Floatin' around Marmot Lake

"I've gotta ask"...... This is the question Tom and I got way too many times on our way up to Marmot Lake which is in Humphreys Basin, just north of the Sequoia/Kings NP border. Tom had six sections of PVC pipe strapped to his pack, over 8 meters of piping in all, that were part of an elaborate gadget to take sediment core samples from the lake bottom. As you can see in the picture, it's not exactly typical backcountry gear. We joked that it was for a teepee. We had gotten a late start so we got into camp in the basin after sun down. We were up early the next morning taking algae samples from Marmot Lake for a couple of hours, and then we began setting up the contraption. We blew up a float tube, which is meant for sitting in to fish from, put on some stylin' waders, and kicked out to the center of the lake (we went one at a time :). The enormous sections of pipe were pretty tricky to maneuver, especially because it was windy and all we had were dinky flippers to control the tube. Once it was upright and sunk to the lake bottom, we would push the end down into the sediment, pull up on a cord that created a vacuum in the tube, and then haul the whole thing up to the surface, cap it, and struggle back to the shore. Falling off of the float tube definitely crossed my mind. Many times.

The whole operation was actually really fun, and totally worth dragging 8 miles up into the basin. The fat and furry namesake of the lake also made an appearance.

After sleeping off my Gado Gado backcountry pasta (an intense peanut sauce pasta dish), doing some more algae survey work this morning, and capturing and euthanizing some tadpoles to be taken back to the lab, we packed up and headed out under a quickly darkening sky. The rain began to hit us harder and harder, then came the hail, and then the thunder and lightning, some even splashing off of the peaks overhead. I actually love hiking in the rain, and most importantly, we made it back to the car safe and sound.

A minor setback...

On sunday we started the BIG hike again, intending to do 17 miles by going over Bishop Pass, then heading down Dusey Basin and then north into LeConte Canyon to our basecamp. But, I mistook pain in my left leg simply as soreness from the trip that we had just returned from on friday. I pulled my quad muscle, not terribly at all, but enough to make it hurt so that Tom and I decided I shouldn't continue down the 100 switchback section of trail and make the injury way worse than it already was. So, I gave my portion of the research gear to Tom and hobbled my way back up the basin, over Bishop Pass, and back to the car. It sucked hiking on, but I made it, and it sucked even more to have to leave Tom like that. So, for the past couple of days I've been doing some work that Tom laid out for me in the lab at SNARL and taking care of my leg by going out to the natural hot springs a couple of nights with some other grad students. The muscle is feeling better and better everyday, which is great, and I have no doubt that I will be fine for the rest of the trips we have planned. I'm going to pick Tom up at the trailhead on Thursday afternoon....

It's a long time to be up here all summer, and I miss all my friends and family terribly. These last four weeks will go by quickly though, and I will be able to see at least some of you then!!

(the picture is of the house I'm living in here at SNARL)

Sample, Sample, Sample

For the past four nights, Tom and I were basecamped in the Barrett Lakes Basin taking three days worth of nutrient samples from two separate lakes. We've been having great luck with the weather, without a single cloud in the sky, but part of me also wishes for some intense, alpine thunderstorms with lightning crashing on the surrounding peaks. As we get later into the summer, my wish may actually come true. In all honesty, taking this enormous amount of nutrient samples is tedious work, but this is just a part of research that comes with the job. In one of these pictures you can see a brown lake bottom with little side by side circles that make a large V. These are the exclosures that prevent the tadpoles (which are the little black things scattered everywhere) from grazing on the algae, and it's from each of the exclosures such as these that we sample.

Working amongst amazing (although freezing) lakes and great climbing rocks is something I have no complaints about at all, and in my free time I can take full advantage. The lake that is next to where we set up camp has a decent cliffside that we could jump off of after work.

Our food situation is pretty decent, and although I'm sick of trailmix being my staple, our dinners, such as the one in the picture, are scrumptious.

Nutrient sampling, headstands, napping, Huck Finn, and adventures

Tom and I just spent four nights in Center Basin, taking three days worth of nutrient samples (morning and evening). On our way in, we were just about a mile from where we planned to camp and just finishing up a snack break, and we started up the hill but immediately stopped because there was a big furry animal, which some might know as a bear, loping across our path. He was a skinny guy, and clearly looking for something to grub on, but he minded his own business, and so did we, and we continued on our way. There was a Park Service fish removal crew set up in Center Basin, and Tom had worked with one of the supervisors, so we got to stay for the whole trip in their camp, which, being supplied by helicopter, has pretty much everything you could ever need in the backcountry. We would take water samples from different points at all four sites where we've placed the exclosures in the lake, and then we had a huge chunk of day to hang by the lakeside. We did some bouldering on some rocks in the area, read a lot, napped, worked on my headstands, did pushups, and perfected our Chaco sandal tans. We took the nutrient samples again in the afternoon and then did the short hike back to the camp. It's a really sweet deal, I must admit.

After reading a Sierra guidebook about another pass (University Pass) in the Center Basin area and after looking at the topo map for a bit, we decided we should try this new pass to get back to the car, because it could potentially shave off 7 miles from the route we had taken to get in. One of the girls working on the fish removal crew, who had planned to hike out the same morning, decided she would come along with us on our new route. We headed up the talus slope to the pass, which wasn't too difficult, ate our lunch at the top, and then checked out what we were about to have to descend. It was a fairly narrow chute, with a snow field running down its entire length, and if you're familiar with ski slope ratings, it was probably a double black diamond slope. We didn't have ice axes, making the snow slope a no go, so our only option was to hug the sides of the chute where it was a mixture of slushy snow and the loosest talus ever been on. One out of every ten steps was relatively solid, and the rest of the time we were sliding everywhere. We had to break it up into sections to go one at a time so that the person below could get around a bend or behind a big boulder to not get hit by the rocks the person above was sending flying down with every step. It was definitely one of the scarier things I've ever done in my life, but once we all finally made it down safely to more level ground, it felt like a real adventure. I did my best to keep the mood light during this sketchy scramble, hence the smile in the picture of me with my pack taking shelter behind a big boulder, but in this picture you can also sorta see how steep and scary the slope really was.

All in all, it was another great trip. A bunch of us just got back from a trip to the hot springs that are just a few miles away from where I'm staying here at SNARL. It's a perfect way to relax and help my tired legs. I've got the whole weekend plus a couple more days off until our next trip, so I'm planning on doing some fly fishing, day hikes, climbing, slacklining and getting some quality reading time in. Life is great up here in the mountains!