Argonaut Expeditions - Ansel Adams Wilderness '07

Well, the '07 trip is over and everyone had a good time...for the most part.



Argonaut Expeditions

This year Paul, one of our fearless leaders, decided to take his Jason and the Argonauts obsession to the next level and created shirts for the team. Dubbing us "Argonaut Expeditions." The shirts had the Argonaut ship on the front and the skeletons from the movie on the back.

We got a lot of strange looks and more than once were asked if we were a church group. Which was funny considering the back had armed skeletons. Making the shirt more difficult to interpret the phrase on the sleeve is "one a night." (An inside joke based on one of Steve's ghost stories where one hiker goes missing and all that is left is a note that says "one a night.")

Here we all are in our shirts, preparing to go into the backcountry.



Joe with his stash of power bars. He ate five per day. Yes, he is a sick, sick kid.



We stayed a few days at Marie Lakes. It was a beautiful area on the Southern border of Yosemite.



As is customary I took off early on our layover day and explored the area. I had thought of bagging Mt. Lyell, the highest point in Yosemite that was just to the north of us. The problem was that it became quite dangerous as I gained elevation. I am guessing it is a class 4 from the Southern route. Since I was alone I didn't summit.

On my way up in the morning I worked my out onto a rock in the middle of the waterfall that connected the main lake with the upper lakes and glaciers.





Above Marie Lakes the glaciers were cracking and falling away in large chunks. It is amazing how loud it can be.



The water in the lakes was crystal clear.



It may be hard to tell what is in the picture. It is the string and remains of a hellium filled balloon. I was getting water at one of the lakes and I saw a purple streamer in the grass. I was hoping that it was one of the balloons that school children let go with response cards. It wasn't, though it is amazing that he made it's way into a narrow hollow at 12,500 feet.



The water was icy cold, but that didn't stop a few of us from diving in.



While Marie lakes was beautiful the wind was really intense and picked up the first night and never let up the entire time we were out. This, along with the the fire warning (meaning we couldn't have campfires), had us rushing into our sleeping bags not too long after the sun went down.

Jeff, guitarist extraordinaire, entertained us in the evenings while we ate dinner.



The men who started these yearly outings.



Here is a black bear that showed up to challenge Paul.



Hey Joe, where are you going?




Some pictures on the trail (out of chronological order)...






















We finished our adventure by eating at the "the Burger Barn" in Bridgeport, CA. Unbelievably good food in a far flung place. Jeff made the preposterous claim that In-n-Out was better, and though I love In-n-out I could not support him in his delusion. I think he was just trying to show a bit of SoCal pride. :)