Sequoia NP Mineral King Loop

[ststephen]

On Saturday I leave to start the trip for our Boy Scouts to do a 50-miler loop out of Mineral King in Sequoia NP. We head north from Mineral King and join up with the High Sierra Trail to head up and over Kaweah Gap. I've been on that trail once before to Hamilton Lake which is absolutely stunning. Shear granite walls rising up 4,000 to the peaks above. Then we head south past a bunch of alpine lakes before returning over Franklin Pass (11,600).

Here's a link to a google map I did of our planned route. You may need to zoom out and don't forget to click on "terrain" to get the topo overlay:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=116891295588928987453.000463ea19ccad4781bf8

I'm a little nervous about some of the boys, while I've taken them backpacking before it was much easier. I am allotting 2 nights near the trail head to acclimate and then planning a short day for our first day. Wish me good luck!

Total coincidence, but I learned that there is a nice class 2 peak near Kaweah Gap called Eagle Scout Peak. It has some outstanding views apparently of the Kaweah Peaks and Hamilton Lake. *I* plan to bag that peak and I sure hope I can drag some scouts up there with me :haha:

Anyway, hopefully have lots more to post in about 2 weeks when we're back and downloaded pics and such.

Any suggestions on motivating 13-15 year olds up and over 11,000 passes :ne_nau:

[Wild One]

You're a brave soul to take 13 year olds on a 50-miler around 10-11,000 ft! I wish you good luck. :nod:

Motivational tips? We have a hard enough time getting our boys motivated to hike 10 FLAT miles.

[ststephen]

You're a brave soul to take 13 year olds on a 50-miler around 10-11,000 ft! I wish you good luck. :nod:


Brave or Delusional? I hope I don't regret it!

We camp at 7500 for two nights, then hump the heavy packs up and over 9500 (from 7800) but descend back to 7100 for the first day with only a total of 5 miles. Second day descends further and climbs back up to 7600 over about 7.5 miles. Then on the third day we have a 10,400 pass but still only about 7 miles. So I'm hoping that helps them ease into it a bit.

We'll do our higher mileage days toward the end.

The same group did an easy trip outside of Yosemite last year up to a lake at 9000 and to a pass above 10,000. So they have some clue what's in store.

[ststephen]

Cut to the chase: we did not complete this loop hike. But it was not due to my being too brave or delusional about the abilities of the kids. They all did great and had this trip been led only by my wife and me I'm confident we would have finished it. But the other two adults both had issues. The most serious I already noted in another thread about activating my SPOT's 911 feature. :eek2:

Our first day started out with climbing up Timber Gap. Here's my son on that part of the hike:

http://lh6.ggpht.com/__MCx-n6VdcU/SoMXqbgJRaI/AAAAAAAAACM/3RhUO57JoXo/s800/DSC_0017.jpg

We descended Timber Gap into the Cliff Creek drainage and made camp at the trail junction. There were some nice swimming/sliding holes there:

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The next day we hiked through a little taste of some old growth redwoods while descending further to the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River. There was also an old cabin at Redwood Meadow and the meadow was full of lovely flowers.

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There were some views of the "Tablelands" above the High Sierra Trail which we would reach at day's end as well.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/__MCx-n6VdcU/SoMYp9k-Q8I/AAAAAAAAADk/ZUayEPGcoIg/s800/DSC_0042_edited-1.jpg
http://lh4.ggpht.com/__MCx-n6VdcU/SoMZERbDmtI/AAAAAAAAAEI/C90zFhB5egQ/s800/DSC_0058.jpg

Day 2's camp was at Bearpaw Meadow. Bearpaw is the location of a High Sierra "camp" where well-healed but wimpy hikers can rent a cabin and have meals cooked for them. I have no problem with that except that they have taken all the prime camping real estate for this camp and relegated the backpackers to a crummy spot with no view whatsoever. At twilight I ran over to the camp to snap some shots of the alpenglow over the peaks:

http://lh5.ggpht.com/__MCx-n6VdcU/SoMZJMlFaxI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/v5offgoPFDo/s800/DSC_0061.jpg
http://lh3.ggpht.com/__MCx-n6VdcU/SoMZKtedDQI/AAAAAAAAAEY/ea1xNMqlc7c/s800/DSC_0065_edited-1.jpg

More in a bit...

[ststephen]

Day 3's plan was to spend the morning hiking to Hamilton Lakes and then to proceed up Kaweah Gap (10,700) and to camp at a lake in the 9 Lakes Basin. The hike to Hamilton is beautiful and culminates at a jewel of the Sierra.

Here is a waterfall from the creek flowing down from Hamilton Lakes:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/__MCx-n6VdcU/SoMZ3cBy-uI/AAAAAAAAAFY/Dw17HsGjdi4/s800/DSC_0094.jpg

Here is my son acting silly as we approached that same waterfall:

http://lh5.ggpht.com/__MCx-n6VdcU/SoMaGyp2I4I/AAAAAAAAAFs/GSKWp6DUx_U/s800/DSC_0110.jpg

And finally the main Hamilton Lake:

http://lh6.ggpht.com/__MCx-n6VdcU/SoMaUbEFtuI/AAAAAAAAAF8/LI6cIyObgsE/s800/DSC_0118_edited-1.jpg

http://lh3.ggpht.com/__MCx-n6VdcU/SoMaZ7GQuRI/AAAAAAAAAGI/InMsTgkd34g/s800/DSC_0124.jpg

Here is a shot looking back down valley at the granite spires which "guard" the entrance to the lake.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/__MCx-n6VdcU/SoMamuFr0FI/AAAAAAAAAGY/Jaw0EH7TN64/s800/DSC_0145_edited-1.jpg

The lovely Mrs. StStephen (Robin) and Aaron enjoy relaxing at the Lake:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/__MCx-n6VdcU/SoMasEvzaCI/AAAAAAAAAGg/zac8LQOBfvY/s800/DSC_0161_edited-1.jpg

http://lh5.ggpht.com/__MCx-n6VdcU/SoMawLj1KrI/AAAAAAAAAGk/DChWn8buBRo/s800/DSC_0171_edited-1.jpg

Unfortunately, after lunching at the lake it became clear that the group would not be continuing up Kaweah Gap that day. By evening we had decided that the other Dad's medical problems warranted making a retreat back to the trailhead as quickly as possible.

But I did spend the next morning taking a few more shots of lake:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/__MCx-n6VdcU/SoMbqJgI4iI/AAAAAAAAAH0/JkkvRqDVX5Y/s576/DSC_0207_edited-1.jpg

http://lh4.ggpht.com/__MCx-n6VdcU/SoMbsgoah_I/AAAAAAAAAH4/uOnXVJk69DY/s800/DSC_0209_edited-1.jpg

One more shot of Robin still smiling while hoisting her pack full of other people's excess food
:frustrated:

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We made it back to Cliff Creek in one day of ~13 miles. The following day we retraced our path over Timber Gap. The only cool part of that was seeing a Black Bear and cub in a meadow below the gap.

I learned a lot on this trip about what I need (and didn't get) from other adult leaders. I'll be much more rigorous in my screening of adults for any subsequent trips. The boys I had hiked with enough so I felt reasonably sure of their abilities. The extra two nights of acclimation at Cold Creek in Mineral King really helped too.

Oh, one thing I forgot: on the first morning of acclimating the ranger station posted notice about a birding walk. I went to this and got to meet a very cool spunky 72-year-old woman. Mineral King has some privately owned land embedded within it where people have owned cabins 50+ years. This woman grew up spending summers up there and knew the birds and wildlife very well. She had just returned from living in Egypt (middle east not the canyon in the Escalante!) for 20 years and had lots of stories about the birds from that part of the world too.

[goofball]

that was one BIG tree ! the sierra is fantastic.

[Brewhaha]

Beautiful. There is something humbling about giant trees.