LightBackpacking.com

One of my ultralight backpacking partners, Wild Bill, and I just completed a quickie and butt-kicking 16-mile hike in the popular Ansel Adams/John Muir Wilderness in the Eastern Sierra.

I’ll do a trip report shortly, perhaps with video. But first I want to comment on an article in the latest issue of Backpacker Magazine with the special report: “The Wildest, Quietest, Darkest and least-visited places in the lower 48.” The list is impressive. But you don’t need to go far to achieve the same effect.

We had planned on a short 3.5 mile hike to hugely popular Shadow Lake with day-hiking to Ediza, Iceberg, Cecelia and Mineret Lakes. Alas, we got to the ranger station and were told, sorry guys, the trail quote of 25 is filled, better go somewhere else.

So we pick the Fern Lake-Ashley Lake-Holcomb Lake loop that started and finished at Devil’s Postpile Ranger Station. Ranger Scott tipped us that it was a pretty trail and much less used. In fact, after seeing a few parties in the first two hours, we saw no one until the next day toward the end of the trip. And this is peak season in an area where the PCT and John Muir Trails cross. It’s a backpacking superhighway in summer, yet we had a wonderful night on a peaceful lake and empty trails. The lesson: ask the rangers for their tips on where to get away. We might have only been a few miles from hundreds of hikers, but felt like we were in some of the darkest, more quiet, more remote areas on Earth.

Be light. Be safe. Be one with the pack.

PS - if you can, plan ahead so you have reservations for the hike you really want!