Although not in the way we expected, the stars truly aligned for us this fall to get in our High Sierra fix. Dani had been patient with her ankle recovery enough to reasonably test carrying a pack and just keep an open mind. We figured: if worse came to worse, we still would be taking off two weeks together, no phones, and just do day hikes every day. Luckily, the ankle held and allowed carrying a pack on uneven terrain, enough for us to get in an eight day loop. Doubly luckily, Dani saw her OBGYN two days before the trip who gave a master tip for some medicine (B6 + Unisom) to help reduce the morning sickness. She hadn’t been able to leave the house or do much of anything for weeks due to extreme nausea and lots of unfortunate throwing up….all day long. The B6+Unisom pretty much fixed that overnight, making the nausea low level and manageable/tolerable. Truly: a lucky trip this year for getting our granite fix, this time with Teeny. No ego, lots of trail time, and plenty of food.
The trip we broke into three pieces: (1) test overnight trip in the Minarets, (2) eight day trip with one food cache, and (3) October turns plus peak bagging in Yosemite. And in the fall, when there were basically no humans in the backcountry, and perfect weather exactly during these 2 weeks of the trip. SO LUCKY!!! So much gratitude for each other, this place we live, and our bodies for allowing us to do this!
Total days: 14 // Total mileage: 120.75 mi // Total vert: 29,200 ft of climbing
PART 1: OVERNIGHTER TO TEST DANI’S ANKLE AND PREGNANT BODY + DIERKER’S BACK
Devil’s Postpile to Minaret Lake and back. Had hoped to get up to Cecile and loop around by Shadow, but weather kept us from pushing too much and we had a lovely time at Minaret Lake, crazily enough all to ourselves, and on the last day the road to Red’s Meadow was open for the season.
Total days: 2 // Total mileage: 16.3 // Total vert: 2,752 ft of climbing
PART 2: GLACIER DIVIDE LOOP
Started and finished at Pine Creek; made a loop down French Canyon, up Evolution Canyon, over to North Lake via the cross country route up Darwin Bench and over Lamarck Col, and picked up a cache at North Lake. We then headed up over Paiute Pass into Humphrey’s Basin, and then took another cross country route across the basin to Puppet Pass to drop back toward Pine Creek Pass and back to our car. Were on the JMT for a few days, and only saw two other people. Pretty amazing 8 day trip.
Total mileage: 67.7 // Total vert: 14,030 ft of climbing
PART 3: OCTOBER TURNS AND YOSEMITE PEAKS
We had spotted a small flat patch of ice and snow on the way down from Lamarck Col on the Glacier Divide Loop, so we decided to immediately go back up there the day after finishing the backpacking trip to get in our October turns (luckily had packed the skis in the car, just in case!). Was a big day but SO AWESOME to be able to hike to turns again after a summer of not being able to. The nausea was pretty real that day, but leftover pizza from the night before helped.
The next 3 days, we decided to bag a backpacking trip in Hoover Wilderness and instead get in more vert by tagging some summits in Yosemite. Did Mt. Dana one day (and got to randomly take engagement photos for a super sweet couple at 13k ft!), Mt. Hoffman the next day (most central peak in the park), and the last day before driving back to Rocklin did Glacier Point just as the weather changed and a storm rolled in. WHAT A TRIP!!!
Total days: 4 // Total mileage: 36.8 // Total vert: 12,420 ft of climbing
