July 22, 2011 Onion Valley to Vidette Meadows

Shepherd Pass trail head, where we left Warren's truck for the ride back to Onion Valley Right at the beginning of the trail up Kearsarge Pass. One of the lower lakes on the East side of Kearsarge Pass. Tim thinking about things a couple miles up the trail towards the pass. View looking West from the top of Kearsarge Pass with Bullfrog Lake the furthest one out.

Yours truly on top of Kearsarge.

Warren as usual was first one on top, Kearsarge

Pass.

This sloping meadow with the stream running

through it was just to damn nice to pass up.

Bullfrog Lake with fantastic ridge in background

Junction of Kearsarge Pass trail with the

John Muir trail.

Below Bullfrog Lake heading down into Vidette

Meadow. That is East Vidette Peak. What a wall.

This was the one view I remembered the most

from having done this hike almost 35 years ago.

Center Peak, with Center basin on the left and

the one we were headed for on the right.

Five minutes after putting our packs down we

discovered we had invaded someone elses house.

Well, the 21st finally got here and I headed up to Independence late Thursday to meet up with Tim and Warren. Was able to call ahead and have the permit put outside for pick up after hours at the ranger station in Lone Pine. After running up to Whitney Portal to buy a bivy and have a burger, I met up With T & W in Independence. We got some beers and headed up to Onion Valley to spend the night as high in elevation as possible. What a night for stars and the Milky Way. Campground was fairly full, but we found a site right where we needed it to be and crashed sort of early. Friday morning found me being the last one ready as always, but being in no hurry, I enjoyed being where I was. Followed Warren over to the Shepherd Pass trail head and left his truck. Met a guy and girl that were heading up to do Williamson. They were from Quebec, Canada. Nice people and hope the made it. After getting back to Tim up at O.V., we took off. The hike wasn't too bad, but could feel being so way out of shape. Figured I was in the first hours of a 5 day trip, so just took it easy. We had agreed to a rest stop after hiking every hour, only Warren was going a lot farther in that hour than Tim and I were. LOL Oh well, we managed to meet up for our breaks, and were enjoying it so far, at least I thought so anyway. Turns out Tim's knee, which he had hurt riding his bike weeks earlier, was giving him problems enough that he was worried about going on. We were just getting into snow covered trail when he decides that the smart thing to do is go back down and take it easy on the knee. As it turns out later in the hike, it was the right call. So Tim heads back down, Warren and I keep heading up to the pass. We were running into patches of snow, but nothing to worry about. Once up high enough, we could see the trail was snow free to the top. Reaching the top, we are 2 of about 10 people milling around. Some are there just on day hikes preparing for Whitney hikes over the weekend, and some are heading up the Muir Trail to Charlotte Lake. We head down and take the lower trail towards Bullfrog Lake. We hike through an area that had obviously been hit hard the past winter with avalanches, with uprooted trees everywhere. Wow. We make Bullfrog, and the skeeters are starting to come out. Stop for bug stuff and keep on heading down towards Vidette. We were starting to eye any and every flat spot that had water near by, as both Warren and I were very tired for the first day out, but we kept going as we could easily see the bottom of the meadow was not far from us. We hit canyon bottom and head South for just a little while until we find the perfect spot next to a very nice flowing Bubbs Creek. More like a river really. We get shelter set up and have a meeting with BooBoo, but all else goes well for the evening. Slept well as was nice warm night out and tired enough not to care.