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Mt. Whitney is the highest mountain the contiguous United States, with an elevation of 14,496 ft. Most hikes to Whitney start at the Whitney Portal, which results in a roundtrip hike of about 22 miles with an elevation gain of over 6,100 ft. It’s extremely popular during the summer months, and because of that Inyo National Forest has implemented the Whitney Lottery to decide who gets a permit and when.

Back in June 2007, Paul, Jimmy, Marc, and I hiked Mt. Whitney for the first time. Just for kicks, I entered the lottery once again this year. Luckily, my ’09 permit application was chosen, and even more luckily, the permit was awarded for the first choice of dates (a weekend in early August). Ben, Andrew, and Jimmy joined the adventure this time, and our three day, two night hike took us through some very picturesque mountain scenery.

Although the Whitney Portal is good, Jimmy and I agreed that now after having done the hike twice, any future trips to Mt. Whitney will have to be on a trail less trodden. Alternatively, there are many other 14,000+ ft. peaks that see many less visitors. The options are wide open for next summer…

At the end of July and a week after the Horsemanship trip, John and Greg traveled to California to join Jimmy and me in an epic backpacking hike across Yosemite National Park: 4 days, 3 nights, and 30 miles from Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite Valley via the Vogelsang Pass. The views and experiences were amazing, and the photos below are only the beginning of what was another great summer adventure.

As fun as it was, the Mustangs trip isn’t the main business of Rock Creek Pack Station. As the name implies, Rock Creek primarily operates pack trips throughout the Sierra Nevada, which vary in length from 3-10 days.

When I enrolled for the Mustangs course, I happened across one such pack trip – Mountain Horsemanship: Veterinary Care and Horsepacking in the Wilderness. The description sold me on another horse class:

This seven-day pack trip covers the essentials of horsepacking with the Golden Trout Wilderness of the High Sierra’s as your laboratory… You’ll learn about packing equipment, fitting saddles, making loads, hitches, leading strings of mules, back-country shoeing, veterinary skills… and more…

We rode into the Golden Trout Wilderness making camps at Ramshaw Meadow, Little Whitney Meadow, and Big Whitney Meadow. During the days we would either pack the mules and ride to the next camp, or ride the horses to a nearby landmark and have lunch.

In total, there were four packers and seven students. Kaelin, our cook, prepared delicious breakfasts and dinners; Phil and Clay took care of the animals and taught us about hitch tying and horse shoeing; and Sean helped Phil and Clay with camp setup and teardown.

By definition, the wilderness is far from civilization – quite literally, you’re on your own. Mountain Horsemanship was arguably my longest and deepest wilderness experience to date; apart from seeing people on the first and last days, the only other people we saw were 6 hikers who came through our camp in Little Whitney Meadow on a trans-Sierra hike. Packing your entire camp with mules, however, allows for a certain amount of luxury… From past hiking trips I could sympathize with one of the hikers when he said how nice it would be to sit in a chair – it was very nice.