Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Drew's Hiking Trip: Sierra High Route

Drew enjoyed a fabulous 7 days of hiking on the Sierra High Route in Southern California starting at the Southern end of the Sierra Mountains in September. He joined a group of 2 guides, Andrew Skurka and Brian Robinson, and 5 other guys for this hiking trip (the others were from California and Colorado). They hiked about 90 miles in 7 days through some incredibly beautiful terrain, all above 10,000 feet. They spent each night under the stars and cooked their own food. Thankfully one of the guys was a great fisherman, and he caught fish for them to eat several nights. Drew took a lot of pictures and even came home with several videos on his camera. Enjoy a sampling of the pictures (I'll spare you the videos, ha!).

First view of the high Sierra at 11,000 feet

Alpine Lake

Andrew Skurka (guide) enjoying the view

Marion Lake...an incredibly blue lake

Drew near Marion Lake

Drew about to climb down toward Marion Lake

Looking down from a high mountain pass at 12,000 feet

If you look in the distance, you can see part of the group walking down the snow field where Drew just came through.

Crossing the John Muir trail

Sunset at camp site at 12,000 feet, way above tree line

Magnificent sunset lighting Palisade Mountain 

One of many beautiful alpine lakes

Snow storm on the mountain where the group just hiked

Group walking through another snow field

Snow Tongue Pass...an incredibly steep and dangerous decent that the group hiked

Is it REALLY the end of December?

Seriously? How can it be? I truly have no idea how we got to December this year. It has been a total whirlwind of a fall semester at our house. I am sad I haven't posted anything on my blog since September. I will catch up over the next several weeks! Stay tuned for the first post about Drew's hiking trip. In the meantime, I will leave you with a recent pic of my girls.


Avi and Sally Sharp at the Chapel of Memories on MSU's campus.