The year of the Ryan Part 3. Part 1 of 1.

So,
      In the spring I'd planned a backpacking trip to the grand canyon. I didn't get permits. So I'd planned a trip to the mountains of New Mexico in it's place. As the date was approaching Joe backed out which triggered Matt to back out. This left me and Dylan as the only participants so rather than drive 16 hours to New Mexico (which was halfway to Joe) we just went and backpacked wild California (previous post about Los Padres).
      After seeing my epic JMT adventures suddenly all the guys wanted to take a trip real bad so I threw together a trip to Mammoth for the second week in September. The idea was to do 2 nights along some of the most easily accessible parts of the JMT. Joe flew in and we drove up to Mammoth. We spent a could night acclimating to the altitude then set off to hike to Thousand Island Lake.

The guys.

You can see why I loved this section.

The storm brewing.

The first day was gorgeous. The hiking was good. I was in fantastic shape and felt great. Some of the guys don't get out much so they weren't as springy. It got really cold and windy right after this shot. so we searched around for a sheltered camp and found one. We had a fun and cold evening then went to bed.
     A few hours after going to bed I started to hear pitter patter on my tent. It sounded like the wind had died down but now it was snowing. I opened up the tent and it was really coming down. I tried to go back to sleep but realized my tent isn't exactly made for holding up snow. Every time it would finally get quiet I realized that was only because the snow had piled up in a layer on my tent so that the flakes weren't hitting the fabric. I had to wake up and knock off the snow every hour or so. Eventually I ended up curled in a tiny ball b/c that was all the non weighted down space I had left. It was not a great night.
    We woke up to 8 inches of snow. This was a lot more than we bargained for. The decision was made based on the experience level of the group to turn around and get back to the car as quickly as we could. We took a lower elevation route back. It was beautiful. The sun came out. The hiking was amazing. There aren't many people who get to see the High Sierra change seasons overnight. It was a two-fer trip. Fall and winter in 1. I had become accustomed to hiking in snow so I was able to enjoy it. Dylan also loved it. The other guys, not so much.

Dylan and Joe

Joe dancing.

Down at lower elevations it had snowed much less but when we got there it started to snow again.

We made it back to the car.


I brought along a plastic film camera for fun and got these shots of the trip.

We booked a room in Mammoth for the night since Joe had a plane ticket2 days out and nobody wanted to go home. We ate great cooked food, sat in a hot tub and enjoyed a more comfortable evening. The trip was fun but way too short.

Ryan