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| Home > Hiking in U.S.A. > Clamshell Peak |
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CLAMSHELL PEAK by Alex Chen Our goal was to hike to Clamshell Peak and then to Monrovia Peak. When I printed the maps, I looked at the distance of the hike and thought: “another peak in a bag”, but I was seriously wrong. This time we had a large group. One of the objectives for this hike was to train leaders; Angela and I were to be the leaders for this one. So I gave everyone a map and decided to lead first. The day got hot early on, so I kept on hiking fast. The trail seemed very un-maintained. I walked through so many cobwebs and chopped so many bushes that I started to feel the chance of losing the trail if I did not pay extra attention. Jack announced to me that we might have missed the trail to the ridge towards Clamshell Peak, but since I was leading ahead already, I decided to cross bushes to see at higher ground. There was a great deal of thorns in those bushes. Trying to climb and balance in that hot day was not easy. I continued on, and suddenly found an empty water bottle, which made me realize that the trail was just a little higher-up. Apparently we did not miss the trail. I should have trusted my instincts. Angela followed, but somehow due to miscommunication, she did not see me and continued on when I climbed higher at the fork. After some whistling and radioing, we were eventually all on the right track. By the time we arrived at Clamshell Peak, most of us started to feel dehydrated from the intense heat. After we ate, we decided to abandon Monrovia Peak and head back to civilization for cool refreshments. I felt that I did a good job at leading, so I was somehow satisfied. But the hike down was tougher than I imagined. Some of our hikers were so depleted from the heat that they hiked down at a real slow pace. The only person that carried sufficient water was Jack. I got tired of waiting at the ridge and decided to head down to a cooler area first. Theodore joined me on my way down. Later on that day we found out that the temperature was over 100 degrees. Luckily nobody experienced a heat stroke. We all learned to check the weather and make sure we have extra water on our future hikes. Read about other hikes: Strawberry Pk Clamshell Pk Cactus to Tram Sugarloaf Mt. Whitney MR Mt. Russell Cactus to Clouds Iron to Baldy |
© copyright 2006 Hester Han. All Rights Reserved.