:: White Mountain Peak - October 18 - October 19, 2003 ::

:: Friday, October 17, 2003 @ 8 PM::

I had a 5:55 PM soccer game, so I had to get home quickly and get things packed and ready for the trip. We are going to try to leave sometime between 2 AM and 3 AM. Hopefully we can stop and fish somewhere along the way. Our plan is to drive to Bishop, CA and then The trailhead for this route is the Barcroft gate on White Mountain Road. From California's Owens Valley, we will take US-395 to Big Pine and drive east on California Highway SR-168 into the White Mountains. In 13 miles we will reach Westgard Pass and the junction with White Mountain Road. Turn north (left) on to White Mountain Road and drive north until we reach the Barcroft gate, driving past Schulman Grove, Crooked Creek, and Patriarch Grove. The pavement ends just after Schulman Grove (about 9.5 miles from Westgard Pass), and is replaced by a gravel 4WD road for the remaining 17 miles.

...

I woke up at 2 AM which is earlier than I have ever gotten up for anything before. Timber suggested that we get up that early so we could take plenty of time to get to White Mountain. It is about a 300 mile drive from San Jose. But the interesting thing about me getting up at 2 AM is that my stuff is ready to do, but Timber's is not. She wakes up and begins getting things ready. So while she is doing that I get something to eat for breakfast and see if there is anything good on TV. As I expected there was nothing compelling on TV, so I ended up watching a show called Fokus Duetsch so that I could practice my German. From what I could tell on that show there are a lot of hippies in Germany.

...

We finally got on the road a little bit before 5 AM. I can't believe I woke up at 2 AM just to be getting on the road at 5 AM. Today is going to be a long day. The plus side of leaving early on Saturday morning instead of leaving on Friday evening is that there is not nearly as much traffic. We should be able to make pretty good time.

...

We made it over to the other side of Yosemite. I could have sworn that when we went through the gate to enter Yosemite National Park and I presented my parks pass the ranger that looked at my pass was the same one that gave Forrest a hard time when we hiked Half Dome this summer. But there was a lot of smoke going through Yosemite because of fires that are burning here. I'm not sure if they were caused by people or by lightning strike. But we didn't stop to take any photos from within Yosemite this time. Gotta get moving.

...

We made it back to McGee Creek. This is where we camped a little over two months ago. We went further up the road to check out all the trees that had changed color. People that say California doesn't have seasons should come check this place out. Christina wanted to take some pictures of the creek and the trees. We also saw that we are on the border of the John Muir Wilderness. It looks like if we park in this parking lot we can catch the trail back into the Wilderness area. The map shows a lot of lakes so I'm guessing the fishing is pretty good back in there. We'll have to try this out next summer.

...

We got to Bishop and Big Pine way too early. I wanted to just drive up to White Mountain Peak as soon as possible but Timber suggested that we drive through the town of Big Pine to see what it was like. It is your typical really small town on the highway. As we drove through it looked like there was a football game going on at the High School, so we decided we had some time to kill and we checked it out. We watched the Big Pine High School team throttle the visiting Christian school. We stayed for the second and third quarters and when we left Big Pine team was winning 42-0.

...

We made it up to the Bristlecone Pine Forest which is at an elevation of between 10,000 and 11,000 ft. Timber didn't feel like checking out the trees so I got a little booklet on the trees and checked them out for a few minutes. One tree, named Methuselah, is over 4,700 years old. We didn't spend too much time here before heading on to the Barcroft Gate trailhead (12,000 ft).

...

We arrived at the parking area and decided to try to set up our tent in a way that my truck would block it from the wind as much as possible. I would estimate that the temperature was in the 30's and it was fairly windy, so it didn't take us much time to set things up, prepare something for dinner, and get into the tent. After we were done eating we went to sleep wondering when Forrest and Co. would arrive. Just before I fell asleep I thought I heard him talking off in the distance.

...

Timber and I were woken up by Forrest's voice outside our tent. He said that they had ridden their bikes up the road for about 4 miles in the dark to try to find us at the trailhead. He asked if we could go back to get his brother Chris. I was still waking up and didn't know what was going on, so I gave Timber my keys and told her she could take my truck back to their car. After I had woken up a little bit more and had more of an idea of what was going on I decided that I would be the one to drive Forrest and Cressica back to their car. On the way there they explained to me that they had brought Forrest's Mom's Nissan Altima and it couldn't make it up the last 4 miles because the road was too steep. So we got back to their car and threw their gear in my truck and went back to the trailhead. Once we got there they setup camp and everyone went to sleep.

...

We got up a little later than we wanted to and got things ready to go. The first part of our ascent had us walking our bikes instead riding them and it seemed like I had a lot more energy than everyone else. I stopped every now and then to take some photos but we generally kept going higher.

...

We made it to the Barcroft Research Facility and took a few phots, waited for Chris to catch up, and then got back on our way.

...

We made it to the old weathered looking observatory, took a few photos, waited for Chris to catch up, and then we got back on our way. :-)

...

There was a relatively short downhill section that I hauled ass going down. After I was done with that I worked my way uphill on my bike as far as I could before getting off to start walking up the hill. I was well ahead of the rest of the ascent team and I decided to stop and wait for them to catch up. I had a snack while I watched them put their bikes down and walk up the hill toward me. I thought it was weird that they were walking without their bikes because that would make going down the summit a lot slower, but when they got to me I found out why they did that. They wanted to turn around. Forrest wanted to turn around because he didn't want to get home too late but it was ultimately my decision because they would not be able to go anywhere withought my truck. So after thinking about it for a few minutes I decided that we would turn around and head back. It didn't take us very long to get back down to my truck once we got turned around.

...

When we got back to my truck, some of the others in my group suggested that we put all the bikes and all the gear into my truck at once so that I didn't have to make multiple trips to their car and back. I thought it was a good idea but I seriously doubted that 5 bikes, and gear for 5 people would all fit into the back of my Ford Ranger. While they were packing my truck I was making fun of them, but Timber and Co. found a way to make it all fit. Then all we had to do was get all 5 people to fit into the cab of my truck. And yes, it is an extended cab. We all fit into the truck and started off down the dirt road.

...

We dropped them off at their car and then headed back toward San Jose. The drive was somewhat uneventful and we ended up getting home at 10:30 PM. My truck is really dirty and it needs to get washed badly. Also, nearly all of our gear is really dirty and I think it will take a week to get everything back to it's natual, clean, state.

...

I learned a few lessons from this trip. The first one is that the most I can possibly expect to drive for a weekend trip is about 600 miles total. And that is stretching it. I think I will make it a 3 day weekend then next time we attempt White Mountain Peak, and rest assured that we will be back. The second lesson that I learned and that Forrest should have learned is to bring a vehicle that can make it up the dirt road. Having a tire blow out or having other problems is out of our control but choosing an inappropriate vehicle is within our control. Next lesson is to make sure to get to bed early the night before attempting the summit so that you can get up and back early. But this won't be as important if we are making a 3 day weekend out of it. And lastly, since it is going to be a 3 day weekend, bring your fly rod. The Eastern Sierras and Owens Valley are full of great fishing spots. We need to stop and catch some fish next time. But all in all I really enjoyed the trip and I am definitely going to give it another try next year.

...