A High Sierra Adventure (with Scouts)

As part of their Eagle Scout requirements, Troop 23 (Pacific Palisades) has all candidate Scouts take part in a High Sierra backpack. This 5 day, 4 night backpack into a wilderness area helps teach the boys to be able to rely on just themselves and the equipment they carry into the wilderness on their backs. No TV, no video games, no warm beds, and no Mom or Dad to pick up after you. This is usually done when the kids are 13-14, after they've had two and a half years of camping, hiking and overnight backpacking experience.

My group was a bit of a challenge, including my son Sam. We spent winter/spring of 2012 preparing by hiking the Backbone Trail from end-to-end (five 10+ mile hikes and one 20 miler), as well as several backpacks. They were (and are still) a fractious bunch, and not necessarily the best at prioritizing group needs ahead of their own (loudly expressed) desires. Like many teenage boys, they are most interested in the immediate, in their own perspective, and winning any argument with their peers (the more trivial the point, the louder the "discussion").

Snapshot from Google Earth of Backbone Trail. Click here for full size image

For various reasons, that trip fell through. This was our second (and my last) try. Scouting rules require a minimum of two adults - I'd managed to get my eldest (Nathan, 24 and an Eagle Scout) to be willing to come, but last minute bureaucratic paperwork with his job left the outcome in doubt only 4 days before the trip. Another dad (Gary B.) was coming, but had to leave us on the afternoon of the second to last day to meet work commitments. On Monday (7/15) Nathan got OK and we were on. We would have three adults and six Scouts for our trip.

Our detailed itinerary can be seen in my notes (click here).

And below is a Google maps view of our planned backpack - five days above 10,000 feet, 30+ miles of hiking and 6500 vertical feet gained and lost.

Our High Sierra loop. The push pins denote campsites. Our backpack went from Cottonwood Pass Trailhead to the north and west, then proceeded to Long Lake, Soldier Lake, Sky Blue Lake, and Chicken Lake before returning to the trailhead.

The next few blog entries are from my notes taken during the hike and then amplified after our return. Hopefully you'll get a sense of the particular beauty and challenges we all experienced on the trail.