This trip took place on July 28, 29 and 30. The people are
as follows: myself (of course), Jan Weston, Dave and Jerry Wallace, Tim
Casares, Joe Talley, and Ed Simovich. Jan, Dave, Joe and Ed have
been friends for some time. Jerry is Dave's nephew and Tim's wife
used to work with Joe's wife and Jan is a Sugar Group founding member,
ergo my connection to this whole group (though I have played racquetball
with Joe a few times - or I should say, I stood in the court and watched
the ball go by ;-).
I haven't been backpacking on an over night trip since 1993. The last time I went was a bit of a disaster, though that's not the reason I haven't been since. Between not living here and not having time, this is the first opportunity I've really had. It was long overdue. Unfortunately I'm somewhat out of shape, so I'm still sore as I type this 2 days later.
We left Saturday morning. The first thing I learned was that getting this group to move is like hearding cats. At least we left on the right day ;-) We finally got to the parking lot in Mineral King and headed on our way just before 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. The hike was from the parking area (about 7,800 ft.) 4+ miles uphill to Lower Monarch Lake (about 10,300 ft.). It was all uphill, which really is a good thing. We wound up somewhat scattered as everyone took a little different pace. As I recall, I arrived 4th out of the 7. I think Jerry blazed the trail, followed by Jan and Dave, then me, then the other 3. I arrived a little before 5:00 p.m. I didn't get any pictures on the way up but I did catch a few of the sunset the first day.
Dave and Jerry set up camp a bit away from us and Joe set up his tent a few feet up from the other 3 tents (Ed's, Tim's and Jan's). I slept outside which was actually quite nice. We picked our location because of its proximity to a bear box (to keep the food safe). Once we got set up, Jan did a little fishing, we all relaxed a bit, had dinner and went to bed.
The next morning we got up and ate breakfast. The plan was to
do a day hike. Across the lake was Mineral Peak, which Dave was talking
about climbing. Dave is quite the climber. As an aside, most
of the group was in their 40's. Dave and I were kind of the oddballs
in that respect; he's nearly 64 and I'm 27. Everyone also wanted
to hike to Sawtooth Pass. There is a lake on the other side, Columbine
Lake, which some in the group were considering fishing at since the fish
at Lower Monarch wern't big enough to keep. In the end, we decided
we should all go to Sawtooth Pass and then decide what to do from there.
