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Bill Savage, Gary Bonner, Tom Bora, Stewart Kirchmeier and I decided to do this trip because Tom had done it 21 years ago with Don Wright. I got us the permit. I had originally asked for a 3 day permit thinking we wanted to go Friday through Sunday but we had to settle for a 4 day permit from Thursday through Sunday. Tom liked this better because it provided us with more time that he feels we need. Once the word got out that we were planning on going, other people expressed interest. But when it came down to it, because Stewart left to join another company and wasn't able to go, no one really wanted to fill in his spot. I called the Forest Service and told them that only 4 of us were going.
Gary and I rented packs from A-16. Gary also rented a sleeping bag that is good for down to zero degrees. I wasn't aware I could do that so packed up one of our regular sleeping bags. Packing everything and making sure we had enough without carrying too much became the issue. I learned from before to take food that I would really want to eat and not to carry stuff I wouldn't eat. Also we needed to take water tablets so we could get water from the streams and lakes. Because it could rain and would probably be cold we needed to have the right gear for all conditions. We definitely needed to stay warm and dry if at all possible. I packed our 3 man tent also so that we would be covered in case of rain.
Tom suggested that we have hiking boots. I found a sale and debated getting the cheaper or better. Tom suggested better. I paid the extra money and got some pretty good quality shoes that should do fine. I wore them to work a number of times to begin breaking them in hopefully to minimize the blisters.
The final night before leaving I was running around trying to find all the different odds and ends that we needed. I couldn't find my moleskin that had been sitting on my dresser for 3 years and also couldn't find my little transistor radio that I thought would be nice to take with me. I bought some dinners that only require boiling water for cooking - beef stew, beef stroganoff and cajun chicken with rice. I hope that they taste ok. I bought some powered milk with raisin bran, peanut butter sandwiches, fig Newtons and canned pears and peaches. I also packed some peanut M&M's for dessert.
Tom knows the route we are going to take. He says we will basically be going straight up the mountain and that it is only 4 miles total. This doesn't sound right to Bill and I but he's the expert. He also had us all buy 20 feet of cord to take. We aren't a 100% sure how we are going to use this. Once my pack was complete I carried it downstairs and accidentally set it on my foot. It is really heavy and I almost broke a toe. I can't imagine carrying this thing very far.
Tom brought a neat little propane ‘stove' that we could use to boil water. I had my beef stew that can be made by adding boiling water and letting sit for 10 minutes. We all had this kind of dinner and Tom also had cup of soup. Gary had hot chocolate and cookies for dessert. It is a nice surprise to have the stove as it gets cold as soon as the sun goes down and having hot food is a nice convenience.
We all seemed a little tired, but the hike today was just right. The joke of the trip became that we were trying to catch up to 5 nymphomaniacs and later that they were trying to catch up to us. However we never had the good fortune to run into them and doubt that we could have done anything if we had since we were so tired all the time. It is a little cold, especially because we have to do things with our hands. However there is no wind so we should be comfortable sleeping tonight. There is a half moon that seems to be pretty bright, but the stars are incredible! There are so many that we normally can't see in the city lights. But here is an astronomer's dream. Gary and I got to our bags by 7:30. I tried to read, but really didn't feel like it so went to sleep pretty much right away. It is cold in my sleeping bag especially on my feet, but the air mattress is comfortable. Good night!
My feet were cold all night, but I managed to sleep pretty well. It is irritating to wake up every time one turns in the sleeping bag because it is such an ordeal to turn. Even with the air mattress it is impossible to remain in one position for a long time because whatever side is being laid on tends to go numb. I wore my clothes and sweatshirt and beanie while sleeping. My nose got a little cold too. I kept waking up all night needing to go to urinate and finally at 5 I got up to go. The stars were fantastic. Unfortunately I was paying more attention to them than where I was going so got lost coming back. I didn't take my flash light because there was enough ambient light to walk by. It was cold also. I wandered around a bit, looked at the stars some more then heard someone sneeze and found my way back to camp and to my sleeping bag. We all slept until about 7 and finally roused ourselves up. We all seemed to have survived the night ok. There was no dew which was surprise to me and that made everything more bearable as nothing was wet. It was easy to break camp because of that.
We ate breakfast. Gary had oatmeal, I had raisin bran and milk that was made from powdered milk. It tasted ok. I also had some fruit that I brought. It turned out that 3 of us had diarrhea. This is very uncomfortable for one and difficult to take care of in the wild. Doing our business outside in the open is embarrassing enough without having to worry about other special problems. Water was plentiful and Tom kept refilling from the stream. Bill did too. Gary and I were worried about bacteria so used the tablets to purify the water first. Actually the tablets are easy to use with the only difficulty coming from having to wait the 10 minutes for them to work. We also had neutralizer tablets which took away the purifiers bad taste. They seemed to work fine in my opinion.
We broke camp about 8:30 then took off for what was supposed to be Iceberg Lake. That destination would take us to 12,000 feet high. We could see our route and it looked very difficult. Whitney continued to ‘give us the finger' in the background as we continued on our quest to get there. We went left of the stream and up a hill to a giant boulder. This part of the route was difficult because it was made up of loose small gravel that we continued to slip on. However we made it to the boulder and discovered we should have cut across the stream a little sooner and could have had a much easier time of it walking on some huge granite slabs. We got over to the last couple of slabs and made good progress to upper boy scout lake. Once there, Tom pointed out the route for us to go that took us almost straight up a cliff, but with big boulders to walk on that made the way relatively easy. Carrying the packs are what make this all so difficult. The sun is pretty hot also so we all try to make sure and drink enough water.
Gary and I hiked over the ridge where there was a well marked trail. We got to where it kind of leveled out and stopped to have lunch. I had made peanut butter sandwiches for lunch on french bread so was very content. Every one else had cold food also. Tom continued to eat his homemade cookies at almost every stop. He would also just take water from the streams as we passed by without using any purification tablets. Gary and I didn't feel like taking chances. We were tired but after about an hour lunch we put on the packs again and started on the final leg to iceberg lake.
There was a trail in the valley here, but we tried to stay higher about halfway up the slope. Tom wanted us to watch out for a waterfall. We were supposed to climb up the ridge at that point. When did find the waterfall, it was too wet and slippery to go up. So we walked down further looking for a better place. Whitney was right in front of us at this point, but we didn't care. We wanted to get up the ridge. There was a second small waterfall and we did seem to have a way up. It seemed a little risky, but we were able to climb up and get over the ridge without getting killed. This was a very difficult part of the trip, especially since we were all tired by this time.
Once over the edge of the ridge, it was a relatively easy walk to the lake. It was sunny and we could see climbers on the mountain. We asked some people who were already camped where the best place was to go and they gave us some ideas as there was snow where Tom had planned for us to go. We set up camp about 2 pm so we had hiked for about 6 hours including lunch. I decided to sleep outside because there were some nice areas to set a sleeping bag down. Gary and Bill were going to stay in Paul's tent. That way I didn't have to put up my tent. We just sat around talking and watching a couple coming down the mountain. The trail looked very steep and impassable to us sitting there. However seeing the people successfully making it down did provide some hope.
About 5 we started the ‘fire' and had our dinner. I had beef stroganoff that turned out to be pretty good. I also got my first water from the lake and had to use the tablets. Everyone had the hiker type dinners where you add boiling water to the dry stuff in the packages. They are pretty good. I also had my canned peaches. Gary was laughing at me for carrying these up, but they tasted pretty good. I also had some M&M's for dessert. Tom had some fritos that we all ate. The salt was something we needed because these chips where the best I have ever had. The salt taste was one I didn't account for in my meals. After dinner we walked up to the edge of the mesa we were on and looked at the valley where we could see Lone Pine pretty well. We then walked over to the ridge to see if we could find some other way down since the way we came up was almost impassable. We didn't find much that looked any better than we found before, but we agreed we would get down to the valley to walk out since that seemed the safest. We all were tired and went to bed when it got dark at about 7. It was nice to sleep outside and see the stars. The moon was bright even though it was only a half moon. I put in a aluminum wrap in my bag to help protect me from the cold. Also Bill loaned me his thermal socks to keep my feet warm. I hope these work.
We all slept until sunrise - about 6:15 or so. I kept waking up all night wanting to go to the bathroom, but it seemed too cold to get out of my bag. I was surprised when morning came though, because that was a long time in bed. I actually was more comfortable than the first night because the socks and the wrap seemed to keep out the serious cold. Tom wanted Bill and him to leave early - by 7 because we were going to have a long day. We thought we could make it to the top and back to camp in 6 hours because we didn't have to carry our heavy packs. We all took a small pack with some water and food. Then we planned on hiking down to upper boy scout lake for the night. There was ice on all our stuff in the morning, so we ate breakfast and just left our camp up so the sun would dry everything out during the day. Tom and Bill left about 7:15 while Gary and I just cleaned up and took our time. We started out about 7:45 to catch up with them. Tom wanted us separated because there were a lot of loose rocks that could fall on anyone beneath a climber. When we caught up to them, this really slowed us up. Only one person at a time could go aways, then had to wait while the other three climbed up one at a time. The climb wasn't terribly difficult. However it was steep and the loose sand and lack of oxygen made it slow going. I tried to find solid ground as much as possible, and each of us took the route we thought best. There was a lot of room on the climb to maneuver. We finally made it to the ridge which was probably 2000 feet above our camp at about 10. We took a break here to gather our courage for the final 400 foot climb.
Around the ridge was a cliff we intended to climb to the top. It was icy and the wind was pretty cold so we were having second thoughts about going up. The first section was difficult to get up and I wondered how the heck we were supposed to get down, but figured we could worry about that later. Even though the cliff was straight up, there were a lot of ledges and hand holds that made it seem less dangerous. As long as we continued looking up, things were fine. We reached one point that seemed impassable, but somehow Tom got up to the next ledge and then using the rope pulled us up to him. Just as we negotiated this section, we saw a single man coming up who looked like a ranger. We were close to the top at this time and just continued on. In a few minutes we were there. We came over the ridge about 200 feet from the top and surprised a girl who was about to do her business there not knowing that there was a route coming up that point. We got over to the top and spent some time there looking around and savoring the fact that we made it. We took some pictures and then walked back to where we came up. We did speak briefly to the single guy who came up behind us. It turned out he wasn't a ranger, but had walked all the way from the Portal to the top in 4.5 hours! Considering it took us 3 days, we were impressed. Of course he only had a small pack but on the other hand he did this alone. It took us 4 hours to get up from iceberg lake itself.
We walked to the edge and at least in my mind was the thought of how we were supposed to go down. It seemed impossible. Tom found someplace and began the descent. We followed and actually it wasn't that bad. At the spot we used rope to get up, we used rope to get down and helped Tom with our hands to get him down without rope. At the bottom was the trickiest part. Tom managed to figure out how to do it and then talked us down the same way. Again without our big packs we were able to move much easier and this helped us a lot in successfully getting down. All the way down we were careful not to knock rocks on each other. I screwed up though at the end. I successfully moved my feet when Gary was going down through the hard part at the end, but my hands knocked some rocks and of course one hit Gary right in the temple. He seemed ok though, but it was a dumb thing to do. We all made it down though.
We took a break at the ridge again, then began our descent. It was slow going again, because of the loose gravel and rocks. One person could move at a time. We managed like this about halfway, then Gary and I went down the path we came up, while Bill and Tom went down the actual mountaineer trail. This way we could move much more quickly. We finally got down to our camp by about 3:00 - a little later than we had estimated. However we all felt pretty good and were happy about making it to the top.
We broke camp and took a little break and left at about 4 pm. It was difficult to put on the heavy packs again. We wanted to get down to upper boy scout lake tonight so we wouldn't have so far to hike tomorrow. This part of the journey was very difficult. The ridge seemed impassable and we were very tired. We made it, but in my opinion this was the most dangerous part of the trip so far. I got stuck on a ledge one time when I wasn't sure I could get to the next point. The ledge was about an inch and half wide and I was supporting me and my pack. If I slipped, it was good-bye. Somehow I got back to the trail and we found an alternate way down. There were a lot of points along the way that we had to retrack and find the best way down. This was not fun. We finally made it to the valley but still had a long way to the lake. Gary and Tom took off so Bill and I got lost, not being sure of where we were to come down the ridge. We finally saw Gary and Tom and we weren't that far off. However the walking was difficult, with no real trail and much of the walking being done on rocks and tips of rocks. When we got to Tom and Gary there was a steep trail down the ridge that was difficult because we all were so tired. This was by far the hardest part of the trip. We were trying to hurry a little because we wanted to get to camp before sunset. It was very strenuous, especially when walking down steep sandy trails with full pack. We continued to slip all the time and the going was difficult. We finally could see the lake but had to cross a little valley and go up a wall to get to the campsite. We were really dragging at the end - at least Gary, Bill and I were. Tom seemed the strongest of all of us in keeping his head and keeping us on track to reach our objectives. He may have felt as bad as we all did, but he sure didn't look it. He is a very good leader in my opinion and managed to get us through a number of difficult spots and always had an optimistic outlook on whatever we were trying to do. We never would have made it without his knowledge and leadership.
The upper boy scout lake was at 11400 feet so we dropped only 600 feet from iceberg lake. That doesn't seem right but according to the map that's what it was. We finally found camp and got to take off our packs. It was about 6 pm so we hurried to get dinner going before the sunset. We all still had diarrhea and dealing with that was not fun. There were a number of other campers around so we didn't have the privacy we were used to. However everything worked out fine. We got our dinners eaten and felt much better. I had cajun chicken which tasted good with the spiciness. Also I had my last can of pears and some more M&M's. Gary had his cookies and hot chocolate which he had every night. That guy is amazing. He eats all this junk food all the time yet still weighs less than me, even though he is taller. I decided to sleep outside again and first put my bag in a protected place with a rock wall. Unfortunately a little wind started up this evening and the place became a shute for the wind to blow right on my head. I moved my bag to another location and then was a lot more comfortable. I got Bill to loan me his radio so that I could try and find out some scores. We were interested in how the Padres did against the Dodgers in their fight for the division. I was also interested in hearing the college football scores of the day. It was very comfortable to lie there looking at the stars and listen to the radio. The moon was so bright that we could walk around without a flashlight if we wanted to. It wasn't that cold either. About 9 or so I got up and peed and then slept until about 2:30. I turned on the radio thinking it was close to dawn, when Bill got up to do his business. I looked at my watch and realized it was still too early to get up, so went back to sleep until morning.
Actually I woke up about 5 and watched the beautiful sunrise. I was ready to get up and go but waited until everyone else finally woke up. I just listened to the radio. We got up at about 7, ate breakfast and broke camp. During the night Tom had put his Almond M&M's under his sleeping bag. But a mouse burrowed under his bag and managed to pull out the candy a piece at a time. I
imagine there is one happy mouse out there. We put on the horrible packs at about 8, although as tired as we were yesterday, the packs didn't seem that terrible this morning. I guess we were excited about getting back to civilization. We walked down to lower boy scout lake pretty quickly because we stayed by the stream on the granite slabs. We found out that we had walked way to far out of our way on the way up, but found the shorter route on the way back. It still was difficult because with a pack the steep slabs were harder to negotiate walking down than walking up.
We stopped for a breather at lower boy scout lake which took us about an hour to get to. I stopped to relieve my diarrhea and thought that I had some privacy. When I got up to put on my pants, there were two people with cameras a few feet away. Talk about embarassing. After the break we began walking down the valley. Rather than go through the brush over the stream, we started to take the higher route along this huge granite cliff. Just before this I was in the lead and went down too far to the stream and slipped. I bruised my knee and then had to backtrack uphill to catch up with everyone else. There were some tough points on this cliff as we walked along the edge. If any of us slipped to the right we were goners. Fortunately none of us are afraid of heights. We began following two other guys but went too far and got stranded on a ledge that was very precarious. Tom went out as far as he could and realized we had no way down. Gary, Bill and I were very discouraged because we did not want to backtrack uphill with our packs on. Tom was great again. He said not to worry that the way down was back only a little ways. The two guys ahead of us had ropes and were going to rappel down a crease in the granite. We walked back a little ways when Tom found the way down. It wasn't an easy route, but somehow we made it. There was a section where we had to step around an outcropping in the granite. Tom somehow made it on his own and then helped us. It was one of the most scary parts of the hike because as we stepped around the outcropping we could feel our balance swing away from the cliff. Fortunately the helping hand pulled us back in so that we were able to survive. On another section we had to lower packs to get down and then help each other over a big step. However we finally got to the bottom of the cliff, crossed the stream to the other side and found the trail again. Once on the trail we moved pretty well and actually caught up and passed the two guys who rappeled down the cliff. It was hot but the route got easier and easier. We finally go to the normal trail and that seemed like nothing after our 4 day ordeal. We passed a number of people on this trail including a family with two girls 4 and 6 years old. I guess it was easy. Bill, who was constantly trailing us the entire four days took the lead and kept it. He wanted to get back to the car.
We made it about 11:00 or so. Today's trip dropped us 3000 feet so we were oxygen satiated and glad to be there. We got the packs off immediately. Gary, Bill and I went over to the restrooms to get cleaned up and change into clean clothes. It felt so good to be almost civilized again. Bill and I stopped at the Portal store and bought some souvenirs. We then packed up the van and filled the radiator with water. The van started right up and we drove down to town to have pizza. We got to watch football and eat pizza for about an hour and then we finally took off. Bill drove and we listened to the Charger game with interruptions for the Padre/Dodger game. Time went by quickly. We stopped south of Norco for gas and ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Then I drove the rest of the way to Gary's house where we arrived at about 5:45. I got Bill to his place about 6:15 and I stopped at Carl's on the way home and got there about 6:45. It was good to shower and have a real bed to sleep in.
Bill took pictures of the trip and made us all copies. They came out ok. We were all glad to be home and to have survived such a grueling yet fantastic experience. None of us ever wanted to do this again except for Tom, but after a few days Bill and I could envision doing this sometime in the future. I would like to take Erin on a day hike to Lower Boy Scout lake to see the trail, but I doubt we'll ever have time.
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