Title: July 10, 2013 - Lower Palisades Lake
Hike Info:
Trail: John Muir Trail
Starting location: Le Conte Ranger Station
Destination: Palisades Lakes
Travel Time: 9:20 (1.10 mph)
Moving Time: 5:52 (1.76 mph)
Maximum Elevation: 10,615'
Description:
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| Sherri on the way down the Middle Fork of the Kings |
Got up
between 5:30 and 6:00. All is quiet. Decided to open up the segment D canister. Found that there are discrepancies between the list we have and what we have in the canister. We do have one additional dinner-that is good. Sherri's up and the Millers come over for breakfast-they bringing their own. Talia gets up around
7:30. And we all packed up. Larry and Paul passes us up, before we get out of camp. We say good bye to Talia-it has been good to have her camp with us. Enjoyable. Also, she gave us the rest of her propane canister (this would be a great gift to us later on in the trip.)
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| Grouse Meadow |
We leave a little after 8. The trail is going down to the junction with the
Middle Fork of the Kings and
Palisades Creek. With the light glancing off the sides of the canyon, the whole place seems refreshing and relaxing. The greenness is so much different than much of what we saw yesterday, with all the stone reflecting the light harshly.
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| Devastated Forest |
As we are coming down the Middle Fork of the Kings, there is a band of clouds, like a front is coming through. We shall see what comes from it. We have a break a little beyond the Middle Fork junction. Then it is the start of a 2600' climb up to Palisades Lakes. In the meantime, we will climb 400' to start with, then climb 800' through a long valley before the
Golden Staircase. We walk about an hour and a half through some shade, some aspen trees, and through burnt out forest, then stop for lunch by Palisades Creek.
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| Golden Staircase |
After lunch, we continue to go up Palisade Creek, until we came to
Glacier Creek. It was long, but mostly a rolling uphill. We stop after the creek to rest for a few minutes before tackling the Golden Staircase. Paul and Larry came up and stayed with us for a few minutes. Then we started our 1500' climb. Fortunately the clouds have lowered the temperature, else we would have faced the direct noon sun. Our progress was pretty slow. Even a team of CCC workers passed us. They are a pretty courteous bunch. This climb took most of the afternoon. My back was sore, and I was huffing and puffing a lot. Close to the top it started to rain. Pack cover came on-sort of awkwardly, and we started to race to the lake, about a mile. Fortunately, the terrain was not as steep. We meet up with Ray and Rachel,where they had a campsite. Looked for a more sheltered campsite, but did not find anything, Sherri is exhausted. I am only a little better.
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| Looking down the Staircase |
Got the tent pitched
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| Lower Palisades Lake |
on a sandy area (
37.06034, -118.48833) . But it is held down with rocks as the stakes hit rock underneath the sand. Sherri fixes diner-Ranier Spotted Dog. We talk about what we want to do tomorrow, and then we get cleaned up. Started to sprinkle a little bit more. So we decided to go to bed. We watch half of McGyver, then off to bed.
Today's JMT Lesson: Receive blessing as well as give them.
| Breakfast |
Lunch |
Dinner |
Snacks |
| Oatmeal
and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola.
Tang. |
Peanut Butter and Nutella on crackers |
Ranier Spotted Dog |
Clif Bar, Jelly Bellies, CytoMax, Propel, GORP, Bank Balls |
1The supplied figures above come from either the book
John Muir Trail: The essential guide to hiking America's most famous trail by
Elizabeth Wenk or from topo maps. There was only partial tracks for today in my GPS.
Below is the readings from today's status on the GPS. I view it as only
somewhat accurate.
Distance: 10.9 miles
Elevation Rise: 1,318'
Maximum Elevation: 10,661'
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| Gary on Staircase |
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| Middle Fork of Kings |
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| Palasades Creek |
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| Palisades Valley |
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| Palisades valley |
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