Tom Grundy's 2023 Sierra Challenge Day 8 Bago's Friend Page

8-11-2023, with the very early sleep time the night before (before 8 pm) and the talk of an early start I was up early, and so I got ready - and then it looked like nobody else was going, but I was nearly ready, so I just started by myself a little after 5 am. I kept looking back to see if I could see anyone else coming up, but other than people in the parking lot I didn't really see anyone. I tried to make good time up the trail, but I don't think I was going particularly fast. I did stop to take pics of the cloud shrouded peaks around as it started to get light, but without a good camera I don't know how well I did. Big Pothole Lake was still mostly full of snow and Nameless Pyramid (climbed in the 2017 and 2020 Sierra Challenge) was partially covered in clouds. I made it up to Kearsarge Pass by around 7:20 and headed down the far side. The weather seemed to be a bit nicer on the west side of the pass. I lamented some of the new switchbacks that were so gentle you couldn't tell if you were going up or down. Maybe the old ones were too hard for horses? Still it seems with all the trailwork needed they could have left this trail alone and fixed something that really needed it.

the sun made a brief appearance in the morning

Heart Lake and cloud shrouded peaks

Big Pothole Lake and Nameless Pyramid

I was moving a little faster on the downhill, but was still passed easily by Parker jogging along. I managed to draft behind Sean K and Kieth? for a few miles until we hit a lake with a sign in the middle of it - I guess the trail floods here. There they headed up towards Bago's Friend, and I headed towards Mount Bago. This involved dropping down even more although I tried to take the line of easiest passage side-hilling above Charlotte Lake and then following the ridge up towards the N peak of Bago before following that to the summit of Bago. I could see Parker traversing down the ridge from Bago's Friend as I was far below, and then I saw him on the summit of Bago before I got there. I made it up just as he was leaving. The register had been left open so it was pretty damp. I tried to dry it out while taking pics, but a few minutes in the fitful sun didn't do a whole lot of good. The views - particularly to the S were pretty epic - so many peaks out there to do - sadly not so easy to get to.

the weather was a bit better on the west side of the pass
Bago is center right with Bago's friend down and left of it

trail sign in the middle of a lake - I went up the peak on the right and then Bago left of that, Bago's Friend is far left

view back from the peak N of Bago - Bago's Friend is just right of center below the horizon

panorama from the peak N of Bago (left of center with snowfield)

panorama from Bago

crop looking E and S of panorama from Bago - Bago's Friend is the low peak left of the ridgeline on the left

another view south from Bago, East Lake in center left

I backtracked to the saddle and then dropped down the steep snow using my trekking poles to slow me down. This worked out ok except at the bottom the ground was saturated and I sank into the mud. Then I dropped down the scree and talus to a snowfield and then to a lake and traversed over towards Bago's Friend. I cut up a snowfield and then up the steep rocks to the summit ridge and followed that up to the spiky summit blocks. I scrambled around on these and then dropped down to the sandy summit ridge E of the summit. I was sad to not see anyone up there, but I guess they came and left while I was going to Bago, and I didn't find the summit register either - I guess it was in some rocks down below the summit blocks - but there were a lot of rocks down below the summit blocks.

summit of Bago and steep snowfield
(I came down offscreen to the right where it wasn't quite as steep)

sitting on a summit block of Bago's Friend

I put on some podcasts to listen to on the descent and listened to them up to Kearsarge Pass. There I switched to music for the descent. I tried to jog a bit, but mostly just fast walked and shuffled down. I hoped to catch up to someone from the Challenge but that was not to be. I got back to the parking lot and Iris' element wasn't there anymore so I went to the truck. I was putting things into it when Iris came over - she had moved the Element. It was starting to rain, so we decided to meet up down the hill where she could get cell reception. I got into my truck just as it was starting to rain hard and had a protein shake and then drove down to meet up with Iris. There we went down the hill to a creek to rinse off - except the creek was more of a raging sideways waterfall that would have swept us through the culvert, so we went down lower to a much smaller and more sedate canal - so much smaller that we had to lie down and then flip over like a pancake to get completely wet. It still was refreshing even if all the spider webs were alarming. Then we drove down to Lone Pine to meet up with others at a restaurant.

things were a little gloomier back on the west side of the pass

After a bit of talk at the restaurant we all drove up to the cottonwood pass trailhead (with a stop from me to take some pics of the Owens Lake) and hung out a bit more before going to bed. Day 9 was going to be a long one.

Total for the day 8, 2 peaks, 1 post hike dip, Strava said 18.1 mi (moto gpower) and 6378 ft of elevation gain in 09:20

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