June 26, 2014 - Kern Hot Springs to Kern-Kaweah River

Title: June 26, 2014 - Kern Hot Springs to Kern-Kaweah River

Hike Info:

Type:  Backpacking

Trail: High Sierra Trail and Colby Pass Trail

Destination:Junction Meadows

Actual Destination: Kern-Kaweah River

Distance: 7.02 miles

Start Time:  8:40

End Time:    6:37

Travel Time: 9:57 (0.71 mph)

Moving Time: 4:14(1.65 mph)

Elevation Rise: 2,824'

Maximum Elevation: 9,581'

Description:

Our camp

Interesting Clouds

 When I got up, there were a few clouds in the sky, some dark. I had noticed early on how diffused the sky looked. Is this a sign of rain for us?  Clouds will be a fascination of today.  But that was not the end of concerns. Sherri pretty quickly found out that she could not find her Glide and her ziploc bag of foot and personal hygiene stuff. This was a cause of anguish, which will last through breakfast. The Glide could not be found.

Sherri crossing Wallace Creek

Kern River

So after breakfast we takeoff, without our Glide around 8:40. Sherri is charging out of the gate and I am not able to keep up. I get brief views down the canyon, but no good shots for pictures. While keeping a good pace, I can tell I am straining a bit at our pace, even though the climb is not bad at all. I finally catch up to Sherri at the Whitney Creek crossing. She had to stop to figure out the crossing. Ray shows his strength and adds a couple of boulders to allow for Sherri to cross. I am impressed.

Gary Crossing Kern River

Then off we go again. Not much rising on this trail, maybe 300' in 2+ miles. We then hit Wallace Creek.  Each of us cross in our own way. I manage to cross on rocks, while Ray and Steven cross on two different logs.  Andrea crosses on the same log Ray does. But Rachel and Sherri wade across. We then decide to have lunch at the Kern River. But before lunch, we pass through Junction Meadow. A backpacker friend of ours had warned us that the Kern could be trouble crossing. We would at least get our feet wet. When we come to the Kern crossing, his prediction is only half true-we do get our feet wet. as we get to wade across the Kern River. We are thankful that the crossing is above the Kern-Kaweah River, also for a dry year making this an easy early season ford.

Up the Kern-Kaweah

We go to the right of the knob

We have lunch at noon, just a couple hundred yards from the ford. Now we turn from the High Sierra Trail to going up the Kern-Kaweah. The first 100 yards is not bad. Then I label this trail as No Trail For Old Men. It is a climb. About 1000' a mile and a quarter. It takes us about two hours to do it. But this is also a trail with benefits. As we ascend, if we turn around from time to time, we see the rest of the High Sierra Trail. This is the part which goes up Wallace Creek, or as Andrea has labeled it, The Ascent From Hell Trail, because of what she did last year and the heat she experienced in Kern Canyon. It does appear to mean not a fun climb, but neither is our present trail.

Kern-Kaweah

Up Wallace Creek with Mr Young and Hale

Kern Canyon

More mountains appear in the east. To the west, we see a little waterfall in the distance between the crack we are climbing towards. The creek actually has a name, Picket Creek.  Even more as we climb we see distinct forms in the east, the daughters think it may be Whitney, but I wonder if it isn't the mountains before Whitney-Young and Hale.

Rachel and Steven descending

Andrea about to go down

We finally get to the top of this climb and have a bank ball break. We need it, at least I do. But what awaits us on the other side? A very steep descent, not long, about 240'. But it is you pick your steps carefully. But we are starting to see more of the Kern-Kaweah Canyon we are to travel up.  There is another rise, but not nearly as steep as before and then we find ourselves at Rockslide Lake.

Rockslide Lake

Rockslide Lake

This becomes a scene from Hunger Games, where everybody seems to enjoy themselves, then suddenly the clock strikes the hour and terror happens. We are walking along, enjoying the sight of the lake. Ray is even fishing spots along this wide spot called a lake; Rachel is filling her water bottle, and my family enjoys a little respite from the steep trail. Suddenly, we are  attacked by swarms of persistent mosquito's. They it's seemed to keep with us no matter how many we killed. Then Deet comes to our rescue! We can then hike in relative peace for a ways, until we start up on the next rise.

Rachel at Rockslide

Picket Creek

While this rise is not bad, after the previous one, we are worn out. Steven and I get ahead of Sherri and Andrea. So I try to do my part and leave them a Hunger Games gift of belly flops. Steven and  I find an ok camp spot at the top of the rise and drop our packs.

Andrea of the mountains

Everybody agrees this is how far we should go, even though I convince Andrea to go with me about a third of a mile more to see if we can find a better one-no. It is windy, which keeps the pests away. But the after dinner conversation is short because of it and the cold. Still is light, a little before 8 when we roll into our beds.

Trail Lesson:

White Phlox

When something is not working right, or I am missing something, or something is broken, work around, or fix what is not correct. But do not fall into despair, but look for the good in the situation.

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

Cloud bank over the edge of the Sierra's

Interesting Clouds to our east

Ray pondering the clouds

What mountain?

What Mountain?

Place: CA-Young

Mt Young (Mt Whitney)   
(long, lat)

Description:
Rev. F. H. Wales climbed it on September 7, 1881, and named it “in honor of Professor Young, the noted astronomer, now at Princeton.” (Elliott: Guide to the Grand and Sublime Scenery of the Sierra Nevada, 1883, pp. 49-50.)
Charles Augustus Young (1834-1908); graduate of Dartmouth, 1853; professor of mathematics, Western Reserve, 1857-1866; professor of natural philosophy and astronomy, Dartmouth, 1866-1877; professor of astronomy, Princeton, 1877-1908. From Place Names of the High Sierra (1926) by Francis P. Farquhar

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