This past Saturday we tried hiking to The Nipple, an artfully named peak in the Carson Pass area, again. I say again because we set out on this hike 5 weeks earlier. We had a mixed experience the first time. The views were amazing but the wind was fierce. We turned back well short of the peak ( Read more... )

This morning we started from our Friday Night Halfway point in Jackson, California- and yes, I slept well after the power came back on at the hotel-and headed up into the Sierra Nevada. Our ultimate destination for today is a hike to a mountain called The Nipple. It's high up above the Carson Pass. But first we stopped just below the Carson Pass at ( Read more... )

Last weekend we drove up to the Sierra Nevada for a day of driving, wheeling, and hiking. I've already posted a few blogs about it, most recently Hiking Lost Lake to the Nipple. Yes, we were hiking to a summit called The Nipple. But we didn't get there. The wind was so fierce we turned back part way up.

How windy was it? Here's a short video clip ( Read more... )

There's a peak in Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest called The Nipple. I forget how I spotted the trail to it when I was searching for new trails to hike a week ago.... I think I had chosen the Carson Pass area of the Sierra Nevada on AllTrails.com, and The Nipple was the thing that stood out. As nipples tend to do ( Read more... )

This past Saturday we went hiking high up in the Sierra Nevada mountains above the Carson Pass. The hike is an adventure, of course, and I'll blog about it- soon. First I want to share the continuing adventure of just getting thereLike any good adventure, the whole journey is part of the adventure! ...Okay, the first hundred-some-odd miles of ( Read more... )

So often when we drive the various highway passes through  the Sierra Nevada we blaze along with a destination in mind. The twists and turns and steep sections on the road seem like obstacles slowing us down from getting to where we want to go. This isn't a great mindset to be in as it causes us to miss so much of the beauty through which we pass, ( Read more... )

It's Friday night... and again it's Friday Night Halfway! Last Friday found us in Auburn, halfway to a hike in the Grouse Lakes Basin of Tahoe National Forest. Tonight we're in Jackson, halfway to a hike tomorrow along the Pacific Crest Trail above the Kit Carson Pass.

The goal we set for ourselves in hiking the Grouse Lakes basin on Saturday was to climb to the top of Fall Creek Mountain. We knew from the outset it wasn't a sure thing. For example, there's no maintained trail up the side of the mountain, and even the use trail requires route-finding skills and scrambling over challenging terrain. We decided we'd ( Read more... )

On Saturday morning we got a later start than expected. It was already 11:30am when we started hiking. But the days are still plenty long, and the weather was beautiful.

I'm not sure this area is properly called the Grouse Lakes Basin. That's what I call it.


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What happens after a Friday Night Halfway? Say it with me: Saturday we go all the way. 😂 This morning we awoke in Auburn, having driven there last night and stayed in a hotel. I wish I could say knocking out 3 hours of driving last night (which was actually 4 because of traffic) helped us get an early start on our hike today, but I can't. I wound ( Read more... )