24 hr Northern Cascades Tour... Shasta & Brokeoff!

I had a rare free day to myself, so I decided last second to go tag Shasta.  I hadn't done it yet this year, and I wasn't going to let this be another 2009 when I didn't get to climb it for the first time in 10+ years.  I believe this was my 20th time to the summit.  I did my bit of research and made sure I had a good weather window.  zero chance of rain, no wind... and no storms in the radar.  

So I left around 9 pm, got to the trailhead around 2 am, slept until the sun came up, ate some food, got my summit register and took off up the trail!  

Here are some resources for your next climb... and some maps below.  

http://shastaavalanche.org/ - forecast, conditions, etc...

http://www.skimountaineer.com/CascadeSki/CascadeSki.php?name=Shasta - Amar's Shasta page

http://www.scaruffi.com/travel/shasta.html - Scaruffi's page with lots of info...

http://www.summitpost.org/clear-creek/157378 - summitpost on the route

http://pantilat.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/mount-shasta-clear-creek-route/ - and my inspiration for the day

Mud Creek Falls... fed by Konwakitikon Glacier.  

Nice sandy trail for the first few miles.  

The clear creek spring.  Your last source of water until the snow above...

Castle Crags!

Yeah B!

Yeah, it was that nice out...

On the way down I put my gaiters on... which worked quite well.  

Back at the spring...

After 7500+ ft of elevation, I was surprisingly feeling good.  And it was still before 2 pm.... so I scarfed down another rice ball and drove towards Lassen.  When I finally got there, it turns out that the Lassen Peak Trail is closed due to trail construction... http://www.nps.gov/lavo/parkmgmt/reach-the-peak-project.htm Be warned, it looks like they'll be doing construction on the trail for the next few years.... so just do it in the winter/spring time.  

Hmmmm I'm not so sure about these "reststops"...  whatever.  I guess it'll be nice when it's done.  

Anyway... so I decided to go check out Brokeoff Mountain so that I didn't have to waste the drive. http://www.nps.gov/lavo/planyourvisit/hiking_brokeoff_mountain.htm

Hadn't been up here in the summer time... http://telek.smugmug.com/Backcountry-Skiing/2005-winter-2006-spring/Lassen-wTimmy-and-Nick-Dec-2

The trail up Brokeoff is quite nice... easy grade, and I could run up the whole way.  I'll be sure to do this again.  If you have 2 hrs in Lassen, this is a good way to spend your time.  

Lassen from the top of Brokeoff

And Shasta!  I was there a few hours ago!

Summit Pic.  Pretty much the same attire as Shasta.  Minus a camel back and T-shirt.  Just ran with one water bottle.  

Silverleaf Lupine!  Still kinda blooming... I could also smell some Coyote Mint, but couldn't locate any.
http://www.nps.gov/lavo/forkids/upload/Wildflower-Guide-web.pdf

Made it home around 8 pm to put Kai down, and yes I was sore the next day.  Here's the numbers for the day.... definitely something I'd do once or twice a year.  Too much solo driving... 

• 2 mountains
• 20 miles
• 10,000 ft of elevation
• passed 2 folks on Shasta, and one person on Brokeoff
• 6 hours up Shasta + 2 hours up Brokeoff
• 600+ miles in 10 hours of driving
• 4 hours of sleep
• 6 rice balls + a bunch of bars... 

Panos from the Evolutions Loop

Dizzying switchbacks...

Louie on the summit of Solomon

1/3 of the way up Darwin looking down on Evolution Lake.

Darwin Bench

Lamarck Col

Mini-Evolutions Loop with Sharkin & Lou Doo

A few months ago Sharkin e-mailed our core group of friends from Wash U, as he knew he'd have a bit of a break in August.  As the only one with a dependent, I convinced Sharkin and Louie to come down so we can go backpacking in the Sierras.  Something I really haven't done in the past few years.  Given our time restraint (5 days...) I figured we'd go on a 30+ mile loop somewhere.  The evolutions loop have been in my radar for quite some time now, so I sold the trip to Lou & Shark.  

The goal was to go light and have fun.  So we took off Wed evening and drove up to Yosemite where we bunked for the night.  We woke up the next morning, picked up permits at the Mono Lake Visitor Center, ate a big breakfast in Bishop and arrived at the trailhead by 12 or so... we were antsy to hit the trail, so once we did, we charged up the trail and didn't take many breaks until we were already over Bishop Pass... 

here's the approximate route... (click for a bigger view)

At the South Lake Trailhead, we ran into these folks who were hiking out from North Lake.  After chatting with them for 10 seconds, we figured they were trust worthy enough and handed them the keys to Louie's volvo so they could shuttle themselves back to their car... and the Volvo would be waiting for us at the finish... in theory...

Entering the wilderness... eating stone fruit... Louie was obsessed with having "normal" stools in the backcountry, so we brought a grocery bag full of fresh fruit/veggies.  So much for saving ounces...

Fireweed, Chamerion angustifolium

Dizzying zig zags on our way up to Bishop Pass...

and a collection of silhouette pics... starting off with Louie doing his daily carpal tunnel stretches... 

Sharkin

Dinner Time!  Jambalaya!  We tried to use as much of the fresh veggies as we could, but didn't get through too much of it.  By this time I had already caught a few goldens... and saved two for dinner.  

Woke up nice and early to catch this guy... yes, he is approx twice the size of my foot... so probably 14 in+ beast...

After getting a few bites, came back to wake up the crew and start brekky...

We found this egg on the ground next to Louie's head.  Weird right?  We looked for a next, but didn't find it.... any guesses to what this belongs to?

Looking west... you can see the Edge of Time Arete on the Citadel.  

a closer look at the Citadel

Some pics of wildlife (emphasis on the "wild")

California Mule Deer

Sierra Nevada Yellow-Legged Frog, non-native trout feed on the eggs of these endemic species, which has resulted in a 95% decrease in population... 

a wild yeti...

Rock chuck... aka Yellow Bellied Marmot.  These guys spend 60% of their lives hibernating!  

At the Muir Hut!  Hobnobbing with white faced neon green folks...

the roof, the roof, the roof is awesome...

Notice... Louie is eating a peach.  

Louie and I decided to hike up Mt. Solomons... if you look hard enough (and click on the pic)... you can see the trail and little tiny people on it...

Louie @ the summit.  This gave us a view of the Ionian Basin, which should be a destination for our next trip...

Summit shot!

Scree Skiing down...

Back at the hut...

Tiger Moth caterpillar

Moon!

Reflecting on Darwin

Another yeti sighing... We camped on Evolution Lake at the base of Darwin & Mendel.  Good fishing at this lake...

Golden Trout!

The next morning we decided to look for the class 3 West Face route up Darwin.  This was quite a confusing route, and we ended up making several class 4 (probably class 5) moves up to the notch between Darwin & Mendel.  I had a lot of fun... don't know about Sharkin...

Looking back at the North end of Evolution Lake.

The notch between Darwin & Mendel

hmmm... a severed rope?  That's never a good sign... We also found some pro...

Down climbing... I was reminding Sharkin to keep on taking deep breaths here... 

Here is Sharkin's moment of relief... as we got back down from the puckering down climb and into Evolution Lake

Dinner #3... and we still have a cucumber!   WTF? Good thing we decided to go ultralight so we can carry fresh produce...

My favorite section of the hike... the Darwin Bench.  You start off climbing up a beautiful stream with waterfalls, meadows, wildflowers and gently opens up to 5 lakes... amazing spot...

Darwin from the east... the notch that you see to the right of darwin is where I ended up... As you can see from this angle, there is no easy walk off on this side of Darwin... 

L to R: Darwin, Mendel, Gould

You know you are at the right spot in the Lamarck Col when you see this sign

Lamarck Col from the east.

Moonscape...

At upper Lamarck Lake.  See that Brookie on the upper right?

Here it is 20 seconds later...

Louie, stoked that his Volvo was at North Lake!  

There are campgrounds at North Lake with bear bins... where many folks stash their food, as the parking lot for the trailhead has no bear bins... we found all of our food... 

except the beer!  WTF!  Who stole our beer!

It's OK... as we were soon ordering burgers, milkshakes, while drinking ice cold IPAs... at the burger barn.   

we didn't talk much over this meal...

There was quite a bit of lightening the night before... and cause some wildfires

Our one and only group shot...

We stopped at Rainbow Pools for a quick pick me up...

And watched the start of the Rim Fire.  Who knew that this would eventually turn out to be the biggest fire in the Sierras in recorded history...

Back at 505.  All is well when you are jousting with hiking poles with a naked Kai bear...