everyday upon waking is to get the weather...
Recently, Brian Newton, 67, retired school teacher, and Roy Kendall, 68, real estate broker, decided to increase their education, hike cross country and explore the caves at the south end of the Mineral King valley. Just for fun, Roy named the first cave they explored “Plato’s Cave.”
It was an education to go into this black cave with flashlights and go back in time to 514 AD and remember the...
This is a continuing series about a mother-and-daughter thru-hike on the John Muir Trail from July 19 to August 13, 2015. Previous installments may be found here.
Along the [Tuolumne] river a series of beautiful glacier-meadows extend with but little interruption, from the lower end of the Valley to its head, a distance of about twelve miles, forming charming sauntering-grounds from which the...
The first three days of this mother-and-daughter journey took place in the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, but this will be written about in a separate installment as it is not part of the John Muir Trail. In this series about the JMT, it begins where we first set foot on the trail, at Tuolumne Meadows. Also not included in the JMT description are the 20 (southbound) miles from Yosemite Valley to...
A 26-day mother-and-daughter backpacking trip along the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park and onto the John Muir Trail to its terminus on top of Mount Whitney in Sequoia National Park provided much in the way of scenery. But it wasn’t all pretty peaks, meandering meadows, lovely lakes, rocks, flowers, and trees.
Here are some manmade structures that added scenic...
You know all those things you’ve always want to do in your life? Do them.
Years of week-long backpacking trips kindled a desire for a longer outing. I wanted to live outside for an extended period of time, walk more miles, be at the mercy of nature, and be dependent only on my own two feet, physical endurance, and mental strength.
That wish came true this summer when my daughter, Jennie, age 26...
A MONTH ON THE JOHN MUIR TRAIL
The Permit Process
Back in February, exactly 168 days before my daughter’s and my planned departure on the 211-mile John Muir Trail, I was wandering through the aisles of Visalia’s Office Depot, waiting for an employee to fax my wilderness permit application, but Yosemite National Park’s fax line was a constant busy. I circumnavigated the store the opposite...