Day 1 - Marvin Pass Trailhead to Pond Meadow - 3.8 Miles, 1100 ft climbing

            Friday, August 1 - 2008:  Took off from San Diego around 7 am, arrived at Grant Grove at 12:50 p.m.  Picked up a permit for Sugarloaf/Marvin Pass, ate lunch at the cafe and filled our water bottles.  The drive to the trailhead took about an hour on increasingly narrow and windy roads, dirt at the end.  We got to the trailhead at around 3:30 and sorted gear and packed our packs.  No bear box at the trailhead, and instructions were to put food in cars, curious...  Finally on the trail at 4:45, a bright and early start by any standards.  Heavy packs and not acclimated, but Marvin Pass was an easy hike.   Down into Rowell Meadow, a pretty little meadow with several small streams flowing still.  We felt pretty good so continued up to the Pond Meadow area, climbing a little off trail to a nice campsite at 9350' or so.  Great views to the northeast/east/south - gardiner, great western divide, silliman etc.  Cooked up dinner with a fine view as daylight faded. 

Day 2 - Pond Meadow to Big Wet Meadow - 15.8 miles, 2100 ft climbing

            Saturday, August 2 - 2008:  Up at 6:45, blueberry muffins for breakfast, on the trail around 7:45.  Relatively quick descent of 2100' over 4 miles or so.  Stopped at 9:30 or so, just shy of Sugarloaf to pump water.  It was already pretty warm, about 72 degrees, dry and dusty in the valley.  Most of the views we got the night before were obstructed by lower peaks, so we were motivated to keep moving.  We made it to roaring river just after noon and took an hour long lunch break, checking out a historical cabin in a nice meadow nearby.  The trail started to climb more and our pace slowed down.  Brewer creek had plenty of water and looked like a rugged but doable cross country route.  Cement table meadow consisted of several small meadows with some campsites.  We decided to continue to big wet meadow, and were glad we did.  The meadow was beautiful and had great views of the whaleback.  There were some campsites just before the meadow, and a large and nice campsite about half way along the east side of the meadow.  A large group had already taken that site, so we camped across the creek at the south end of the meadow.  Some smaller meadows above looked good too, but we were very tired.  With only 6 miles to colby pass, but significant elevation gain, it might be another rough day to follow.  The alpen glow on the ridge just east of our campsite was good, but it looked like Colby Lake got a much better show.  Another warm night, in bed and sleeping before 9.

Day 3 - Big Wet Meadow to Gallats Lake - 7.0 miles, 3300' climbing

            Up at 6:45, granola for breakfast, tasty...  On the trail at 8::10, lots of nice campsites to be found betweeen big wet mdw and beginning of climb.  Cloud Canyon looked very nice, high alpine scenery.  Started up whaleback, nice views back on meadow.  Up to colby lake, a nice small lake with cliffed out sides for the most part, several good campsites.  Took a break, then started up towards the pass.  Last 800' very steep, very iffy if snow.  On top of the pass just after noon, great views both ways.  Kaweahs and other alpine scenery to the south, colby lake, cloud canyon etc to the north.  Goddard, Charybdis, and Scylla visible far to the north.  The descent was not nearly as steep as the ascent.  Passed through a nice meadow where we stopped for a late lunch.  Mdw has a healthy stream and good views, good campsites on the edges.  Very steep descent the remainder of the way to Gallat's lake, which was more of a meadow than a lake for the most part.  Decided to camp there, even though plenty of time to hike still.  Set up camp near the lake outlet, many good campsites around.  We spent the afternoon exploring around, it would be fun to adventure upstream from here, west of where the trail comes down.  Found a fishing lure near camp and tied it to a 6' length of floss and the end of my hiking stick.  This provided a lot of entertainment, catching many small trout in the 6-8" range, nothing sizable enough to keep though.  Too much climbing today after too many miles yesterday, tired...

Day 4 - Gallats Lake to Kaweah Basin and Rockslide Lake - 8.3 Miles, 1200' climbing

            Still feeling it from yesterday, we got a late start, getting on the trail around 8:30.  We descended about 2 miles, to a point just below a flat meadowy area and above a group of larger trees where we dropped our packs.  From here we took off on cross country route up slabs into the Kaweah Basin.  Cut up sharply to the south, than diagonal to the southeast up talus and slabs.  After 700' or so of climbing, we hung a right and slipped through a slight low point in the ridge. From here we could see one of the lakes along picket creek.  Dropped down the the lake and passed it on its northwest shore.  The chain of lakes along picket creek was very beautiful, but we were traveling very fast as the clouds were gathering.  We hurried up to a pass above lake 3235 m, which was around 3310 m.   From this point there was a slightly obstructed view of the Kaweahs.  The basin had areas with small trees, and looked campable.  Picket creek was also very nice, the lake we came in at would provide great views of the whitney group at sunset.  The clouds were starting to pile up and turn darker, so we headed back very quickly.  By 11:30 or so, we were back at the ridge overlooking Rockslide Lake and the lower Picket Creek Lake.  Great views east to whitney and over to the norht at barnard and veresteeg, perhaps tyndall too.  Clouds solid gray, booked it down and back to our packs just after noon.  Got reorganized and back on the trail, looking for the first available campsite before the rain.  Ended up at Rockslide Lake, camping on an island in what used to be the lake.  Pretty, but very buggy and boggy.  The clouds stuck around, but didnt drop any rain until after 4, and only an hour or so of light rain then.  Nice and clear and beautiful after the rain, adventured out to take pictures and play with the fishing lure.  Caught several 6-8" trout before losing the lure immediately after hooking a 10-12 incher...  Short day of hiking, nice to get a rest.

Day 5 - Rockslide Lake to Upper Kern Basin - 9.5 Miles, 2850' climbing

            Woke up around 6:15 to lots of bugs.  Packed up quickly and headed to the "notch" overlooking Kern Canyon where we ate breakfast and put on sunscreen.  There were some nice campsites in this area, but no shelter if weather came in.  Some clouds on the horizon to the east, over whitney.  Headed on the Junction Mdw, a fairly quick descent with a few slightly difficult stream crossings just above the meadow.  We didn't actually go into the meadow, but it looked like a popular spot, lots of big trees around and flat.  Turned up Kern Canyon and began the climb, starting to warm up.  Got to the first junction around 9:15, happy to have some trees for shade.  Took a short break at a log cabin just above the junction, several nice campsites around this area.  We moved on and watched the clouds build behind us.  The milestone creek area looked very nice, and would have been a good side trip for a half day or so.  Reached Junction 10,590' at noon, slowing down a lot up the last incline.  Headed up the lake south america trail (not maintained, some routefinding), passing the first lake for lack of shelter, finding good shelter at a pond at 10,900'.  Got the tent set up and hopped inside.  Heavy hail came down around 2:45, so loud on the tent we could barely hear the thunder.  Turned to rain around 3:30 and kept thundering until 5 or so.  It cleared up for 20 minutes or so, then turned dark and stormed for another half hour.  More hail and rain, flooding under our tent.  By 6pm, blue skies with clouds took over.  Explored around camp, lots of picture taking.  Ate dinner at 7:15, hoping it will not get too cold and freeze the scree on the pass for tomorrow...

Seq/King's Canyon - Brewer - Aug 08 (2) Click to continue to the second half of the trip...