Hiking with Hawks: Traverse hike over the Sierras

Friday, October 5, 2012

Traverse hike over the Sierras

This promises to be a lifetime memory. Jack "Motor" DeFranco, Uwe Luettringhaus, Klaus Ley and myself set off on a 28 miler, one overnight trip. Jack and I drove to Kings Canyon at the Roads End while Uwe and Klaus drove to Onion Valley outside of Independence. The plan was if we met up at the top, we would camp overnight and swap keys then drive each others vehicles home. Great plan and it worked out just fine.

I knew things were going to be just right since along my journey through the mountains, I saw this big, beautiful Hawk watching out over me. There are a lot of great pictures here and I won't bore you with commentary on all of them, but I can't resist myself on all. Enjoy.

At the Road End trail head. The trip down alone was a great adventure and I haven't even started hiking yet.

The Sphinx.

There are a few man-made bridges over the creek. Bet there's trout in those waters.

We came upon a small herd of deer. We stayed quiet and they peacefully continued grazing and making their way along the trail. They came up to Jack within 10 ft or so before angling off the trail.

Gorgeous trails and amazingly, heavily traveled even though it's at the end of the season.

We catch up and travel along the John Muir Trail. Lots of history along this trail.

On our way to Mt. Bago...it's the center peak.

That's Mt. Bago. Unfortunately, this is as close as I got (about 800 ft away). I had a couple of dizzy spells and did not want to risk pushing too hard. Had lots of walking left ahead of me. We were only about 11,500 ft or so, but I was pretty tired at this point and didn't sleep well the two nights before. Safety is paramount and I can always come back to hike another day. Motor stayed with me keeping the Buddy Code while both Uwe and Klaus continued on up to the peak.