High Sierra Ramble- Let’s Ride!

[Mike M]

We (Craig and Adan) had originally planned a 15-ish day attempt at the SHR.  Craig had already secured permits and I had secured airline tickets.  I twas all systems go until about a week out I got a text from Craig that his daughter had tested positive for Covid.  The next day he texted his son also tested positive.  Two laters he texted he was sick.  

We started working on a Plan B and originally thought about doing half of the SHR.  We scrapped that in favor of hitting some country in the south Sierra’s (which both Craig and Adan have logged a lot of time) and saving the SHR for another day.  We came up with a route that looked like it would be doable in 8 days/7 nights.  

I flew into LA Friday afternoon, got our gear ready that evening and were up at 5:00 AM heading for Lone Pine to secure walk-up permits.  When we arrived at Lone Pine at the multi-agency building it was just opening and there was a lone vehicle there.  We high fived that that it would be a sure thing we’d get the permits for the entry we had planned.

So much for a sure thing.  The “walk up” permits are no longer walk up, they are done on line up to two weeks in advance.  They still call the permits walk up, but now walk up is in quotes.  Long story short, we eventually secured permits by a combination of calling, using our phones and eventually driving back to Lone Pine to have the guy who can’t issue permits, sign it.

We stashed a vehicle at the Shepherd Pass trailhead and drove to the Kearsarge trailhead.  More than half the day spent with red tape, but we were now on our way!

Kearsarge Pass climbs just under 3000′ in 5-ish mile, with 8 days of food, 4 lbs of water and a 2.5 lb bear canister- packs were in the 35-ish lb range, not light and the climb just reenforced that fact.

We made it to the pass and got a nice view of the Kearsarge chain of lakes, one of which we’d spend our first night.

I should also add, that in addition to the angst with the permits, a relatively large fire had started the day before on the west side.  Plenty of smoke and haze, so probably not the best start to a trip.

We found a great camp site at one of the upper lakes with the Kearsarge Pinnacles at our backdoor.

We were up early as we had a good chunk of traveling on tap, including climbs up and over Glen Pass and then off trail, up and over Rae Col into our next destination- 60 Lakes Basin.  Also (thankfully!) much of the haze/smoke had dissipated in the night.

Bullfrog Lake the lowest lake in the Kearsarge chain.

Glen Pass is no joke, it’s just shy of 12k and the climb is steep!  Looking into the Rae Lakes Basin; the lakes off to the left is where we’re headed for Rae Col.

We took our lunch at those unnamed lakes and Craig and Adan braved the chilly waters for a dip.  We picked our way around various sized granite slabs, eventually making the Col.  60 Lakes Basin is gorgeous, not sure if there are actually 60 lakes, but there is a bunch!  

There is also a trail into the basin via Rae Lakes (but appears to be a deadend trail), guessing it doesn’t see a ton of use.

We found a great spot to camp and hadn’t seen anyone since Glen Pass.  We all brought Tenkara rods and were itching to break them out.  We never saw a single fish rise or cruise the shoreline.  Craig mentioned that an endangered frog had prompted the state to kill off some of the stocked lakes, appears this was one of them.  We did have a good swim before supper, with several islands as destinations.

Up early again to traverse further up an adjoining drainage to the 60 Lakes Col into the Gardiner Basin.  

Picking our way up to the Col.

The Three Amigo’s- Let’s Ride!

We started down into the Gardiner Basin, but it was sloooooow going.  It was jumbled mess and a wrong step or loose slab, could mean something very (very) bad.  Adan and Craig were obviously more comfortable on this terrain as I soon found myself out of sight of them.  I did see a pine marten though, evidently hunting pika- which there were plenty of.  Looking back up at the col.

Finally caught up and we took a much need lunch break; not a lot of shade, but found some :)

We proceeded down the basin.  On some maps it actually shows a dotted route (there is No trail).  As we got to the outlet of the large lake in the upper basin, the route showed heading east and high and then gradually angling down to the other lakes.  Craig and Adan looked over and said we can make it straight down- who am I to argue :)

We made it to one of the lower lakes (without too many scrapes and bruises!) and I saw a decent sized fish causing the shoreline.  We decided to make camp a little early and break out the tenkara rods.  That was a good decision as we all soon had two to three nice eating sized golden trout.

We had brought fixings for fish tacos and Craig had Brough a small frying pan.  Even with a few errors (on my part!) we were able to make good on the fish tacos.

We were up early the next morning, our destination- up and over Gardiner Pass to Charlotte Lake.

I think maybe because I was Mountain Central time, I was up earlier then both Craig and Adan and had headed out of camp a little earlier the past couple of mornings, today no exception.  I mentioned that some maps show a route (not a trail) that I simply used it as a guide heading down the drainage.  I occasionally saw a cairn here and there and even short (really short) stretches of a use trail.  The route showed crossing the Gardiner Creek a couple of times- so I did.  The first creek crossing was justified, the second creek crossing was a huge mistake!  Of course Craig and Adan ignored the second crossing (and subsequent climb!) and now instead of in the lead, I was catching up to them.

We were able to ind a very light use trail that took us up, literally straight up to an adjoining drainage that at the very head end lie Gardiner Pass.  We wound our way around several small lakes and tarns.

Eventually setting us up for a scramble to Gardiner Pass.

We found a faint use trail that wound us up quite nicely to the pass.  Some rugged looking country from the pass.

We made our way to Charlotte Lake starting off with a steep descent in some loose scree, eventually taking us to a very large avalanche chute.  The picture doesn’t do it any justice, but there were acres and acres of torn up and piled up trees.

We didn’t make Charlotte Lake until just before dark.  We lucked out and got a nice spot near the lake, we found out that the lake is rather popular and were reintroduced to people again.

Up early again, now headed for Forester Pass and beyond.  

Nice mulie buck on the way out of the lake.,

Sadly we had to give up a lot of hard earned elevation, dropping us down into Bubbs Creek where we would have to gain it all back and then some.  Bubbs Creek.

The long march to Forester Pass

 

I won’t sugar coat it, that was a tough haul up- evidenced by several folks we passed who were literally bent over gasping for breath!

It’s steep going down too.  That’s some tough trail building!

We were getting spit on lightly, but as we descended the drainage it looked like we were going to get more than spit on.

We decided it would be prudent to call it an evening and get camp setup- quickly!

Just in the nick of time too.  We ate our suppers in our shelters, glad to be out of the cold rain that was falling heavily.

Our next destination was the upper Kern Basin.  There is a trail that could take us there, but it’s a couple of miles out of the way, so instead we decided to cross country it a bit, up and over into the next drainage.  Craig leading the way down.

We toured around the upper Kern and started down the drainage to a lake Craig said held fish.

A beautiful lake.

 

And it indeed did hold fish, nice 10″-ish rainbows.  We didn’t keep any fish, but caught a lot of them.  

A few rain squalls that evening, but the real news was wind.  A lot of high winds, enough so that it was the might shelter could fail kind of wind.  Fortunately no shelters lost in the night!

The next morning Adan split off; with enough food for a couple of days he decided to explore Millys Pass, head down past Reflection Lake and loop back to Kearsarge Pass.  Craig and I would head for Shepherd Pass.  We would get out. away earlier than Adan and shuttle his vehicle up to Kearsarge where Craig’s vehicle was parked.

We eventually joined the trip again and were treated to some wonderful vistas.

Milestone (amongst several other named peaks)

We saved off a couple of miles by cross countrying it towards Shepherd Pass.

Shepherd Pass leads into one of the roughest canyons I’ve ever been in.  Craig pointed out where some years ago a slide took out a couple dozen of deer- there scattered bones evidence of the slide.

We made it to Anvil Camp (I’d like to meet the SOB who was tough enough to haul an anvil up that trail :)) late afternoon and called it a day, it would still leave us with 10-ish miles to get out the next day.

We got up early (extra early) to try and beat some of the sun exposure we’d have descending.  We were treated to a beautiful sunrise.

We made made good time going down, but not quite enough to beat the sun and rising temps as we descended.  We made made the shuttle.  Found a creek to bathe in and headed for cheeseburgers and milk shakes!

I still had a day left before I left back to Montana, so Craig and his wife treated me to a day at the beach (north of Malibu)- a fitting end to a great trip!

 

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