It's a glorious time to hike the High Sierra, now a paradise of wildflowers and snow
"Have you ever heard of the cowboy straddle?" my partner, Emanuel, asked.
Without waiting for a reply, he hoisted himself onto a log suspended above a rushing stream and began using branches on each side — as if clutching the horns of a steer — to leapfrog across.
It marked one of many stream crossings we'd make over our recent four-day backpacking trip through the soaring peaks of the High Sierra. Water gushed, swished or sat stoically silent. Sometimes it was frozen. Snow patches clung to craggy rock faces — a rare sight in the last gasps of summer.
The effect was, at times, hazardous. While on a vague trail through Gardiner Basin, a rarely explored area, we encountered sheets of snow that descended into an icy lake, curled up at the ends like a demonic slide. I slipped microspikes over my trail runners and focused on taking one careful step at a time.
Wet socks notwithstanding, glory abounded. Above 10,000 feet, we were closer to sky and all its colorful whims. Alpine lakes glittered at every turn, while haunting moonscapes greeted us beyond the treeline.
Record snowfall saw nearly 63 feet of snow by mid-March. Statewide, the snowpack reached of average for April 1. Passage was long impractical for the average recreator.
