Hunter Mountain - November 2014 - Part Three

please remember you can click on a photo to see a larger version

The night before we explored Corridor Canyon, Mom Spider asked if she could read our guides and notes when they retired to their camper for the evening. The next morning I was busy inside our camper washing dishes. I heard the girls talking outside and Mom Spider mentioned she was interested in visiting an area she had read about in the notes. "I've really wanted to go there too!" the Lady replied.

I offered from inside our open window, "Then why don't we go there tomorrow? In the big picture, it's in the area." They were happy, so was I. I wanted to visit there also. I did not know many details, just one of those little tidbits. Someone had said, "It's where the bighorns go."

It was a bit of a drive from Corridor's trailhead and we were racing daylight to find a campsite before dark. This was compounded when we found the road much rougher than expected with rock steps that required 4x4 low and careful spotting. But I knew we'd be alone as I had set a few track traps when we first entered the area. It is a habit and an easy way to determine if anyone else is out and about. No one had been on this road in the last two days.

We finished leveling up the Spider's rig just as it was officially dark. Much more into cooking then us, the Spiders had brought along elk steaks and a portable gas barbeque and offered to share. We sautéed veggies to complete the meal and we ate by headlamps. Afterwards we sat in the night and marveled at the stars above and the wonderful adventure we were sharing.

The Lady and I walked with our mugs of Peets coffee well before sunrise the next morning. It is a special time for us to watch new light hit the land.

We headed cross country. It would be a couple miles before we reached a distant canyon, our objective.

The rock was interesting with eroded alcoves and towers above.

We found the canyon. It narrowed immediately and a polished chute dropped into a grotto.

This was just as described. What would we find? What did the reference to bighorns mean? What we found was one of the most remarkable sheep petroglyph panels we have seen in the park.

There were other interesting glyphs.

Even more impressive was the raw beauty of this place.

I loved this faint petroglyph of two sheep climbing high ledges.

Barking Spider spotted this high alcove and was studying the wall for a possible climbing route up.

"There's nothing in there." The Lady's voice was high on the opposite wall where she had climbed to get a view in. "There's only dirt." Barking climbed up and joined her. He wanted it to hold undiscovered treasure.

It was time to head back to our trucks. Barking Spider was out ahead. "This is cool!" we heard him say and then he dropped to his knees. Barking had discovered a fellow arachnid.

"What are you doing Barking?" I asked. "Are you trying to teach him to bark?"

We continued on to camp.

For our last night we wanted to be high on Hunter Mountain.

And, a place with a view is always nice. In the morning we enjoyed first light on the classic High Sierra from Langley to Whitney.

And, this morning was my birthday meaning, of course, the Lady did something she had never done before in her life - woke up in bed with a sixty-two year old man.

Sixty-two is a special age, I was eligible for my geezer card! After packing up, the first order of business was stopping at the Inter-agency Visitor Center in Lone Pine to purchase mine.

I walked up to the counter. This was it. I was ready. A representative of the USFS was there, also the NPS and BLM.

"Today is my birthday and I would like to get my geezer card!" I announced.

The young man looked up. "I'm sorry sir, we don't have those here," he said.

"What?" I asked. Could the planets be this much out of alignment?

"I'm sorry sir, we don't have them," he repeated.

I was shaking. The Lady stepped up beside me. The young man's eyes moved quickly back and forth between us.

"You could maybe get one at the Mono Visitor Center," he offered. He was trying to help.

"They are probably closed today," the Lady said.

"Let me call," the young man quickly grabbed the phone and made several calls.

"They are closed as are all the USFS offices up 395."

"We figured that was the case," I said. "That's why we stopped here."

His eyes continued to dart between us. It came to him. "You can get one at the Tioga Pass entry station into Yosemite!" His eyes sparkled.

"120 is closed," I stated.

"No," he said, "It just reopened!"

The Lady and I stood outside and pondered the situation. I was grumpy.

"Let's go up to Tioga and get your geezer card!" the Lady said as she held my arm. "That will be really special!"

She won me over. We said goodbye to the Spiders and we were on our way up 395. We were on our quest.

A cold wind was blowing as the Lady piloted our rig up the grade. She pulled over at the empty Tioga Lodge so I could get in the driver's seat. We were ready! The moment had arrived! We were the only vehicle on the road as we approached.

I pulled up to the window and hit the button. The window lowered just as the bearded young man in the NPS campaign hat slid his window open. A young woman stood beside him.

"Welcome to Yosemite," he politely said.

I took a deep breath. "Today is my sixty second birthday and I want to get my geezer card!" I hoped my smile was infectious.

He replied, "I'm sorry sir, it is a holiday. We are not collecting any fees and therefore we cannot do any transactions."

I stared in disbelief and stuttered, "Not even for my birthday? It's all I wanted for my birthday."

"I'm sorry sir," he repeated.

The young woman squeezed past him and smiled and said, "I'm sorry too but I'd sure like to shake your hand for your birthday," and reached out the window. She was kind to the geezer.

We turned around the entry station and retreated back down Lee Vining Canyon.

The Lady did her best to cheer me up on the remainder of our trip home. We stopped for an early dinner at the Cutthroat Saloon inside the Wolf Creek Inn in Markleville. The Lady mentioned it was my birthday. Glasses were instantly raised and a unified "Happy Birthday!" rang out.

"What did you get for your birthday?" someone asked.

"Can I tell them the story?" I asked the Lady.

She nodded and I launched into the tale. Glasses were again raised as we left - the burgers were great by the way - and "Here's to getting your geezer card!" echoed into the street.

"Someday," I muttered. "Someday."

It had been another great trip and getting that geezer card has become a quest. Now we have to figure out where that extra special place to get it will be......................................

Hunter Mountain - November 2014 - Part Two

please remember you can click on a photo to see a larger version

 

Corridor Canyon has been on our list for several years. Now was the time. The trailhead - Ubehebe Lead Mine - was about 7 miles from our camp. We arrived early. The Lady had her topo map and was ready to keep us "found" throughout our adventure.

Corridor Canyon is well documented in Digonnet's Hiking Death Valley and also on Jim Boone's birdandhike website. We headed down the wash from the ruins of the lead mine.

This hike is opposite of most canyon hikes in Death Valley as you hike down canyon and return up canyon instead of up and then back down. Corridor Canyon is reached after hiking 3 miles down side canyons, most of the hike is not in Corridor Canyon.

We felt the fossils here were better than we found in Perdido Canyon.

The approach hike to Corridor was outstanding. The canyon varied around every corner. After about a mile and a half, we entered the first narrows.

In the tightest section we found excellent petroglyphs........................

..........................along with pictographs.

One of the famous petroglyphs is the large bighorn sheep in a circle.

My favorite sheep glyph was the one heading downhill.

I wonder what the ancient artists would have thought if it was revealed to them that their rock canvas was once the bottom of an ancient sea  and contained fossils of creatures that lived 400 million years ago? That thought makes me realize what an extraordinarily short blip of geologic time man has been on earth.

There were also historical inscriptions from the more recent past.

I want to thank Mom Spider for the following photo........................

..........................and her research identifying Crook as the prospector who, in 1915, was the first to report the Racetrack's mysterious moving rocks.

The narrows opened and joined a broad wash. The side canyon we descended was a part of this much larger drainage. We continued down.

This larger canyon began to tighten.

The tilted strata was becoming vertical.

The canyon narrowed and we arrived at the "scary pour over". The fall off was higher than we expected. The last rain event had scoured the canyon below down to bedrock. We have seen earlier photos where a deep layer of sand and gravel was at the base of the pour over lessening the height by several feet. We had to deal with the hand we were dealt. Barking Spider had brought along a length of climbing rope. There was a good belay spot at the top. Barking fashioned a seat harness from a section of accessory cord and with a locking carbineer attached himself to the end of the rope. I belayed him as he down climbed. Making the judgment this effort was both doable and safe, I belayed as he climbed back up. Barking found a suitable chockstone anchor in a narrowing crack above. We pooled our equipment. The Lady and I had a couple of webbing loops and more locking 'bineers. The anchor was set and Barking fixed the rope in place. We took turns lowering ourselves down.................................

...........................until we were all safely down.

The canyon continued to narrow and steeply drop as we descended further. This was exciting terrain.

This side canyon, the path of that broad wash above, narrowed to only a few feet wide............................

............................before it dropped us into The Corridor.

The Lady determined our location on her map.

The Corridor is a mile long near straight slot of missing vertical layer of limestone. It was pretty darn cool.

On one wall was an exposed section of fossilized ripples in mud.

At the southern (downstream) end of The Corridor the canyon makes an amazing 180° turn. The group is on the left, in the sun, finding a nice spot for a break and a snack.

Our break was short as we were anxious to backtrack up The Corridor to its upper end.

We returned to our narrow slot and the pathway back to our trucks. The canyon bottom was littered with sheep pellets and remnant pools of water.

We were soon back to the pour over. Don't forget to notice the petroglyphs.

Barking tied up his harness and self belayed up the fixed rope with a prusik loop as he climbed. He then belayed each of us as we followed. The familiar clipped dialogue of climbers was repeated three times.

The climber said, "Up rope!" and when the rope grew taut, "That's me!" and then asked ,"On belay?" Out of sight above a voice answered, "Belay on!" "Climbing!" the climber announced. The voice above responded, "Climb on!"

I was last up. The lady climbed up ahead of me.

We pulled the rope and anchor and headed up the canyon. We found no footprints, except ours, below the "scary pour over" or in The Corridor below.

We thoroughly enjoyed our adventure in Corridor Canyon. Barking expressed his opinion it was the best Death Valley canyon he had traveled.

We reached our trucks mid afternoon and finalized our plans for the next day. We again passed the famous Teakettle Junction.

The next day was one for the girls. I'll explain in  Part Three.

Please click Here for Part Three