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 Mt. Whitney Packers of the 1940s - 1950s |
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Blasting on the Mt. Whitney Trail |
 Clouds of dust from dynamite blasting on the upper switchbacks of the Mt. Whitney Trail. |
This was
a constant picture when it came to the Whitney Trail. Once a
packer left Mirror Lake, at near 10,000 ft., it was the last
timber he would see for approximately 10 miles until he reached
Guitar Lake on the other side of Trail Crest Pass in Sequoia
National Park. 10 miles of hard rock that constantlybegged for care. The continual freezing and thawing, combined
winter avalanches, often necessitated the forest and park service
trail crews to blast fallen rocks off of the trail. Any packer
that has packed dynamite for those trail crews has a story to
tell. I recall the summer of 1969 when I had to pack in dynamite
and blasting caps for the forest service, the trail crew was
there for most of the summer and I only had to suffer through
two or three days. Unfortunately, those days were pouring down
rain - the whole day! (There were many days like this that dispelled
the old myth that it never rained at night in the Sierra!) After
loading up my two mules Bart and Dan, in the rain, with enough
dynamite and blasting caps to relocate the Portal Store to Meysan
Lake, I headed up to the trail crew's camp at, of all places,
Trail Camp. An uneventfull soggy day
turned into a fear-filled and duck-and-pray situation in the
rocks about one quarter of a mile above Mirror Lake. It was there
that Bart slipped on the rocks and fell over losing his load
of dynamite. You never saw a packer abandon his horse and find
a place to hide faster in your life. When nothing happened, I
slowly, with much shaking and trepidation, came out of hiding
to find Bart with his load on the ground and shaking in his shoes
more than me! Dan and my horse just stood there in the rain oblivious
to anything having happened at all. After repacking Bart, I finally
made it to Trail Camp, only with my nerves quite shattered. Now
where else, other than working for MWPT, could one gain such
a heartwarming summer experience? |
 Guitar Lake overlooking the peaks of the Great Western Divide. |
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Adjusting the load. Let the packer who has never had to adjust or repack a load stand up; and, then place his hand on a Bible and swear that he never had to! This was often a scene. I don't think I ever packed when either myself or someone with me had to stop and redo their loads. Seldom though was it in a situation like the one pictured. Most likely it was on the side of a mountain with your mules spread out over one or more switchbacks, with guests looking on wondering what was up. Well one thing for sure wasn't up, and that was the load. It was coming off. |
Lunch
amongst the rocks. Is it even possible to think of a better place to have lunch than with the rest of the packers, above timerline with your string looking on? Oh, yeah! How about on those days off? If you were packing the Club it could very well have been with one of those beautiful commissary girls at some secluded lake; or, if it was with the Trail Riders of the Wilderness it could have been with one of the guests as you explored to Rock, Whitney, or Wright Creeks. But for me, some 95% of the time, it was fishing - anywhere- with Norman Jefferson. We were fishing bandits. The packers relied on us so much for fish that often the first words out of their mouth were: "When are you going fishing?" As the Sierra Club gradually switched from all fresh food to "backpacker-type" dehydrated rations, our fish became the main staple in the evenings. Rarely did we fail to "bring home the trout." Some times we brought home so much trout that even six packers couldn't eat it all! We won't discuss the legality of it all. |
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Golden Trout Country
 Golden Trout |
 Baxter Pass party |
 Limit of Golden Trout |
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by Paul Webster
Rest stop on a steep mountain slope. |
 Taking a break overlooking a beautiful meadow valley. |
Even the mules
seem to be enjoying the view! Scenes like these are what made
packing for Mt. Whitney Pack Trains the most wonderful experience
ever. God richly blessed all of us, packers and guests, more
than we'll ever know this side of heaven. From the lush forests
of the western side of Kaweah Gap, overlooking Hamilton Lakes
and the Valhalla in Sequoia National Park, to the grass so deep
in Upper Paiute Meadows, at the northern fringes of Yosemite
National Park, that all you could see were the ears of your mules,
scenes like these were what the summer was all about. When God
made the "Range of Light", as Ansel Adams so inspirationally
name the Sierra, I'm so thankful that He put it in our backyard
for us California packers to enjoy. |
The Elder Corral - Located off of Tuttle Creek Road The Elder Corral, located just south of Lone Pine about 2 miles west on Lubkin Creek Road, was the scene of many a summer's stock preparation. Mules and horses was often pushed here at the beginning of June from Whitney Portals or Moffat Ranch, or both, for shoeing in preparation of the packing season. Burros were pushed here from their wintering pasture at the Moffat Ranch for mane and tail shearing and loading onto stock trucks. The burros were subsequently hauled to the western side of the Sierra for use by the Sierra Club on their family burro trips. I can still smell the forge as Tommy Jefferson formed each shoe and fitted it to the mules. Hot shoeing was a luxury, because in the backcountry there was neither forge or anvil. You had to find a good rock on which to cold-form the shoe and pray for the best fit possible. But even at its worst it was still better than no shoe at all when the trails were mostly rock. I shall never forget when I met, what appeared to me to be, a champion shoer out of a pack station in Bridgeport. I watched in awe as this individual completely shod a mule in under 20 minutes; and, guess what, it was a woman! She completely broke my stereotype vision that all farriers where men. Bravo for her! |
 Elder Corral - Circa 1950s |
 Elder Corral - Circa 2015 [Photo courtesy of Ray DeLea] |
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[Sierra Club Bulletin, March 1971] |
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1995 Mt. Whitney Packer's Reunion | |
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Packing & High Sierra Stories | |
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Mt. Whitney Packers of the 1950s and 1960s |
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Early Lone Pine |
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Wildflowers of the High Sierra |
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One Packers High Sierra Experience |
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  Sign Guestbook View Old Guest Book Entries Oct 1999 - Feb 2015 (MS Word) |
 CONTACT the Pigmy Packer |
 View Guestbook View Old Guest Book Entries Oct 1999 - Feb 2015 (PDF) |
This page was last updated on
22 April 2024