The second day we decided to make a LONG day of it and drove all the way up and over Sonora Pass stopping along the way at Knights Ferry (to admire the inverted topography), Columns of the Giants, Leavitt Falls Overlook (to see the Little Walker Caldera) and a few miles of off-trail hiking looking for some petrified wood fragments. 

We finished the day with dinner at The Rock restaurant in Twain Harte and then went to the Twain Harte Lake Rock that famously exfoliated explosively in 2015 as seen in the video below the photos. 

​Laura, Z and myself had been working so hard and recovering from our first COVID infections that we hadn't had a chance to get out and hike during August and most of September. We decided to change that by heading to Chain Lakes via one of the least-visited trailheads into the Emigrant Wilderness: Box Springs.

After leaving HWY 108 at Long Barn, it takes a little over an hour to travel another 28 miles on paved, then gravel, then rutted and rocky dirt roads to reach the trailhead. Most 4WD SUV's and crossovers should have no problem reaching the trailhead. But it pretty much guarantees you'll be the only one on the trail there! It'll even get you away from the hunters!

​The 2.8 mile trail to the group of three chain lakes gently wanders through the remnants of a 2003 fire that we last visited in November of 2006. Many of the snags we saw in 2006 have since toppled and willows and small fir trees are regenerating near the meadows. Trail fining was a bit sus at times since this are is not highly trafficked and the many downed trees have fallen since the last trail crew came through to cut a path. The lakes are small and lovely, but fishless. Thunderstorms chased us out a bit earlier than we anticipated and didn't get to explore the lens of Disaster Peak Formation nor hike to surrounding domes for a great view. But a little hail and thunder made for some great excitement!

Ellen, our longtime friend from Germany, had a dream of hiking the John Muir Trail upon her retirement from teaching English and PE in Germany for 35 years. I flippantly stated several years ago that I'd do the trail with her when she was ready. Well, it turned out the summer of 2025 was going to be The Year for her, but I had been battling through severe ankle problems, the collapse of the United States AND and a new puppy that made the JMT untenable for me. But Ellen was determined to do the JMT solo if she had to, so I planned a 5-day tune-up trip for us in the High Sierra as a litmus test for my ankle health and to pass along my Sierra backpacking knowledge. 

The available trailhead permits were not ideal (all had massive elevation gains and were fairly exposed to sun) but we settled on leaving from Pine Creek Mine and exploring French Canyon, Piute Canyon and the associated high-elevation lakes teeming with golden trout. We saw lots of amazing scenery ranging from double rainbows to electric sunsets and caught so many trout I actually got bored quite quickly. We cut the trip short by one day because the mosquitos and biting flies were so terrible in Piute Canyon. There was absolutely no place we could stop for more than 20 seconds without being swarmed and bitten. So we made a 5 mile day into a 10 mile day to find relief at the high-elevation Lower Golden Trout Lake. 

Perhaps the misery from the previous day's mosquito-fest made us more appreciative, but our last day's hike through Humphreys Basin was just absolutely spectacular! We had planned on exploring Desolation Lake, but we were both ready to just get home, so we made a bee-line over Piute Pass and marveled at the amazing rocks in the canyon of the North Fork of Bishop Creek. I'm certain that many of these photos will make their way to BlueSky (@phaneritic) for proper earth science discussions. Please open the complete photo album to see all of our sights!

A very high reward to low effort ratio, this hike is just a bit over 3 miles one way but offers tremendous views of Clouds Rest, Mt Hoffman, and Half Dome from atop the gentle dome of Mt Watkins. The views are massively expansive an there's a ton of noteworthy glaciation evidence.  Z and I found a rattlesnake in between several large glacial erratics that I was scanning with my phone to make 3D models. I had quite the startled jump, since it was the first time I've ever seen a rattlesnake above 8000'. Enjoy the photo album and 3d models for now. 

Laura, Zephyr and myself all had a great time tagging along with Garry Hayes' MJC Geology field trip as backup drivers and support for the fifteen awesome students on his annual trip to Death Valley. Normally starting on a Thursday evening, this trip instead started on Friday morning due to a terribly wet storm that drenched the valley on Thursday. Garry didn't want the students' trip to start off wet and miserable so we he cut out Shark Tooth Hill and was able to make it through the rest of our normal Friday stops and get into camp a mere four minutes later than the previous year. Friday was a bit blustery, but the winds calmed to a breeze by the evening and the rest of the trip saw partly overcast skies with high temps in the 60's to low 70's and great star viewing most nights. Enjoy the un annotated photo albums and look for previous years to find teh annotated geology.

Needing to clear our heads and prepare ourselves for what is likely to come in the next 4 years, Laura, Z, Julie, Jill, Fritz and I headed over to the Preston Falls Trail along the middle run of the Tuolumne River. We hiked just a tad over 3 miles into the 6 mile trail. The trail starts where the glaciers ended during the last glacial maximum 20,000yrs ago so there is a lot of great geology to see along the way. The water and rocks are amazing, but we didn't have much time to properly fish on this day. I really enjoyed looking at the laminar flow of the river going over the granite. I hope these memories sustain us while we fight through the impending shitshow.