Nee's Journeys

Pioneer Basin - 8/29/08 - 9/1/08 Okay so this trip happened a number of months ago but better later than never right? I was really excited and slightly apprehensive about this trip. I had always wanted to go to Pioneer Basin and had read several reviews about how great this area is. The apprehensive side of me was worried about the "lightweight" classification for this trip. I did this trip through my Sierra Club section and there were guidelines about weight. It was not a true lightweight trip since the lightweight just meant that the "big 3" needed to be under a certain weight. I also looked at this as an opportunity to buy some new gear :) ....which I did in the beginner of the summer. I am the proud owner of a Six Moon Designs pack and a Tarpent....I really love the Tarptent. A couple of weeks before the trip the co-leader had to cancel and I agreed to help out. I knew a few others on the trip and knew the other folks would be well experienced so I was looking f...

September 14 & 15, 2008 - Yosemite - Ten Lakes There is nothing much better than taking a Fall backpacking trip. The weather is generally good and the crowds are home. About 6 years ago I took a trip to the Ten Lakes basin and I always wanted to go back. I am also thinking about leading a trip there in the next year or so so I thought it would be a good idea to go and scout it out. There are a number of lakes in the basin (10..ha ha) but I didn't really have a final destination in mind except that I wanted to try and visit something other than the 2 biggest lakes. We headed out around 11- after a breakfast of waffles and coffee outside the park. The parking lot at the trailhead did not have many cars which was great. The weather was very nice and we packed up and headed out and up...and up and up and up. This is one thing I do remember about this trail it's pretty much uphill. I would consider it a moderate hike...about 8 miles and 2000 feet uphill. I was also trying to br...

August 8 - 10, 2008 - Yosemite - Young Lakes Okay so this is over 2 months overdue...what can I say it's been a very busy travel season. This was my second time into the Young Lakes area I had been there the year before on trip to Upper Young Lake. This however was going to be my first time leading a trip with Sierra Club. I thought Upper Young Lake was a perfect place to go since it gets relatively little trail traffic and it's a really spectacular area. The plan was to hike to Upper Young Lake on Day 1 and then do a x-country day hike over to Roosevelt Lake that sits right below Mount Conness. I considered the trip to be a easy-moderate hike. It's only about 7 miles to Upper Young Lake with about an 1800 foot gradual gain. We had a great group assembled for the hike and no newbies everyone had been on a Sierra Club trip before. I drove up with Suzanne and Nancy on Thursday afternoon and we tried to get a campsite at Tuolumne Meadows but we were out of luck...not su...

The Bhutan Series - Day 4 - Thimpu I was completely rested and ready to go and this was going to be a busy day so thank goodness I finally got a full's night's sleep. Below is the list of the day's activities: - Thimpu Festival - Tankin - Paper Factory - Weekend Vegetable Market - Dinner and drinks with Sonam Our first stop was the Thimpu Drupchen at the Thimpu dzong. During the Drupchen, the deities are prayed to and dances are performed only by monks in costume. The drupchen occurs before the tscechu I believe for about a week out of which there are 4 days which the public can see some of the dances. During the other days dances are performed inside the monestary. The tsechu occurs a few days after the drupchen and dances are performed by monks as well as by lay people. Since the drupchen is very religious cameras were not allowed into the dzong. Before the dancing started I got the opportunity to meet with a monk, Gimptu (I may be spelling it wrong). I asked him lots of ...

The Bhutan Series - Day 3 - Arrival in Bhutan The alarm clock went off at 1 AM...yes 1 AM...and I took my 3rd shower in 24 hours I was looking forward to some cooler weather. The tour company made a point of stressing check in 2 hours before the flight so I was at BKK bright and early at 2 AM. I was sweaty and sleep deprived but somehow managed to get myself and my gear checked in. Of course a storm had broken out so our 4 AM flight was delayed about an hour. The happy portion of this part of my traverse was that I was sitting in first class a result of changing my arrival date. We had a stopover in Calcutta before flying into Bhutan but prior to that I finally got my chance to see EVEREST. I think the plane tipped to its left side as soon as the first person spotted Everest. It was a really clear beautiful day so we could see Everest and the surrounding big 'uns very well. I was totally stoked my trip was made by just seeing that. Yes I admit I have a slight Everest obsession whic...

The Bhutan Series - 9/30 - 10/19/2008 - Days 1 & 2 Day 1 - San Francisco to Bangkok Brutal, painful, killer, sleepless - sounds fun huh? I started out at SFO and flew into Hong Kong. I was sitting by a very friendly Chinese man but I was longing for an empty row so I moved and attempted to sleep (unsuccessfully). Once in Hong Kong I headed straight for a ramen restaurant. I ate on the plane but when in Hong Kong one must have some noodles. The layover was about 4 hours so it was plenty of time to slurp down the good stuff. Of all things there were some people who had flown in from the Midwest and were on my Bangkok flight from HK who were going straight from Bangkok to Bhutan (crazy). I finally rolled into BKK at 12:30 and stumbled into bed 20 travel hours later. Unfortunately I couldn't sleep that night...ugh. Day 2 - Bangkok I didn't sleep the night before and I couldn't sleep in. I had arranged for a tour guide to show me the highlights of Bangkok. My guide Chawanwit...

August 16 & 17th, 2008 - Mokelumne Wilderness - Grouse Lake Some of you may have heard the term "bagging a peak" well for this trip we were bagging a Wilderness Area. My friend, Steve, Curtis and I were headed out on an overnight and Steve wanted to venture to a lesser traveled wilderness. Our real goal was to get to the Snowshoe Brewery on Highway 4 but I had a tough time finding any trails with a moderate level of difficulty and doing a 13 mile 3000 foot gain hike wasn't going to work on this trip. So after some browsing online I found a nice moderate hike (6ish miles, 1500ish foot gain) to Grouse Lake in Mokelumne Wilderness. Mokelumne is pretty small and lies between Highway 88 and Highway 4. Our hike was off of Blue Lakes road off of Highway 88. The trip started out as all good trips do...pulling into a campsite at midnight. In our case it was the Hope Valley Campground and quite possibly the smallest campsite I have ever setup camp in http://www.hopeva...

July 26 & 27, 2008 - Emigrant Wilderness - Crabtree to Granite Lake Another attempt at a partial off-trail trip and in a place that is becoming very familiar....Emigrant Wilderness. This trip would start out at the Crabtree trailhead close to the site of my first outing of the FY08 backpacking season. The route this time was a bit less ambitious than the last time but definitely an adventure. The route was the Crabtree trailhead to Bear Lake then cross country to Granite Lake. On the second day we would hike down to Y Meadow Lake loop around to Chewing Gum Lake and then take an unmaintained trail back to the Crabtree trailhead. The mileage wasn't much at 14 miles in all and about a 1500 foot gain each day but the off trail portion was sure to seem more than a 1500 foot gain. The trail out of Crabtree was nice and after a couple of miles we hit Camp Lake. There's no camping allowed between the trail and the lake so we didn't see anyone camped out there. We stopped an...

July 3 & 4, 2008 - Emigrant Wilderness - Kennedy Meadows to Relief Valley This was the trip that maybe wasn't meant to be. This trip had been in the works for awhile but it was definitely ambitious (I planned it - what else is new). The original plan had been to head up to Iceland Lake and then over to Emigrant Lake for a couple of nights and out. Did I mention that day 1 included 3000+ foot gain over 10+ miles and part of that being off trail oh yeah and it was Curtis's first trip out. So I know what you are already thinking....this isn't a good idea...but let us proceed. There is about a mile and a half of on-ish trail hiking that started the trip out from the parking lot through the Kennedy Meadows resort. A majority of the resort burned down in fall of 2007 and most of it was rebuilt by the time we went through. Of special note was the saloon which had many many...many beer boxes outside...hmm maybe I am not ready to go out into the backcountry. ...

Spring Meadow - Emigrant Wilderness - June 28th & 29th Ah yes the start of a new backpacking season and most importantly the deployment and utilization of new gear! This year there is a lot of new gear as I have started to put together a lightweight gear set...now mind you when I say lightweight that it is relative to my existing gear which doesn't come close to being lightweight. After all I am the gal that will sacrifice an extra pair of socks so I can carry a bottle of wine and a hunk of gruyere. My victim...I mean hiking partner in this initial summer outing was my friend Steve. I am pretty sure that Steve is a little traumatized by our August 2007 week-long Sierra outing where it rained nearly every day but this time couldn't be worse could it???? The destination for this trip was Lower Wire Lake in Emigrant Wilderness. From the Gianelli trailhead in Emigrant it's about a 12 mile hike to Lower Wire Lake. There is a school of thought that says you should take it a...