July 11, 2013 - Bench Lake Ranger Station

Title: July 11, 2013 - Bench Lake Ranger Station

Hike Info:

Trail: John Muir Trail

Starting location:  Lower Palisades Lake

Destination:  Marjorie Lake

Actual Destination:  Lucky Dog Lake?/ Bench Lake Ranger Station

Distance: 10.3 miles ¹

Start Time:  8:45

End Time:  6:30

Travel Time: 9:45 (1.06 mph)

Moving Time: 6:15 (1.65 mph). 

Elevation Rise:  1,825' ¹

Maximum Elevation: 12,100'

Lower Palisades Lake

Description:

Listened to the sprinkle of rain all night on the tent. This morning, the mountains surrounding us are covered by clouds. Here at Palisades Lake, we look up at them wondering if the cloudy skies will turn to rain. A bit of a sprinkle now and then. Got up a bit later, seems like a lot later, but it is only 6:30. Still with the dampness, it stopped raining when we got up, but it is cold, making it a slow morning. We leave about 8:45, about half an hour after the Millers leave.

Upper Palisades Lake

Mather Pass is really kicking us, especially after climbing the Golden Staircase yesterday. The cold and damp while not uncomfortable, is making it harder to breath.  But Palisades Lakes really are jewels. Sherri tries to find the place where Andrea and her had camped when they did the JMT, but did not have success. They had camped at Upper Palisades Lake. We also were looking around for where the trail crew had put their camp, but they hide it pretty well.

On top of Mather Pass, looking South

We do take three breaks on our way up Mather. What a long trudge! Around 12:30 we make it to the top of Mather Pass. We have a ProBar-but no lunch, much to Sherri's dismay. We did not have enough water to guzzle with peanut butter and Nutella. But Mather does give us wonderful views, even though we are out of breath.

It is a long down, almost all the way until we reach the South Fork of the Kings River. Right before the crossing, we saw two female PCTers who greeted us by name. They had seen Ray and Rachel-we will not see them again, but we will hear from them some more. After resting, we decided  to continue up to the Bench Lake Ranger Station, then make a decision there. From the maps, the ranger station may not be at Bench Lake, but at a pond along The Trail. There is one person's blog who calls this Lucky Dog Lake, if I understand it right. Whatever it is, the setting is gorgeous.  As a note: we never did see the ranger station. We have heard that it is only a tent on a platform, but judging by other ranger stations we passed, this one may have been removed.

Walking towards Mt Ickes

We got there when the sun was getting low in the sky. A few spots are available (nobody else is here), but few inviting. We took one where the tent would fit, which turned out to be probably the worst night sleep we got on the whole trip (36.95871, -118.43672). But we ate, watched McGyver and went to sleep.

Today's JMT Lesson:  No climb above 11,000' is easy.

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Peanut Butter and Nutella on crackers ProBar	Black Bean Soup with Tortillas	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:  11.1 miles

Elevation Rise:  1,116'

Maximum Elevation: 12,100'

Sherri on the climb to Mather Pass

Upper Palisades Lake

Switch backs

Unnamed Creek

Range to east-Split Mountain

South Fork of the Kings

Mather Pass

July 10, 2013 - Lower Palisades Lake

Title: July 10, 2013 - Lower Palisades Lake

Hike Info:

Trail: John Muir Trail

Starting location:  Le Conte Ranger Station

Destination:  Palisades Lakes

Distance:   10.3 ¹

Start Time:  8:10

End Time: 5:30

Travel Time: 9:20 (1.10 mph)

Moving Time: 5:52 (1.76 mph)

Elevation Rise:  2,546'  ¹

Maximum Elevation:   10,615'

Description:

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.)

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.

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.

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.

Looking down the Staircase

Got the tent pitched

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'

Gary on Staircase

Middle Fork of Kings

Palasades Creek

Palisades Valley

Palisades valley

Place: CA-Golden Staircase

Golden Staircase (quad)
(Long, Lat)

Description:
Before the trail was built up Palisade Creek and over Mather Pass, travelers had to detour a long

distance west and south from the crest, going down the Middle Fork of the Kings River to Simpson

Meadow, climbing over Granite Pass, dropping to the South Fork of the Kings, and ascending

Paradise Valley back to the John Muir Trail, a detour of almost 50 miles from the highest peaks.

  For more, see The Golden Staircase by Hal Roth

 

SoCal Hiker Blog

Trips:

• July 10, 2013 - JMT with Sherri and Gary
• July 2007-Andrea and Sherri JMT Trip

Pictures:

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References:

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