please remember you can click on a photo to see a larger version & highlighted text are links to further information
Part Five of Our Big Summer Adventure
Big Balls
We worked our way quickly west
because we had an invitation to meet friends in Yosemite National Park for a
different kind of adventure. A pleasant stop on the way was Great Basin National Park. It would provide another high point of our trip.
We arrived at Baker Creek Campground
and set up in our favorite campsite. We were happy to find it available. The
next morning we began our hike at the Baker Lake trailhead.
Our destination was seldom visible as
we hiked, but in this photo the summit of Pyramid Peak is seen peaking out in the upper
left.
We always enjoy the dense groves of
aspen along Baker Creek.
The trailhead sign mentions the Dieshman
Cabin as a point of interest on the trail 4.7 miles up from the trailhead. On
our several hikes up this trail we had never seen any sign of the cabin nor any
marker or sign pointing it out. Even a search of the Park's website provided no
information about the cabin or its history. It was a puzzle and we are known to
take the bait in wanting to solve these kinds of puzzles.
The USGS 1990 7.5' Wheeler Peak, NV
quad has a tiny black square indicating a small building in the area. I took
the coordinates of this black square and entered them into a handheld GPS unit
as a waypoint. The Lady took the unit and headed for the exact location of the
cabin as shown on the topo map. The Lady is in the photo below standing in the midst
of avalanche debris at the location of the Dieshman Cabin.
She is impossible to see, just like
the Dieschman Cabin.
I found this in the 2006 issue of the
Bristlecone, the Park's annual newspaper available
to visitors in an article titled "Impacts From Winter 2004-2005."
"Another avalanche coming off Pyramid
Peak to the north, crushed the Dieschmann cabin. Stumps near the cabin are
visible, but the cabin itself has been completely swept away. Constructed
around 1930 by Peter Dieshman, the cabin was a standing log structure on a
simple stone foundation with a sod roof. The cabin was likely used as a base
camp by Peter Dieshman, an early twentieth century mining prospector of the
area. The logs were chinked with wood shavings and sod. The doors and window
frames consisted of hand crafted boards. The cabin was located about 1 ¼ miles
below Baker Lake. This avalanche also covered a part of the Baker Lake trail
making hiking difficult."
We spent about an hour searching for
the cabin site. It was a great deal of work climbing over all the down trees. I
found it interesting the cabin stood at this location for 75 years before being
destroyed by an avalanche.
We continued up to Baker Lake. This
area was still covered with snow on our last hike up here on July 4th.
We turned south and began the climb
up the high basin below Pyramid Peak.
Here is a view north from the basin.
We then started up to the saddle in
the ridge west of Pyramid Peak's summit.
It was a climb straight up to the
summit from the saddle.
Here is our summit photo at 11,926.
And a few photos of the view from the
top.
Notice the classic glacier carved cirque that
holds Baker Lake.
The view down the Baker Creek
drainage, our route up.
A 360° video from the summit of
Pyramid Peak. Please excuse the wind noise.
.
The summit was 8.5 miles from our
campsite with a 4200 feet elevation gain. This was a 17 mile day.
We dropped back down to the saddle
and looked back at Pyramid.
And the view of Wheeler Peak to the
north.
The route from Baker Lake to the
saddle and then down to Johnson Lake is unmaintained and marked occasionally
with cairns. The climb up to Pyramid's summit is off trail.
We descended by dropping back into the basin.
The scattered bunches of alpine columbines
were wonderful to come upon.
The Lady heard a rock fall to her
right. I watched as she stopped and unclipped her see mores.
She studied the slope then looked at me and did a happy dance.
She called up to me, "White butts
and big balls! Their color blends so well. I see white butts and big
balls."
It was eight bighorn sheep rams.
They slowly climbed as we watched.
Large testicles and scrotum is a noticeable
feature on bighorn rams. Why? With a bit of research I found the Sperm Competition Theory. In species where females may breed
with several males, producing larger quanities of sperm - big balls - gives an
advantage. It is a desired feature in breeding rams of domestic sheep.
We took a break in the basin below
the rams and then returned to Baker Lake.
I asked the Lady how she liked her
brand new boots.
"I love them!" she answered, "They may be the
best and most comfortable boots I've used."
It was still a long ways back down to
our campsite.
We aired out our well used boots back at camp as
we showered and enjoyed our dinner. It had been a great hike.
We woke early the next morning and
drove across Nevada to our next destination and adventure - Yosemite National
Park.
No comments:
Post a Comment