WEEK 3 MAP Packing up in the morning Riley took to the trail long before Blake and I. As we ground up the long hill side leaving the
Big Arroyo I felt heavily fatigued. I just didn't seem to have much energy and Blake shared the same sentiments. I think both of us were in a poor mood also. After we had
topped out on this hill we took a break over about an hour and half having deep and relatively negative conversations. I suppose it's nice to have another head to input into the deeper philosophies of life. Reaching the junction that takes you either past Moraine Lake or directly to the junction beyond Sky Parlor Meadow I gave Blake the option of going either way. I told him I could meet him at the junction if he wanted to hike past Moraine Lake. Since I had never taken the Eastern route I wanted to and he ended up joining me. This ultimately was a mistake as this route was completely boring, hot and dry as we climbed over down trees in a small burn zone. I thought this route would at least give you some views of Sky Parlor Meadow but it does not. I certainly will never take that way again!
Beginning down I was zoned out when I suddenly heard a rattle to my left as a fairly large rattlesnake let me know he did not like me. Startled I jumped back and admired it since it was the first rattlesnake of this trip. Being just over 9000 feet it also was the highest I had seen a rattlesnake.
In 2010 a trail crew had told me this section of trail was getting a reroute to avoid the burn zone but I could not see any evidence of it. The
grind down this long hot trail was everything I had remembered. By the time we hit the bottom of the Kern Canyon I was beat. Approaching the drift fence we met another rattlesnake in the middle of the trail marking the 2 rattlesnakes I would see for this entire trip. We arrive at the Kern Hotspring with Riley setting up camp. We joined him once again and were the only 3 people at the spring.
This was my first trail layover day. Riley went on his way and Blake hung around awhile thinking he was going to head out today but ultimately he stayed for another night. In another odd twist we were joined by another man that happened to be a counselor in the field of issues that Blake was having so we sort of had a back country private session.
Come morning Blake had wanted to get going earlier then I wanted to so he took off ahead on his way to Whitney and his own destiny. He would be the final person to hike with me for any length of time on this hike.
As for me I was still on a casual hike so my goal for the day was only to hike the 7 miles to Junction Meadow which I arrived at in only about 3 hours.
Leaving Junction I was a bit worried that I would not be able to reach Wales Lake because of it being about
3700 feet up and I still didn't seem to be getting into shape but I was able to make it well up Wallace Creek to where the use trail crosses
a meadow outlet by lunch. This area was infested with mosquitoes which was one of the first locations for this to be true so far in the trip. I
continued along easily until I had scaled the final
granite slabs to
Wales Lake. The sand showed no one had been to the lake yet this year and was a decent place to set up camp. The wind was ripping though which made the epically cold dip in the lake that much worse.
Heading out to climb Mt. Russell I had picked what looked like a small ledge that could take me to the
more level terrain towards Tulainyo Lake. When I reached it however it turned out to be a wide ramp that made getting past the steeper slopes a breeze.
Slogging along and slowly up I finally reached the harsh terrain of
Tulainyo Lake. The area did not seem to support camping of any kind. Perhaps if your lucky you might find a rock big enough to fit your body. Hooking towards Russell / Carillon Pass I had to cross a single
large snow field that was extremely cupped. This early in the day it was mostly solid so I made good time across it. Arriving at
the base of the pass the way up seemed fairly straight forward. I began hoping up the rocks very quickly sometimes making using of all fours like a monkey. The talus was beautifully stable and the right size to have fun running up it. Nearing the top some class 3 had to be climbed with some loose rock but without trouble I was standing on top. I had been speaking to myself out loud about the
beautiful views when a head popped up near by. I was slightly disturbed suddenly since I had been so in my own world and I never expected to see someone. I set out up
the ridge with the couple not far behind. I tried to set a good pace which was a mistake because while climbing a large rock I slipped bashing my knee and scratching a wrist. After a few moments of major pain I kept
going up. Slowly I
made my way up the ridge with many difficult maneuvers with decent exposure. Closing in on the
false summit the climb had become much steeper. By the time I had huffed my way onto the summit I was greatly disappointed to see the
real summit. My GPS showed more then 14,000 feet for this point. After the last ridge traverse I was finally
on top around lunch time enjoying a
fine views on this
clear day. The couple that had been following me up finally topped out and took
my photo. They quickly went back down as I sat and relaxed. Finally it was time for me to go so I retraced my
steps back. While climbing along a slim rock dislodged and fell bashing me in the ankle leaving a bloody scrape cut. After I was done groaning I made my
way back to the pass and down to the lake. The
snow field was more difficult later in the day but I still made ok time on it. As I made my way down the nice class 1 terrain the wind was ripping with a fury. Suddenly I stumbled. Stumbles occur so often while hiking that they become second nature. You stumble, correct your near fall and keep walking like nothing happened. Due to this I was half way to the ground before I realized I did not correct myself. I smashed hard onto my left arm bashing the crap out of it and scratching my wrist up. For the third time I fought off the pain picked myself up, dusted myself off and went on my way although I considered myself lucky that I did not break my arm. Arriving back in camp with with 2 scraped wrists, 1 bashed knee, 1 bashed arm and one bashed and scraped ankle I couldn't be happier, besides my solar charger had brought my media player back to 100% power while I was gone!
I made quick work getting
back down to the High Sierra trail. As I reached Wright Creek I ran into the 3 Hookah carrying guys from Hamilton Lake. We had a nice chat and I gathered they had stayed at Junction Meadow the night before which was my destination for the night. Again I was in camp at this location early. I held my hand over the fire pit and plenty of heat was coming out of it. Down at the creek a large amount of couscous was dumped into the water along the shore. Yep I found their camp! Still not changing their habits. Later a couple set up near by and I had a chat with the guy and he was a man I had met before known around Lodgepole by the name "Yogi". The two of them had been out since around the 22nd of May and were planning to do 120 days in the Sierra so I wasn't alone out here. He also gave me some ideas of a way he liked to cross the Whaleback which I would use later.
After fording the Kern I began up the Kern-Kaweah River trail. Once again I did not have much energy and the heat was oppressive. Most of this trail was irksome at best and I did not enjoy myself at all. A
nice view or two did
show themselves and while trekking along I was slightly startled by a large
bearded face smiling at me. The
Gallats Lake area didn't impress me like I had hoped but it was certainly a welcome place to be after the miserable climb up to it. Finally it was time to leave the trail again and I picked a random location to start
up canyon. The easy
cross country travel through this
meadow ridden valley was great but the mosquitoes were pretty thick when ever the wind would let up. Here and there were bits of a use trail but they never lasted long. Reaching
the slope leading to Lake 11,400 the terrain shifted from smooth valley meadows to harsh loose rock that was much slower to navigate. Reaching
the lake it turned out to be much nicer then I had expected. That is the scenery was. The camping situation on the other hand was non existent. I checked all about and finally settled on a small spot that was just big enough for my body. A cold breeze blew most of the night ending my third week in the Sierra.
