Backpacking in Kings Canyon under the Milky Way.

Had a little teamwork on this one, Christina had her headlamp set up in the perfect spot with out knowing it! She was feeling the altitude on this trip so I had to carry a little more then I expected to keep her moving along. With the strong winds out I thought Christina might of wanted to turn around but she toughed it out and I’m glad! I came to shoot the alpen glow but think I like the night view more then the day stuff. This little old tent is about 10 years old and this may be it’s last photo. Too bad we don’t get the trade ins on tents or customer loyalty discounts!! It certainly lasted a lot longer then I though they would have, it was less then a 100 bucks and all I could afford at the time. I’ll get a lighter one next time!

It was a cool trip, meaning on the cold side. We didn’t jump into any of the mountain lakes or broke much of sweat because there was a constant breeze to keep our temps cool while hiking. Christina saw her first yellow bellied marmot and thought it would make a great friend for her pet dog to play with, that would be funny, a giant chihuahua playing w/ a marmot! We pitched the tent up next to the tallest boulder to block the wind, it’s blurring parts of the tent in this shot but it was stretched out pretty far with guy lines so you can’t really see much blur in it all unless you look closely. This was just a random unplanned shot where I knew I could use the 3 different layers make the scene work and fill the frame with interesting subject matter.

The Sierra has been pretty cloudless this late spring and early summer season. I love to frequent the places I shoot to get know the weather that isn’t the same every year. Some years we have almost cloudless summers and some we get more then the usual fair of afternoon thunder storms. I love going light with out a tent but haven’t been caught in a rain, hail or thunder storm with out a tent, but maybe someday I’ll get pelted to no end by baseball sized hail!!

Have you ever been caught without a tent while backpacking?

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Mile.. Mile & A Half – The Muir Project

The John Muir trail is a 211 mile trail that follows 160 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. Most think there are so many passes along the trail and find that be a discouraging factor but there are only 3 passes spread far apart from each other so that only leaves being gone for about 3 weeks as an excuse. More time equals more enjoyment then just zipping through it’s the sides trip up Whitney from the backside and so many other lakes, trails, peaks and passes to see along the trail. Most start the trail in Yosemite Valley and it just passed Mt Whitney. The documentary film was created last year during the highest snowpack in the decade melting away so it will display how the mountains weep those heavy tears.

The suspense is certainly building for this film for me, enjoy!!

MILE…MILE & A HALF (trailer) from The Muir Project on Vimeo.

Here’s one of their older trailers
JMT Project