Category: Lowest to Highest

Whitney, Tim, and Willy

2017.04.23

Women guard your husbands ‘cuz if they this fun they’re at risk of getting snagged on the local adventurettes. This is Tim. He stopped to smoke a cigarette near my van and I bummed one cuz… good lookin’ lone motobiker? I asked about his planned rides. When he mentioned the Inyo Range, I convinced him that if he was gonna bike it, he needed to do it right, and ride the entire crest. He asked if I would want to come, and duh, guess what I said. So the next day found us BRAPPING the fuck up Cerro Gordo Road, riding clear past the salt tram to New York Butte, then back down the Swansea Grade. We hit some high speeds, which in hindsight was just stupid […]

Salt Tram Tender’s Cabin

2016.02.24

Hiking, Latergram, Lowest to Highest

Stayed on the porch of the Saline Valley Salt Tram tender’s cabin last night, 8650 feet. So much quiet. Check out the Saline Valley salt tram on Google – it’s a weird, fascinating relic. Down into Death Valley (Saline Valley) today!

Classy

2015.10.12

Hiking, Latergram, Lowest to Highest

A top ten most obvious fact about me: I am not classy. But I have a damn good, good time where I can, and every day I care less and less what other people think about me. Being in the woods so much the past few years is turning me into a real human animal AND I LOVE IT. Posing with Kevin AKA “BULLDOZER” at the eastern terminus of the L2H route in Badwater. 🐶 photo: Shotput 😍

Lowest To Highest

2015.10.10

Hiking, Lowest to Highest

GET L2H MAPS The Lowest to Highest Trail (L2H) is a challenging route that runs from the lowest point in the contiguous USA (Badwater, Death Valley, -282 feet) to its highest, Mount Whitney (14,505 feet), across 130 miles. This distance is run yearly as an ultramarathon, but there is also a less-known hiking route that avoids the highways. There are other possible L2H routes plotted by other parties. I met one man who leads groups on one such route and am amazed nobody has died that way yet. There are a lot of ways to get from Badwater to Whitney, but this particular hiking route is one of the least absurd. Although still… it’s very absurd! Typically the L2H is walked in the late winter (February-early March) […]

2015.10.09

Latergram, Lowest to Highest

The views are terrible.

We Three

Hiking, Latergram, Lowest to Highest

My wonderful hiking partners and I make it to the top of Mount Whitney despite all that moisture!! Lots of hugs and next up: hot cocoa. L2H completed, and for Abram (left), the H2L2H (highest to lowest to highest)! My third summit in three years, and third time sleeping on the top. I climbed four 14ers this summer: Mt. Sill, Mt. Tyndall, Mt. Williamson, and Whitney. Backstory: Abram had no Microspikes (crampons) and so I lent him one of mine after his makeshift ziptie “spikes” failed (they break quickly in the cold). We skipped the icy 99 switchbacks and went straight up the Trailcrest chute, each with one spiked foot. When half-way up, we spotted a beautiful woman headed down, alone. That gave the boys courage to […]

Whitney with Snow

Hiking, Latergram, Lowest to Highest

Current status. Except for the fact that wind drifts removed most of it, the crest got about 3 feet during October’s big storm. The ice on rock was the scariest part.

2015.10.08

Hiking, Latergram, Lowest to Highest

First glimpses of the Sierra after the storm, panorama part 3 of 3.

Hiking, Latergram, Lowest to Highest

First glimpses of the Sierra after the storm, panorama part 2 of 3.

First Glimpses

Hiking, Latergram, Lowest to Highest

First glimpses of the Sierra after the storm, panorama part 1 of 3. Abram takes shots. I take shots. By now, Kevin AKA “Bulldozer” AKA Lighthouse had already blown through his DLSR battery in a bewildering 5-day photo frenzy, and we had been cold and wet 36 hours in Death Valley(!), wondering what happened in the other side of the Inyos… 4 feet of snow on Whitney, we were informed… But we really don’t care because so far every moment of this trip has been an entire trip in itself. We are satisfied.

Lee Flat

2015.10.07

Hiking, Latergram, Lowest to Highest

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.

100 Year Rain

Hiking, Latergram, Lowest to Highest

It rained in Death Valley so we dropped acid. That got interesting.

H2L2H

Hiking, Latergram, Lowest to Highest

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 gave him a chance. And he’s glad […]

Darwin Plateau

Hiking, Latergram, Lowest to Highest

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.

Dark Clouds

Hiking, Latergram, Lowest to Highest

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…

Badwater

Hiking, Latergram, Lowest to Highest

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 😘

Sierra View

Latergram, Lowest to Highest

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!