Zach (Fievel), Yiran (Clax) and I all had a weekend blocked off to go climb some peaks and catch up. We started late Friday evening from the Rock Creek trailhead. Fievel has a one year old at home, so it was an honor to get to come along on his one backpacking trip of the summer. It is always a joy to catch up with Clax and Fievel and relive old memories from the PCT seven years ago.
We camped at Ruby lake and headed up and over Mono Pass early the next day. We walked up the faint trail into the Pioneer Basin and setup camp there. Now it was time for the main event. We hiked up the face of Stanford (N) and then did the long traverse over to Morgan (N). This was a long and slow traverse, and we knew we would have to repeat it. I was tired, and I live up in these mountains. Luckily, Clax and Fievel are both in incredible shape. Finally we reached Morgan. After staring up at the ridge of Morgan so many times on 395, it felt surreal to be up there.
We had talked about going for Esha on the way back, but we were all exhausted. We stayed upbeat though, and made quick work of the ridge on the way back. We reversed the 2,000 foot descent on Stanford and we returned to our camp. Exhausted but happy. Zach graciously let me camp in his tarp which saved me from a long night of mosquitos.
The ten miles back the next morning went all too quickly. We went for one final swim near Mono Pass, and then hiked back to the trailhead. I’m always looking forward to the next trip with friends from the PCT.
Anthony Ottati 