Sunday, February 14, 2010

Mono Pass (THE Pass)

(GPS: N37 25.545 W118 46.340)

Before I get into this one let me just say that I got hit hard with the sickness during the past few days. I started to feel it about the time I put up the last blog, but then it really hit me hard after that. I have not had much sleep the last few nights, but I think my body is in recovery mode. I do not feel bad now, but I am fatigued. I had something about two months ago, but that was more of a sore throat with congestion. I thought I would be invincible for another year, but I guessed wrong. In any case, I am a little behind on putting up the next few blogs and some of you have sent e-mail I have not responded to yet. Give me another day or two and I should catch up. Hopefully, anything I write about will not sound as delusional as I have felt in the past few days.

In the last blog I was really getting close to the pass. When I finally reached the end I turned around and looked back.
Then I looked on my right side to all the granite rocks. I think people that enjoy the Mt. Whitney Trail would like this hike because it is that same type of situation with this type of rock on your side.
This is what I was happy to see. This was the very end to the pass. When I got there the icy snow was not as issue, but I had seen pictures someone had taken from a month earlier when the area was covered with snow.
So, what did I have to reward me on my quest to get to the pass? All you get is a sign that greets you by saying something about no campfires above 10,000 ft. I looked back to where I just come from.
The interesting thing about this pass is it feels like being on a beach with mountains right next to you. Of course, one can continue on the trail. I will come back to that in another few blog entries.
However, the main reason I came here was I wanted a nice mountain climb to get me in the mood for further mountain hikes I would do. Of course, if you have followed this blog since last September you would know that did not work out very well due to the Yosemite fire which really messed things up. In the next few blog entries I will show my climb up Mt. Starr.

For the final time, the video of the hike to Mono Pass:

Mono Pass (Little Lakes Valley) Hike (Youtube Version)

Mono Pass (Little Lakes Valley Hike (Vimeo Version)