June 27, 2014 - Kern-Kaweah River to Colby Lake

Trail straight to Colby Pass

Title: June 27, 2014 - Kern-Kaweah River to Colby Lake

Hike Info:

Type:  Backpacking

Trail: Colby Pass

Destination: Colby Lake

Distance:  7.06 miles ¹

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:

Morning has broken

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!

The Fisherman

Gary at rest

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.

Kaweah's

Gary, Steven and Andrea at rest

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

East from Colby Pass

East From Colby Pass

South from Colby Pass

South on top of Colby Pass

Southwest from Colby Pass

Colby Lake From Colby Pass

North from Colby Pass

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.

Steven going down, way down

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. 

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.

Unknown peak

Trail Lesson:

While hiking is an individual experience, we each can help each other. There are times to accept that help.

Today's Slogan:

In granite we trust; in scree its disgust

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Peanut Butter and Nutella on crackers	Split Pea Soup	Clif Bar, Jelly Bellies, CytoMax, Propel, GORP, Bank Balls

 ¹Usually I discount any distance traveled when we go less than  1/2 mph. This is to minimize the GPS wobble-it can be 25' off from its

Kern-Kaweah River

Gallats Lake

Kaweah's

More of the Kaweah's

A Kern-Kaweah cascade

Rachel's Rocks or a Cairn

Trail Up

July 17, 2013 - Trail Camp

Title: July 17, 2013 - Trail Camp

Hike Info:

Trail: John Muir Trail

Starting location:  Guitar lake
Destination:  Whitney Portal
Actual Destination:  Trail Camp
Distance:   9.2¹
Start Time:  6:03am
End Time:  6:50pm
Travel Time:  12:47 (0.72 mph)
Moving Time: 6:52 (1.34  mph)  ¹
Elevation Rise: 3,336'  ¹
Maximum Elevation:  14,506'

Description:

Psalm 19:1-4 (NIV), from today's quiet time:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
² Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
³ They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
⁴ Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.

These words seem so appropriate, so right after all which we have seen and done. May my spirit offer the same words and praise.

The Night Sky silouetted by the top of the Sierras

I woke up at 2:30 to seeing the stars dance in the heavens. Then I turned over and saw lights on the move up past us, and on up to the mountains which we will climb today. My mind must have been excited as I could not return back to sleep for more than just a few minutes. 

Morning has broken

Sherri woke up around 3:30. I asked her if she was ready to start walking? No. But neither could she go back to sleep. So we laid there, watching the stars and lights, and thinking about how cold it was outside of our sleeping bags. Finally around 4:30, we got up and got packed. Just a wonderful sunrise, on the faraway peaks-rosy, orange and light. But we will not feel the warmth for several hours as Whitney and its range will be blocking the sun.

Guitar Lake

E'gads! Our propane canister has run out of fuel. Or is it just too cold? Whichever way, I am now glad we asked for Talia's canister back at Le Conte. Her canister fired right up and we had hot oatmeal on this cold morning.

Left our campsite at 6 and started up the long trail to Trail Crest. We will be in shadows all the way to Trail Crest.  Like the Tolkien song says, The Road Goes Ever Onward. But today is our last day on the Trail. Tonight Steven will pick us up, assuming we can make it down to Whitney Portal. Showers and burgers fill my mind as we walk along.

The trail is going up is strong and the oxygen is light.  This has us stopping for breath in the cold air, but the coolness does have the positive effect of having move along. Not really sweating. Before we know it, we have climbed up 500', then a thousand. I start playing a game of saying which pass we have just topped-Glen Pass, then Pinchot, Mather, Muir, and finally, of course, Forester.

Hitchcock Lake

We rise above Hitchcock Lakes, admiring the reflections of the rocks rising from the lakes. The sun is  shining on these slopes, creating a bright spots on our climb. We stop a couple of times to take off our packs. At 9, three things happens: we come out into the light, John B from Fresno appears, and we arrive at Trail Crest. All three are welcome, even though in a little while, the first will be less so. 

Trail up the side of the mountain

At Trail Crest, which is really about 200' below the actual pass, but the JMT does not go through the pass on its way up to Whitney. After unloading some of Sherri's pack and putting the contents into mine, we take off towards Whitney, with Sherri's pack, stocked with food and water. It took us three hours go from Guitar to Trail Crest. It will take close to three hours from Trail Crest to Whitney. 

Almost to the top

The climb up is along a trail which is always rocky, sometimes a bit narrow, and is perched on a steep incline for much of the way. Today was a light traffic day. When Sherri was up here before, the line could have been at Disneyland. You add in that the Badwater to Whitney Portal run ended today, you get a fair amount of trail runners as well. One sort of skidded in front of us, after passing us. He flopped around, trying to right himself, before realizing how close to the edge he was. But for us, we took our time and was cautious.  As we approached the top, the altitude was taking its toll on us. We stopped more and more often to catch our breath. We felt relieved as we turned the corner, and started up the third of a mile incline up to the peak. Many others were stopping and breathing along the way.

Smithsonian Hut

At the top (36.57886, -118.29185), we found the Whitney hut, actually called the Smithsonian Institute Hut. It was constructed to observe a solar eclipse. In the trail registry, we saw that the Ray and Rachel had made it to the top on Monday, July 15th. It was good to see that. But we did not see an entry for Nicole.

The Top

Celebration

Also on top, we see John from Fresno, along with George, Chris and Steve from Minnesota. Sort of like a family reunion. We talk for awhile. After much trying, got to send a text with our picture. Also Spot worked as well. 

That is when things got interesting. Called up Steven. He said that Andrea was coming in from the High Sierra Trail to surprise us. She would be there Thursday night, and climb over Whitney Friday. At least that is what her schedule is. That is a big surprise. What a wonderful daughter to think of us, and want to make our lives a joy. 

This does lead to one complication-what do we do now? Go back to Guitar Lake? Go down to Lone Pine tonight? Stop someplace else? We decide to stop on the trail down. We were not up to doing the climb out of Guitar again.

We called other family members, telling them we made it to the top. Also, that we have now officially completed the JMT, It is fun doing that--also fun just saying that. Got through to all, except Andrea, of course. David does say that not all of our Spot messages got through. The Minnesota group decides to leave the party after awhile. We talk with John for awhile longer, then he heads off as well.

Gary, King of the World

 

We stay on top for a total of an hour and a half, then start coming back down. It is faster-not as much need to catch our breath. But you do feel weaker, so we do not move very fast. Also with the rocky surface we have a tendency to be careful.

Whitney from the east

We rest at Trail Crest before we start our way down in the Lone Pine direction. We will try to make Outpost Camp tonight. Did I say down? The first little bit is another 200' climb, before we start our descent. Then down we go. Down, and down, and still more down. They have re-engineered this from seven years ago. I do not know, but Sherri  remembers a different trail. But the steepness, once again causes us to be cautious, so we go slow, about a mile an hour. Seems strange that we are going at the same speed down something as up it.

Trail Camp is by the pond

Around 6:30 we get into Trail Camp.  (36.56314, -118.27943) Sherri remembers this place as being human turd infested. But it looks like the Forest Service has cleaned it up quite a bit. As tired as we are, we decide not to do another two miles down to Outpost Camp. We find a suitable place. Then on the way to get water, a better place. Dinner is cooked. We see George, Chris and Steve a little ways from us and exchange greetings. Then it is off to bed. We look at pictures and fall asleep, knowing we do not need to get up early  tomorrow.

You may have noticed, that the description from the top does not contain these jaw dropping thoughts and observations. I guess by the time we got there, it just does not match up to the rest of the journey. It is the end, and that makes it special. it is wonderful to see the mountains upon mountains, looking down on everything around us. the cold, blue lakes, the barren landscape. but there is not a specialness to the place for me, like there is around some of the other high places we have been too. Even a lowly pass like Island, I have more desire to be at. I am not saying that I wish I was not here, but that the enjoyment is in the completion of the journey, rather than in the place. Do we think we will go up there again? Probably not.

Today's JMT Lesson: It does not matter how fast you go, as long as you get there.

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Peanut Butter and Nutella on crackers	Beef Vegetable Wrap Milano Mint Chocolate Cookies	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:  9.41 miles

Elevation Rise:  1,805'

Maximum Elevation: 14,505'

On the trail up

The Windows and Mt Muir from Whitney

Trail down to Trail Camp

Marmot Heaven