Being a photographic record of Sam Valdez and Bud Osterberg in their second attempt at Split Mountain (14,058 ft. - 4,285 m.) near Big Pine California.

  It started when Sam made an offhand comment in one email... Something like "Isn't there still some unfinished business at Split Mountain?" Well, Sam never even made it to the trailhead the first time so he had no idea... Mike, Santosh and I got quite a ways up. I shoulda known better, but I jumped at the chance to give it one more try.

  Split Mountain is not an easy day hike. It's a hard climb from the trailhead (6,700 ft. - 2,042 m.) to the base camp at Red Lake (10,460 ft. - 3,188 m.). Even though it's only five miles, it's steep hot and tiring. That's followed, the next day, by a long hard climb to the summit (3,500 ft. - 1,100 m. elevation gain) and back. By the time you get ready to hike out on day three, your knees and legs are pretty much in revolt. I don't know why I listen to Sam...

  Despite the fact that "There's NOTHING flat on this Mountain*" it really is a nice place to be. We had Red Lake to ourselves, and we didn't see another person until we were on our way down from the summit.

  We did a pretty slacker pace on all four legs (4 1/2 hours to Red Lake, 4 hours to summit, 4 hours back to Red Lake, and 3 hours out), but what the hell, we're old duffers.

*This quote is from Dr. Mariana Baserga who was hiking down the last time we went up to Red Lake. It is soooo appropos!

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