Into the Sierras

It’s time to find out if I’m as tough as I think I am.

By the time this entry posts to the blog, I will be in the Sierras.  I’m entering them from the east just north of Mono Lake, and my inbound hiking route parallels Highway 120 – also known as Tioga Pass Road – to the north.

I’m not going to hike all the way across at once, for the very practical reason that I don’t know how I’d get back.  The most direct way back to my truck would be to hitchhike along Tioga Pass Road, or find someone and pay for a ride, but that would only work if the road stays open.  Tioga Pass closes for winter, usually beginning in early November.  The Park Service lady said that they’d probably close it at the next snowstorm.  That could come any day, and while I’m alright with weathering a storm in my tent with my loyal, thickly-furred, heat-producing companion, I can’t count on the road being open when I get across the mountains.  If the road were closed, the distance I’d have to hitchhike would go from 58 miles to 273 miles.  I won’t take that gamble.

So I drove across Tioga Pass Road a few days back and left a food cache near the White Wolf Ranger Station, which is about halfway across.  I deposited days of provisions: five freeze-dried suppers stuffed under a big rock, dog food and lunch meat crammed in a metal army-surplus ammo box, and one beer buried in the dirt.  My plan is to hike west to the cache, which will be about 38 miles of bust-your-ass climbing and descending, then turn back and hike east along Tioga Pass Road, where I’ll try to catch a ride if the road is open.  The route back from the cache will be about 60 miles – a long walk, but I calculate that I can do it in four days.  Which brings the total planned route to 98 miles.  Seven to ten days, I think.

It’ll be cold, but I’ve got the clothes.  It’ll be long, but I’ve got the food.  It’ll be hilly, but I’m in shape, or close enough.  And that’s really all the planning you can do.  Now it’s time to put tracks on the trail.

An approximation of my planned route.  I'll begin in the Hoover Wilderness Area of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, then enter Yosemite National Park from the east.

The cache.