Backpacking:

	Ohlone Wilderness Trail
	South Desolation Wilderness
	Bull Run Lake

Trip Reports:

	Pinnacles 03/04
	Death Valley 10/03
	Reno 07/03
	Fourth of July 2003
	Memorial Day 2003
	Carson-Iceberg 11/02
	Yosemite 10/02
	Mt. Whitney 08/02
	Carson-Iceberg 07/02

Other Links:

	Birds
	Wildflowers
	Gear
	External Hiking Links

July 4 2002 Sierra Trip
(Thursday, July 4 - Saturday, July 6)

I drove up to my family's cabin near Dorrington on Wednesday late morning, arriving at 2:15. I was glad I left early, as it sounded like the 4th of July Bay Area getaway traffic started backing up at around noon! I milled around for a while waiting for my parents to arrive, and delved into a book on hiking the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness (the area between highways 108 (Sonora Pass) and 4 (Ebbetts Pass)). As luck would have it, the book had almost exactly the route I was planning on hiking on the 4th, so I studied the provided map intently.

My folks finally arrived a bit after 10, and after chatting for a little bit, we went to bed.

Barry (my father) & I woke up at 7ish, and in short order were on our way to the top of Ebbetts Pass and the Pacific Crest Trailhead. We had a great time hiking most of the way up Peak 10824 and enjoying the splendid wildflowers and views. We crashed out pretty early after we got back, being rather tired from the long hike.

On Friday my mother wanted to go down to Boards Crossing to see if it had been restored after a landslide wiped it out a few years back. It had been, and it was very pretty by the river. I took some pictures and we meandered around. We went down to Arnold for lunch afterwards and spent entirely too much money on hiking/outdoorsy gear :)

I had originally planned on going for a long bike ride from the cabin to Mosquito Lakes and back (~70mi) as preparation for the Death Ride the following week, but I was quite sore from Thursday's hike, so I didn't. Instead, we decided to do a mini road trip and go over Sonora Pass, as neither my mom nor I had ever been all the way over it. The Carson-Iceberg Wilderness book had 3 interesting-sounding places listed that were very close to the highway (Barry & I really didn't want to do too much walking!) -- the Columns of the Giants, Sardine Falls, and Leavitt Falls. These were lovely places indeed, as was the Donell Vista turnout, with excellent views of the Dardanelles. The views from the platform at Leavitt Falls had a spectacular view over the Upper Walker Valley. We passed by the recent fire on Hwy 395, drove to Topaz Lake, then turned around and headed back to the cabin via Monitor Pass & Ebbetts Pass. All in all, a gorgeous day! I took a number of pictures, but eventually ran out of batteries in my Canon (my Sony was already full from the hike up Peak 10824).

It was a 210 mile loop -- Hwy 4 west, Parrots Ferry to Columbia, 49 south to Sonora, 108 east to 395 north to 89 west to 4 west. Alas, I still had the drive from the cabin to home in Fremont, another 145 miles. I got home at around midnight after a bit too much driving.