May 27, 2015 - Park Ridge Lookout

Gary, Sherri, Kim

Title: May 27, 2015 - Park Ridge Lookout

Trail head: General's Highway at South Boundary Trail

Hike Info:

Type:  Hiking

Trail: Azalea and Park Ridge Trail

Destination: Park Ridge Lookout

Distance: 5.50 miles

Start Time:  10:09

End Time:     2:42

Travel Time: 4:33 (1.21 mph)

Moving Time: 2:50 (1.94  mph)

Elevation Rise: 1,407'

Maximum Elevation: 7,556'

Description:
Just a quick little hike today. Sherri told Kim that if we went hiking today, we would be glad to take her. She being sooo naive, said she would come with us. So this should be a nice walk.We pick up Kim at her house at 8:15 and head towards Grant Grove. Along the way, I suggest that we might try a trail which I have not been on for 50 years, the Azalea Trail. Poor people, they do not know what this involves-neither do I, but at least I read the map.

Kim and Sherri on Not A Trail

We get into the park and find the start of the South Boundary trail. Across the General's Highway is the start of our trail, sort of hidden-you have to be looking for it. But we do find it and start walking along the trail, passing a sign saying, Park Ridge, 2 miles. We cross a small creek and are about the cross a road-hey wait a minute. We do not cross a road, nor a creek on the map. Where did I go wrong? So we backtrack across the creek and start making our way up it, with the hope of finding the trail. I look up and see the stone work for the trail. So we climb up the dirt embankment-both Sherri and Kim are good sports.

Sugar Pine

Now it is a matter of following the trail up to the top of Park Ridge. It is a good walk up. In a couple of weeks, the azaleas should be out in full leaf and maybe blooms. The trail is nicely shaded, but goes up and up and up. But we are enjoying our walk and the talk which goes with hiking. Kim is relatively new to the Sierras so every time we have walked with her, it has been fun pointing out some of the things which goes with the area. Today, it is sugar pines. The long cones are worth noting in their own right. But then we show Kim the tops of the trees where the cones hang like Christmas ornaments, even to an old jaded person like myself, it gives me a time to pause and enjoy.

Kim and Sherri on Park Ridge

We reach the top of Park Ridge, but not the lookout. That is another 3/4 of a mile walk along the ridge. Nothing very eventful happens along this route. So we get to the lookout, but nobody is home. I message Wendy and she confirms, nobody is scheduled, but we are ok to go up on the catwalk. After lunch, we take Kim up and she is amazed at what she can see.

Big Baldy from Park Ridge Lookout

East from Park Ridge Lookout

As we started back, engine 51 for SEKI comes up the road.  I go back and talk with Tom. He is not the engine captain, evidently there is not a captain since Larry left. They are at the lookout to fill the water tank-soap water. I am sure we will run into him when Sherri and I are at the lookout.

On our way down, we hit the Azalea Trail, we realize how steeply we came up. But it is a lot easier to come down than to go up it. As we come to the junction where I lost the trail coming up, I do a head slap-it was so obvious. Remember the trail sign? Just look behind it and there is a trail. Oh well.

Sherri, Kim

Gary on catwalk

We decide to go up to Panorama Point just so we can see the area in northern Kings Canyon. Mt Goddard shows up, along with the Palisades. Buck Rock is there too. So is the ringing of the phone in my pants. It is my brother. Reception is bad, so I talk with him at the Visitor Center. Dad is having a hard time breathing. Also their caregiver is leaving. Boy things happen while I am out hiking. Both of these  get resolved. But we decide to hurry back to Fresno. A good day up at Grant Grove, but a bit hectic at the end. We had fun with Kim. Hope to hike with her many more times.

Pretty, but unknown flower

July 14, 2013 - Bubbs Creek

Title: July 14, 2013 - Bubbs Creek

Hike Info:

Trail: John Muir Trail

Starting location:  Rae Lakes

Destination:  Upper part of trail to Forester Pass

Actual Destination:  About 10,600' on way to Forester

Distance:  9.3  ¹

Start Time:  7:20

End Time:   6:10

Travel Time: 10:50 ( mph)

Moving Time: 5:50 ( mph)

Elevation Rise:  2,420'  ¹

Maximum Elevation:   11,960'

Description:

Painted Lady

I must have been anxious about today. Woke up several times last night wondering if it was time to get up. Morning is bright and crisp blue sky with no wind. Sun is just starting to hit the Painted Lady.

At 7:20, we get a good start to going up to Glen Pass. Leaving behind the blue, inviting lakes we stayed by last night creates a longing to stay. But the steady climb of switchbacks are calling us. We start taking our breaks about every half of a mile. At our second break, we are passed by a group of young men, whom we label as the singing Boy Scouts, even though they are a little older than that. But they are going up this without breathing hard, nor stopping their singing. Amazing, since we are doing what we need to do to breath-even at rest.

Rae Lakes

 

Going up to Glen Pass, I am the weak link. Usually I am waiting for Sherri. But today, she is keeping up with me. She says that my breathing is a lot more gasping, that is for air, than usually. I am having more troubles with this pass than other higher ones, or ones which we have had to climb up more. It may be steeper, or maybe I am getting weaker. I do not know.

Range after range after range to the south

But once on top, we have such a scenic view of those tarns we have been looking at on the way up. Rae Lakes have popped back into view. As Sherri said, from this perspective, Rae Lakes just looks like another big tarn. She thinks the tarns look like alien lakes, maybe because of their deep blue-green colors, surrounded by all that rock. But you see them more like emeralds, even with their own islands. Their beauty does shine out, drawing you. But then your gaze looks across at where you came from. Range upon range of mountains. Some of which we traveled several days ago. The Palisades are there; Cardinal Mountain; and maybe even Mt Goddard. Then you look where to you are going and see this same series of mountains which we will need to cross. You wonder are we up to it?

Matt and Derek with Sherri

Also on top, are the singing Boy Scouts, which now that we see them, we wonder if they are Boy Scouts. They seem older, may be Explorers. But there is an older person with them. We have seen them lift off a balloon, maybe a weather balloon. They are from San Diego area. We got our Capture California picture for the hike with Matt and Derek.

Also Larry and Paul are up here, with three others who have made it to the top with us. It does seem a bit crowded with all of us on this narrow strip marking the difference between waters going to Woods Creek and Bubbs Creek. But nobody falls off, even though we are a bit leery of any sudden movements.

On top of Glen Pass

We start the descent down the south side of the pass, with me in the lead. Why? Because I seem to be the least concerned with the sheerness of the slope. This will seem funny to my brother as he is the one who is fearless in our family. But with I in the lead, Sherri following and Larry and Paul bringing up the rear, we make it down the trail safely.

At one of the stops, we find out that Larry is a Lutheran pastor while Paul teaches the electrical trades at a technical college in Green Bay.  We sort of walk with them, then lose them, only to regain them at lunch break at the junction with the Kearsarge Pass trail. Here we also eat lunch with three others whom we will get to know through the rest of the trip-George, Chris and Steve.

Bubb's Creek Valley

After lunch we continue down the sides of the valley which Bubbs Creek form. As we go down, we see the Videttes-both east and west. Seems like it takes awhile to get down this. But we are making it down farther than we did the Rae Loop a couple of years ago. When we get down to the floor, finally, we go a little ways, then take a break. Nothing fabulous, but refreshing.  Being intrepid, onward we go. Soon we see Paul and Larry, setting up camp. Sounds like they will be about a day or two behind us. So we say farewell and it has been good walking with them.

The Videttes

Center Peak

Up a ways, we start thinking about  where we wanted to stop for the night. It is a trade-off between getting some rest tonight and  setting up to tackle Forester Pass tomorrow. The higher up we go, the easier tomorrow will be. But we have about a 2,000' climb to get up to the highest feasible camp space. We are not going to be able to do this. So we pick a campsite around 10,000'. When we get there, there is a flock of tents, so on we go. The next stop is the creek which comes out of Center Basin. People are camped there, but being eagle-eyed, I think I see a spot above the creek on a ridge.  But when I pop my head over the ridge, there is a tent and a couple of men relaxing-we will see them tomorrow. So again onward we go. About a quarter mile up the trail, it cuts back and comes reasonably close to the creek. Plus there is a little draw where we can put a tent out of sight. It is a good place, better than the others we wanted to camp at. (36.73048, -118.37161)

What a glorious evening. There are still clouds in the sky, but looking down Bubbs Creek, the sun reflecting its golden rays. What a sight. Sherri and I are the only ones to collect this sight from a rock rock outcropping just outside of our camp.

Shortly afterwards we go to bed. It is getting colder. We watch half of Dr Who episode. I read, then go to sleep around 9:20.

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Peanut Butter and Nutella on crackers	Beans 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: 9.50 miles

Elevation Rise:  1,566'

Maximum Elevation: 11,910'

Center Peak

Upper Rae Lake

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-Palisades

Palisades (Mt Goddard, Bishop)
(Long, Lat)

Description:
North Palisade (14,254); Middle Palisade (14,049); South Palisade (14,051). South Palisade was named Split Mountain by Bolton Coit Brown in 1895, and is generally so called. (S.C.B., 1896, I:8, p. 309.) This group also includes Agassiz Needle, Mount Winchell, and Mount Sill.

“At the head of the north [middle] fork, along the main crest of the Sierra, is a range of peaks . . . which we called ‘the Palisades’.” (Whitney Survey: Geology, 1865, pp. 393-394.)

The Wheeler Survey used the names N. W. Palisade and S. E. Palisade for the North and South Palisades, respectively, in 1878. (Wheeler Survey: Tables of Geographic Positions, 1883, p. 19.—S.C.B., 1922, XI:3, p. 251.)

Lil A. Winchell, in 1879, named the highest peak for Frank Dusy; and in 1895 Bolton Coit Brown named it for David Starr Jordan; but the name North Palisade, based on the Whitney and Wheeler surveys, has been retained. (S.C.B., 1904, V:1, p. 3; 1896, I:8, p. 296.) First ascent of North Palisade, July 25, 1903, by Joseph N. Le Conte, James K. Moffitt, James S. Hutchinson. (S.C.B., 1904, V:1, pp. 1-19.—See, also, S.C.B., 1921, XI:2, pp. 204-205, and 1922, XI:3, p. 313.)

First ascent of Middle Palisade, August 26, 1921, by Francis Peloubet Farquhar and Ansel Franklin Hall. (S.C.B., 1922, XI:3, pp. 264-270.—See, also, S.C.B., 1926, XII:3, p. 307.)
First ascent of South Palisade. (See Split Mountain .)

There are large glaciers on the eastern side of the Palisades. (S.C.B., 1915, IX:4, pp. 261-263; S.C.B., 1922, XI:3, plate LXXIX.)
From  Place Names of the High Sierra (1926) by Francis P. Farquhar

Trips:

• July 10, 2013 - JMT Trip
• July 2007 - Andrea and Sherri's JMT Trip

Pictures:

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References:

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