Come Hell or High Water

We headed out on a hike this past weekend in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness off highway 108. We started well below snow level, thinking that we might not encounter any serious problems on the route.

But it's springtime in the Sierra, and that means that the snow is melting like crazy. Our route took us up Arnot Creek, and the creek itself was roaring, as was the Clark Fork of the Stanislaus River. And a couple of miles later, when we came to our first ford, we decided that we didn't want to get our feet wet on a simple day-hike, and so we turned around.

It's not the first time that we've done that. The creek in the photo at left convinced us to take another route entirely.

The biggest single cause of death in the backcountry of the Sierra is not bear attacks, or axe-murderers. It's people getting into high, fast water, and not being able to get out again.

So we encourage you to get out and hike this spring. And we encourage you to do so with caution and common sense. As an old rock-climbing partner of P's used to say: "Summits are all in the mind." The only place you really HAVE to get is home, and safe.