Tom Grundy's 2020 Sierra Challenge Day 3 Larkins Peak

8-09-2020 Today we started at the pack station by the Hilton Lakes trailhead. I was in the back of the pack again, but followed Bob and others until we lost (or at least I did) the trail in some talus. Then there was a bit of cross country until I picked up the trail again. This was much better than splashing through a swamp to start up this way a few years earlier. Then Grant passed us and we scrambled up to Half Moon Pass. On the way down the west side we passed a number of people and made pretty good time down the trail on the far side eventually joined by David. We cut off the corner to avoid even more elevation loss and gain and then got to the lake where Sean R had just finished swimming and Eric showed up shortly. I made a tactical error after heading up through a notch assuming what looked like a long mellow bench was a good way to go - it ended up being mostly giant tedious talus. That cost us some time, but then we turned the shoulder of the ridge and headed across one last valley and up Larkins Peak. By now we could see the faster people heading off towards bonus peaks, but we just slowly ground our way up to the summit.

Half Moon Pass is the notch to the right

Iris starts the steep climb to the pass

panorama from Half Moon Pass with Larkins way off in the distance right of center

I thought this ramp would be easy going, it wasn't

almost to the summit

panorama from Larkins, south is somewhat in the center

Half Moon Pass looked a long way away from here. I applaud Chris heading off to Crocker and Pointless peaks on the way back. I couldn't muster the energy, partly because I was dreading the big days ahead, and partly because I was just tired. The descent featured some nice scree so it was a whole lot faster, plus I avoided the mega talus bench. We took a refreshing dip in Lower Hopkins Lake before heading down the trail. We cut off the corner again and soon were heading back uphill on the dusty trail made dustier by some horses and mules. It seemed a lot longer going back uphill than the descent, but not as bad as the final headwall up to Half Moon Pass. We were relieved to make it over the pass and the descent back to the road was much easier from there. We enjoyed a cold ginger beer courtesy of Jim before heading back to the Church of Grundy to run a batch of laundry, shower, eat, and sleep.

Iris descending scree - fast and fun but hard on the shoes

a packtrain heading down the trail

Iris on the talus around Golden Lake

Total for the day 1 peak, 1 swim. Strava said 16.76 mi (iphone 5) or 17.25 mi (iphone x) and 7548 or 7358 ft of elevation gain.

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