Lower Vidette Meadow to Road’s End (and home!)

My favorite quote from RL this trip, :Every morning I wake up in the tent, I wake up smiling.”

Today we woke up, as usual, at 5:30am.  We got up to view the spectacular Moon/Jupiter combo, then we went back to sleep until 7am.

While I was making tea, and RL was packing – he commented that the deer coming to visit us for breakfast were awfully close.  And they were…  A doe and two spotted fawns were munching on some grass not far from out tent.

A doe and two fawns visit us in camp

We struck camp and left at 8:40am.  RL set the break-neck pace of 3mph for the descent.  Under normal circumstances, this isn’t too bad – the the elevation drop was intense.  We passed junction meadow, Charlotte Creek, and got to Sphinx Creek in no time.  We covered over 14 miles and 5,000 feet of elevation loss today.

As we passed the Sphinx Creek trailhead, we gawked that we had actually considered taking this trail UP for the beginning of the trip.  It would have been brutal!  Yey Horse Corral!  We began the final descent down the 4.2 miles and 18 switch-backs after a quick break to rest our tired puppies.  After all the climbing, all the descending, and all the fruit strips we had – we arrived at our car!

Back at the car!

We packed our things, put our flip flops on, and headed to Cedar Grove to eat an ice cream sandwich, a turkey and cheese sandwich, cheddar chips, and a revive water!  We ook another dunk in the river and were on the road for home by 4pm.  We stopped in Bakersfield for In-n-Out and picked up Maggie before heading home, showering, and taking a long, long sleep.  Another great trip!

Tawny Point to Vidette Meadow

Today we woke up at 7am and had the inevitable discussion… should we pass over out “rest day” (planned for today) and get up and over Forester a day early.  We both thought that the day before had been quite restful, and we didn’t know what else we would do if we were to take it easy today – so we pushed.  And it turned out to be a good thing we did…

We packed up camp, ate a quick breakfast, and put in on the trail in the hopes of getting up and over Forester by noon.  Afternoon storms had been rolling in pretty regularly, and we did NOT want to be up there for such an occurrence.  Along our trek to the top of Forester, we passed group after group – warning us if the incoming storm.  It was forecasted to snow heavily above 10,000ft the next day, and it was supposed to get 20+ degrees colder in the upper elevations.  Rangers were warning people up and down the high sierras that day – and we took heed.

Hiking up Forester was the coolest.  We approached from the south – which meant we climbed up a couloir to get through the pass.  We got to the pass at 11:30.  We made pretty good time – we had left at 8:30, hiked 6 miles, and gained 3000 feet of elevation.  Not bad!  As we got to the top of the pass (13,200 feet) we realized that we had 9,000 feet to descend from here!  Eek!

At the top of the pass, we passed the smallest kid we’d seen on the trail.  He must have been 8-10 years old, and he was super-nervous on top of Forester.  Poor thing.  We also passed ~15 boy scouts and leaders up there, too.  We only stayed in the pass for a moment before we boogied.

GnR on top of Forester Pass

After leaving Forester Pass, we began the unyielding descent toward Vidette Meadow.  We passed a large CCC trail crew (that also gave us a weather warning).  One had been working in the Sierras completing trail restoration for five months!  We passed lots of tired people today – all trying frantically to get p and over Forester before the storm.  It was crazy.

We arrived at Lower Vidette Meadow around 4pm.  We were tired!  We set up shelter, snacked, made water, and began eating!  We had Cytomax, snickers, Chili Mac, mashed potatoes, and cheesy hash browns. Yum.  Luckily, it was quite windy at the front of the storm, so the mossys were kept at bay.  That night in our tent, we calculated elevation loss and gain for the trip, and it was staggering.

Total elevation gain for the trip: 12,900 feet.

Total elevation loss for the trip: 16,800 feet.

Holy cow – that’s why my feet hurt so much!

Junction Meadow (Kern Canyon Basin) to Tawny Point (JMT)

This morning we woke up from a very good night’s sleep around 5:30, then again around 6:45am.  Darn it if dreams of our puppy, Maggie, don’t wake us up each morning!

I got up to make tea while RL struck the tent.  This morning for breakfast we had hot cheesy bagels.  Yum!  Two people passed us as we were finishing up breakfast and packing – on their way to Colby Pass!  We exchanged some tips and beta, and they moseyed on their way shortly after warning us of the two large stream crossings “right through those trees”.  We headed out of camp around 8:30am.

True to the warning, we forded two rivers right away (not too bad), and made out way to Junction Meadow proper.  The forest was beautiful and the mosquitos were feasting.  At the signage for the JMT, I got very happy – this sign meant we would see PEOPLE today!  Yippy!  We hiked up Kern Canyon for about two miles before we turned onto the High Sierra Trail towards Mt. Whitney.  The views from this trail were amazing.

Kern Canyon as seen from the High Sierra Trail.

We could see Kern Canyon for a long way, and we could also see much of the Great Western Divide.  Along this trail we ran into a huge grove of Bristlecone Pines!  They were amazing.  Little did we know we would see a LOT of these ancient trees today!

After 4.5 miles we hit the trail junction for the JMT.  Right away we passed 7 people – more than we had even seen in the last two days!  We caught three more right at the junction, three more were coming down and three more were coming up the JMT.  So many people!

We turned north to follow the trail towards Forester and started to climb through the most beautiful scenery of the trip.  When we crested the Bighorn Plateau, we had views of the ENTIRE Great Western Divide, the Eastern Sierras (Mt Whitney, Muir, and Russel included!), and the Kern Canyon, too.  Wow.  There were also lots of Bristlecone Pines, too.  Along our path we were greeted by two marmots, one od whom posed many times for photos.

We finally rounded the Tawny Point and found a spectacular campsite near two unnamed lakes at the base of the point.  We were nestled in a grove of Bristlecones and were joined by only a few mosquitos.  When we arrived at camp, it was only after 9 miles and it was still early in the day.  So we set up camp, jumped in the lake, and ate come Mocha Mousse Pie!  We chillaxed for over an hour on RL’s sleeping pad – looking at the maps, GPS, clouds, and lake.  For dinner we had Rice and Black Beans, and we had some cheese, too.

Later that evening, we saw a super-cute Pika and some deer feeding by the lake.

Chillaxing near Tawny Point

Big Wet Meadow through Colby Pass to Junction Meadow

I am not entirely sure where to begin about this day.  This day was the most insane day of hiking we’ve ever done (and that’s saying something).  The day began at 5:45 and we rolled out of the tent at 6:20am.  We packed up camp, chugged 1/2 liter of water each and hit the trail by 7:10am.  We passed the group going to Whitney, but they weren’t up yet.  This passing would be the last time we see any of them.  I hope they made it!

We climbed up, up, up towards Colby Lake, saw a whole bunch of fish swimming along, and snapped a quick couple of photos.

Colby Lake

The lake was absolutely beautiful, but we had to move along to keep on track for the day.  At Colby Lake, we had only gained 1500 feet of 3000 for the day.  Colby pass was another 1500 feet higher, and by the way, that 1500 feet was in about 1 mile!  Yikes.

As we hiked up towards the pass, we kept commenting, “where are we going?!?!”  We kept looking for an obvious pass out of the granite bowl we were in, but there was nothing that stuck out.  One edge of the bowl had a tiny, straight-up, mother*ing trail that would take us through the pass.  Did I say “yikes”?  We probably had a maximum speed of ~1mph and a minimum speed of 0.25mph going over this pass.  It was so  steep and so rough.  After persevering, we got to the top of the pass around 11:45am.  We did the math… that’s 4:45 minutes to go about 4.5 miles.

On top of Colby Pass

We left the pass and descended rapidly over the Great Western Divide.  I started feeling not-so-good; complete with cotton mouth and nausea, so we took a break about 500ft vertical feet beneath the pass.  Really, all day we had only eaten a poptart, 1/2 a tortilla and cheese and some cytomax.  We took a break, took our shoes off, ate a fruit strip, and had some more tortillas and cheese.

BTW… did I mention that there were gnawing little mosquitos at 12,000 feet?  Argh!

So we continued to descend, and I mean descend!  We dropped into meadows and forests that I would have preferred to be on belay for!  It was so steep!  For the next 8 miles we descended through meadows, marshes, forests, and all of them again.  Though we considered stopping at Rockslide Lake, I was tired of not seeing people on the trail, that we tried to get as close to the High Sierra Trail as possible to camp.

Getting close to Junction Meadow was long, hard, steep, hot, windy, cold, tiring, etc!  RL’s feet were pretty bunged up after this 4000 feet descent, and I needed to rouse my inner-cheerleader to get us into camp that day.  The terrain we covered was by far the most varied single-day of terrain we’ve ever hiked.

Junction Meadow Camp

Throughout the whole day, the trail wasn’t all that well maintained, and we frequently had to stop and ask each other if we were on the right path/where is the trail?  We got into Junction Meadow around 5pm, and we snatched the very first campsite we saw.  It was pretty close to the Kern-Kaweah River and it had a nice flat spot to pitch our tent.  We cooled off in the river, cooked Gado-Gado for dinner and crawled into the tent at 7pm, and there we stayed!

Roaring River Ranger Station to Big Wet Meadow

This morning we woke up at 5:45am and rolled back to sleep thinking of our pup, Maggie.  She is usually the one who wakes us up at such an hour to hop on the bed and snuggle in for another hour or so.  We woke up for good at 6:50am and made some tea and grits.  This morning was the morning we had the realization that not only did we forget RL’s orthotics, but we also forgot the BUTTER.  Noooooo!    After a brief period of mourning, we got on with our day, packed up our camp and put it on the trail by 9am.

Today we saw two groups – which were the same two groups from yesterday.  One group was a bunch of 20-something guys headed for Brewer Lake.  The other was the trailhead group going to Whitney.  We passed both groups as we hiked over Fergustrom Creek (proper).  The Brewer lakes guys asked us if we had seen the bear in our camp last night.  Uh, no.  They told us that they saw it not far from our camp last night as they hiked by.  Then they saw him again this morning in their camp for breakfast.  As RL so lovingly put it to me the night before, “why would a bear come near us when there are 15 people a 1/4 mile down the trail?”  Too right.  the key, I suppose is to camp *near* other people, but not with them?  Nevertheless, we were bear-free the night before, and this interaction would be the last real interaction with people for two days.

Big Wet Meadow

After passing the Roaring River Ranger Station, we began the climb up Cloud Canyon through a seemingly endless forest.    Through one of the many stream crossings today, we become very glad that we were doing this trip in August instead of June.  I can’t imagine how deep these crossings would be then!

Stream crossing near Big Wet Meadow

It wasn’t until 2pm that we crested through the Aspens into Big Wet Meadow, and boy were we amazed.  We’ve seen lots of meadows, but this one was truly breathtaking.  Though we questioned our route earlier in the day, this view seemed to make it all worth it.  We hiked around the meadow to the south end to set up camp near Shorty’s Cabin.

We made water, set up camp, splashed around a bit in the river, and chillaxed until dinner.  We made Mac and Cheese, lemonade, and had a snickers for dessert.

We retired to the tent for a little route planning and a good night’s sleep.

Horse Corral Meadow to Sugarloaf Meadow

Woke up this morning at 7am (this would become our norm…)  Packed our packs and car and put it on the road to Road’s End around 8:30.  We squeezed the Fit into the last available space in the backcountry lot, and started the drive with DB out of the Canyon.  We drove to Grants Grove for one last pit-stop and for DB to get some lunch for the day hike he would do with us.  We drove to Horse Corral Meadow for the Marvin Pass Trailhead.  Luckily, this turnoff was well-marked.

We started hiking at 11am; around the time when a larger group, headed for Whitney, was leaving, too.  We got to Marvin Pass around noon, said goodbye to DB (he was continuing towards Mitchell Peak) and began the descent towards Rowell Meadow.  The trails in this area were really not marked all that well.  Thankfully, we had a Garmin GPS unit to help confirm our suspicions.  Reading 7.5 minute maps was darn near impossible – there were so few features we could see other than trees!

Saturday 8/1/09

We stopped every hour or so for a boot check, food, etc.  We passed the (elusive!) Sugarloaf peak and kept going towards Fergustrom Creek.  We got water, purified it with Aqua Mira, set up camp, washed some dirt off our legs, and made lasagna for diner.  We sucked back a half-liter of cytomax each, too.  Dinner was topped off with a fun-size Twix.  During the cleanup, RL was buzzed by a very curious (and loud) hummingbird!  It scared the devil out of both of us for a split-second.

In the tent that night we decided our route for the next day and we tried to get some well-earned sleep.  I woke up quite hungry at 9pm, and little did I know I would need to get used to this!

Today we woke up at home outside of Los Angeles, CA.  We ate a big breakfast of eggs, toast, and juice.  We lamented that our puppy, Maggie, would not be joining us on this adventure.  But alas, despite her looks, our pup is a couch potato.  We left for Road’s End in Kings Canyon National Park.

About 3 hours into the trip, RL realized that he forgot his orthotics for his hiking boots (doh!)  We stopped in the tiny little town of Orange Cove to see if we could rustle-up some store-bought ones, but no.  Bummer.  Luckily, RL had store-bought spares in his Salomons – yippy!  We were on our way again.

We stopped in Squaw Valley to gas up the Fit, grab some beer for the evening, and we drove into the park along Route 180.

With 15 minutes to spare, we picked up our wilderness permit from a very unfriendly ranger at Road’s End.  We inquired about the bears for the season and were informed they were really only bad at Charlotte Lake (not on our route), but we still needed to carry bear bins.  (Of course!)

We drove to Moraine campground to find a spot, set up our tent, and drove to Cedar Grove to call DB and let him know where we were camped.  No cell phones get reception in the canyon, so for $1 we got to talk to DB for 4 minutes.  I love pay phones!

As we got back to camp (~4pm) we cracked a brew as a strong storm rolled through.  The ranger had also warned us that storms had been rolling through each afternoon for the last week, so we should be prepared.  We hunkered down in the back of the Fit, reading, napping, and generally chillaxing.

DB arrived after we went for a little walk along the river, and we cooked up some hotdogs, and ate them with cheddar cheese, mustard, avocado, and tomato.  We’re going to call these Kings Canyon dogs from now on!

Tomorrow – the REAL adventure would begin.