7. Upper Ross Lake

Friday, July 23, 1982

Joe's journal:

We had thunderstorms this morning, so we slept late.  We finally started traveling about 2:00 pm.  We got about 3/4 of the distance to the end of Ross Lake and got caught in another rain.  We couldn't follow the trail because it passed over some wet rocks.  Finally, though, we found another route much higher up the ridge and made it to Upper Ross Lake.

Doug leads the way around Ross Lake

The view across Ross Lake

Tom's journal:

Upper Ross Lake.  We got a late start today.  We had a big thunderstorm early, then waited until two o'clock for the weather to make up its mind.  The hike wasn't too bad.  We stopped at a rock climb when it started to rain, and eventually went uphill and over it.  


Tom waiting out the rain



We had to move the fire when we got here because the sparks were blowing right at Mike's tent.  We had chicken & dumplings and green beans for dinner.

We got a pretty good fire going.  Joe had a cup of bullion and expressed amazement that it retained its cubic shape to the very end.  He drained the liquid to better demonstrate this phenomenon to us.  It was about the size of a silicon chip and was, indeed, still a perfect cube.  How about that.

We've begun to fret about our passage across the mountains.  It has the somewhat imposing name of No Man's Pass.  Hmm...  It will be only about 1400 feet up and down, but there's no telling what it entails.

Greg just went to a snow bank and removed a pint of Russian vodka.  All right.


Saturday, July 24, 1982

Joe's journal:

Our goal today is to travel to the far end of this lake and up the river toward Turquoise Lake.  From our campsite it appears that it will be tough just getting to the far end of Upper Ross Lake.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *




We just barely got to the south end of Upper Ross Lake when a thunderstorm broke loose.  We waited out the storm in Mike's tent.  Now the sky has cleared off.  Our campsite sits in a group of trees facing north towards Upper Ross Lake.  To our left is a beautiful marshy meadow with a shallow stream.  Across the marsh, we could see a moose feeding.  It was too far away to photograph.  

Looking north at Upper Ross Lake


Also to our left is The Guardian, a monstrous piece of granite.  Directly behind us is Spider Peak, and hidden behind that is No Man's Pass.  We plan to travel to Turquoise Lake tomorrow.

The Guardian

Spider Peak


Tom's journal:

Last night contained a Big Event.  Since the canoe toppled over on the Nolichucky River almost two years ago, consigning Joe's brown crusher hat to the deep, he has been without an official party hat.  We've all missed his frequent "I've got to take this hat off before I get drunk" statements.  Last night, he proclaimed the HS Thomspon raincoat's adoption as his official drinking bonnet.  Cheers!

We've got to go all the way around this S.O.B. lake today.

The moon is now visible at dusk.  We saw the first crescent Thursday night at Ross Lake, the same night we saw the green clouds.  Honest:  light green clouds.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The southern end of Upper Ross Lake.  It took us 4 1/2 hours to get here.  We arrived just in time to rendezvous with a rain storm.  We set up the tent, got inside, and listened to it fall.  

"It's just pine needles," Greg claimed.

Greg suggested to Doug that he could fetch something from outside.

"I could," Doug replied.  "I could take all my clothes off, cover myself with Dr. Bronner's and run around in the rain until I was washed off.  I could do that, and then I'd be a clean, wet, cold, stupid son of a bitch."

Greg also suggested we build a snare to catch small game.  "We could catch a rabbit, then use it as bait.  With that we'd catch a cougar, which we could use to snare a bear."

He continued.  "You know what we'd catch with the bear?  Mosquitoes."

We've all been pondering that age-old question:  If humans are at the top of the food chain, how DO you explain mosquitoes?



Tom updating his journal

Doug on moose hunt


The storm didn't last long.  It even cleared off.  This end of the lake is nicer, a large meadow with the feeder stream meandering its crooked way to the lake.  The meadow is more like a marsh:  There is a good deal of water standing in the spongy, moss-covered earth.  It's elk and moose country.  We're at about 9600 or 9700 feet.  Going around the lake today was a real workout.  More boulder hopping, and when we weren't doing that we were bushwacking.  These trees are tough.  The bottom branches are close to the ground and dead.  Also hard to break off and accurate as hell.  Greg had his sneakers tied onto the outside of his pack.  At one point, he had a branch caught in each shoe.  That sounds funny, which it was, but the damn things can play havoc with your balance, which is tenuous enough with our elephantine packs on.  Also these trees combat the climate by growing right along the ground.  The limbs form something much like a bush, and they are havens for mosquitoes, as well as hell to walk through.

The soil up here is very shallow.  These little streams are everywhere coming out of the melting snowfields.  They may not produce more than a few gallons of water a day, but the plants creep unto them in their tenacious, and tenuous, search for some place to stick a root or two.    

Joe spotted a moose about dusk.  He was just a black blur to my contactless eyes, but the others got a pretty good look at him.  I guess.

















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

12. Gannett Peak

Image
Before Sunday, August 1, 1982 Joe's journal: We organized our gear and adjusted the crampons last night.  Today, we got up about 6:30, before the sun rose, fixed a hot breakfast, and left camp by 7:45.  We took the Gooseneck Route to the summit of Gannett Peak.  Doug was having a difficult time with the thin air and couldn't keep up with our pace.  So he graciously decided to wait for us near the bottom of Dinwoody Glacier. Our route ascended to Gooseneck Pinnacle and then up and to the right to the summit Our route took us up Dinwoody Glacier until we traversed along a moat to Gooseneck Glacier.  We ascended toward the base of Gooseneck Pinnacle where we were momentarily stalled by a bergschrund. But we climbed up on some rocks to the left and regained the snow a few feet above the bergschrund. We went straight up the glacier to a rock rib which separated Gooseneck Glacier from the summit ridge snowfield.  From this point, it was less than an hour's climb ...
Read more

1. The Volkswagen

Image
Editor's Note: In 1982, four of us decided to drive to Alaska and explore the mountains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  For two years, I had been intensely studying the mountains of Alaska, accumulating necessary gear and supplies, honing climbing skills, and planning this trip.  Mike Scott had been complicit in this effort, but his father had become ill just before our departure.  He hoped to meet us in Fairbanks in two or three weeks.   The team consisted of Tom Sharp, Greg Smith, Doug Taylor, and me.  Greg volunteered his family's Volkswagen camper van for the trip.  We would drive from Tennessee to Fairbanks, with an initial stop in Denver to pick up some gear from my friend Jack Grace.  Altogether, we expected to be gone about two months.     Our plans fell apart almost immediately, and it would be another full year before I reached the Arctic.  We did, however, manage a memorable backpacking/climbing trip in the Wind ...
Read more

2. The Subaru

Image
Saturday, July 10, 1982;  Wewoka-Cromwell Exit, I-40, Oklahoma Tom's journal : The Subaru made it about 80 miles yesterday before it died in a paroxysm of effort on a mild slope.  We spent the night in some very soft grass about 10 feet off the side of the interstate. Greg had the hood up attempting to work on the car by matchlight.  Matchlight!    Two cars stopped and offered assistance.   The first car contained one young guy.  He discovered we needed more than a jump and left.  The next car contained an elderly couple.  He was sympathetic and would have done all he could.  She started out the same way, but then noticed our shadowy bulks lying in the grass.  She immediately became nervous and started poking her husband urgently, conveying the unspoken message that they were in the midst of obviously dangerous drug fiends and should vacate the scene before we killed and ate them. Things are very bleak at this point.  We may ge...
Read more

6. To Ross Lake

Image
Wednesday, July 21, 1982; Hidden Lake Joe's journal: The overnight low at Hidden Lake last night was 38 degrees. Greg and I left for Ross Lake with about 30 pounds of gear apiece.  We found a campsite at Ross Lake, well-sheltered and full of mosquitoes.  It is right at the end of a melting snowfield.  On our return trip, we had hoped to find an easier route from Hidden Lake by following the river. That was a disaster.  Greg and I ended up climbing a 100 foot bluff over the river. See Greg in upper left? Looking west towards Ross Lake from near our Hidden Lake camp Tom's journal: Hidden Lake.  It's a gorgeous, still, clear morning.  Greg and Doug are around the lake fishing in a pond-like extension of the lake. We saw our first snow yesterday.  Greg threw a clump of it at me.  I took a bath this morning, as did Greg.  Joe's working on breakfast. In addition to the mosquitoes, there are several zillion flies of three or four basic types around....
Read more

5. Trouble on the Way to Hidden Lake

Image
Monday, July 19, 1982 Joe's journal: We went to bed shortly after dark last night.  We slept well.  The overnight low temperature at Lake Louise was 54 degrees. Today was a tough day.  The hike just to the western end of Lake Louise was very strenuous with our huge packs on.  On several occasions we were almost rock climbing.  On one occasion, we set up a belay for Greg and Doug.      The hike up the creek toward Hidden Lake was tough also.  Tom and Greg and I made it about half the distance between the two lakes and stopped for lunch and to wait for Doug.  After a couple hours, I walked back down toward Lake Louise to find Doug.  He apparently had twisted his ankle and was unable to travel.  I left him there for the night and returned to Tom and Greg.  We set up camp on the south side of the creek on a fairly steep slope.  We're at 8700 feet.  Our campsite is small and lumpy but the wind does not bother us here....
Read more

11. To Big Meadows and Dinwoody Creek

Image
Friday, July 30, 1982 Joe's journal: We awoke to beautiful clear skies.  We broke camp and started toward the lower end of the lake.  At the smaller lakes below Downs Lake we met a NOLS group.  These were the first people Greg and I had seen in 9 days, and first Tom and Doug had seen in 11 days. Shortly after, we met a man and his wife bushwacking down the same creek we were (Down's Fork.). They were ending their vacation early because he thought he had strep throat.  I offered them penicillin, which they were very happy to accept.  They gave us two bags of trail mix, some homemade beef jerky, some bacon-flavored cheese snack, and two packages of pancake and syrup mixes.    By lunchtime, we had joined a regularly maintained trail.  It was the first time we were on a trail since we left Lake Louise on July 19th.   We stopped and had lunch at the intersection of Downs Fork Trail and Glacier Trail.  Later, we hiked to the southern end of Bi...
Read more

8. Turquoise Lake

Image
Sunday, July 25, 1982 Joe's journal: We didn't get the low temp this a.m.  Doug didn't know how the thermometer worked and picked it up without realizing that would move the low temp mark.  He said it was about 40-42 degrees when he got up so I guess it reached as low as maybe 38 degrees. Wet gear and threatening clouds delayed our start this morning.  We finally left around noon and made it to Turquoise Lake this evening.  It was a beautiful hike.  I took a hundred pictures.  The last half mile was by far the toughest.  At one point we set up a belay to cross a steep snowfield.  Later we ran into some tricky boulder hopping.  Once we got to the lake, we realized we had gone to all the trouble for nothing.  We could have dropped down into the pass. Today, just under Spider Peak, we saw a herd of about 12 to 15 bighorn sheep.  I got a few pictures. Tomorrow we plan to cross No Man's Pass if the weather's good.  It looks like a w...
Read more

9. No Man's Pass

Image
Monday, July 26, 1982 Joe's journal: We made it over No Man's Pass.  We left our camp at about 8:30 am, and reached the pass about 2:00 pm.  It was a tough combination of boulder hopping and snowfield climbing.  Total gain in elevation of over 1400 feet.  We descended to Downs Lake by 6:00 pm. Tom's journal: We made it.  Got up at 7:00 this morning and headed out at 8:30. We got here about 6:00, and it was a rough 9 1/2 hours. We were all thrilled to take our packs and boots off.  A lot of work.  Spent much of the day on snow on both sides of the pass. Tired. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The first obstacle was a rock climb.  When we finally topped it, we were faced with a long traverse across the tops of several snow fields to the bottom of one we eventually ascended.  We moved cautiously across the snow, nearing the bottoms of rock slides where they met the snow. We had to go up and to the left near the summit of the pass.  In fact...
Read more

4. First Day on the Trail

Image
Editor's note:   Since this entire adventure began as a mountaineering expedition in the Arctic, we had an unusually large amount of gear. When our Alaska dreams fell apart, I had been attracted to the Wind River Range because of the potential to do some mountaineering.  We had two tents, one weighing 11 pounds, the other 7. We had ice axes, crampons, a rock climbing hammer, a rack of protection including deadmen, ice screws, pitons, hexes, slings, snow pickets, and 150 feet of 11mm climbing rope.  We had a sizable medical kit, and a sewing repair kit.  Clothes suitable for sun, rain, snow, and temperatures as low as 10 F.  Two stoves and liters of Coleman fuel.  Several rolls of toilet paper.  Daypacks.  And food for three to four weeks.  (Or so we thought.)  Our packs weighed about 80 pounds.    -- Joe Hagan Sunday, July 18, 1982 Joe's journal: We spent last night at the trailhead near Torrey Creek.  Alt: 7480 feet. ...
Read more