Trinity Training June 10th 14th, 2009 Here comes the rain. Deborah and Karina Redding, Julia Callahan, Vivien Kablanow, Carey Greg and Adrian Crane headed to the Trinity Alps in Northern California for some hiking and climbing. Ray Kablanow planned to come up a day late and hike in at night to catch up with us. At the trailhead we sorted gear and left a note for Ray. Deborah spent 20 minutes per person pre-taping ALL of the girls’ feet to prevent blisters on our journey and we left just after noon: A quarter mile down the trail we discovered we had to ford a stream. It was the major crossing of the South Fork of the Salmon river. To save time Adrian offered to carry the girls across the river. Only Adrian ends up with wet boots. As soon as he puts his dry socks on he has wet boots and socks. It takes till 6:20 to reach camp thru rain and hail, burnt out forest and stunning views thru the clouds. Vivien and Carey use their poncho in defiance of any sense of fashion. Vivien is given the nickname ‘Frodo’. We pass a group of young people who might have been scouts but are not. Deborah’s new boots are gaining in their rating and reach 85% during the hike.
On Friday morning Ray arrives at 6am and we get up to greet him before going back to bed. Adrian wins the pool with a 7:30 am guess. We hiked to Upper Caribou Lake which although only 300 ft higher than Snowslide lake was still mostly ice covered. We made our way across granite slabs and snow fields following the general direction of Caribou Scramble toward Sawtooth ridge. Adrian takes the snowslope while Ray leads up the granite; to which Adrian objected with a verbal tirade. Julia got a little nervous on the way up but hung in and we sat on top of the ridge with great views down to Emerald and Sapphire lakes as we had lunch. Carey didn’t help Julia nerves by telling the joke about the climber that shouts back ‘This is not the wayyyyyyyy………’. Descend the rocky dirt and then cut back to the snowslope where we are soon able to glissade which Julia enjoys more than the steep rock and dirt. Deborah raises the rating on her boots to 99% which reflects both how well her boots work, as well as general contentment about how beautiful the scenery and what a good time Julia and Karina are having. Who said rating boots should be objective! Around the campfire that evening we have roasted almonds,
toasted cheese sandwiches as appetiser and a great pasta dinner by Vivien. Even
the rain that evening didn’t dampen our spirits. The sky cleared late evening to
let us watch the Alpenglow show on the On Saturday we turned our attention to rock climbing and did several good climbs on a section of granite that Vivien and Ray had seen the day before. It looked like it had been climbed before but we still named one of the climbs: Caribou Squeeze. It rained on and off giving us a variety of grip on the rock. Julia made her first rock climb. Back at camp Karina, Julia and Deb made spaghetti. In an evening long marathon, Julia ran though the plot of Pride and Predujdice, Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, and The Good Earth in a highly entertaining and non-stop imitation of "books on tape". Julia’s storytelling was limited only by Deborahs insistence that she not tell Karina the ending to Jane Eyre: This drove Karina crazy. Cary ,Adrian and Ray were designated wood gatherers and kept the fire going. This evening we had roasted macadamias and salami and cheese appetizers. Charcoal facepainting provided some entertainment. Changing ‘English weather’ continued which provided wonderful views as the sun set and the alpenglow once again broke thru the clouds to color the rocks pink. Deer strolled through camp. Karina got us up early as she wanted to be home for a party. We packed camp and hiked briskly out looking down on the clouds filling the valleys below. Back at the stream, oh so close to the trailhead Adrian offered to carry the girls back across the stream. First to be carried was Deborah but Adrian slipped on a rock and pitched her and her pretty blue boots into the water – oops. Karina and Julia did get successfully carried across. After the fast downhill hike with heavy packs our feet were hot and sore and Deb, being a perfectionist, downgraded her boots to a final 75% rating which Adrian feels is a bit harsh after their early success. Our Trinity Hiking trip gave us the climbing we were looking for as well as a great hike, good company and good views. .Adrian Crane and Deborah Steinberg
July 11th. To get ready for the tricky Sierra summits, we did a Ritter and Banner Tune Up Donate Now | ||
We
were the first to arrive at Snowslide lake and had first choice of campsite
which was an easy one as we immediately found the perfect campsite: overlooking
the lake, granite countertop, tentspaces , fire ring and even, for our
hamburgers, a metal grill which Deborah dubbed the ‘grill from heaven’. The only
blemish on our perfect camp site was that the lake water that we filtered was
foaming in the bottle! We hoped it wasn’t linked to the deadly asbestos threat
from the Serpentine rock that we read about at the ranger station! Real food was
cooked and appreciated along with a fantastic evening light culminating in
Alpenglow across the lake and on the huge granite wall streaked with streamlets.
Karina burns her shoe. We have a pool on when ray will arrive thru the night.
rocks across the lake again.