DISTANCE: 27.7km / 17.21 miles
ELEVATION GAIN: 11992m / 3910'
TIME TAKEN: 9:30
SUMMIT: Point 7360+ (2243m+)
STANISLAUS NATIONAL FOREST
EMMIGRANT WILDERNESS
TUOLUMNE COUNTY, CA
CENTRAL SIERRA MIWOK, NORTHERN PAIUTE AND WASHOE STOLEN LAND
SOUNDTRACK: Cannibal Corpse: Force Fed Broken Glass
PHOTO ALBUM
MAP
*Note: The header photograph is NOT of Point 7360+ (I did not get any good pictures of that rock). The photo most likely is of a shoulder / false summit of Relief Peak that I admired along the way.
The stars had finally aligned, the fires were out, the smoke was gone, there was snow in the Sierras, and I had two and a half free days to get my ass up to the mountains! The only bad part was having to pick a place to go, with so many options available. The passes were actually closed at the moment, which presented some limitations, but I knew I could get to Kennedy Meadows, which was well below the closed Sonora Pass. I had just been to Kennedy Meadows, but under the constraints of a group / party trip, and so I was eager to go deeper, on my own time, now with my first solo overnight backpacking trip, and catch Blackhawk Mountain (SPS) and Granite Dome (my personal California Domes list). So, I left home the night of Friday, October 9, stopping in Manteca for cheap gas and snacks (snacks which may have been my downfall). I stopped to get my wilderness permit from the freezing cold, dark, closed ranger station at Pinecrest, then on to Kennedy Meadows, where I bundled up against the freezing temps, and passed out in the van at the backpacker's parking lot. I awoke to the beginnings of stomach pains that would shape and define the rest of the day. I had not gotten to sleep until very late, so I allowed myself to sleep in, and I didn't get an early start. Also, I just couldn't resist getting breakfast at the Kennedy Meadows restaurant, the novelty of getting a country breakfast, at a trailhead, on the edge of the fucking wilderness! After all this, according to my photographic timeline, I did not start hiking until about 10:30AM! WTF!
As I started hiking, the pain in my stomach grew worse, and now I realized that this was like the thing that had happened to me in Arizona earlier in the year. It got worse and worse, I felt like I had eaten a bag of nails, and my body was trying to digest it. It had already begun before breakfast, so I don't blame the restaurant. I soldiered on towards Blackhawk, and it got worse and worse. My only possible guess as to what caused it was that I had developed a very bad reaction to jalapeño flavored potato chips (last night's snack), which would be a devastating loss from my pantry if it were to be removed. (SOMETHING LIKE THIS?) When I got to the point on Huckleberry Trail where I would cross Summit Creek, and start cross country to Blackhawk Mountain, I sat down to fill my cantine, and just crumpled in withering defeat as the knife twisted in my guts. I decided to turn back: this wasn't fun, and I had nothing to prove to anyone. Eight miles from the trailhead, and nothing to show for it. All the way back down I went, with my tail between my legs. I eventually stopped again for another break, closer to the south end of Relief Reservoir, and by this time, I realized I was actually starting to feel better. Now that I had hiked half way back. AWAY from the mountains. I still continued back, but I now focused on salvaging the day somehow, anyhow.
At the north end of Relief Reservoir is a significant crag / cliff, nameless as far as I knew. (We shall call it Point 7360+) I was feeling energized now, finally, at 6PM, 630? And I cut over on some use trails to make it to this rock, so I could climb it. this must have been the main trail at one point, because I came across an old bridge over summit creek that looked very sketchy, so instead of using it, I rocked hopped across just downstream. The old trail continued visibly towards the nameless rock; when I got close, I dropped my pack and did a light scramble up the south (easy) side of the rock. There were quality views of the surrounding mountains and the encroaching dust, and to my surprise, a plaque embedded in the top... dedicated to the racist, white supremacist, Indian killing, homophobic John Wayne! Ewwwww! This sure is cowboy country, isn't it? Now that I had climbed something resembling a summit, the day was no longer a total failure. I got back on the old trail, which went down, down, into the meadows by the river, and split into many branching trails, probably for / from the cows. At 7:30PM, I was at the middle fork Stanislaus River, on the wrong side of it to get back to main trail, and I burned a stupid amount of time looking for a good place to cross, until I finally just took my damn boots off and walked through. Now I was about to come back into the cowboy village of Kennedy Meadows, I had wasted a whole day and a wilderness permit, and the idea of going back up again the next day, repeating the same trail, was not too appetizing.
I decided to go for a different plan. I went to the Kennedy Meadows front desk, and asked the lady if she knew if Sonora Pass had opened. She said "Yes, but it's colder than a witches you-know-what up there!" That was the information I needed to take the next step, and I hightailed it back to the van. My failure that day had opened the door for an unplanned triumph tomorrow. I drove over Sonora Pass and down into Bridgeport, got on 395 South and saw the electronic sign that told me Tioga Pass was also open. So down I went to Lee Vining, and then up towards Yosemite. I crashed out in the van in the cold darkness, just off of Saddlebag Lake Road, at my trailhead for the next day.
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