Summer of 1976

This is a vintage Kodachrome from the Summer of 76. I was 17. I spent about 60 days in the Sierra that Summer. Growing up in Sacramento my brothers and I would just take off, many times hitch hiking to our destinations. My parents encouraged us to get out and explore and seemed not to worry. That Summer I hiked in and out of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne twice, swam through Muir Gorge, climbed Mt. Conness, hiked from one end of Desolation Wilderness to the other, climbing every peak and swimming in every lake. This photo was taken on the back side of Granite Pass, heading down toward Simpson Meadow and Tehipite Valley. My brother and I rode a Greyhound bus from Sacto to Fresno, then tried to hitch hike through Fresno, but nobody would pick us up, so we walked to the eastside where we were finally picked up by a Wonder bread truck, which we rode to Cedar Grove. When I got back to school that fall, the coaches couldn't figure out how this long haired hippy had gotten into such good shape. "The Sierras man, the Sierras".