Eric Awakes
Bright and early car-camping at Whitney Portal on the first morning. We're interested in getting moving so we can get our wilderness permit.
Early Morning Sunshine
Around camp at Whitney Portal.
On Our Way!
We've successfully completed all our tasks and gotten out on the trail. Hurrah for farewell to internal combustion engines!
White Pine?
Early attempt at an artistic photo. Judging by the color I'd hazard a guess this is a "White Pine" tree.
Two Guys
John and Eric goofing off. Much of this energy would be used up by later in the afternoon. Somehow the background looks like two different lakes (if not two different photos), but this photo is not doctored and they're both the same.
Charlotte Lake
Late afternoon sunshine down by our first campsite.
Charlotte Lake (take 2)
Not-so-early morning sunshine leaving our first campsite.
Onwards
Eric and John, heading for the hills. Today we had a massive pass to climb, which lay somewhere ahead in this view.
Charlotte Dome
We haven't even gotten to the pass yet -- this is just the leadup -- but we've already got a fairly sweeping view of where we came from. Charlotte Dome, right center, is (according to Eric) an intermediate rock-climbers' mecca, being a true multi-pitch alpine climb that requires only moderate technical skills.
Crystal Lake
I'm not sure if this lake actually has a name (none was indicated on any of our maps), so I called it Crystal Lake. It's hard to get a sense of scale: what looks like a mere pool here due to its clarity is actually two or three hundred feet across. The water below the large rock at left bottom was 10 feet deep, but so clear (I went down to it) that, save for a sparse scattering of dust particles on the surface, one would hardly realize it was water at all.
On the Way Up
Now we really are heading up the pass. John and Eric stopped to talk to someone on the way up, gifting the continuing me with this bird's eye view of their progress.
Glen Pass
This was it -- 12,000 feet. I have no idea why I didn't take a picture of Kearsarge Pass earlier on the trip, which was also stupendous, but the view here was different and equally mind-blowing. The picture fails, because those lakes are much further away than they appear, and the scale is lost almost entirely.
Going Down
Some confirmation on the scale described for the last picture may be obtained here, in a picture taken of some of the same group of lakes, but halfway through the descent on the other side. As can be seen, they're still pretty darn small and far below us.
Red Thistles?
OK, this wild guess is probably completely wrong. We saw hundreds of wildflowers of every color along the trail, but I stupidly only take ONE picture of them the entire time (and mess up the framing to boot).
Rae Lakes Glimpse
An early glimpse of the Rae Lakes, our destination for this and the next days' camping. I was trying to get fancy with the depth-of-field here, but the sharpness contrast between the front two trees and the background is not, shall we say, of professional level.
Evening by the Lake
This is actually a very unusual view for the Sierras, where crystal clarity at all times is the order of the day. It was caused by smoke from a forest fire across and below in upper Sequoia National Park.
Morning by Same Lake
Almost the same shot. Overnight, the wind apparently changed direction, because the smoke had disappeared and left no trace the next morning. Time to fish, I think.
South Rae Lake
This is a different lake from the one we were camping on. Note the rock mini-island in the distance (left of center). A canoe or kayak would have been most welcome in this area, though don't ask me how we would have carried it here.
South Rae Lake Plus
We're on our way on a day hike over to 60 Lakes Basin. (I guess you can figure out by now why it was named that.) We had to surmount a ridge between the Rae Lakes and there, so I caught this view of a couple of the minor Rae Lakes plus the islanded South one on the way up.
John, Next to One of Sixty
Down in 60 Lakes Basin, John is ready for action. We're about to climb a 12,800-footer, which we can't see in this photo. More on that presently..
Gardiner Basin
To make a long and heroic story short, we made it up to the ridge line we needed to traverse to climb Mount Cotter, but then ran out of time about an hour from the summit. (OK, energy was getting a bit low as well..) However, the effort was still worth it for the view of Gardiner Basin we got over the ridge -- an incredibly remote and rarely visited (or even seen) area in the middle of the southeastern Sierra. Note the starkness of the surroundings. This is a young area, and erosion has not had time yet to pound out any soil for plants to invade.
Mr. Olson
Hiker, teacher, and general all-around humanities afficionado, at our service.
Black Lake
This has to be one of the worst pictures I've ever taken, but I'm including it anyway since the subject deserves mention. This "lake" was actually a pond about 60 feet across, and dark black / grey in color owing to some trick of the light and angles of the bottom. When the wind whispered across it (the area was almost totally silent), it responded with graceful and perceptive ripples. In spite of the negative colors, this place was profoundly benign.
Sloping Meadow
This was a very typical view during much of our travels -- a grassy slope surrounded by a few pines with white granite boulders scattered about.
Study in Colors, I
Blues, whites, greys, greens, and browns.
Study in Colors, II
Reduction to just blues and whites. Another common view on our travels, though not so easy to capture. Here I got lucky with both the sparkles and the lichen-mottled granite surface -- two of the Sierras' fundamental elements.
Forest
Much lushness has gone unrecorded in this humble photographic record, but it was there. The contrast between this sort of thing and the starker granite, sand, and water was continually throwing both into sharp relief. Such are the delights of the Eastern Sierra Nevada.