A High Sierra Adventure (with Scouts) Part 2

From my notes taken at 16:16 on 2013-07-17
At Cottonwood Lakes Trailhead Camp

After a drive to Lone Pine and lunch at the Alabama Hills Cafe and Bakery (large burgers of various types), we drove from Lone Pine up to the Cottonwood Pass trailhead campsite. Horseshoe Meadow Rd (the road to the trailhead) has an impressive view of the Owens Valley below as it switchbacks up an exposed mountain face for about 5000 ft.

Arriving at the trailhead, we chose our specific tent sites. We quickly discovered

1. Poles to one of the troop tent were broken. Fiberglass pole split along the length. While I had a splint, chances that such a repair would last the trip seemed small.
2. I had my spare REI Sierra Dome tent - but I didn't bring the poles. <unprintable mutter>
3. But we did have the spare 3/4 person Coleman troop tent. Austin and Mitch took it.

We got the Scout's tents set up and the campsite organized. Then we did a trial loading up of all our food and equipment for the backpack, including the food. We'd done a pack check on Monday night and I knew that all the scouts could fit a bear canister in their packs, but we didn't have everything ready to go at that time.

I'm glad we did this - it probably saved us an hour or so the next morning. Although Scouts had much of their own equipment, we had to split up:

• Tents (2 Scouts per tent)
• Water filters (3)
• Nalgene Cantenes (3) (large, soft-sided water bottles)
• Fuel canisters (3 lg, 2 sm) and stoves (3)
• Bear canisters (5)
• Food for 1st day's lunch and dinner (not in canisters)

I carried a complete but compact First Aid kit for the group, supplemented by each Scout's individual kit.

We took 5 bear canisters - four Garcia Backpacker Cache and on Bear Vault 450. A listing of the meal plan and food (and fuel) weights can be seen here (opens a separate window). In a future post I'll talk about the meal planning and logistics of packing the food (perhaps the most time-consuming part of the preparations).

After that the Scouts had a couple hours free time. I scouted out the trailheads both outgoing and incoming so that I'd know how to get back to the cars when we came out (the end of our trail was about 0.5 miles south of the beginning trailhead). At 6 pm we started the fire - it took way too long for the hardwood logs I'd brought from home to really get going. But we finally cooked hot dogs and chili (in the can, placed in the coals) and had chips and smores for dessert.  Had just the right number of hot dogs (2 per person) and smores (bag marshmallows, 8 Hershey bars, box graham crackers) but too much chili and chips (3 cans and 2 bags). The food choice was clearly a hit with my audience.

We got everyone in tents by 8:30 pm (stayed light until 9:00 even though the sun had set about an hour before). Ready to hit the trail tomorrow!