While Tacoma troubles may have prevented me reaching the summit of Waucoba Mountain on the first day of my trip, my failure to reach the top of Mt. Tom on the second day had me hoping for a bit of redemption. Luckily, I had a final day in my schedule before I had to head to the other side of the Sierra for a trip with Pops, so I decided to backtrack in the hopes of knocking one more summit off my list of Death Valley High Points. Wanting to get an early start, I arrived at the trailhead -…
3 CommentsTag: Sky High (Jun 2026)
It was dark at 4:00am, but the moon was out and I could see just the hint of light on the horizon as I pulled on a sweatshirt and began folding up the tent. Camped at just under 7,400 feet, I'd gotten my first good night of sleep in three days, banking nearly ten hours of shut-eye as a cool Sierra breeze streamed down the canyon overnight. I'd need every minute of that recharge; the day was going to be a doozy. Not that I ever really stood any chance of keeping up with Matt @theesotericone. By 4:17am, I started…
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The trip started off with a bang. It wasn't the kind of bang that's exciting and gets your blood flowing, rather, it was one of those bangs that generally indicates your day is about to change. In a bad way. Surprisingly, it wasn't my flight on Frontier - which sported the Piper the Pelican livery - where the problems began. It started when I arrived at the storage location for the Tacoma. I called the after-hours security number, and Kevin picked up after a couple rings. He sounded surprised to hear me. "Uh, I'm not there right now, give me…
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