The time is here again for big adventures! In November, I will be starting nursing school and before starting, I am going to have some more fun in the outdoors by hiking the Sierra High Route (SHR), biking to Montana, and spending some time in North Carolina. Like a few years ago, I plan on updating this blog at least once per week and sharing what interesting, strange, and fun things happen. I will post about my biking plans after I get through my SHR hike.
You may not have heard about the SHR, so here is a brief description. It is an approximately 200 mile trail that runs from Twin Lakes, which is near Bridgeport, CA and the northern border of Yosemite NP, to Land’s End in King’s Canyon National Park. It is mainly parallels the more well know John Muir Trail but stays at higher elevations, mostly above 10,000 feet. It runs through pristine high country and places few people go.
To make my trip a little more memorable and scenic, I will hike the northern two-thirds of the SHR and then branch off near Bishop Pass and take the Southern Sierra High Route (SoSHR) and end near Mt. Whitney. The SoSHR continues along the crest of mountains north of Mt. Whitney to the summit of Mt. Whitney via the Mountaineer’s Route and then onto Cottonwood Lakes. This portion of the trail is about 100 miles long and continues through parts of the Sierra Nevada that are better than the southern one third of the SHR.
For me, doing the SHR and SoSHR is the next logical step after hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2013. More than two thirds of this trip will be off trail. This means that I will be in areas that there are few people, not easily accessed, and more beautiful, pristine, and stunning than you find when hiking on a trail in the Sierra Nevada, but it also comes a great deal of risk. Less people means less of a chance of seeing someone if I have any issues, navigation or injury wise. Less access and better scenery means that it is more rugged and challenging. Instead of plugging into my iPod and listening to my favorite podcast during the afternoon, I will be constantly looking at the map and navigating over and through the terrain, getting myself over talus and scree fields (essentially cell phone to truck sized granite that is very physically tedious to go through) and doing the occasional Class 3 scramble (this is where you climb along a rock or on the side of a mountain where there is a large drop below you). This trail seems so exciting and like a great way to continuously improve my outdoor skills.
To help minimize my risk, I plan on taking a SPOT device. This will allow me to let my family know that I made to camp and alert search and rescue if I have any unfortunate accidents and cannot hike myself out. Another great thing is that it will track my progress so you can see where I am in real time (I will post a link for this once I know it). Because I’m hiking by myself, a SPOT device is the something that will help me be safer on this backpacking trip.
In case you want to read more about the SHR or the SoSHR, here are some websites:
http://www.backpacker.com/trips/california/hiking-the-sierra-high-route/#bp=0/img1 (article from Backpacker Magazine about the SHR)
http://adventurealan.com/SoSHR/index.htm (SoSHR info and maps)
I start on Wednesday and hope to post an update once I get to the Valley in Yosemite!
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