Split Mountain, CA, July 2002

This first picture is just after sunrise. The smoke from the Sequoia National Park wildfires has drifted directly north to us here turning the sunrise into a sunset scene. Rick and I started our hike around 5:00 a.m. We left work on Friday around 3:00 p.m. and had a mostly uneventful 250 mile drive to the trailhead. My Bronco stalled out in the last quarter of a mile and gave us a scare. We were over 13 miles away from the nearest paved road with no one else around and the very real possibility that one one would show up for awhile. After some tinkering under the hood we got underway and slept under a very bright moon and the gurgling of the Red Creek.