Springs arrives at a high mountain meadow
Been roaming around the high country for several weeks now. Had a nice hit on last Thursday’s Chronicle story about climbing Mount Tallac at Lake Tahoe, and just got down today from another central Sierra peak — check Sunday’s Chron for story, pics and how to do the trip.
The big shocker is that the snow line in the high country is at about 9,500 feet elevation in the central Sierra. The 10 major passes over 10,000 feet on the John Muir Traill all have snow. For August 10th???? That’s unheard of. A friend of mine said it was “getting near the end of summer” so he better do a few trips. Hah! It’s spring time, in case you missed it, just go up in the high country.
A few quick notes: The shooting stars, up in the sky at night, not in high mountain meadows, have been great this week. I’ve been seeing about four per half hour, looking mainly north, to the right of the Big Dipper and beneath Polaris. These probably spin-offs from the pending Perseids meteor shower, which shows up Friday night (the later, usually the better), August 12.
I’ve been roaming around a lot and writing a lot, too, this year, and my posts here are going to be more frequent. My sports editor at the Chronicle gave me permission to tease my upcoming stories, so I’ll be doing that quite a bit. Maybe a pic, excerpt and what to look forward to. Some people ask how far in advance I write my stories. Answer: I just recorded by KCBS radio show for Saturday this morning, and then I climbed the Sierra Buttes for Sunday’s Chronicle adventure. So I don’t get ahead at all. Stay tuned for good times ahead.
One thing that has surprised me this summer are the number of open campsites at a lot of premier campgrounds. Today I saw many riverfront sites along the beautiful Yuba River along Highway 49. Lodges have open rooms. Even at South Lake Tahoe last week, we had our pick of any place we wanted to stay.
Feel great in the next 24 hours: Hike. Bike. Camp. Fish. Boat. Wildlife watch. Explore.
For my new book California Camping, go to http://74.220.215.219/~tomstien/books/california-camping/
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