Backpacker – August 2019

PHOTOS BY (CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT) RICK SANGER; JOHN DITTLI; GENE ROSE

Of course, nothing can prevent people

from calling a peak whatever name they

choose, and today you can find extensive

references to Mt. Morgenson via inter-

net searches, and even its location. But you

won’t find an easy route to the top. There

is no straightforward trailhead at which to

park your car, no defined way to the moun-

tain’s base, and no trail at all to the summit.

To get there, you must choose one of sev-

eral cross-country approaches that sea-

soned peakbaggers call a dayhike. Most

mortals require an overnight, maybe two,

for a round-trip, depending upon an east-

ern or western approach. For our trek in the

summer of 2018—the first attempt at climb-

ing Mt. Morgenson for both of us—Rick and I

had decided on a long, meandering route that

would take us through a little bit of every-

thing Randy loved about the Sierra.

Starting at the sage-scented desert f loor

of the Owens Valley on a hot July day, our

lives slowed down the second we hit the trail.

“Ha lf your pace, double your fun” was a piece

of advice Rick used to post on trailhead bill-

boards. It was a knowing and encouraging

message from a man wired for his job. So

when I’d first asked him if he’d guide me on

an off-trail “ranger” route to Mt. Morgenson

and he told me he was no longer rangering, I

was shocked. I’d gotten to know Rick during

the research I did for my book, and I’d taken

it for g ra nted that he’d be a ra nger forever—or

at least until his body gave out.

W hile we ambled up the trail, Rick shared

with me the reasons he had not returned

to his long-held position as a backcountry

ranger the past two summers. He openly

described the depression he suffered while

coming to terms with his life changes—first

and foremost, a baby girl. He and his wife

had spent a magical summer in the back-

country with their new daughter Charlotte

at Charlotte Lake (no coincidence). But the

experience proved logistically difficult,

fundamentally at odds with the needs of his

family, and financially unsustainable.

What to do? Starting a new career in his

mid-50s, after two decades in the moun-

tains, was a challenge. His struggles, like

Morgenson’s, offered a glimpse into a hidden

side of rangering: What happens when the

glory days end? Leaving the ranger ranks

and saying goodbye to full summers in the

Sierra was more than just losing a job—it was

losing a yearly source of emotional, spiritual,

and physical rejuvenation. At a time when

Rick knew he should be celebrating the life

he and his wife had brought into this world,

he felt like he was dying inside. He told me

that he was “lost like a tenderfoot” out in

the so-called “real world.” He recognized

that he was now following too closely in his

mentor’s footsteps. He said that, like Randy,

he had been gazing at the scenery without

looking where he was going and suddenly all

was dark and disorienting. He had reached

out to other ex-rangers for support, one

Clockwise from top left: Laura and Rob Pilewski,

John Dittli, the author, and Rick Sanger at Wallace

Lake; the snow cave where Randy Morgenson’s

radio was found and it’s speculated he fell through

the ice; Morgenson at Tyndall Creek Ranger

Station in 1988

SPONSORED CONTENTSPONSORED CONTENT

Trail by Design

Presents:

Alyse Dietel

backpacker.com/trailbydesign

@amilliontinylines | amilliontinylines.com

Unfortunately, our will is not

always in the best interest of nature

and its creatures. I use my art to

show that it could be the other way

around. I hope to show that we are

all connected in nature, and that

the negative eff ect we have on our

earth aff ects us just as negatively.

I hope to capture the wonder and awe

of wild places and animals, and to

instill a desire to conserve and

protect them. This message is

important because we are running out

of time. We need to instill a sense

of responsibility and action in those

in power. Art is like a spark. It has

this amazing ability to ignite raw

emotions, evoke new understandings,

and inspire change. Art is like a

spark, and this message needs to

spread like wildfi re.”

Nature does not

conform to humankind, but

rather is bent to our will.

VOTE FOR ALYSE:

“