Mineral King - Three Hikes

9/27/08

It’s a long way from Cedar Grove in Kings Canyon National Park to Mineral King in Seqouia National Park. I could have just retraced my route through the parks but instead I chose to go into the real world, via Visalia. I took the wrong highway toward Visalia, that is unless you like cows. Visalia has a nice downtown street. I found a great sandwich shop, but the natural food store had no produce, this in the most productive agricultural valley in the world. Borders had no New York Review of Books and no clerk on the floor who knew what it was. On the other hand, I could hang around town a week or so and see Amy Grant or Vince Gill if I wanted to.

　
Before heading up to Mineral King I stopped at the Foothills Ranger Station and lucked into a ranger who had spent three summers as the Mineral King backcountry ranger. She was sharp and enthused and gave me some hiking tips. Then came a long boring haul up a steep, winding, slow-going road. It’s paved, but the tight narrow turns kept me in constant stress that someone might come barreling around the next bend. I made it to Atwell CG, a lovely CG amid second growth giant sequoia and some massive old-growth stumps. Buggy though, and while I was eating another ranger came by and told me I'd be a lot more comfortable up at Cold Springs CG where the bugs weren't so bad. So I went and had my coffee up there. The campground wasn’t as pretty - no Giant Sequouias - but I was on the banks of the East Fork of the Kaweah River. More impressive than the Marble Fork, but still creek-like.

My site was the one nearest to the bridge leading over the river into the campground, and was buffered from the road by a substantial patch of brush. I was just settling down with my coffee when a huge whoosh came plunging down from the road and into "my" bushes. A big bear, maybe 30 yards from where I sat. I got up and yelled like you're supposed to if a bear approaches a campsite, and this one at least did glance my way in acknowledgement. But it's goal was the berry bushes, not my campsite, and it kept walking rather pointedly on a straight line along the far end of the bushes, stopping here and there to munch. It didn’t hang around too long, and soon went up under the bridge supports to do some real eating, at which point I got yet another third rate wildlife picture before it disappeared under the bridge.

The neighboring campsites were filling up and I noticed some newcomers being pretty cavalier about leaving food around, so I gave a few a heads up about the visiting bear. A woman in a nearby site reacted to my story with distress. She had had a bad experience earlier in the summer at Yosemite Valley. She was in one of those soft-walled cabins when she heard a loud noise early in the morning and saw a big momma bear outside the window with their cooler. I wasn’t clear on how the bear came to have their cooler. At any rate the woman instinctively rapped the “window” to chase the bear away and the bear came straight at the window, which is nothing but plastic. Actually it could be glass; I don’t know. It didn’t follow through. It was just a bluff charge. But it had scared the woman enough that she wasn't anxious for more close up sitings.


The Great Western Divide
My three hikes out of Mineral King - to Sawtooth Pass, Monarch Lakes, and Franklin Pass - were among the best I would do my entire trip. Each hike climbed up headwater tributaries of the East Fork of the Kaweah River, to lakes and passes near the southernmost extension of the Great Western Divide, and here is where I began to get an understanding of what the Great Western Divide is. In essence it is a high Sierra sub-range - peaks approaching 14,000’, passes nearly 12,000’ - running parallel to the main Sierra crest to the east, and serving as a divide between the Kaweah River drainage flowing to the west, and the Kern River flowing north to south between the two ranges before itself turning west and flowing into the Central Valley through Bakersfield. A hiker seeking to cross the Sierra from the western foothills of Mineral King, say, at 7000’, would ascend 4000-plus feet to the passes of the Great Western Divide, descend 4000’ to the deep hole of the Kern River, and then climb another 4-5,000’ to the Sierra crest before once more descending 4000’ to the Owens Valley. It would be a heck of a trip and maybe someday, but I was only ascending the first divide, and that was good enough.

Sawtooth Pass
My first hike was to Sawtooth Pass. The ranger at the Foothills Visitor Center had told me that I should cut off the main trail on to a use trail and ascend along that, thus avoiding a long steep slog up granite sand. Well I took the use trail and lost it almost immediately, sucked in, as I often am, by game trails. In no time I was grappling with scree and scrambling along thin ledges, a couple of times hanging on, if not for dear life than certainly for intact bones. It was fun though, once I got safe again, except I never did find the trail, and spent the entire morning inefficiently off-trail, having a great time but using a lot more energy than I would have used on a trail no matter how sandy. I ended up on a ridge line well above Sawtooth Pass, itself 11,700’, with terrific views over the entire landscape all the way to the Whitney Range, though honestly I could not tell which peak was Whitney. Then angling down toward the pass I descended too quickly and had to hike up the sand anyway. I'm not sure I ever actually did stand on the pass, not a terribly meaningful failure since I'd been way up above it and seen a lot further than I would have from the pass.

Ridge Above Sawtooth Pass

Monarch Lakes from near Sawtooth Pass

On my return I followed what appeared to be a climber's trail down into the upper basin and soon lost that trail too, so once more I was hiking cross-country. It was easy open country and I faced no route finding problems as I was heading down a narrowing valley, and mostly I stuck to the sparsely watered creek bed. But it was rough terrain, and nearly every step require some consideration, so it was a lot more exhausting than hiking on a trail. Eventually I rejoined the trail, and soon came upon a stately buck quite unconcerned with my presence. Near the tail end of my hike, just above the parking lot, a large rock delineating a switchback gave way under my foot and I hit the ground hard, sustaining two hand cuts.

 
The dimensions of this hike were basically unmeasurable, though since I descended steeply to Sawtooth Pass, I clearly gained more than 4000'. Nearly all of it was scramble. Beautiful weather, terrific hike, but more than I bargained for. Good thing I was well-rested. I should have just stuck with the book hike.




Monarch Lakes
The next day was a more modest and straightforward but still outstanding hike to Monarch Lakes, something on the order of 10RT/2500'. With darkness and cold coming earlier I was going to bed earlier, waking up and getting to the trailhead in the dark, starting my hikes at dawn, enjoyed cool air and morning light, getting well up the trails by as the sun finally began flooding the hillsides. This morning dawn threw in a a scrum of bucks.

Mineral King from Monarch Lakes Trail

Once out of the forest the trail crossed along some masses of nice metamorphic rocks, a good change of pace. Granite is great, who would deny, but sometimes the Sierra batholith gets a little much. Exfoliation can only go so far. Here the intermittent granite exposures provided relief. I don’t think I would have wanted to be on this trail on a hot day in mid July, as these rocks really reflect heat and there was no shade at all. But in late September temperature and light, it was divine.

Foxtails made a terrific showing. I had seen them over at Meyson Lake but here they seemed more elemental, doing their upslope march in very rocky soil where nearly no other vegetation took hold.

Foxtails on the March

Foxtail Pines

Lower Monarch Lake was a green little oasis. The scramble to Upper Monarch Lake was harder than it looked, due in part to my wounded hands (I have no real grip.) But I'm here now. Lower Monarch makes a bigger impact, but Upper delivers a bigger view - including Lower. Upper Monarch is dammed, and the beach shows obvious water level markings.

Lower Monarch Lake

Lower Monarch Lake from Upper Monarch Lake

Lower Monarch Lake

Upper Monarch Lake

Franklin Pass
Friday night, not a great night's sleep my third night at Cold Springs Campground. Not sure if the cars looking for campsites at 2 and 3:00Am were the reason, but what gall! I decided that Californians conclude they are not ethically responsible for their behavior so long as they are in a car. (I also concluded that this was a ridiculous stereotype.) But I was up and at 'em to the trailhead even earlier than usual, and started a slow mosey up the East Fork Kaweah River Valley. Soon I was sitting on a ledge above it all waiting for the sun to rise high enough to fully light up the valley. Birds! Another damn nice hike. Diversity of rock formations, verdant valleys and meadows, peaks in all directions, and as lively a creek as I've seen in some time. Cool morning temperatures, lots of shade, good trees and canyon views, late September sun angle shining on fall gold. The East Fork Kaweah had no surface water above Kaweah Valley. Subsurface water emerged to start a small stream but tributary creeks were supplying most of the headwater flow. Some of the side creeks were significant and descend from lakes that lie behind dams. I wondered whether any of thses streams would be running here in late September were it not for those dams.

East Fork Kaweah River

Franklin Lake was one of the dammed. Glistening silver. Then came a long, steady ascent up switchbacks to Franklin Pass (11,800‘). Unlike the jumble of peaks visible from the Sawtooth Pass area, Franklin Pass looks out over a forested plateau running toward the Sierra crest and cut by at least two canyons. A sky of fluffy white clouds cast elaborate patterns on the ridges. The Kaweah Peaks extend to the northeast, rising as high as 13,756' Black Kaweah, but I am not sure which is what. The pass was very windy, and I hade to take cover behind boulders. Whfew! Rough hike: 16RT/4000'/11.800’, no shenanigans. 11 hours-plus on the trail.

Foxtails on the March II

Franklin Lake

Into the Kern River Drainage from Franklin Pass

Kaweah Peak?

The next day was Sunday, and I rested. It was a strange sensation, like I wasn't being responsible, sitting there on a Sunday morning reading. A beautiful Sunday morning that is, the first autumnal one. I felt like falling asleep in front of a football game. Actually I felt like listening to Marty Glickman call a Giants game on the radio. Instead, I packed up about noon and headed down Mineral Creek Road. Then I headed back up the South Creek Road to camp at South Creek Campground where I hoped to hike to another sequoia grove later in the afternoon. 

South Creek CG was profoundly buggy. I took refuge in the tent as soon as possible, but a lot of gnats got in with me. Outside they were in my face, but once inside they were trying to get out. I tried to shoo them but they would not be shooed. I had to kill them all. Otherwise I was the only one there, and I didn’t feel all that secure about it. This corner of the park had a reputation for marijuana plantations and heavily armed men scaring away hikers. I decided I would forsake my hike and leave at dawn, as the trail was not likely to be any more pleasant than the campground.

The bugs were not too bad after sunset, as long as I didn’t turn on my headlamp. And it was warm, a nice change from Mineral King. I was up and out at first light, driving to Lodgepole.