2009 03 01 1964 Hike Log

A 1964 Hike Log

Forty-five years ago, when I would take a trip, I’d keep a log. It was usually in a small notebook, spiral bound with wire. Since my idea for this month’s musing is slow in developing, I thought I’d simply transcribe that log. The pictures associated with that trip are in slide form, buried among thousands of others, which make them hard to insert at this time. Later, perhaps they can be added for visual interest. What follows is the transcription of a trip log I wrote describing a Sierra hike my high school buddies and I took in the summer of 1964. The country we traversed was Southeast of Yosemite Valley. In reflection, we made some poor decisions (including leaving a sick hiker by himself on the side of a remote mountain). But that’s how one learns. Several items may not be obvious, so I’ve made footnotes. The (p) refers to photograph. In addition, I have corrected a few misspellings, which were common before the computer brought us into conformity.

General Notes

Aug. 25 (Tuesday)
We left Berkeley at 6:45 a.m. with all our gear. We had a good drive – without much traffic and arrived at Tuolumne Meadows at about 1:30. We checked in with the ranger there, then went by the creek to eat our bag lunches. At 2:10 we left Tuolumne Mead. for Tioga Pass and at the pass we had a half-hour wait for road construction. We arrived at Agnew Meadows at 4:25, having travelled 278 miles by car to our starting point, in 9½ hours.
We had dinner of spaghetti and meatballs at 5:45 and went up to an animal pack station for water. We retired early for a fair night’s sleep and an early start in the morning. (During the night it became cloudy from a clear sky but by morning it became clear again. We also saw Echo II1).

Wednesday Aug. 26
We rose at 6:00 to a breakfast of oatmeal with dried fruit, cocoa, Tang2, and vitamin C pills. The cereal was especially delicious with the fruit in it. We then cleaned up, packed, took a group picture, and left on a well-defined trail for Lake Ediza. We stopped once at Shadow Creek for a short rest stop (and also to update our journal). The sun’s rays had just reached the valley at this point. After this rest stop, we continued on the trail, getting onto the John Muir2 after passing Shadow Lake. The hike to Ediza from there was not too hard, so we made good time, arriving about 11:30. (We hiked 4½ hours for seven miles – not too bad for a 1500 foot climb with 30 pound packs.)
We camped way above Ediza by a beautiful creek with delicious water. The wind was very strong so we made a shelter out of a poncho. The sleeping area was not too big. After this, we had a good lunch of thin bread, honey, pre-sweetened Kool-Aid (which was too sweet), raisins, chocolate bars and Monterey Jack cheese.
We decided to move our sleeping area to a less windy, wider area, which we called Telemann Meadows. In the afternoon, we twiddled our thumbs, read, and everyone enjoyed Frank’s swim in the glacial water of nearby peaks. (p)
We had a dinner, (singing songs during preparation) of rice and seasonings (corned beef), onion soup, pudding (vanilla), and tea. After dinner clean up we took a stroll, admired the Minarets and Ridder Peak then returned to our sleeping bags about 7:45, talked for a while and then retired.

Thursday, Aug. 27
(p) Ridder and Minarets
We started an exploration hike at 7:20, after having wheat shreds, cocoa, fruit, and milk for breakfast. We seemed fairly well acclimatized and with many stops we got above 11,000 feet by 8:30. We found that we needed some mints or something to chew on on our ascent. Hugh got sick so we decided that he could stay on the side of the mountain while we hiked to the top. We gave him lunch and other necessities and went by ourselves almost to the top, arriving at 12:45. We ate chocolate bars and then started our descent at 1:10. The hike down was much easier than the hike up because we didn’t get winded. We also glissaded down the glaciers and made good time, arriving to meet Hugh at 3:00.
We had lunch by Hugh’s brook, which was beautiful. It consisted of thin bread, honey, cheese, salami and cherry Kool-Aid. We left Hugh’s brook at 4:10 and arrived back above Ediza at 5:30. As we came over the hill into our camp, we all shouted with joy over seeing some females in the camp we almost stayed at. We talked for a minute, then came back to camp to loaf for ½ hour before fixing a dinner of rice, with roast beef, beef-noodle soup, banana cream pudding and tea. Our dinner was disrupted by Dick Irvin and a climbing friend. We discovered the females were not staying with them and also Dick knew Crehe Ridder (from whom we got our menu). They said they planned to scale the face of Banner Peak in the morning. After they left it was dark, so clean-up was very hard. We finally got in bed at 8:45 and all slept very soundly.

Friday, August 28
We all slept ‘till we felt like getting up; Josh rising at 7:00, Pat at 7:10, Hugh at 7:20, Frank at 7:25 and Mike at 7:30 ½ (sleeping ½ minute extra). Finally – when we all were rolling, we had a breakfast of Farina with prunes, Tang, cocoa and vit. C pills. We then cleaned up, fulfilled nature’s call, packed and left at 9:05. At 10:25 we came to the J.M.4 Trail Junction where we met about 15 scouts resting. Mike got a stomach cramp from drinking too much water. It went away soon though.
Hiking at an easy pace, we got to Garnet Lake in average time. We ate the usual lunch there but had Gouda cheese (which was quite delicious) for variety. After lunch, we packed up again to arrive at Thousand Island Lake about 3:00. We picked a camp, then all went swimming and washing and fishing. After lazing off and catching no fish, we returned to our camp for dinner. The Ala5 was good with dried beef and oil. Also we had strawberry pudding and way too much tea! In the evening we retired to cold sleeping bags, which stayed cold all night, but we had very warming discussions on religion and politics. Even so, we remained friends!

Saturday, August 29
We woke up at 6:00 to still very cold sleeping bags. There was frost all over and ice in Pat’s bota. Frank went fishing, froze and caught two fish of about 7 and 8 inches. The fresh meat tasted delicious with a breakfast of Farina with apricots, Tang, cocoa and vit. C pills. We broke camp at Thousand Island at 9:15 and had a very easy climb to Island Pass—which was a beautiful place for nature study. We found many obsidian chips and saw a number of birds and animals, among which were: Steller’s Jay, Robin, Calif. Gull, Gray Crowned Rosy-finch, Mountain Bluebird, Osprey, Oregon Junco, Clark’s nutcracker, Mountain Chickadee, Red Shafter Flicker, Fly catcher, White Crowned Sparrow, Turkey Vulture, Pika, Belding’s Ground Squirrel, Chipmunk, Deer and Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel. Although most of the flowers were not in bloom, we did see Mountain Lupine, Indian Paintbrush (in striking colors), Cornflower?, Thistles, and others we couldn’t identify. A jet overhead went through the sound barrier. After staying at Island Pass for 45 minutes, we left on the downhill trek for Waugh Lake. It was easy hiking but when we got to the dammed lake, we found that the water was 15 feet lower than the top point and there were absolutely no good camping places there. So we ate the normal lunch, Pat getting water for Kool-Aid. Our plastic (cheese) wasn’t too bad and we all ate our share ungrudgingly. We then decided to find a campsite on Rush Creek instead of staying on what used to be an island in Waugh. We did find an excellent campground with a terrific fishing hole in it. On a fly, Pat caught about ten inches of rainbow trout on the third try. It was delicious—roasted. Hugh tried some fishing with Frank and Pat’s gear but somehow the lines got snagged about every 5 casts. He finally said he’d given up fishing for good when he had to swim for a lure. Our dinner was delicious but we needn’t discuss that! (Mike couldn’t stand the soup). We finally retired at 8:00 in a luxurious tent, planned and constructed by Mike.

Sunday, August 30
We woke at 6:00 to warm sleeping bags (thanks to the tent). We wanted to get off fairly early so there would be plenty of time at Alger Lakes. Our breakfast was normal, having pears with our oatmeal. We left camp at 8:05 and hiked ½ way up Gem Pass before Frank realized he had to hike back 2 ½ miles to get his camera, then hike the whole distance back to Alger. We all got to Alger at the same time…meeting a Long Beach schoolteacher who was camping alone on a Tuolumne Loop. We took him in and made a fantabulous tent after having our regular lunch. The sun went down behind adjacent peaks very early, so we all felt like a warm dinner by 5:15. Because of the hard hike ahead of us, we all hit the sack by 6:30, the six of us sleeping fairly well in spite of the wind.

Monday, August 31
We rose promptly at 6:00 to cloudy, windy skies and cold clothes. Pat made a fire with some difficulty, so Josh could start our illustrious omelet breakfast. We ate hurriedly, moving as fast as possible to avoid chills in the sub-freezing temperatures. Our expedition packed, then left the wind-swept, desolate camp at 7:10 making excellent time under the prevailing conditions. We hiked along a trail next to Alger Lake for a few minutes, then decided the trail up Koip Pass was actually over the next ridge. After mounting the hump, we found to our pleasure that the trail did run up the next valley. We followed it in the inevitable direction, which was soon to be discovered as being up! Forty mile an hour winds either blew us up the hill or over on our sides, depending on how well prepared we were for the great surges of cold air. As we neared the top of Koip Pass, it became evident that there were small particles of precipitation in the air. They were either snowflakes or sleet particles, but no one could tell for sure, because of the biting breezes. Our cheeks became terribly wind burnt and probably something close to being frostbitten. Still we climbed—higher and higher, ‘till we reached the 12,000 feet summit of Koip Pass. The winds had increased in velocity to at least 50 miles per hour, blowing Hugh’s sleeping bag and Josh’s hat literally all over the mountainside. The maps, which were blown from Hugh’s pack, were recovered only because of Hugh’s loud and fast French Horn lips and Frank’s quick bowing arm! Joshua never did win the battle of—there—ah—goes—(his hat). We were constantly bracing ourselves against the wind bursts so when they stopped, even for an instant, we became disgusted! Having reached the highest point of our days trek, there was only one thing left for us to do. –Descend. And so we did. Switchback after switchback, down, down, down, bracing ourselves for even more forceful gusts of wind. At one point Mike lost his balance and practically blew down the 45o angle hill for a few hundred yards. We were kept on the alert because of our heavy packs…always over compensating for the added weight on our backs. In several spots we all had to crouch or sit to maintain upright positions at all. For safety’s sake we cut the corner off one switchback that came to the edge of a cliff. And still we hiked down. It was difficult to see the bottom of the mountain because of the blizzard, which surrounded us, but we did make it. Down, over 2,000 feet of wet, icy scree we managed to crawl, only to climb over another smaller pass of less height and more snow. Before even starting Parker Pass, we broke out some sour candy and donned our ponchos. The ponchos acted both as windbreaks and as snow shelters for the miserable occupants. This stop cheered everyone up. The wind didn’t seem as forceful and everyone was quickly much warmer. After a little bota water to whet our dried throats we started our journey over Parker. The ducks6 and trails were partially snow-covered by the time we finished our passage.
Several times we lost the trail but with many careful observations and the help of Pat’s guiding instinct, we always got back on in fine style. We met the mono Pass trail at about 12:15 (which we soon decided was a perfect time for lunch). We overlooked the eating desire until we came upon one of the old Yosemite Valley pioneer huts. Most of one side was caved in, but some of the roof was left to shelter us from the snow. Norb Farrell expressed his thanks for being able to hike with us over the two passes as he gave us some beef jerky in exchange for some of our American processed, pasteurized, homogenized, untastified plastic! The snow was beautiful, but our inactivity during lunch made us cold quickly. We took two pictures, packed, and again started down the trail for the Tioga Road. We were all thrilled every time we let our eyes stray from the trail into the snowy forests. We saw a buck running through the white grass, which inspired us to sing Jingle Bells in full. In no time at all we found ourselves standing on the Tioga Road discussing what to do.
We were a day early anyway, so we decided to hike down to Tuolumne Meadows on the highway. A man in a red Chevy took movies of us twice as we walked down the road. Many people looked at our outfits and saw that we weren’t cowboys7. Old ladies’ expressions showed, “Oh, those poor, dirty, hungry, tired, cold packers.” We had to laugh at some of these. Finally Norb couldn’t stand walking, so he got us a hitch-hike into the Ranger Station. Here he left us to go to the valley for a bus. We moseyed around the ranger station for a while, taking off our shoes and socks to let them dry and talking to the ranger about the weather. There were no dry camping places so we went to the store, bought a lot of goodies, and planned to pot around in the John all night. A mother of four who wasn’t feeling well overheard our conversation and said that if we wanted we could use her six-man army tent if we could help her pack and go. She looked miserable and the tent looked fine, so we helped her load for Oakland, appreciating her kindness. We moved in, ate a Saltine cracker with peanut butter dinner, and then went back to the ranger hut to warm our feet from 7:00 to 9:00. The ranger got there at 7:30 and couldn’t make the generator go so we moved inside the dark building and built a room-lighting fire which warmed us all promptly. At 9:00 we left for our tent, and climbing in with much speed we ate another cracker snack and retired after a strenuous day.

Tuesday, Sept. 1, 1964
We rose at 9:00 to a dark tent, which, because of the insulation, kept us warm all night. Mike looked out the door and saw to our pleasure that the sun was shining brightly on the surrounding area. This all inspired us to -- -- stay in bed until 9:30, at which time we rose and made a roaring fire to cook on. With this fire, we had a final chance to dry ourselves off before piling into the car for Berkeley with Brewster. He arrived earlier than we had expected—partially because of the distress call, which Joshua put through to him the previous day, and partially because he wanted to show Wim Van Vuren his foreign student from the Netherlands, Yosemite. We—we weren’t ready for him at any rate, so we quickly sent them off up the hill to look at the snow while we packed. We folded the octagonal tent on a dry stretch of road near our camp, organized our gear, then packed the car when Brewster got back. We left Tuolumne Meadows at 12:00 and drove for quite a way before stopping at a roadside rest for lunch. The trip back to Berkeley was a good one and tired as we were, we all tried to remember to thank Mr. S for travelling a total of 559 miles to pick us up (with his wife in the hospital. He was certainly a good sport, because without him, our trip would have been impossible.

The End

1 A satellite measuring 40 meters in diameter, launched in January, 1964 for communications purposes. The sky in the mountains was very dark, so stars shone brightly, and human satellites were still quite rare. We were all very enamored of the space launches back then. Sputnik, which launched the “space race”, was only a decade before.
2 A dehydrated orange drink
3 The John Muir trail extends the length of the Sierra Nevada
4 John Muir
5 A type of dehydrated packer’s dinner
6 Trail markers consisting of a pile of rocks spaced so that from one pile you see the next.
7 A reference to the song “As I walked down the streets of Laredo”

©Frank Bliss 2009 All rights reserved
March, 2009