An amazing six days in the mountains

Tom and I got back last night from 6 days of trekking, working and having fun in Sequyoah/Kings Canyon NP. We hiked over Bishop Pass, (which is just under 12,00o ft), and then descended west through Dusey Basin all the way down about 100 brutal switchbacks until we reached the Middle Fork of the Kings River and checked in with the Rangers living there. Then we took the John Muir/Pacific Crest Trail up river about 4 miles to Leconte Lake and after a long total of 17 miles, set up camp. Next day we found over 200 mountain yellow-legged frogs hopping around Leconte Lake, which was a great sign. We set up the exclosures for our experiment in several tadpole congregation sites, toughing out the numbing 4 degree water. Next day we hiked out and back up the switchbacks into Dusey Basin, where there was still some daylight left for some fly fishing, and I caught three little rainbow trout to add a little bit of protein to our pretty pitiful backcountry diet. Next day we then headed south a couple of miles of Knapsack Pass and into the Barrett Lakes Basin. For the next day and a half we set up the experiment in two separate lakes. Sometimes we'll get to a lake in the morning and will have to wait for some of the ice to melt because to get good nutrient variability readings we need to know exactly where the tadpoles are going to aggregate. The mohawk snowman smoking a cigar is a product of this waiting period. We also found some good boulders to climb on, and then there are always pushups and crunches haha. After our fifth night, Tom and I stashed our bags near Bishop Pass, which is at the base of Mt. Agassiz, towering at 13,893 ft. We made our way up the steep slope, and summitted it around 1 pm. The views were INCREDIBLE, and I couldn't have picked a better spot to devour my precious, last ration of salame, cheese and crackers.

Overall, the trip was great, and we were able to get all of the parts of the research we needed to get done, done. We'll be going back to the spots we've worked at so far again several times to do a bunch of algae and nutrient sampling (and hanging with the froggers).