Title: June 27, 2014 - Kern-Kaweah River to Colby Lake
Hike Info:
Type: Backpacking
Trail: Colby Pass
Destination: Colby Lake
Start Time: 9:08am
End Time: 7:46pm
Travel Time: 10:38 (0.66 mph)
Moving Time: 8:42 (0.81 mph)
Elevation Rise: 3,054'
Elevation Descended: 1,724'
Maximum Elevation: 12.023'
Description:
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| Morning has broken |
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| Sherri with morning tea |
When I woke up, I saw Sherri's eyes open. Pleasant way to start the
day. But it also means I slept in a bit. That would be until 6, but
then I laid around in bed for another half an hour before crawling out
of the bag. Even then, I was the first up. That is OK. Yesterday was a
bit hard on us. Today will be a short mileage day, but lots of elevation
gain, just a bit more than yesterday. This may be the hardest day of
our trip. After today, it is downhill and rolling trails.
Eureka!!! Andrea found the missing Glide from yesterday! All looks well with the world!
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| The Fisherman |
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| Gary at rest |
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| Ready to go again |
We
get off around 9. The trail is up, but gradual, at least at the start. Go up a ridge and then
across some granite. A good wind is blowing in our faces, but we are warm from our walking. A few puffy clouds in the
distance. Even with the wind, the Deet still needs to come out. Still life could be a
lot worse. Beautiful scenery abounds.
Whitney is seen, along with
Muir
and
Hitchcock mountains to the east. We stop for our first break at a
nice set of cascades. I do not think we have gotten into hiking mode
this morning. Still a relaxed time.
 |
| Gallats Lake |
After the
cascades, we climb up a ridge and round a point on the other side of the
river. Then we see
Gallats Lake, or at least where it should be. There
is a beautiful, meandering river through a large middle. It would be
paradise, except for one thing. The
Hunger Games hour has
struck again and the mosquito's have come out to torment us. So we do
not stop long to ponder and enjoy, only to apply a fresh layer of Deet.
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| Kaweah's |
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| Gary, Steven and Andrea at rest |
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| Contemplation or tired? |
At
the end of the "lake", we leave the river. There is a gradual climb
until we re meet the river again. But then we start to experience the
real
Colby Pass Trail. This trail goes up, straight up, relentlessly for
what seems like an eternity, but in reality is about 400'. From the
lack of switchbacks, I think this trail must have been done on a low
budget. Definitely not on a per mile basis. The four Duran's have not
caught up with the Millers, but we stop for lunch anyway at a relatively
flat length of trail.
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| Father and Daughter-So Goood! |
Lunch ends-we have some mosquito's attacking again. But in a short ways, there is a 500'
stretch of trail straight up. If anything, this is even more wearing on
us than the first rise. When we emerge, there is a flat place where a
dried up lake exists during certain times of the year. Andrea went back
to bring up Sherri's pack-this will be a re-occurring theme throughout
the day. It is time for another stop.
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| Long Hard Climb Up |
Now the
trail sort of loops around this flat area, at least it is a gentle rise
by what we have been doing. But we are up to 11,000' so any rise becomes
a bit of a breathing exercise. Ray comes down from a spot a couple of
hundred feet above us and takes Sherri's pack. When we get to Ray's
pack, Andrea takes my sleeping bag and pad. Makes a difference,
temporarily.
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| Tarns |
Beauty can make a difference
between shear agony and the joy of striving for a goal. This may be why
many of the martyrs could stand up to the horrendous tortures-they
counted the beauty of the heavenly vision more powerful than the pain
they were enduring. On our part-nothing so grand as the martyrs, there were a couple blue-green tarns in
stark relief to the hard granite around them. Even as we rose on our
final assent, we could see the
Kaweah's looming as a sharp fortress
wall. The
Kern drainage in its splendor stretch out before us. But now
we had the steepness of the trail with the 11,000'+ altitude. Every few
steps requires a great break. With about 300' left, Ray comes down and
takes my pack and trots up the pass.; I take Sherri's. A little while
later Rachel comes down and takes Sherri's. We are thankful. At the top
of this 12,000' pass, we finally stand, tired, worn but successful,
thanks to our friends and family. In a lot of ways, this is the high point of our trip.
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| On top of Colby Pass |
We relax and
enjoy our time up here on Colby Pass. Looking south, we see the Kaweah's
and the Kern drainage. But Kern Ridge and Kern Point block the view
to the east. But looking on the other side of the pass is north and
north west of the
Kings River. It is this kind of a sight which I most relish from
the top of a pass. How the mountains unfold under you with the deep
ravines cut in them, making them even more impressive. We could spend a
whole afternoon up here. But the afternoon is wearing away and we need
to leave our perch up here.
See the pictures below for what we saw. Then continue to read after the pictures-after all, you do not want to leave us on top of Colby Pass, do you?
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| East from Colby Pass |
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| East From Colby Pass |
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| South from Colby Pass |
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| South on top of Colby Pass |
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| Southwest from Colby Pass |
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| Colby Lake From Colby Pass |
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| North from Colby Pass |
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| Andrea above us |
While going down
Colby Pass does not lend itself to the breathing exercises we had going
up, there is a certain breathlessness which terror
induces. The north
side of Colby is a shear drop, significantly steeper than the south. While the trail is better
graded, it still is steep. The trail is buttressed with rock retaining
wall in several places, with sand and gravel over rock. The steepness
with the surface makes for easy sliding, which on a normal trail is just
an inconvenience. But on this trail with its 600' shear drop, the results
of a slide could be disastrous. Now you couple that with places where the
embankment of the trail has given away, making for a pathway of only a
foot-width, the nerves get shaken by any chance slide. Sherri and I take
this trail down slowly, very slowly. The rest of our group is cautious, but
makes it down this treacherous decline quicker.
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| Steven going down, way down |
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| That is Colby Pass way up there |
Andrea,
bless her, realizes that Sherri would have a better time without her pack.
So she goes down, drops her pack and gets Sherri's. I suspect she added
500' of ascent to her hike today.
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| Sunset at Colby Lake |
The three
of us pull into camp at Colby Lake around 7:45, tired and ready for nothing-Steven, Ray and Rachel are already there. As soon
as I lay down my pack, Rachel and Ray start pitching our tent, and
blowing up our pads. Everybody is too tired to eat dinner, so we all
share in some split pea soup. We do decide that we would sleep in
tomorrow and take three days too come out-we are a day ahead of
schedule. By this time, it is dark and we are all ready for bed after
this trying, but awe provoking day.
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| Unknown peak |
Trail Lesson:
We stop briefly to content plate a sign saying Junction Meadows 16 miles, Not A Maintained a Trail, Stock Not Advised.
Sherri feels a bit vindicated about the turmoil of the last couple of
days. But the mosquito's drive us out of our resting spot. But not before we said we would have liked to stay here for a couple more hours, without those pesky flying creatures.
