August 20, 2014 - George Lake to Kaiser Peak to Huntington Lake

Title: August 20, 2014 - George Lake to Kaiser Peak to Huntington Lake

 Trail head: George Lake

Hike Info:

Type:  Backpacking

Trail: Cross-country and Kaiser Peak Loop Trail

Destination: D&F Pack Station

Distance: 6.90 miles

Start Time:  10:33am

End Time:      7:20pm

Travel Time: 8:46 (0.79 mph)

Moving Time: 6:44 (1.03 mph)

Elevation Rise: 1,347'
Elevation Descended: 3,218'

Maximum Elevation: 10,339'

Description:
What a great morning! A bit cold, but stayed in my bag way beyond my normal camp time-my bag was warm. No winds, sky is clear. Should be a great day! We sort of mosey around camp for awhile, no need to get ready until 10 or so. So packing is lethargic. We may go up to College Lake as an interim point.

George Lake from Kaiser Ridge

About 9:15 we are packed and ready to go. So we climb up a ways, about 200' towards College Lake. There Sherri waits and I go back down to George to wait for the meet up. Going up Sherri was not impressed with my route-a bit too much following cracks up the rocks. How I got down was not much better. Even did a five foot jump at one point.

College Lake

Around 10:10, the first of the meetup group arrives-Lee F, Nat and LeAnn. Richard follows shortly afterwards. Then Megan, Donna, and Jerry J follow about 15 minutes behind. Nat goes up to explore a good way to go up to College Lake. The rest of our group follow the leaders by about 45 minutes. They have just done the five mile walk Sherri and I did yesterday. I feel so smart in breaking up the hike into two days, even if I am carrying a backpack.

We start up to College Lake. Nat did find a better way than I did, but still it does not seem like it is the main way up. Checking the topo, I think we may be starting too high up-we should be looking for a branch trail below George-next time. But we all get up, maybe a bit more steeply than some would like. We pick up Sherri along the way. Then we spot what looks like a path which is somewhat used and follow this up to College Lake. It is an improvement, but only in that there is no rock clambering.

Edison Lake

We get our bearings and head south-east, sort of, along a shelf. There is a use path which we follow through some brush, over some boulders, in some dried up mud holes. But most of this is with some minor variations in height. Then we start the last of our cross-country route. We climb up fairly steeply about 120'. Most of it is along a gravelish path, but there is a few places where we struggle up some rock. Glad to get to the top and see the Kaiser Peak Loop Trail.

Jewel and Campfire Lakes

The Climb

Now it is less than 500' to the top of Kaiser Peak! How hard can that be? Well, even numbers can be deceptive. With the peak above 10,000', the trail leaves you a bit breathless. But we trudge up the trail. All of it above tree line. We enjoy the view, occasional gazing down over the ridge, saying we are admiring the view, but secretly getting our lungs back filled with oxygen. We find a couple small lakes below us: Campfire and Jewell. Nice looking. These views, and the breathers, propels us forward a bit more, until we reach the top where we are greeted by the rest of the meetup group.



 

Looking North From Kaiser Ridge

Kaiser Peak is not one of the great mountain tops of the Sierra's. But the view is one of the best. There is nothing in your eyes way from Yosemite to Kings Canyon. Ritter and Banner Peaks are the barriers as you look to Red's Meadow area. I could spend hours just identifying peaks and features. Nat helps us celebrate the occasion of making it to the top with a shot of Fireball-tastes real good up there.

Kaiser Peak

It feels real good to be up here. This was the site of an early failure of mine. Back in the summer when I was going into seventh grade, our Boy Scout troop was at Camp Ojato at Huntington Lake. We planned an over-nighter, going up to Kaiser Peak. I packed everything, including the kitchen sink, which the Boy Scout manual said to bring. I made it up to College Rock before falling asleep with my pack still on my back. The next thing I heard was my name being called. We camped in a Meadow a short ways up from College Rock. Never made it to Kaiser Peak before. So this place has held a sense of forbearance for me. Now after 45+ years, that is a memory which can be superseded by a feeling of accomplishment.

Sherri on Kaiser Ridge

But good things come to any end and we start down again. It is a long trudge now. How hard can coming down 3,000' be? I think I asked this question earlier about going up. How wearing can five more miles be on a body? Plenty! Sherri and I started at George Lake. But the rest of the meetup group needed to come in five miles and climb Potter Pass. So some of our friends are feeling a bit whooped about now. But we put one foot in front of the other and finally make it down. Nat is waiting for us and takes us to his cabin, where he and his wife treat us to a meal. A good way to end the day.





 

George Lake in the morning

George Lake in the morning

George Lake from above

 

Edison Lake

Unusual Flower

 

Against All Odds

The Witch Tree

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal	Peanut butter and Nutella sandwich		Clif Bar, Jelly Bellies, CytoMax, Propel, GORP,

August 19, 2014 - George Lake

Title: August 19, 2014 - George Lake

Trail head: Potter Pass Parking Lot

Hike Info:

Type:  Backpacking

Trail: Twin Lakes

Destination: George Lake

Distance: 4.76 miles

Start Time:  11:47

End Time:      4:05

Travel Time:  4:17 (1.11 mph)

Moving Time: 2:46 (1.72 mph)

Elevation Rise: 1,322'

Maximum Elevation: 9,101'

Description:
We are getting a late start. A bit of miscommunication about food. We leave Fresno around 9:15. At Prather we get our wilderness permit and get to the trail head about 11:15.  By 11:45 we are on the trail..

Sherri on the trail

Gary and the fisherman

We will be meeting our mid-week hiking group Wednesday at George Lake. So today we have the day to ourselves.  The first four miles is what I did a month ago to Twin Lakes. We climb up to Potter Pass. It is a good uphill, mostly in forest. First time Sherri has been this way and first time she has been up to Potter. We meet a fisherman on top of Potter who is wondering if he should continue. I give him a description of the trail to Twin Lakes and he goes that route. One thing I misspoke to him was I thought it was a 200' drop to the lake, but it is 400'. He got what he paid for-Free advice.

Upper Twin Lake

We follow him after having eating half our lunch. We pass alongside meadows and through forests. Unlike last time, the wildflower season has all passed us by. Here we make good time and get to Upper Twin Lake around 2:30.  We have the other half of our lunch here and watch the fisherman wading in the lake, trying his luck. My GPS is mostly discharged now and I find my reserve of AAA batteries was left home. May not be able to charge since the charger wants all four slots full.

We start our final leg to George Lake. There is a maze of paths leading to campsites and different places. So we lose the trail, but keep to the top of the ridge above Twin. We get some great views-I think they are better than on top of Potter. We think we see Mt Ritter and Banner to the Northeast. Also the southern end of Yosemite is in view.

Northern Range

Sherri

Gary

We meet our trail and continue our climb up to George. Not a bad climb. Just being on top of everything else, it is a bit tiring. Also the only view is up to Kaiser Peak-if that was not enough. We get into camp around 4. We are the only ones here. The only other people who we met on the trail, besides the fisherman, was a couple who had vacated Twin Lakes. So we have the whole place to ourselves.

I choose the same campsite which I had when Andrea, Steven and Doug were with us. Enjoyable memories. We sort of relax and enjoy ourselves. I read and Sherri picks a place in the sun with a view of the lake to take a nap. After awhile, the wind picks up and dark clouds come in; it turns cold. I pitch the tent, but there was not much protection from the wind. After scouting around, we decide to leave it where it is and put up the rain fly.

Camp Cooking

Time for dinner and then the luxury of hot chocolate, schnapps and homemade cookies. Good time to talk about our miscommunications. After cleaning up, we take a walk over to a ridge and enjoy the cloud covered view. Looks like rain to the northwest of us; 50-50 if we get rain tonight. Time for bed, or should I say bag. A time to read. I shut down my iPad at 9:10.

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
granola at home	Peanut Butter and Nutella sand which	beef and cabbage wrap with home made cookies and hot chocolate	Clif Bar, Jelly Bellies, CytoMax, Propel, GORP, Bank Balls

Gary on a rampage

Round Meadow

June 30, 2013 - Trinity Lakes

Title: June 30, 2013 - Trinity Lakes

Hike Info:

Trail: John Muir Trail - Day Six

Starting location: Island Pass

Destination:  Trinity Lakes

Distance:  11.5   miles  ¹

Start Time:  7:20

End Time:  5:30

Travel Time:  10:10 (1.13 mph)

Moving Time:  5:51 (1.97 mph)

Elevation Rise:  1,772   ¹

Maximum Elevation:  10,180'   ¹

Description:

Island Pass at Dawn

Woke up this morning to clear skies, frogs a croaking,  and a coyote howling. What a wonderful way to start the day! Yes there really was howling this morning. It sounded like it was across the pond on the other side of the trail. No sightings-rats!

Camp Chores

Got up at 5:30 and did camp chores. Saw the sun arising. Pretty nice. After eating, we are leaving around 7:20. The first part is descending from Island Pass. Pretty gentle. We get to see lots of low green area. As we approach Thousand Island Lake, there is more volcanic rock. Also we are glad that we have started early as the sun would be really hot through here.

Thousand Island Lake and Banner Peak

We met a couple, just married from Mendocino ². They look like they are enjoying themselves. We play leap frog through Ruby Lake, when we stop for a quick Clif Bar break.  This got stretched a ways. But we did enjoy the lake-nice reflections. 

Just Married

We climb up around 250', then start a descent into Garnet Lake. Glad it is morning when we are coming through this area. Pretty exposed. But the good part is that you are seeing a whole new  set of mountains, with snow covered ravines. Enjoying it. Banner Peak comes into view. I am enjoying Garnet a lot more than Thousand Island Lake. The south side has mountain hemlock for me to enjoy its shade. The trail gently climbs out of the lake's basin. This is about a 350' climb, but it does not feel too bad. Some trail runners pass us at the top.

Thousand Island Lake

When we get to the top of the saddle, we start a long descend into the Shadow Creek drainage. The upper part of the trail, for the first 300' or so is small volcanic rock. While trail is well made, rocks are sore to the feet. But once out of that area, you find a nice little ravine with a meadow in it to enjoy. Then we head down a never ending slope into Shadow Creek. There we stop for our second lunch. We enjoy a nice long break here before another mile down to Shadow Lake.

Garnet Lake

Where we have our lunch break is a trail crew. I go over and asked if they were part of the effort to clear the trail last year after the wind storm? Yes. Thanked them. A few minutes later an Inyo Forest Service ranger came over and asked if we needed any help. No, but could we get her picture go Capture California? Yes. We talked about possible campsites and bear sightings. So far pretty peaceful around here. Johnston Meadow has lots of bugs. Terri F was very helpful. She did ask to see our permit.

After a good climb

Then, it is up, up and up we go-650' up a side of a mountain. While the Forest Service has done a good job of grading the trail, it still is a major effort on our part. Lots of shade, with a pleasant, occasional breeze does really help, along with CytoMax and jelly bellies. We get to the top and have another break. About that time, the newlyweds come up the trail. They had done some fun stuff, like rock scrambling. 

Rocky Road

Shadow Creek

We go past Rosalie  Lake-only a few mosquitoes here. Then to Gladys Lake. It is 4:30 now. To get to Trinity Lakes is about a half an hour. To go to Minarets Creek, about three hours or more. So we decide to stick with the schedule and camp at Trinity. But I have also been thinking that Trinity even in the best of times is a mosquito haven. So we look for something a little bit dryer and away  from the lakes. Found a spot a little off the trail, but about 200 yards from water. (37.67583,-119.11577)

We have dinner and get cleaned up. Then head to the tent to escape the bugs. Listened to a sermon from Red Rocks Church. Then off to sleep around 9.

Garnet Lake

Today's JMT Lesson: Beauty is there. Find it!

 

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Peanut Butter and Nutella on crackers	Szechuan Vegetable Noodle	Clif Bar, Jelly Bellies, CytoMax, Propel, GORP

¹The supplied figures come from either the book John Muir Trail: The essential guide to hiking America's most famous trail by Elizabeth Wenk. Also some information comes from topo maps as well. From today's tracks on my Foretex, I got only a partial reading. Below is the readings from today's status on the GPS. I view it as only somewhat accurate.
 Distance:  11.4 

Travel Time: ( mph)

Moving Time: 5:51 ( mph)

Elevation Rise:  1,200

Maximum Elevation:  10,180'

²As a further note, our daughter Andrea who works in the Berkley REI store waited on them a few weeks later. They were able to connect the dots and figure out we were related--not the newly married couple, but Andrea, Sherri and I.

Place: CA-Banner Peak

Banner Peak (Mt Lyell 15', Mt Ritter 7.5')
( 37°41'47.77",-119°11'42.52")

Description:

Named by Willard D. Johnson, topographer, U.S.G.S., in 1883, on account of cloud-banners streaming from the summit. (J. N. Le Conte.)
First ascent by Willard D. Johnson and John Miller, August 26, 1883. (S.C.B., 1905, V:3, p. 193.)
From Place Names of the High Sierra (1926) by Francis P. Farquhar

Trips:

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Pictures:

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References:

•  Wikipedia
•  Backpacker Magazine, May 2002
•  Summit Post
• TimberLine Trails-Areil View
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