Sierra Rec Now Podcast: King’s Canyon & Sequoia National Park Adventure

Sierra Rec Now Podcast: King’s Canyon & Sequoia National Park Adventure

hey good afternoon everyone this is Charlie Panky SI magazine SI Now podcast we hope you are having a wonderful day in the Sierra wherever you’re at today uh coming to you Tuesday the 25th of June uh I can’t believe the month is almost up and it’s just going to be me today no guest speaking I hope you don’t mind I do have a lot of fun stories from my last week’s backpacking trip to share with you uh of course we’ll talk a little bit about Fourth of July coming up uh like Taho and I’ll preview our next month our next week’s guest uh which is going to be fun fun project as well so uh buckle up uh should be about 25 30 minutes here um but I’m looking forward to talking to you guys today share some of our tips for summer as you’re heading into your summer season I know kids are out of at school and a lot of people question about where do I do a short vacation so let’s jump into it I hope the Sierra’s in your view today or in your future uh and uh we let’s get started so uh let me ask you first question here okay uh have you ever just driven into a national park and tried to tram as much into a day as possible or maybe two days well that was my experience this last week uh I had a a buddy that’s been hiking with me for years that made a request and asked me hey could you take me to Coya National Park sometime I haven’t been there since I was a little kid had never been to King’s Canyon National Park which I had never been either and so what I did was kind of build up an itinerary for for him and I and uh we got to take one of my other friends friends uh Eagle Scout Sons who’s going to be a senior this year with us and we headed off from Men In Here drove the six hours over to Kings Canyon last Tuesday and we got there about 2 o’clock in the afternoon and what we wanted to do was try to cram as much king canyon in one day as we could and then spend one day completely in tooya National Park which are if you don’t know together they’re all joined together right so we came in through out Fresno there in a dlap and up uh up into the canyon and so what I’m going to do today is kind of give you a kind of a five-day rundown of what we did and kind of some highlights and and pick and choose what you think for vacation plan uh for that area there’s lots of content out about seoa um so you can always look at that but this is kind of how we took a took a look at it right so when you come into King’s Canyon National Park is that left right turn you go left go goes to Grant Grove and in the canyon right takes COA so we we skipped the stumps um which later a ranger told me I shouldn’t skipped because it’s actually pretty good but I did skip skip the stumps which rather the bat uh immediately made our way to gr Grove uh Visitor Center talked to some Rangers there and you know looked at some of the displays grabbed some stacks and then we decided that instead of driving our car to the uh General Grant uh parking lot which is only about maybe a half mile away uh we decided we wanted to walk we’ve been in the car for 6 hours so there’s a nice little trail that goes through all the campgrounds uh easy walk down um to the big seoa trees and but we love big seoa trees they’re just they’re awesome you can take bazillion photos of them of which you never use more than one or two but uh they’re just fun to be by these giant Mammoth trees it’s one of the unique things about California not only do they have the seoa in the Sierra but the California Redwoods over on the coast and if you if you’re not familiar with it with how they differ the California Redwoods are really really tall but they’re smaller in in circumference usually uh and they’re the tallest trees and then but seas are considered the largest trees because pure volume of wood right so circumference and height uh and then they have three stages of life cycle if you will there’s kind of that early stage uh where they look kind of like a normal tree kind of a little bit of um Regular growth and then they get to a mature stage where they get this kind of rounded top to and they got some girth to them and then they get to an old Monarch stage where the top has kind of been broken off and starting to rot and it looks kind of you know scraggly they’re really easy to see the old ones versus the younger ones as as you’re walking through but this walk down to the uh the grant Grove was my first time visiting there so got to walk by the Michigan tree which was really large uh and beautiful got to walk by a little creek Meadow that uh just before you get to the parking area um and see a bunch of trees but grant grant tree is the second largest tree largest seoa tree um in California uh used to not be the second largest I believe Washington tree was bigger at one point but it got blown up by some lightning to fire uh but anyways Grant Grant’s a large very large tree uh and it’s right there I you don’t have to go very far out of the parking lot they just make it Prime parking easy access uh great picture spot and the thing first thing I no is like this is not like the giant Force where Jal Sherman there’s a line of people take pictures a bazillion people there Grant’s actually a really casual kind of quiet experience there’s people around but it’s nothing like uh the giant Force so uh we got to see the tree take our pictures and then decided to walk some Trails right so we walked a variety of different Loop kind of Swing arounds kind of went behind the Grand Tree and back to um they have a little cabin back there a little Stables cabin uh that has some history to it so we went saw the cabin and then we walked the horse route kind of North Loop I found this rock right the right behind there actually climbed up on this Trail and there’s a big old Boulder there with some built-in old rough steps go in this Boulder looks like they you can climb up on top gave you this great view of Grant from a different angle and a little higher highly recommended find the boulder there’s some steps easy access looks like it used to be a maybe kind of a main thoroughfare they’ve kind of it’s not so main anymore but uh really enjoyed that got to go and see the Stables afterwards but getting out of the car after six hours that was a great okay I’ve got some walking in we spent an hour hour and a half outside wasn’t too warm yet um we had talked to a Rain Ranger who said hey if you’re going to be here you’re going to try to do so much don’t don’t miss a panoramic point and so after we got back to the car we just hopped in the car and just down the road is a uh it’s a it’s a right-hand turn uh and he goes up the mountain and this is a little squirly one and a half car road so you’re going to have to really pay attention to your speed uh because you know you’re ripping around a corner coming around the corner there’s cars coming down the hill at the same time so uh we had to dodge a couple of cars coming in uh up up the hill but uh great little Loop hike easy for everybody it’s paved um and uh you get up to your very first view V the view of um the Sierra Nevada right and you know I’ve never really thought about how different the sier Nevada is in different segments right but this segment when you’re on the east side you’re Mammoth you see all the Peaks and spires and it’s obviously this Grandeur obviously in yuse you see the big walls this was one of those view points where the first time I’ve actually seen the Sierra from this side where it the the the variety of mountain peaks and the depth of mountain peaks made you the size look so incredible to be able to look out and see like Brewer or Mount Brewer or black Kwa Ka I’m gonna say that wrong uh kaah uh to to um see I’m GNA forget all their names out but there’s all kinds of Peaks they have a sign there shows you all the Peaks and stuff it’s really kind of a cool place I highly recommend you going up there uh it was a great first introduction because you’re looking down on King’s Canyon from up there looking way down this Canyon you can see Hume Lake you can see where the Canyon goes down but you really miss the details of King’s Canyon but you really start to see how big the Wilderness is and King’s Canyon Wilderness if you’re not familiar it’s probably still some of the best untouched Wilderness Area that we have left uh there’s there’s so many areas that have no Trails uh that that the jmts goes right you know kind of skirts around just leaves this swath of of uh Wilderness is just fantastic so great area there uh speed the story up we then head down to princess Campground where we were camping up just down the road uh set up camp and then we took off with our dinner down down the canyon I never seen King’s Canyon it reminded me um a a bit of some old California roads like hoping grade out of Santa Rosa where you get up really high and all of a sudden you’re going down this windy windy road right that every turn you go around the corner another view another view you want to take a picture of right uh and maybe that’s just me because I like left the camera uh had a lot of fun driving down stopping taking pictures of the rivers taking pictures of waterfalls seasonal right now in June it’s great wild flowers are blooming the waterfalls are running all over the place so it was a good time to be there um we get down to uh to kind of kind of the main floor if you will the valley um and we had to really stop and take a look at a couple couple of cliffs there the where the rivers to join I think they call it um uh shoot there’s a name I’m apologize uh there’s a name to it but uh uh the rivers come together and they there’s this big wall that’s sitting there right right against the road it’s a great pull off place there was a couple people there so we pulled off took some pictures and we came back later and spent some time there um Bon C Cavern was open as we moved down the down the mountain and uh we didn’t stop there today we didn’t have time for a two or be in a one day you know kind of cram it all in you don’t you can’t do everything so we skipped Bo we’ll have to go back sometime for that pretty awesome but that’s a guided tour uh but we just stop at Grizzly Falls uh Grizzly Falls is right on the road so again one of the things you can pick up really fast and easy if you’re do trying to cram so much time in it’s a very beautiful waterfall coming right down into a picnic area pack a lunch or snacks and eat there at the waterfalls great um and then we headed down a little further and we just went ahead and drove all the way to roads in um I had it under depression it’s first time being there right I thought Roads End was a lookout like there was a big old Vista Lookout like you’re going to be able to see down this Canyon but Roads End is actually just a big Campground area it’s not a campground it’s a day use area uh at the very end of where there’s a lot of parking because it’s it’s the trail head for r u the ray Loop which is extremely popular backpacking Loop out of Kings Canyon right there there’s several other Trails places you can go but raay Loop is what it’s known for right there um and so there’s parking area you can walk to zalt Meadow from there which we had just passed um you can walk to Roaring Falls from there so different different routes you can hike to other we chose us to hike down the river a little bit hike down the path like towards ra Loop um get down the river uh see see the SES it gives you some great um views back of of the the the mountain in zumalt mountain or zal zumalt Meadow and there’s a big old know Cliff there that’s what people say remind them of Yim Valley King’s Valley King’s Canyon off some referred to as like a little y Valley um because they have these large Granite uh walls that that pop up out these Meadows and and the forest so very beautiful we had we there just before Sundown if you will so kind of a um maybe four o’clock in the afternoon um time period 4:30 5 maybe five 5 ah 5:30 uh so we did that backtracked to Zumwalt Meadow did a a little hike around there that the um the loops closed this year so they they maybe it’s only for spring because there too much water I’m not sure but it’s closed right now so we can only go walk on the backside take some photos in back uh that’s a really cool Meadow wish I could have walked into it but all those places are so protected right you just kind of want to walk and roll in the grass uh but you can’t do that that’s that’s kind of what you know how we preserve things for the Next Generation so took your photos enjoyed that uh and then we had brought down our dinner so we uh we grabbed a picnic table and made our dinner up uh and had dinner there at zal Meadow it’s very pretty especially Sunset as comes down the the the sun started to hit the trees and see that light filtering through trees really gave some great photos um uh and then we backtracked uh to a couple other little stops for just Vistas right so you know we only have a couple hours so that was us going all the way roads in which is like 32 miles from gr’s Grove down the mountain we saw waterfalls at hum from coming out of Hume Lake uh we saw the the the grizzly waterfall uh we hiked at some Meadow uh we hiked down roads in so that’s that’s a lot in one day but you get the whole picture down then we stopped at Bo and C Cavern on the way back and just took some pictures of the river and and read some signs because we knew we missed it uh the the young man I was with he really wanted to see that so so we did that and then uh on the way back we we took opportunity to pull off a lot of roadside spots that we missed on the way down uh and takes a photo the see the see the canyon kind of at a Twilight hour uh we only saw a couple more cars coming down the rest of the day so we were kind of one of the last ones out out if you will it seemed like for the day um with our Campground being right at the top it was it was easy for us to to get back to camp and and set up that day so that’s day one uh that’s a lot of information uh this will all be again we’re going to post it all our whole tenary that we did on SE magazine.com by the way our July issue comes out here it’s our 10th anniversary issue will be out in July so we hope that you’ll sign up to get that online it is free we do have P description models but it’s just to support us uh but you can always get it get it for free on email uh next day seoa I was a aoya last year almost a year exact with my wife for the first time ever so got to see the giant force from a perspective of very different perspective the cloud had come over the mountain that day and everything was foggy and so like Mora Rock I couldn’t see 10 feet past my feet you know you could not see the you know the floor or anything which just a rock and a cloud uh the trees all had this great uh calm mystery Look to Him which was really cool so I didn’t expect that although my my buddy was hoping for it uh we head into the park and and so we did we we were going to backpack the next day uh out of seoa so what we did was stopped at lodge pole Pine got our backpacks talked to some some Rangers and got their advice for the day I always recommend that stop at the visitor centers and ask their advice tell them what you what your time you have what what you want to accomplish with there and they just get he outlined a perfect schedule for so like she said told drive up to the museum and park get on a bus so that’s what we did we drove to the museum uh the giant forest Museum up the road uh we we parked our car we got hopped on the first bus to moral Rock um which is where we want to go and moral Rock I love moral Rock even when I couldn’t see anything I thought was great because 600 steps steps are built into a massive you know rock that has you know definitely some Cliff sides to it and and the path is only wide enough at times for one person and so there’s a lot of maneuvering bodies going up up up up it on a busy day like we had but it was for great to again see the Vista from with a clear sky we had perfect Blue Sky some smoke in the air from uh some burning going on but uh got to see all the Peaks again couldn’t couldn’t see Whitney um because of the smoke but uh we could see quite a ways back and again the Seer on this side this it’s beautiful I can see why so many people do the JMT and uh hike that range right there just from a visual from a far away I don’t even know what it looks like inside of it so much um so we got that with moral Rock uh we enjoyed that took a lot of pictures there uh and then decided to catch the bus back to Crescent Meadow and I didn’t do Crescent Meadow last time because my wife and I were going to did the alter Trail so this time I said I’m going to go to the Crescent Meadow which I want to see anyways and if you don’t know the Crescent Meadow is the start of the High Sierra Trail which is another popular Trail right so you know is opportunity for me to see these locations for the first time wild flowers bloom and all all over the place in cres the meadow so it’s a beautiful time to see that I saw I saw Deer uh running around that area um and then there’s a trail from Crescent Meadow to basically there’s ways to get to the the Sherman tree right so you see lots of different different trees and I’m gonna be honest with you I last we time I did alter Trail and you hike you hike a you know a good bit before you start seing lots of trees you you’ll see some SEO but not a bunch this Crescent Meadow route I highly recommend take the bus back to cres Meadow get off and then hike the route to Circle Meadow there are it seems like hundreds of seoa that you can see along the way and then Circle Meadow in my opinion is just as beautiful as Crescent Meadow it’s a gorgeous Meadow that does this like C Circle um route that you’re going to follow so you cross the meadow you could go around it but we it might right across the meadow we can to see uh the towers of Hercules and uh the black Arch I think called black Arch uh or the arch tree I think it’s called black Arch right there out of the meadow which is great the meadow looks like there should be bears everywhere it’s just just one of these really Serene big huge tree Meadows um just like Crescent Meadow looks like there just should be Wildlife everywhere um so we had a little lunch there at the at the Hercules tree and then um you come to the back door uh to the the there’s a cabin up there um and it’s not the squatter’s cabin it’s the uh it might be called cattle cabin actually right at the end of circle Meadow which is really cool they’ve got a really great group of trees near that cabin that you’ll see walking in the back door um and then from there is just a really short walk up to what the what you would most people would say the main trails are right you see the Congress Trail the trail to Sherman you see Mount uh mckin McKinley tree um you can take a path back on Congress Trail and see the senate in the house tree set and the president’s tree and the chief seoa tree all that’s right back in this area so you get all these trees and we haven’t even got to Sherman yet right which is one of my my favorite ways of doing that Park is to go in and then get to Sherman last because Sherman is Disneyland right there’s people everywhere basically once you get to McKinley and start walking through it there’s people everywhere so this giant forest that’s the one thing that it’s beautiful it’s absolutely stunning if You’ never seen it before but it’s also kind of distract because there are just so many people it is it is very popular place they big old bus loads there parking lots close by but you really should see it they are the largest treats in the world it’s it’s a pretty neat thing and they do a really good job of keeping those paths clean and in good condition so most everybody can do most of these Trails uh just bring some water is what I’d say um so we got that all done and we still had time for the day so we went back to our car after talking to another Ranger and asking some invise got our car drove back to Lodge pole and then we took the uh uh two mile hike back to to um uh Topeka no it’s not Topeka uh shoot I’m forgot how to say it again uh there’s a waterfall right there at lodge pole that you can hike back to it’s a great little uh Cascade waterfall goes in multiple directions uh can’t see the whole thing up up close it’s better see the whole thing back far and then when you get up close uh there’s some rocks to climb on a really nice waterfall so the only thing I’d say about that trail we saw severals on the trail was really cool but as you get to the last half mile it’s all exposed so in a hot sunny day like we were experiencing we were there in the heat of the day uh so bring water definitely bring water and sunscreen because uh it’s amazing how fast you can burn that Sun out there that high altitude on the way back that’s the marble Fork of the kawhai river uh so we took a swim we took found a swimming hole and went swimming it wasn’t as cold as I thought it was going to be on the snow melt uh because there is still snow in the peaks in the SI um and so we we you can see snow and all the Peaks around so you know that snow melt is coming down those Rivers so pretty cool pretty cool experience and that that was kind of the end of our day we stopped by the lodge real quick just get a peek and saw some more deer um and then um headed back to Camp which unfortunately at this point is an hour hour away because we’re back in King’s Canyon uh to do that we we needed our rest because the next day was going to be the fun part and that was a three-day backpacking trip that you’re probably going to get get more most of our detail from our magazine but let me kind of give you the rundown so I had done some research and one of the trips that I wanted to do for a short backpacking trip it’s very popular in uh seoa is a trip to uh Twin Lakes and Silman pass and so what we had planned is a three night Experience four- day three night experience where we’d hike up to Twin Lake for the first night and then we’d climb over Silman pass and and go to Ranger and then to Lost Lake which is a little further back and then come back over Silman pass Twin Lake and then back to the valley so that was the route we planned originally we talked maybe about doing a loop to jop pass but uh first SE first he of the Season mileage and the fact that I wanted to see some different lakes uh kind of nicked that one a little bit so we missed like row ro ro roel Meadow um uh on that trip and so what we did on a backpack it’s a it’s a six and a half mile trip out of Lodo it’s a 20 about 1,800 I think is what I read last was it 2,800 feet it’s I tell you what it’s a little more strenuous than I expected yeah uh the hike up there is uh climbs about 250 ft right out camp not bad uh then it gets mellowed out and then it climbs again just a little bit up to um uh there’s a creek crossing uh and then you get to um Kaho kahoo Meadow uh which is which was really pretty is a nice High highpine Meadow up there then the trail really starts to pick up right it’s a it’s a nice healthy climb I’m just going to say healthy climb very good path right nothing hard just just always climbing for the next couple miles up to coun gap which is kind of your your first you know Hillside top if you will um and then you fall back down um in Clover Creek cross over Clover Creek before you reach the trail head to Twin legs or J pass and from there it’s pretty steep right you just going it’s a it’s a rough trail um it’s lots of wild flowers if you like Wildflower hiking I guess the debate from the weekend was like why do we backpack in June when we know mosquitoes are probably going to be bad right uh and they were I’ll get to that uh because wild flowers everything’s green and Wildlife are fresh out so that’s why you do june backpacking right uh all the water so as we get to that part our our group has three different levels of of hikers the young kid he he could run up that mountain he’s a cross country kid uh I’m in decent shape but Hills he’ll still get me so I just took my time and cruded up there my buddy fortunately heels kick his butt so he uh and you guys have met Tom if you’ve watched his podcast for a while but uh so he struggled with it a little bit and so we kind of broke apart and got to Camp a little bit at different times but uh Twin Lakes was very pretty uh the mosquitoes weren’t horrible the first day that we were there but they were out uh it’s a Shallow Lake around the shorelines where all the camping’s at and so I like to swim so I was a little bit disappointed that I couldn’t just jump out of Camp I had to you know truck across the creek and go around the the uh outside of Lake there to find a deep enough swimming hole to swim in um interesting part about Twin Lakes is they have a throne room a toilet uh there it’s not an ouse it’s just a toilet and toilet two little short walls uh but it did save you from digging a hole which is pretty cool um but we enjoy to swim and a nice beautiful night somehow I always seem to pick the weekends to go backpack it was a full moon so we almost had a full moon that night so it was pretty bright out I threw a tarp over my hammock my buddy did not so he had a little more Moonlight uh sleep issues uh but we needed to get some sleep because the next day we were going to climb cman pass which is another th000 feet up I think it’s only 850 ft actually out camp uh but it’s just a bunch of uh switchbacks take you up the mountain it’s slow there was a lot of water running they have not cleaned the trails yet up there so the trails had lots of logs across it anyways we got up we spent a good hour and a half maybe two hours on top of the pass because the views up there are amazing highly recommend if you do this Trail don’t just walk over and go straight down the Ranger Lake take your time take your pack off walk over towards Silman uh uh Silman mountain and uh see the views from that side some people actually just go climb Silman uh I went the opposite direction and over by Twin Peaks and then climbed up uh the ridge above Lost Lake and and Ranger Lake uh there’s a nice Ridge there you can literally get right your feet right up there and look straight down 1 th000 feet it was pretty pretty hairy uh but uh great views not too hard to do it’s just a great place take a take a break uh and then when you’re going down the backside I’m just going to be honest like Trail sucks I mean I’m a I’m good at following Trail I lost the trail three times going down that mountain uh it is not in good shape I don’t know if they’ve had an avalanche or two if wiped things out um it’s it’s a pretty rough trail to follow way down but good thing to know is you know the lakes are right down below so most people just kind of probably truck down the mountain but uh the trails are not easy to follow from there uh Ranger Lake was beautiful and I could have easily stay Ranger Lake campsites all all over the north side of the lake found a bear box there U which is unique I don’t we don’t see bear boxes in youim at the back High Country Lakes all that much there’s bear boxes at all these lakes that we went to uh but but my my goal is to reach Lost Lake and if you don’t know what Lost Lake is uh they’ve only got three Camp spots there it’s a really primitive kind of Lake back uh a few miles back further uh it was the lake that the Brewer party had stayed at uh if you watch my last podcast they stayed at the Lost Lake um in the first original survey group and so we went to Lost Lake which very thankful for I wanted to catch a Suns Sunrise picture at Lost Lake it’s this beautiful Bowl that’s at the backside of Twin Peaks and and the peak that I was standing on up there um and I wasn’t disappointed it it uh the forest is different on that side it it switches from conival forest on on the West Side to this red fur Cedar for for kind of over there um so we uh had my very first campfire ever in the wilderness I’ve never done that before but they had beautiful fire pits and uh kind of welcomed you to do that so built a little campfire enjoyed a great evening so quiet it was no one around stars are out it was amazing back there um just not a sound not not not even a chipmunk or bird all night long um but got up for my Sunrise got a beautiful phot photo of the sunrise um and I and you know I I uh I wish I was better at doing presentations stuff I I I have to do this another time and but if you check our website I’ll have a full clip of the photos up there it is a very beautiful location um and that was really kind of the highlight of the trip right we next day we got up next morning we had to go back over s and pass uh to Twin Lake again we stayed in Twin Lake One Night One More Night the big thing of there is that in 24 hours a little over 24 hours the mosquito hatch must have happened because mosquitoes the second night Twin Lake were horrible um and uh not as bad as Hoover one was last year that was really bad but they were they were bad and we had a lot more guests on the lake that night because it was a weekend the full moon uh had had hit the night before uh so we were the day after the full moon anyways the mosquitoes really bad but we did find as he went all the way around the the south side of the lake all over over by the Rocks there was some really big deep swimming holes so we uh swam a little bit uh we actually climbed the rid up behind and found a campsite up on top of the ridge it was beautiful if you if you have the stamina to take your backpack up on top of the ridge of a welldeveloped campground up there on top of the ridge highly uh recommend you get this great view a little bit Breezy coming out of the West so it was nice um and then the next morning we were up and trucked out there only took a couple hours to go all that elevation downhill obviously um saw lots of campers leaving the area so twin legs again on the weekends is pretty popular I think they have some like 20 spots available on the weekends uh obviously we went on a in on a Thursday and Friday we didn’t see many people but uh you lots of people around again my highlights lots of wild flowers water everywhere uh the lakes are beautiful right twin legs twin legs was great because of the Granite Bowl but the lake itself is like eh I’ve seen lots of pretty lakes Ranger Lake was absolutely stunning I’d stay there in a heartbeat uh Lost Lake was one of my favorite sunrises I’ve ever seen in Sierra uh flat out um so it’s well worth it um you could have gone uh Seville I could have gone even another two miles and got to sevil Lake I’ve heard that’s really beautiful too but we did not do this this trip and then uh I had skipped bellw too I saw bellw from the are felt it was just a kind of a swampy lake so had no real interest in hopping over there so I I skipped that one as well um but that was kind of my trip uh there’s a lot of area back there to discover and see more of it seemed like most people we were we met were doing kind of the same thing over the Ranger Lake and back out we saw nobody down at Lost Lake like I said um and there were a lot of trees that we had to cross through that process so the trail is not really ready to um you know go without trouble so that being said that was our trip and we got back drove back to six hours stopped in low di for some cherries and ate snacks in the way and a couple burgers and uh ate at Gina’s Restaurant on the way out of of the restaurant which is where my wife and I stayed last time uh and uh yeah it was hot it was hot so I wanted be to go back to the mountains but I can’t wait to go back back we’re heading to to yed here July 4th for our first trip in yed um and looking forward to that talking about July 4th I’ve only got a few minutes left here uh we’re going to be heading into the end of June uh here uh I’m going to think maybe heading to Desolation this weekend and then Fourth of July weekend is going to come up if you got don’t have plans fourth of July uh there are Fourth of July celebrations in Tahoe obviously if you like the crowds I personally love the Bridgeport fireworks that’s my favorite place to go fireworks matter of fact for the last four years what I do is I go to yuse all afternoon and hike and then I come down eat a eat a burger either at the monoc cone or the barn uh then I sit my butt down in Bridgeport and watch a cowboy fireworks show which is a hoot people are firing fireworks all night long there and then take the hour and a half drive home for myself from there uh I like that um Carson City uh has fireworks of Lake Almanor this year has moved their fireworks back to a different spot but supp be a great spot for fireworks so Lake Almanor has fireworks going on I know Bass Lake has fireworks uh yeah I’m sure you got around your you guys all know fireworks show but get your boats out get your fireworks going uh it’s time to celebrate being an American uh which is really awesome uh and it’s a reason for us to be in Sierra right is to get out and enjoy and explore and you one of the things that I’ve really been passionate about this year and you guys have heard me say this before is that we should be trying not to just Explore More but do different things and so I took up paddle boarding as some of you know I got my second paddle board done just before on this trip I went to Blue Lakes and did some powder boarding got my dog on the board I’m still not good at it uh but that story is coming out uh here soon and I look forward to getting up to Tahoe soon and trying some calm Weare water and Tom Tahoe and then I think I’m going try to take it to Tanaya Lake for my fourth of July trip and see if I can do Tanaya Lake in Yus which would be probably my dream spot right so that that that would be it for me so that is it for me let me talk about some gear real quick I answer my own three questions Okay so so you know if I was going to go anywhere or what am I doing next I’m going to you next probably or desolation one of those two those are two next two things on my bucket list uh for food I found cheeseburgers cheeseburgers cheeseburgers and milkshakes those are my thing after afterwards but one of the things I took on the on the trip this time for food that was new to me is my son’s been talking about uh preparing food like or taking prepared foods instead of freeze-dried foods uh and and what that feels like as far as pack weight and everything and so we we’ve been experiencing with that uh found these pocket tamales that make a great lunch snack so pocket tamales just have pick up tamale and eat it on the go I thought it was awesome uh and then as far as gear I tried out a bunch of new gear for this trip um MSR uh uh uh the wind burner stove loved it actually prefer probably over um my other stove um that I have because because it’s a little bigger so I can actually cook stuff in it so one of our food packs that we got was from right right on Trek Foods where all their food is a little healthier and it’s actually stuff you cook so like I made we made black Gada noodles which is kind of an oriental dish um has has all kinds of different things but I was able to actually cook that in the pot where with the smaller um jet boil I can’t it just boils over there’s not enough temperature control right so this one gives me a better temperature control a little more space it’s a little more space my back pack but the Weight Wise didn’t seem too far off so um really like the wind burner I I’ll give you some more reviews on that too uh also tried the new uh patbus um uh flow free flowing uh uh water filtered system that’s also by I believe MSR group um really liked it uh for how it flowed right so instead of having this take that hard bag that I had from the the shoot I’m I’m going mind blanket what that that Norm the Sawyer is there’s a hard bag to it it kind of has to be squeezed all the time this thing just tips over it pours if you squeeze it pours a little faster um so I enjoyed that a lot the back flush flushing system if it plugs up seems a little bit more reliable I have had a soar fail on in the field so I really enjoyed that uh piece as well um new titanium spoon instead of the plastic Spork that was really cool uh took that with me and I’m G to forget something else there’s there was a couple things I took uh this time but overall the trip I was I I did pretty good job of not overpacking took a few Tumi clothes cuz I thought it was going to be cold at night and it didn’t uh so I didn’t need to bring that uh it was perfect summer backpacking weather so all right that’s 35 minutes I I I’ve gone over my over my welcome I’m sure uh this is Charlie Panky again I’m glad you guys have join us uh on our show I hope you’re enjoying the SI Now podcast i’ love to hear some comments down below like it hate it tell me what you want to hear next uh next week’s show uh look for we’re going to have Colin West from uh clean up Lake Tahoe or clean up the lake it’s not clean up Lake Tahoe clean up the lake who is going to be in Mammoth working in some Lakes down there right after Fourth of July uh they’ll be talking about some programs they’re doing with Patagonia um and various other aspects in in Mammoth but they’re going to do a clean up Lake Project down there and if you haven’t heard of them check this guys out clean up the lake they take thousands of thousands of pounds of trash out of our lakes and clean them up it’s a great great organization um and calling these guys been doing for a while so he’ll have some stories next week for us on next week’s podcast so look forward to bringing that to you guys have a great week hope to see in your future and we will talk to you next week have a good one guys

Join Charlie Pankey, publisher of Sierra Rec Magazine, on a virtual adventure through Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks! This week’s Sierra Rec Now Podcast dives deep into a recent six-day, five-night trip. The trip explored all the iconic landmarks before venturing on a challenging three-night backpacking adventure over Silliman Pass to Lost Lakes, Ranger Lake, and Twin Lakes. Get expert tips and stunning visuals, and hear Charlie’s firsthand account of this unforgettable journey. Don’t forget to subscribe for more Sierra Nevada exploration!
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