High Sierra Workshops at Golden Trout Camp
Recently I spent a week in the Sierras in the Golden Trout Wilderness. The trip was geared
toward black and white digital photography but the structure was such that everyone was free to pretty much do what they wanted to do. It was organized by Paul Roark and Roy Harrington. Paul is very active in the Yahoo Black and White Printing group and is very generous with his time and knowledge. Roy is the creator of Quad Tone RIP, which is a turnkey software method for printing black and white on a number of different printers. Both Roy and Paul are long time B&W photographers and printers and have done some beautiful images.
[Click the image for a larger version]
The Golden Trout Wilderness area is located on the eastern side of the Sierras just south of Mt. Whitney. Coming from San Jose I drove through Yosemite, over Tioga Pass and then south on Highway 395 to Lone Pine. The Eastern Sierras are pretty spectacular and a lot different than the Western Sierras. I think they’re much more impressive. They seem to be right in your face and don’t bother at all with foothills like the western side. Golden Trout Wilderness is west of Lone Pine up an amazing and breathtaking switchback road.
I could have spent more time in the Alabama Hills, just west of Lone Pine, before the drive up the mountain to the trailhead. The Alabama Hills are very strange rock formations where many movies and TV shows were filmed. I watched the sun come up slowly illuminating Mt. Whitney before setting off up the mountain.
After arriving at the parking area, the camp was an easy three mile hike in. The camp is fairly primitive but does have some solar power and a log cabin which has a kitchen and eating/gathering area. Anne, the cook, managed to put out some great food. Water was from a spring and hot water was provided twice during the week for showers. The hike up the hill to the outhouse in the middle of the night was kind of a pain but we all got used to it. We would all gather for breakfast in the morning and plan the day’s activities which included several hikes of various lengths, classes in B&W Printing or just hanging around the camp. There were two naturalists that went out with us on the hikes. They were full of information and stories that kept us all enthralled. At 10,000 feet elevation, it was important to drink plenty of water to keep from getting dehydrated in the dry air. After a few days, though, we were all acclimated. The weather was spectacular every day. Not too warm during the day and not too cold at night. We had brilliant blue skies that actually could have used some more clouds. Black and white photographs really demand interesting cloud formations (I know picky, picky).
There were about 20 of us from all over the country. One person was from the UK. All were at different skill levels when it came to both photography and hiking experience and all were a lot of fun to hang out with.
I came home with about 600 photographs and am still sorting and editing. Some of them aren’t too bad.
If you get an opportunity to attend this annual event I highly recommend it. Here’s some information:
High Sierra Workshops at Golden Trout Camp
July 30 2007 08:15 pm | Special Places
