Post Tagged with: "Cheryl Talbert"

John Muir Trail Part III: Golden Staircase to Evolution Basin

John Muir Trail Part III: Golden Staircase to Evolution Basin

From where we sat with our backs against a white-speckled granite rock on the top of Mather Pass at 12,100 feet in the southern Sierra, the view could have fit with any good post-apocalyptic science fiction novel: bare jumbled rock spreading away to the horizon south and north, rimmed by the next column of stark dry peaks, sparse alpine plants clinging to fragile rootholds, scattered tarns reflecting the striking blue sky above, and not another soul in sight for miles. It would be easy to imagine that something big went “BOOM!” here and the lifeless land had not yet healed its scars.

by — February 4, 2013 — 0 comments — Fireside, Trail of the Week, Trails
Mountain Bikes on the PCT

Mountain Bikes on the PCT

All users must think big-picture and put their voices and actions to those steps which provide the most benefit against the critical goals of protecting quiet, primitive outdoor experiences and protection of one-of-a-kind scenic and natural resources. Be informed. Listen. Think. Participate. Encourage cooperative rather than polarized behavior. We all agree on the precious and unique value of the PCT and owe it to our grandchildren to act today so that it is maintained and enhanced for them to treasure as we have.

by — January 29, 2013 — 0 comments — Community, Earth, Trails
John Muir Trail Part II: Forester Pass to Rae Lakes

John Muir Trail Part II: Forester Pass to Rae Lakes

The John Muir Trail’s narrow tread stretched ahead across the flatland as far as our eyes could see, with ghostly grey-blue peaks framing the vista from southeast to northwest in the far distance, and the shadows of fast-scudding clouds zipping quickly westward across the flat lands in front of us.

by — January 17, 2013 — 0 comments — Fireside, Trail of the Week, Trails
John Muir Trail Part I: Mount Whitney

John Muir Trail Part I: Mount Whitney

Most backpackers have felt it, that moment of quiet exultation when you’re sitting somewhere in the back country and you’re gifted with a moment of glorious wonder, of abject humility, at the display before you. In our case, it was an August evening in our camp next to Crabtree Meadow in the southern Sierra Nevada, looking east to the sun setting on Mount Whitney, 14,505 feet, and its companion spires.

by — January 9, 2013 — 0 comments — Trail of the Week, Trails
Wind River Range Part II-Washakie Pass-Cirque of the Towers to Big Sandy

Wind River Range Part II-Washakie Pass-Cirque of the Towers to Big Sandy

We found ourselves in an incredible, almost unearthly landscape shaped by glaciers, rivers and inexorable wind – a quarter-mile-wide bench with little vegetation, piles of boulders, a high ridge some thousand feet above us to our east, and a steep thousand-foot drop to our west with the myriad peaks along a hundred miles of the divide stretched out beyond. The wind, mostly in our faces but sometimes blissfully off the starboard bow, was like a living thing, blasting, swirling, sometimes even lifting us up so that we would stagger to keep our footing.

by — October 26, 2012 — 0 comments — Earth, Fireside, Trails
Wind River Range Part I: Green River Lakes to East Fork River

Wind River Range Part I: Green River Lakes to East Fork River

Maybe it was smoke from the dry-lightning fires burning far to the east and north, mixing with the multi-textured clouds and backlit by the setting sun. Or maybe it was just our eyes adjusting to the visual hyperbole of tortured rock peaks, white granite boulders, golden grass, deep green conifer and green-blue water.

by — October 8, 2012 — 0 comments — Earth, Trails
Cerro Torre Patagonia

Cerro Torre Patagonia

Before us, on the eastern edge of the massive South Patagonian Icefield on the southwest extent of the massif, were the striking pinnacle of Cerro Torre (3102m) with its ever-present cap of rime ice

by — August 19, 2012 — 0 comments — Earth, Fireside, Trails
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