09/01/04 Report: "Trans-Sierra Crossing, Part 1"

Jan Nicholiason and I were hired to lead a group of seven
across the range.  The trip was supposed to follow the
famous High Sierra Trail the whole way, but due to
commercial permit issues the first half of the route
had been changed.  Instead of starting at Panther
Meadow and crossing the Great Western Divide south of
the Kaweahs, and passing the much-photographed
Precipice Lake, we were to start from a relatively
non-descript trailhead (Horse Corral) to the north and
meet up with the HST in the upper Kern Canyon.  This
turned out great, as the first half of the trip took
us through remote and seldom-visited areas and was in
fact my favorite section. 

Our adventure started in the delightful City of
Fresno. At the hotel at 9:30pm on the night before
our departure Jan and I realized we had forgotten to
obtain the couscous, which was to play a substantial
role in our menus throughout the week. We went to the
front desk and received directions to the closest
late-night supermarket. We arrived and located the
couscous but were dismayed to discover it was all
grossly past-date, some of it up to three years. We
needed more than they had so we swept it all off the
shelf and proceeded to the check-out with designs to
get some of it for free. When the clerk found out how
old the couscous was she not only didn’t give it to us
gratis, but she refused to sell it to us. Disaster. Jan became
insistent and frightened the clerk with his authoritative
European accent. He pursued her down aisle 6 as she fled to the
backroom with the out-dated products. He came back to the front
of the store a while later with all the couscous in a paper sack and
gestured to me to exit hastily.

We were on the trail by 10 the next morning. We
crossed over the low Marvin Pass and down into
Sugarloaf Creek. The trail follows this pleasant
watercourse through aspen groves and past mild granite
domes, east toward the Roaring River, which in turn
flows northward to Kings Canyon. In the afternoon we encountered a
solitary hiker, well-equipped and unspeaking. He lingered silently
near us as we took a break along the trail and walked off ahead of us.
We dubbed him the Shadow. A little later he showed up again and
quietly asked me where we intended to camp.
The Shadow was not particularly menacing but I vaguely
gestured down the trail with out really saying
anything. We saw him once more as he appeared to be
setting up his camp at a creek crossing about a mile
before the spot we intended to camp.

The Shadow

Go to Part 2 of this story.

photos property of tim bluhm.