Piute Mountain From Robinson Creek

September 29th to October 1st, 2018
Piute Mountain (10,541')
Day 1: 10.8 miles, 3,100'
Day 2: 16.8 miles, 4,200'
Day 3: 10.2 miles, 800'
[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

September has been a rough month for me. After a strong summer a confluence of health issues forced me to drop out of several trips and dial back others.

I was finally starting to feel at least somewhat better though not quickly enough to salvage the four-day buttkicker trip to Zion I had scheduled for this weekend. When it became apparent that it was going to be best to reschedule that trip Jen and I decided to head up to the Sierra and try something moderate without the pressure of having a group relying on me. After looking at options we settled on Piute Mountain located in a remote part of Yosemite and accessed out of Twin Lakes (the one north of Mono Lake not the Mammoth one.)

Sibling Sierra Sojourn To Mount Silliman

September 21st to 23rd, 2018
Mount Silliman (11,188')
Day 1: 5.2 miles, 3,400'
Day 2: 2 miles, 1,400'
Day 3: 5 miles, 100'
[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

A little known personal fact is that I was adopted when I was just a few days old. The next 30 some years I didn't have any contact with my birth family despite a few attempts from both sides to find each other.

Then came a Facebook message from a stranger pointing me to a post on a Texas adoption registry. After a little online digging and 9 months of waiting for someone to check their Facebook non-friend messages I went from being a lifelong only child to having two half sisters and a half brother.


I got to meet Clare, JoAnn, and my birthmother Kim for the first time last Christmas when visiting family in Texas. (My half-brother Adam is in the military and was in Hawaii at the time).

A good time was had by all and when we got to talking Clare, whose hobbies include Crossfit and running marathons dressed as Wonder Woman, was interested in trying out one of the Sierra backpacks I'm always talking and posting about. So I threw out a few options and we settled on a three day to Mount Silliman in Sequoia.

Sawmill Pass

August 31st to September 2nd, 2018
[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

This is going to be a little different than my usual Sierra writeups because we didn't make a single peak and not for any entertaining reason like weather, animal attacks, or gear failure. Sadly boring old health issues would cause us to bail out without a single peak.

Still, Sawmill is one of the unmaintained passes in the Sierra that really deserves to have a bit more attention paid to it. It's located near Baxter which is similarly not maintained but unlike Baxter it's actually quite pleasant if you don't mind a bit of steady gain.

This was our Plan B after failing to get a walk in permit for Taboose Pass. Interestingly enough they had to check a map before they would issue us a permit which should give you an idea of how lightly used it is.