Marc's Public Blog - Hiking / Backpacking

Arturo nicely offered to take me backpacking, and given that I was at an office in Tahoe just the days before (where we ended up getting a snow storm and 3-4 inches of snow), he came to pick me up on friday afternoon, and we drove to Topaz Lake in nevada to spend the night and be reasonably close to the trail the next morning:

nice morning fog

soon crossed the snow line

we eventually arrived to the trailhead, where PCT folks go to resupply

It had been since 2010 since I actually had gone backpacking at all (one night in Grand Canyon, and my last backpacking trips in California were otherwise a whole 10 years ago (lost coast trail in 2008 and half of the JMT in 2007).

I somehow managed to do that JMT section with a starting load between 60 to 65lbs, and this time I had a mere 40lbs or so with my fanny pack. Still, it felt just as hard :) (ok, full disclosure: I was on the tail end of a cold, and well, keeping up with Arturo was not going to be a winning proposition either way :) ). Thankfully he was a good sport and waited for me where needed.
Our moving stats show that our overall average was a good amont faster than when I did the JMT and I was only averaging 1.1 to 1.4mph with all that weight vs 1.7 to 2.2mph here (Jennifer also liked more breaks and enjoying the scenary a bit longer).

Either way, here are the stats:

                        Move Ovrl      Max Avg
     Dist    Time  Move Avg  Avg  Cal  HR  HR  Climb Desc
Day1 14.16   7h50  7h06 2.0  1.8  2600 168 132 3881  902
Day2 13.70   8h08  6h59 2.0  1.7  2287 152 122 931   2513
Day3 14.22   8h32  7h23 1.9  1.7  2494 158 121 2011  1007
Day4 9.55    4h23  4h11 2.3  2.2  1258 154 122 505   2906
Tot  51.63  28h53 25h39 2.0  1.9  8639 158 124 7328  7328

Comparing this with my JMT trip, my average heartrate was definitely higher, despite the ligher load and the lower resting heart rate I should have 10 years later. Likely a combination of lack of being in better shape and the cold.

Day 1

ready to go

we quickly got to the snowline

deer hunting was allowed here, two hunters were hoping to be lucky (no wonder the deer were skittish there)

horses on the trail ensured we had a layer of fresh poop on the trail at all times :-/

some of the track was actually icy

climbing to the pass, more snowy

last pass before the lake (just shy of 10,000ft)

we felt thankful that we were not trailblazing, or we'd have lost of a lot of time getting to camp

now, it was 'just' a matter of finding a flat spot without snow on it

I eventually found something close enough to flat

by then, we barely had 30mn before sunset, when it was going to become cold, very cold

The night was hellish cold, I had a 15F/-7C sleeping bag, and I my feet were quite cold in the tent despite 3 pairs of socks and 5 layers on my body, including a sweater and a light ski jacket (at least my core stayed warm). My hands were cold inside the sleeping bag while the entire tent was definitely below freezing (my boot froze inside the tent, and so did the water).

Day 2

Arturo's routing took a less busy trail which we had to trail blaze, mostly using my GPS

it was tempting to eat :)

we had a good amount of stream crossings, but thankfully we stayed dry on virtually all of them

quick break

always fun to see where glaciers left some rocks, and in which position

Eventually we got to our next lake:

this time we got a fire

Day 3

another stream crossing

a few packing horses came to check us out

came to sniff us :)

another quick pass

then maedow

finally got to emigrant lake, it's quite large

lunch stop

our last plateau/pass

found a nice meadow for our last night

I spotted this little mouse that played dead so we wouldn't see it

Day 4

After 4.5H, we did the remaining 10 miles and got back out to Kennedy Meadows, looking back at the nice trip. Snow made it a bit harder, but it was definitely prettier. Putting aside the first night which was cold as crap, we actually had nice and warm enough weather the rest of the time.