In August 2003, on the way to California to my brother’s wedding, I camped near Flagstaff, Arizona and climbed Humphreys Peak, the high point of the state.
The hike starts off in the “Snow Bowl”, a ski area, then winds its way up through the forest until it gets to timberline. Then it hits a saddle; go left to get to the summit of Humphreys.
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Ken Sleight was an old river runner/desert rat who was the inspiration for Ed Abbey’s character “Seldom Seen Smith” in The Monkey Wrench Gang.” I like that he calls Lake Powell “Lake Foul.” “It was probably foolish and masochistic of me to have hung around and watched it happen. But I just had to. At…
<- previous day | following day -> September 1, 2002 41º-59º @BSH A 7:30 start and relatively easy 1,000′ ascent to Evolution Valley. Except for the spot where I fell into the river. One crossing was hard to find, I took a route across which relied on me stepping on a few small balanced rocks. Well, they…
<- previous day | following day -> September 4, 2002 40º-50º @BSH I wasn’t even able to make travel notes this day because for the first time on the trip the weather became a major factor. We left camp 15 at 7:45, and I had noticed a lot of clouds at dawn. Rather unusual, as I had…
<- previous day | following day -> September 7, 2002 28º-43º @BSH The clouds had broken up during the night, and the weather was clear and cold. My water bottles were frozen solid. And all of our gear not under the tarp had a heavy layer of frost on it. We spread it out to catch the…
<- previous day | following day -> September 2, 2002 41º-59º @BSH We left Evolution Lake at 8:00, and made our way up around it, Sapphire Lake and Wanda Lake (named after one of Darwin’s daughters). I thought to myself there was indeed camping available at these spots, and perhaps we could have gone further the day before,…
<- previous day | following day -> Civilization, briefly Left Rosalie Lake around 8:00 a.m. After a slight ascent, the trail was all downhill to Red’s Meadow. Very dusty. In fact, dusty in a choking, sticky messy way. But anyway, I reached Devil’s Postpile National Monument at around 11:15 a.m. A ranger was giving a talk…