:: White Mountain Peak II July 31 - August 1, 2004 ::

:: Friday, July 30, 2003 @ 8 PM::

I had a 5:55 PM soccer game, so I had to get home and get things packed and ready for the trip. Forrest is going to come to our house and we are going to try to leave sometime around 6 AM. Our plan is to drive to drive through Yosemite (hw 120) and once we get to US-395 we will take US-395 South 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 Grandview Canyon Campground, where we will stay on Saturday night. On Sunday morning we will head for 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.

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I woke up at 4 AM so I could get showered and create a staging area in the garage. Forrest told us that he would get to our place sometime between 5 and 6 AM and I wanted to have everything ready to go once he got to our place. I woke Timber up right after I got up but she didn't want to get up, so I let her sleep for a little longer. She finally got up at 4:30 and started getting ready. Forrest ended up showing up right at 6 AM. By then pretty much everything was ready to go so we packed up my truck, stopped off for a breakfast bagel and got on the road. The one thing that I don't like about going to the White Mountains is that it takes a long time to get there.

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Ah Yosemite. I'm glad that I have a National Parks Pass ($40 - $50 depending on where you buy it) because the entrance fee to Yosemite is $20. We entered Yosemite through the west entrance of hw 120. Driving through the park is always slow because they have a slow speed limit and then you have lots of cars and RVs that go even slower. But the scenery was nice and we made fun of the tourists as we drove by them.

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After driving through Yosemite and ending up on the eastern side we had to stop for gas. It was $2.60 a gallon at the Mobile gas station right outside the eastern entrance of the park. We got on hw 120 and headed for Bishop. Once we got to Bishop we hit up Vons for some groceries. I guess Vons got bought out by Safeway a while back so their products and selection are pretty much the same. All of us were hungry so we decided to go to the deli and have them make us sandwiches to have for lunch before we went grocery shopping. I got the ranch hand sandwich which has roast beef, BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese, onion rings, and served on a sweet or sour roll. The sandwich was standing tall because it was full of roast beef. I should have known that I wouldn't be able to finish it. After were finished eating and started shopping we decided to splurge a little bit on our food. My menu for dinner consisted of a new york steak, and ear of corn, a roll, and some sausage. The other notable food that I got for the trip was a large container of blueberries. Most of them were pretty good. After stocking up with food and water we headed out of town toward White Mountain Peak.

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We made it up to the Grandview Canyon campground (8,500'). The road was in pretty good shape and we drove around the campground to try to find a site. We only found one site but we took it. We went back and looked for a place to pay but couldn't find any. So we set up camp and then headed up to Schulman Grove so that we could pay homage to the oldest trees in the world.

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We went on a short hike once we got to the grove and I took lots of pictures of the Bristlecone Pines. The oldest known living tree in the world "Methuselah" is located here. It is 4770 years old. There are no signs that point it out because they are worried that someone will vandalize it. After getting to spend some quality time with the trees we headed back to camp because Forrest's friends were supposed to find our camp and we were worried that they might not find it if they didn't have my truck to help identify it as our camp.

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When we made it back to our camp site we saw that there were other people there. Those people were Forrest's coworker Tom W, his wife Kat, and his friend Ken. We made our introductions and then started to get our dinner ready. I brought my Pyromid grill to cook the meat so we got the charcoal ready and started grilling the steaks. Tom, Ken, and Kat all had pasta and chili and all sorts of other foods. My steak turned out pretty good as did the corn and I was pleasantly surprised that the sausage turned out better than I expected. After we ate Tom W and Ken went to find firewood so that they could build a fire. They ended up getting a lot of wood and building a huge fire. It seemed like we were the only ones in the campground because we didn't see anyone else's lights or fires and couldn't hear anyone else even though the campground was full. At any rate we decided to wake up at 5 AM, have some breakfast, and get started. Forrest, Kat, and I were going to drive my truck up to the gate and the Forrest and I were going to mountain bike to the top while Kat hiked. Tom W and Ken were going to be crazy and ride their bikes from the campground all the way to the top of White Mountain Peak. Once Tom W caught up with Kat the plan was that he would stop and hike with her to the top. We tried to explain to Tom W and Ken that their plan was crazy but the more we tried the more it seemed to egg them on. At any rate, it was time for bed.

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I woke up at 5 AM but decided that it was best to get a little more shut eye. I ended up getting up for good at 5:30 AM. My tasks were simple, change my clothes, get something to eat, get my gear ready, and get up to the gate to start biking.

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We were expecting to park and start our trek from the trailhead, which is what we did last time, but we were pleasantly surprised to see that the gate was open which meant that we could drive up the Barcroft Research Station. This saved us 4 miles round trip. The reason the Barcroft Research Station was open was because they were having an open house. I made the remark that I need to set a google news alert for the next open house because we were extremely lucky to be able to park at the research station. Once we got to the research station we parked and prepared our gear.

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The last time we did the trip this was the time that we actually got started and we started further back. I had no doubt that I was going to make it to the top this time. Forrest and I started out on our bikes while Timber and Kat started hiking at an easy pace. I quickly realized that I had started out too fast because my heart rate was at about 155 bpm. I brought my heart rate monitor so that I could find out all my health related information for this trip. Forrest also felt that he had started out too fast and we slowed down a bit and took a casual pace at pushing our bikes up the hill. Once we got to the observatory we took a few photos and then got on our bikes for the downhill section. I followed Forrest down the hill but had to constantly use my brakes because I was getting too close. At one point I hit a patch of gravel which caused my front tire to turn left. While my front tire turned left my bike and I went down hard on the trail. I landed on my right shoulder and rolled through the impact and finally came to a stop on my back. It was an exceptionally cool wipeout. I got back up, dusted myself off, and then picked up my bike. No harm was done. But as I was getting ready to get back on my bike I heard a loud POW! My back tire had exploded. It sounded like a pistol went off. I quickly turned my bike over, retrieved my exploded tube and put in my spare. Then I worked on inflating it so I could get going again. I've had problems with my mini pump before and I had problems again. For some reason it could not get my tire up to an acceptable pressure. By this time Timber and Kat had caught up to us. I quickly decided that I would abandon my bike and walk the rest of the way to the top. So Forrest went on his way and I walked with Timber and Kat.

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The pace while walking with Timber and Kat was kind of weird. They were engrossed in conversation and I didn't talk much. As a result my walking speed was faster than theirs and I would get to a point out ahead of them and then wait for them to catch up. Timber also has a bad right foot still and that slowed her down more than usual. They stopped and took breaks every now and then and I stopped to take photos of the scenery. The scenery as you approach White Mountain Peak is barren and much like a lunar landscape would be if it had a few hearty plants. There were large rocks strewn everywhere and it was dry and desolate. Timber kept getting slower and slower as we got closer and closer to the top. Kat started to feel that altitude and she was beginning to be ready to turn around. Finally, at an elevation of about 14100 ft they decided to turn around. I gave Timber the camelbak and headed for the summit alone. I estimated that I could get to the summit in another 30 minutes.

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I ran into Forrest as I got closer to the summit, but I did end up making it to the top in another 30 minutes. The view from the top was pretty good. The summit was packed with people so I couldn't find the summit log of the marker, but I took lots of photos and climbed on top of the research station to be at the very top. I had a guy take my photo as proof, took a few more photos and then decided it was time to head down.

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I could hardly believe it myself, but I still had plenty of energy and I was not feeling the altitude, so in order to catch up to Timber and Kat I decided to start running down from the top. Some of the people I passed on the way down looked at me weird or gave me words of encouragement. They must have thought I ran up and was now running down. It didn't take long before I ran across Forrest. I thought that was weird because he had his mountain bike and should be able to go down much faster than me. I said hi to him and then he turned over and started barfing. I guess the altitude got to him. I waited with him until he was ready to keep going and then he started off down the trail and I started running again. It wasn't long until I caught up to the girls and they had met up with Tom W and Ken. They're also known as those crazy guys that biked up from the campground. Tom W and Ken said that the ride was extremely difficult and that they were not going to listen to Forrest anymore. I thought that was funny since Forrest was trying to talk them out of doing the bike ride from the campground. But they looked up at the mountain and were considering going for the summit. I said that since they made it this far they should go all the way to the top but I was frowned at by Kat and Timber. So the guys turned around, they still had to ride all the way back to the campground. So we worked our way back down to the Barcroft Research Station. After I got back to the truck I went into the research station for the open house and checked out the types of research that are done there. The research is done on animals, geology, weather, and other subjects. To top it all off they had cookies. :-)

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It took a while for Timber to catch up, but once she did we got our things ready to go and headed back toward camp. On the way back we passed Tom W and Ken. We thought they were almost back to the campground and we told them that, but when we kept driving we saw how far they really had to go and we got worried. Kat decided that she was going to pack up all of their gear and then go back for them in the car. She was nearly done packing the gear when they showed up at our campsite. Tom W said that this bike ride was tougher than the death ride that he had done a few weeks earlier. :-) We got all or our gear packed up and into the truck and were heading home by 6 PM. We still had a long ride back to San Jose.

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We finally made it home. Our original plan was to drop Forrest off at the BART station in Dublin, but as we got closer to Dublin we realized that BART would stop running for the evening before we got there. So I decided that we would drive to SF and drop Forrest off and then head home from there. That added a little bit of time, but not much in the overall scheme of things. It started to get dark as we drove through Yosemite and that evening we went through Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. It was a long drive back and I didn't end up getting to be until about 4 AM due to clean up and other things that I had to do.

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I still feel that this trip is best done in three days, but since I made it to the summit I'm happy with the way things turned out. Timber probably should not have hiked so far on her bad foot and I'm concerned that this effort will cause it to take longer for her foot to heal. The drive to and from White Mountain Peak was long as usual and fairly uneventful. I thought we scored a major coup when we were able to drive up to the Barcroft Research Station. That saved us a few hours on our round trip which made a lot of difference. I'm happy with the way the trip worked out overall, but I don't think I'll be back for a while unless Timber can convince me that she needs to get back and summit. Until then I'm going to spend my weekends elsewhere.

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