Dan's Outside

More On the Subject of Autumn

This weekend, while in Seattle, I realized that I have managed to prolong the usually short-lived autumn color experience.

I started back in late September with the first real inklings of alpine fall as tundra plants began to turn yellow and red.

A few weeks later I made it to the eastern Sierra twice during the first part of October for the peak of the aspen season.

In late October I took a one-day trip to Yosemite Valley to see the dogwoods turn red and to find an astonishing display of yellows and golds on the Valley floor.

Last weekend I was again surprised by fall color, this time in the Pacific Northwest.

If I’m lucky there is still one round to go as what passes for fall color arrives in the San Francisco Bay area. Yes, there is fall color here, though you have to look for it.
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November 13, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on More On the Subject of Autumn

My weekend…

I’ll be spending my weekend here:

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November 9, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on My weekend…

NovemberRain

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November 9, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on NovemberRain

Shoulda' Started Earlier

I did wake up at 4:00 a.m. Really, I did. But after working on grading papers late into the night I could tell it was not going to be a great idea to get up after 4 hours of sleep and climb the mountain before sunrise this week. Maybe next week… or the week after…
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November 5, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Shoulda' Started Earlier

Gotta' Start Earlier!

I’m considering a very early morning hike up Misson Peak tomorrow morning, with luck arriving at the top before sunrise. I tried last weekend and was about 20 minutes late to the summit ridge – and that was on the last morning of daylight savings time. So tomorrow the sun comes up “an hour earlier” (or so it now seems) meaning that I need to wake up really early.

If you see new Mission Peak photos here tomorrow you’ll know I made it.
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November 4, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Gotta' Start Earlier!

Best Hiking Season

Although fewer and fewer people are found on the trails this time of year, we are coming into the best season for hiking in central coast California.

While central California can be a great place to hike in the summer, it can also be a very hot and dry place with temperatures often getting into the 90 degree range – it is not always a lot of fun to trudge up a steep trail in that kind of heat. On top of that, it rarely rains here between mid-spring and November, so the trails are dry and dusty.

During November the temperatures drop and the first rainfall settles the dust. The air – at least in the morning – can be crisp and clear. The leaves are still changing colors at the lower elevations. Eventually there will be mud – lots of mud – but at this early point in the season that is not a problem yet. And we have California’s “spring in winter” to look forward to, as the grasses and other plants begin to sprout in mid-winter after the rain arrives.

And if you are like me, you may even acquire a fondness for hiking in cold and wet weather… and choose to hike in the rain.
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November 2, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Best Hiking Season

Happy Birthday to Two-Heel Drive

In my last post I forgot to wish Two-Heel Drive, Tom Mangan’s hiking blog, a happy first birthday.

Tom has done a great job with his blog, obviously bringing his skills as a journalism professional to his work. (Something that many of the rest of us cannot claim… ;-)
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October 29, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Happy Birthday to Two-Heel Drive

Closing a Circle on Mt. Whitney Comments

At the risk of a dangerous level of inter-blog circular referencing…

Tom Mangan (Two-Heel Drive) posted an excerpt from and comment on a recent post of mine about climbing Mt. Whitney from the west, in which he wrote:

Possible disadvantage: after a week in the High Sierra, you’ll wonder why you bothered to summit Whitney. It’s not like it’s the only place with a good view.

Indeed!

As much as Whitney is a very high place with wonderful panoramic views and is the object of many hikers, I would certainly not call it my favorite place in the Sierra… in fact, not even my second-favorite place. As far a peak climbing goes, my climb of nearby Mt. Langley actually made a much bigger impression on me.

And, as Tom has apparently figured out, on each of my Mt. Whitney From the West adventures the approach was much more memorable than summiting the peak. In fact, on one of the two trips the descent was more memorable… but that’s a story for another time.

On my second Long March to Mt. Whitney, we came from Onion Valley via Kearsarge and Forrester Passes. One minor goal for me on this trip was to hike across a very short section of the Muir Trail that I had somehow missed on several other journeys in the area – the section between Tyndall and Wallace Creeks. (How I missed it is also a long story… and also for another time.)

For some reason, as I considered this section of the trail during the years when I had yet to hike it, I imagined it being one of those sort of boring “gotta’ go there to get between the interesting places” trails.

Boy, was I wrong! It is hard to identify the precise causes, but from time to time in the backcountry you have moments when everything simply comes together and every painful grind up a pass or soggy afternoon spent plodding in the rain is forgotten because the present moment is so good and you feel so connected. I had one of those moments on the high point of this section of the JMT near Tawny Point. I remember the feeling more than the specific details, but I do recall dropping my pack, almost without thinking about it, and simply heading up a nearby low ridge to soak up the panorama.

And even though I summitted Whitney a few days later, this hour spent near the JMT at Tawny Point is way higher on my list of memorable Sierra moments.
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October 29, 2006 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Closing a Circle on Mt. Whitney Comments