July 30, 2012 – Goddard Canyon to Florence Lak

Title: July 30, 2012 – Goddard Canyon to Florence Lake

Trail head: Goddard Canyon

Hike Info:

Trail: Goddard Canyon, JMT, John Muir Ranch

Destination: Florence Lake

Actual Destination: About a mile before the lake

Distance: 16.1 miles

Travel Time: 11:20

Moving Time: 7:09

Elevation Rise: 1,191'

Maximum Elevation: 9,933'

Description:
Got up and went for a short walk with Andrea. First we went up and saw the falls I remember as being spectacular—it was not. What I remember was a deep gorge with a water fall of 50' or so dropping straight down. What we saw was the river cascading down. We then went down stream a ways to where a creek fed into the San Joaquin. This was closer to the falls I remembered—the vertical drop. Really nice. This was just a prelude to what we would see today.

 



We were talking about do we want to try to make it to Florence by 5 when the last ferry leaves our end of the lake? Or take the first ferry out. We decided that the 17-18 miles was a bit of a stretch for us right now, even though almost all of it would be downhill. So we did not get an early start—about 8:30 or so.



As we go down Goddard Canyon, we follow the San Joaquin River. It has cut through the stone, leaving a series of small but heart-refreshing waterfalls along the way. It seemed like ever half mile or so, there was a fall which we had to stop and take a picture of. Just downright drop-dead-gorgeous.



We are making faster time than we anticipated. So about 10 we are wondering can we make it to Florence in time. Will our stamina give out? We are also making comments like, we are glad we are going down this rather than up. But looking at the topo map, it is not as bad as the climb into Evolution Valley.



A little bit after noon, we reach the intersection with the JMT/Evolution Valley. We are making good time, but we need to stop for lunch and water. It is starting to get hot again and we will be going down the hot section of the trail—see the notes from July 25^th and 26^th. But we still are in relatively good humor and feeling strong. So on we go.



As we continue down the canyon, we retrace our steps from four days ago. It is still rocky, it is still hot. But we make it to Piute Creek, the border of the National park and the National Forest. There is a pack train, stretched across the train—not along the trail and the pack leader does nothing to move the beasts. So we need to go around through the manzanita—getting pretty scratched up along the way—still think pretty bad thoughts about the pack master. Also the pack master gave out some very bad information about the last ferry and distances—information we knew was wrong. We stop at the creek and evaluate—we do know, even without the pack master mis-information—that we will not make it to the ferry. It is 3pm. So we slow down a little.



As we come down, I need to take a leak and go off the trail a little way. I find a cabin marked as the John Muir Cabin—this is different than the John Muir Hut on top of Muir Pass. The cabin looks a bit run down, some of the floorboards are missing and there is trash in the cabin. But I suppose if you needed shelter in a storm, this would work.



We continue on down the trail. I thought we had decided to stop for a break when we rejoined the San Joaquin—but Sherri and Andrea had other ideas and were pretty upset at me when I stopped. We pass by the John Muir Ranch and Blaney Meadow. We stop and have dinner at ___ Creek. Nice affair. We decide to continue on for a ways, but filling up our water.



We get a little ways from the trail junction where you go down to the ferry or hike around the lake. There is a campsite, up on the ridge, overlooking the San Joaquin. We decide that we have enough water on us and we only need to do breakfast, that we would do a dry camp up here. Very nice view and we need the rest.