Lowest to Highest, a walk through the California desert. Learn more about this 130-mile-ish hiker version of the L2H ultramarathon sufferfest (maps included) that goes from Death Valley Badwater to the top of Mount Whitney, or just check it out blow-by-blow below.
A strange, soaking wet and cold day on Lee Flat. I kept imagining — wishing — a horde of undead, long-haired Vikings in leather armor would storm over the Joshua tree-studded hills on burros, hair and fur flowing in the wind. I also kept trying to cuddle with said trees, but all to no avail.
It rained in Death Valley so we dropped acid. That got interesting.
We first learned of Abram while atop Telescope Peak. He had signed in the log book, “Highest to Lowest to Highest (H2L2H – Mt. Whitney to Badwater to Mt. Whitney), abramwashere.com.” We joked that when we met Abram we would have to kill him as such a crazy hiking accomplishment made our hike look paltry. Later that night, in the dark, the wonderful and unassuming Abram caught up to us. As I’ve said I don’t usually hike with strangers but after thinking on it and listening to him a while, I realized I enjoyed our team expanding to three. Abram might look like a bum standing on the road to some, but he’s a stellar human and I’m glad I… continue reading
Running from lurching rain clouds, in one of the hottest and driest places on earth… Photo taken at about 5100 feet near the Darwin Plateau.
Unexpected and uncharacteristic rains hit on day three of our hike just while climbing out of Darwin Falls to China Garden Springs, and continued for over 24 hours while we hiked on through Death Valley. This is how we experienced one of the hottest places on earth: soaking wet. Dark clouds continued to slam this canyon all night; we got smart and took cover under this leaky old mining structure, and hiked out before sunrise the next morning, running ahead of the clouds…
Last Thursday evening I struck out at Badwater Basin (the lowest point in the USA) for a long hike with this awesome fella, @kevindoesstuff We just rolled into Lone Pine, about 110 miles into a 130 mile hike, and are scarfing Chinese buffet with our new BFF, Abram. The three of us have had the most spectacular time, tons of laughter, lots of natural phenomena, and some hi jinx. More photos soon! Photo by Shotput ?
Snow on the Sierra range. A slightly discouraging view, considering our plan was to hike straight up to the top of Mt Whitney. But we took a hard-earned 24 hour break in Lone Pine (as we came in 24 hours ahead of schedule), got some permits and snow gear, and headed up. This was supposed to be a sweltering hot hike but with our timing it was cool and sometimes downright cold – and rainy!
A nice thing about a walk down old 4×4 roads in this area is finding abandoned ruins of old mining operations and such. This is the top of a defunct tram that runs over the Inyo mountain range. The Saline Valley salt tram was finished in 1913 and brought 20 tons of salt every hour from 1100 feet in Saline Valley, west over the Inyo crest at 8500 feet, and back down to Owens Valley at 3600 feet. Salt was used heavily as a primary food preservative. Operations ceased in the 30s, but the tram works, especially at the top, remain as one of the largest and best preserved. The operator’s cabin is still fairly intact (thanks to people leaving… continue reading
My L2H hiking buddies have fled Lone Pine and it’s “back to work” for all of us. I will certainly never forget this adventure, nor regret a second of it, mostly thanks to these two. Good times. Kevin at left, Abram at right; rain storm in Death Valley
Summiting Telescope Peak, 11,043ft, highest point in Death Valley National Park. Yet another summit this year with less-than-desirable smoggy/smokey/not-sure-what-that-muck-was views, but totally worth every skipped heart beat and coughed-up lung. This mountain top is where we learned of the mysterious and illustrious Abram, of “the wind.” Thanks again Kevin for awesome photos. (We did 31 miles on foot that day!!!)