Sykes!

So, Mackensie and I decided to take another trip in the spring of 2010, my senior year of high school. I had heard a lot from my neighbor J!M about Sykes Hot Springs, at the Big Sur Station. We were dropped off by my Dad at the trailhead and began hiking. The weather was clear and dandy on that Friday morning. The hike is 10 miles in, with rolling hills and a thin trail. This time I had a little less gear after weeding out the unnecessary. Mackensie still was ill-outfitted, this time using my daypack, still lacking a frame and adequate space. The trail spits you out by the river and leaves you confused if you've never been there before. J!M, luckily, had told us the right way to go. We traversed along the riverside to the left and eventually discovered many campsites. Settling on one across the river, we set up our gear and headed over to the springs. After trying out all three, we decided on our favorite and spent the rest of the evening posted up there. In the morning we returned to the lowest spring which was right on the river. Being the clumsy person I am, I leaned on the sand bags that held all the hot water in and soon enough ended up in the river...



Here's a shot of the Redwood bridge we crossed to get from the springs to our campsite.

After thoroughly enjoying our stay, we decided to hike halfway back and camp for one more night. At Ventana camp we both tried out the "wilderness toilet", in other words, the box full of poop at the top of a tiny hill. It was all in good spirits though. We cooked up some dinner and turned in early, only to be awoken at 4:00AM by what seemed to be an enormous puddle. It had rained and all of our gear was drenched. At this point we could not get back to sleep so we decided to pack everything up, including the water weight, and hike out with headlamps. We arrived quite early and hiked up the road to the River Inn for some breakfast.

Good Times!



Stay Tuned!

I'm not sure what I'll post next time, but I have another Half Dome climb, Sykes, and some junk here and there to talk about!

Cone Peak. First Multi-day trip.

For those of you who have never been there, Cone Peak is an abandoned fire outpost located at about 5,000ft., and 80mi. South of Monterey. A few months after conquering Half Dome, I collected some gear for backpacking and went down the coast with Mackensie. The trailhead started right off the roadside and soon cut into the hillside and disappeared into the valley. It was a very sunny, thin trail with a hill on one side and a cliff on the other. I was outfitted with a proper backpack, but, being inexperienced, I packed more than I could handle. Mackensie, on the other hand, had a frameless behemoth of a pack, stuffed full to the brim, that loosely hung on her shoulders. Five miles in we came across our campsite that would act as a base for us. It was beautifully hidden in the redwoods and right next to a flowing river. Along our way there we met a trail rehabilitation volunteer, Mike, who showed us the correct way to go. He was a perfectly nice fellow, but, having been told stories about killers in the woods, we both assumed he might be one.



There is Mackensie sitting in a burnt out redwood at our campsite.

The next morning, we woke up and took off hiking our 12-mile round trip day hike to cone peak. It was a treacherous up hill trek in the beating sun with absolutely no tree cover. We had hardly enough water to take us to the top and no place to refill our bottles. Finally after a few hard hours we made it to the cool shade of the outpost. The sight was spectacular.





The hike down was pretty uneventful. It was easy going, a tired hike. We returned to camp, ate some dinner, and slept our last night in the wilderness. The next morning we set out bright and early to hike back in. We arrived way ahead of schedule and instead of waiting around for a ride, we hiked up the road until an old man offered to drive us north. He dropped us at the River Inn in Big Sur. There, we called our ride and waited to be rescued.





That's all for this trip.

Tune in next time for: Sykes: The rainy nightmare.

Opener

Well, here it goes... My name is Jackson Sherry. I'm 18 years old, a college student at Monterey Peninsula College, and a part time employee at CVS Pharmacy. I'm an aspiring California State Park Ranger, currently planning to attend Humboldt State University in about two years, and after that, well, who knows. In my spare time I cycle, play ultimate frisbee, rock climb, go hiking and backpacking, shoot film, jump off bridges(more info coming soon), and mosey around town. This small space that I have here on the internet will be used for the posting of my adventure photos, thoughts, experiences, and advice. Since I am currently ill, have a time consuming work schedule and school schedule, I will probably not have time to go on new excursions for a while, however, I will start this page off right with some good memories.

Woo!



2009: My first trip up Half Dome. My neighbor J!M asked me if I wanted to climb the dome with him and I returned with the question of when. "5:00 this afternoon." On a whim I decided to tag along. We took off for Yosemite that afternoon in his '66 Roadrunner VW Bus and made it to the park around midnight. The group consisted of J!M, two of his daughters, Daniella and Analee, Me, and Daniella's boyfriend at the time, Kyle.



The hike was a bit harder than I expected and quite above my skill level at the time but I trucked along as did the rest of the group. Lead by the always charismatic J!M, we scaled Half Dome in no-time, greeted a Marmot at the summit, took our respective photos, and went on our happy way. In a way, this marked the beginning of my outdoorsman outlook on life.


Thanks to all of you who are reading this!

Coming soon: Cone Peak: The abandoned outpost south of Big Sur.

Stay Tuned!