Flew to Fresno on my 65th Birthday for the start of my Sierra High Route birthday hike. Spent last night at Grant Grove Village to acclimate to the altitude and visit the General Grant Tree and Giant Sequoia Grove. This morning I hitched a ride to Roads End in Kings Canyon for the long climb up to 10,000 feet on the Cooper Creek Trail before bushwacking out to Grouse Lake for my first night on route. Stumbled on another hiker wandering around the approach to Grouse Lake and was surprised to see a father and two sons and one other hiker all camping at this remote lake. That's Labor day weekend for you.
My first bad omen; while trying to cook dinner my Walmart special fuel canister didn't work. It's like the valve was to low to engage with my stove valve pin. This happened once before on a hike in the Wind River Range so I wasn't too worried. Shoved a small piece of rock into the valve stem hole to increase the engagement. Of course then it started leaking. Fortunately after some fiddling I got it to work by over tightening the canister really tight.
Hey, I was the other solo hiker you ran into on the way up to Grouse Lake! Funny to have found your trip report, looks like you had an awesome hike. I guess I was up and out of the lake faster than you or the other party because I didn't see any traces of you guys up ahead, and I passed by Horseshoe Lakes on the second day without seeing anybody... actually I didn't see anyone all the way until Cartridge Pass. I put up my TR on High Sierra Topix if you're interested https://www.highsierratopix.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=23983. Again congrats on the great hike!
ReplyDeleteWow. Great to hear from you. It was a fantastic hike. That climb up to Grouse Lake with my 12 days of food was a killer. Nice trip report you put together. Perhaps our paths will meet again on another trail! PaPa Smurf
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