Zach and I headed to Sequoia National Park at Mineral King after he got out of class last Thursday, the plan was to go as deep into the park as we could on the first day (Friday morning), then continue to Big Kaweah and /or the Kern Hot Springs, he did the first, we never made the springs. On the way up we stopped just shy of Mineral King spending the night at Atwell Mill Campground a few short miles from the ranger station. Up early and grab our permit ($15 for walk ins - we both assumed it would be free but that changes on the 26th of Sept).
After clearing the car of any bear material we parked at the Monarch Creek Trail head and headed up the Sawtooth Pass/Timber Gap combo trail, then turned up the Sawtooth Ps Trail and made our way to the pass. If you've never carried a 40+ lbs pack straight up 1,200 feet in soft sandy conditions on a sunny day I highly recommend it, it will test your resolve and help you loose weight.
After making it over the top we continued down the Lost Canyon Trail to the junction with the Five Lakes Trail where we made camp for the night.
Early the next morning we headed south first to Big Five Lakes, then continued over to Little Five Lakes stashed some of our gear in the Bear Box there and continued down to the Big Arroyo where it almost touches the High Sierra Trail. After a 45 minute break to eat and set up some of our camp there we raced (I mean that) up the HST for 4.2 miles with a day pack to where the trees start to thin out and meet the scree fields that lead up to Big Kaweah - Zach looked at me and could tell I was nearing the end, sensing that it was decision time I encouraged him to go bag the big kahuna and I would meet him back at camp. I was only holding up the show and sometimes you just gotta say "Screw it" just didn't have it in me and I'm not one to keep anyone from doing what they want.
I headed back down to the camp area, collected wood (not easy to do) to make a fire, soaked my feet in the Big Arroyo creek, made dinner, laid down for 30 minutes and as soon as it got dark I started the fire. Less than two minutes later Zach rolled in from bagging Big Kaweah, we kicked it for 2 hours then called it a night.
Sunday morning we were up by 6:45, made breakfast, pack up and head out. This is where the real fun began, we made it back to Little Five Lakes, ate some more food then headed over the Black Rock Pass, dropped down the Pinto Lake (Zach decided to take a swim) then we kept going to where the trail meets Cliff Creek/Timber Gap Creek fork, by now we had covered 11.8 miles and it was fairly hot day, we had dropped over 4,000 feet from the last pass and it was time to regain 2,400+ feet in the next 3.5 miles. After eating some more snacks I took off like a bat out hell, halfway to the pass I was sucking wind, overheating and wasn't doing so hot. By the time I reached the pass I was "gagging on my water intake" I just could consume anymore it was making me ill, so I had to break for a while, then we covered the last two miles downhill to the car, soaked our feet in the Monarch Creek and headed home.
The skies were clear all four days, only ran into five peple the whole time, that area is stunningly beautiful, couldn't (editted section)ask for a better place to get away, had a great time in spite of feeling the effects of going uphill on the last climb to fast.
Zach's Pictures Here
