I had planned to do a 3 day hike in Kings Canyon but due to the Rough fire, I did this hike instead. I normally do long day hikes, and have done some 2 day hike, but this was my first 3 day. Total hike was about 60 miles, covering a pass each day.
I drove Friday morning from Novato to the Mineral King Ranger station and picked up a permit. It's a pretty long 6 hour drive, but I got there right when they opened and started the hike at the reasonable hour of 9 am towards Franklin Pass. My pack felt heavier than I would like, since I normally don't carry a bear cannister, sleeping bag and pad, and tent. I brought 4 20 oz Gatorade bottles filled with water. I would rather have started with 3 filled bottles, but I knew there isn't a lot of water along the trail before the pass, and I didn't want to descend the 80 or so feet to the lake along the way to filter.
Views were terrific with seemingly maximum visibility and no sign of smoke from the fire to the north. The climb from the TH (7800 ft) to the pass (11800) is about 4000 ft and I was doing about 45 minutes walking and 15 minutes break. I shortened the pushes as I got closer to the pass since my pack was around 32 pounds and as I didn't acclimate, the altitude was getting to me.
I finally summited at around 3:00 pm (8 miles later) and the descent into the Rattlesnake creek drainage was a welcome change. When I finally reached the valley floor and took off my pack, I noticed my tent (Fly Creek UL2) was missing! I had it rolled in with my sleeping pad and it somehow slipped out to the side. The sleeping pad couldn't fall off because the friction of the straps wouldn't let it, but since I just rolled the pad over the tent bag, there was not a lot of friction holding the tent to the pad. I should have secured it better, it was a stupid mistake.
I thought for a second about backtracking to look for it, but the last thing I wanted to do was go back up Franklin pass and I didn't know where it might have fallen out. Also it probably would have ruined the trip by now allowing me to finish the intended route. So since I had some experience camping without a tent and besides it not like it's going to rain in the Sierras at night and it's usually not windy in the lower camping sites like the Kern, it was an easy decision to proceed as planned. I was $300 lighter due to the loss, but on the bright side my pack was now 2.5 pounds lighter. Anyway it would save me the trouble of setting it up, especially since it would be dark and I never used it before so I would have to figure it out at the end of a long day.
I got the Kern river floor around 8:30 pm and starting looking for a flat spot to put my tent footprint (which is nothing really and was surprised how flimsy it was for $50). I was hoping to get some views of the descent into the canyon, as I had done it before in 2004 and was very impressed then. However it got dark right before the best view area. Anyway I found a spot between a few trees and cleared out an area to sleep. It was very quiet there, and was slightly worried about a branch falling or something, since I remember what happened to those Yosemite campers and the ranger warned about the possibility of trees or branches falling.
I got little sleep, maybe a couple of hours, and started around 5:00 am towards the High Sierra trail, which switchbacks up a few miles to the north. From there, it's new ground for me, and was exited about what I might see. The trail switchbacks up from the floor (6600 ft) to around 8000 feet. From there it's just a continuous slope up to about 10500 feet with heavy tree cover most of the way, obscuring any views. I was feeling less than ideal, having had a long day yesterday and not much sleep the last two nights. The seemingly endless and repetitive sloping forest climb didn't help, and my body just didn't want to hike uphill at all. I was starting to feel stupid about doing such an ambitious hike in the first place, but finally the views started to open up in the afternoon and I started to feel better when I got to some downhill stretches.
The trail descended into the Arroyo drainage (9500 ft) where it then starts to climb again towards Keweah Gap (10700 ft). Unlike yesterday, when I had the trail all to myself, I saw maybe 50 people on this trail. I heard it was popular, but I really didn't see what all the fuss was about...until I got to the pass. It was about 5:30 and was planning on camping near the junction at Lone Pine creek (7400 ft). However someone on my way up recommended Hamilton lakes (8200 ft). Anyway the scenery and trail works going down was absolutely amazing. I swear I have never seen such beautiful vistas before in my life. And the trail, wow! Now I know why it's so popular. I was thinking, I gotta talk my wife into seeing this, just once. Unfortunately this area is 20 miles from the nearest trailhead, so not many people have the opportunity to see it.
By the time I got down to the lake it was dark. I saw a few flashlights and when I was near the lake I saw a spot to the left and cleared out a small spot to sleep. I didn't realize it at the time, but during the night I notice I was only about 10 feet from the water's edge. I don't know if it was a legal spot, but there I was. During the night it was a little windy but otherwise I just wanted to get day 3 going and get back to my truck, since I could hardly sleep at all.
Since I was a few hours behind schedule, I started around 4:15 am towards Bearpaw. I was feeling generally awful from the lack of sleep and the lack of food. I brought about 4-5 pounds of food, all low carb foods like trail mix, beef sticks, hard boiled eggs, homemade cliff bars, etc. But the altitude was suppressing my appetite. I hardly touched the trail mix and wished I had only packed half the food I brought. The eggs were good though, and I wish I had brought some crispy bacon. Next time I will.
There were more scenic wonders waiting for me as dawn arrived, this time man made. First was the bridge over a deep gorge, which was jaw-dropping. I took several pics and then a half hour later saw this cabin come out of nowhere, with someone (a range) enjoying her cup of coffee from the deck). I couldn't believe seeing a bunch of small buildings and large tent, like a small village! I filtered some water there at Bearpaw and those scenic surprises, and the fact that I was going to do some downhill time, lifted my spirits. Besides, the goal today is the truck, and not another tentless campsite where I'll sleep very little.
During this time I have been communicating with my wife via the Delorme Inreach Explorer satellite messenger service. I may have been dumb about not properly securing the tent to my pack, but I'm not about to go on a long hike by myself without some security in case something goes wrong. Not when it's available. And this device is amazing. I had it mounted at the top of my pack where it always gets a signal, and it sent out a spot every 10 minutes so my wife could see exactly where I'm at (the link to the map accompanies every text I send her). Unlike the Spot, I can receive messages (and emails) as well, so it was really nice to have some communication since i was hiking alone. And she felt better too of course.
As the day went on I was remarkably feeling better. I ate the last 2 boiled eggs and a few cheese stick and "cliff' bars. and finally started to climb the last pass (Timber Gap, 9500 ft) from a low point of around 6000 ft). I topped out at 3:45pm and got to the truck an hour later. The flip side was very steep and I was jogging much of the time since there were few rocks and the conditions were ideal. There were no vistas at Timber Gap, and now I know why that pass got its name, lol. I couldn't even see the pass until I was about 100 feet of climbing from.
The drive home was not too unpleasant, getting to the house at 10:30 pm (last night). My appetite started to open up and I ate two large hamburgers along the way (lettuce wrapped CJs). Today I ate like a pig, haha. I still weigh about 3-4 pounds less than normal, I wonder if any weight loss will stick.
Next year I plan to do the loop from Bubbs creek, over Avalanche, Colby and Forester passes. That's about 60 miles as well. Hopefully it'll all go well like this one did. I learned a few things though about what not to bring next time. I haven't decided on the tent, maybe I'll bring one, maybe not. But I do need to lighten up the pack to 25 pounds or less, given the difficulty of the hikes like this. I do it more for the endurance aspect rather than to get away from civilization and enjoy nature. Maybe it should be the other way around, but I can't take a full week off anyway to do a "normal" 10 miles per day backpacking trip. And in order to see the best scenery the Sierra has to offer (like the Keweah Gap area), I need to do 20 miles a day and shorten the trip (and lighten the pack).
Here's a few links to the GPS tracks. I'll post some pics later.
Day 1
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move75687012Day 2
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move75686969Day 3
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move75686937
