Daily Journal - 46 Mile Lollipop
Day #1
9.25 miles to Twin Lake
Another 4 miles wandering
We started at 8 from the Lodgepole campground and hiked through the forest to Sillman Creek. There have been many warnings about this crossing as a woman lost her life a few weeks back while crossing. The early morning crossing proved helpful and we were able to boulder hop across.
Cahoon Meadow was beautiful...filled with pink wildflowers. We stopped and took pictures to get ready for the climb to Cahoon Gap. The gap marked 2/3 of the climb to Twin (1700 ft thus far).
Met a couple guys at the gap going the opposite direction as our loop. Also met a dad and two sons that had had to turn around at Merhen Creek because the crossing was too dangerous.
The final push to Twin was down into the Clover Valley and then up another 1000 feet to Twin Lakes. There is a large lake and a smaller one with a couple Bear boxes and an outdoor privy (pretty fancy).
We camped on the big lake just under an amazing waterfall coming down in section after section for almost 800 feet.
Did some swimming, rafting (on my Big Agnus sleeping pad), some eating, and lots of relaxing. A couple other groups showed up but camped far away from us and we hardly even noticed them.
Mid afternoon I decided to go on a bit of an adventure. I wanted to circumnavigate the lake in a clockwise direction. Crossing under the falls was beautiful. The water crashing into the rocks and splitting into two deep and narrow channels. Those channels were filled with Brook Trout zipping back and forth as they tried to hide from my shadow.
The next 300 or so yards was an intermittently snow covered boulder field. At first, I had a snow field to cross that appeared solid and safe. Upon reaching the end and hopping onto an enormous boulder, I saw that the next section would be very tricky indeed. Snow bridges, some 3-5 ft thick and others only a few inches thick, connected the boulders like a completed dot to dot coloring book.
Since so many of the crossings were a guess in terms of snow thickness, I decided to move boulder to boulder. This turned out to be quite a puzzle. The boulders ranged in size from a large microwave to the size of a car. They were strewn about in a way so at times I could hop across chasms looking down into the inky darkness below. While at other times I would have to climb straight up or down to get my footing.
I would make my way over a 50 yard stretch before stopping to evaluate the next 50 yards.
Finally, making it to another safe snow field I crossed once again to the spot I was aiming. The notch that led up to the ridge. After a class 2 scramble on the back side of the lake, I entered a class 3 scramble to the top. Footing was sketchy, and I always had to make sure to have 3 solid points of contact/holds.
Finally at the top, I was able to look back on Twin Lakes, Twin Peaks and the waterfalls off the ridge. It was spectacular. The way down was uneventful until I got to the outlet of Twin.
Where the water left the lake, were hundreds of logs all gathered to slow the water to a trickle. Moving across the logs was a bit tricky as some rolled, others sank and the rest held stable. What an amazing day.
Day #2
10 miles to Seville
(Fitbit shows 14.1 today)
Today started with a climb up Sillman Pass. Nine hundred feet of beauty. There was lots of water running through the lush forest. The top was amazing. We could see the Kaweah Range and the Great Divide. We rested and snacked before heading down the other side. It got very buggy around Ranger Lake but we were able to find a breezy rocky outcrop and we took an extended break there having lunch, reading, writing and just soaking it all up.
It's night now. Sitting at Seville Lake in my chair looking out at the last bits of sun on the peaks above. I didn't mention that I’m in pants and a jacket that the mosquitoes can't get through. And a head-net to boot! Sometimes we must suffer to witness true beauty.
Seville Lake is pretty...but not as pretty as the lake we stopped at after lunch. Lost Lake as on a .5 mile spur back towards the crest. Set in a bowl, the backdrop was awesome. Twin Peaks, which just yesterday I spied from the back side in my hike around the lake, stood solemn watch over the windy lake. And the wind was blowing, which was much appreciated as the mosquitoes had started about 90 minutes before in force. We stayed for a quick swim and later, at buggier Seville, wished we had stayed for good. Planning on breakfast a mile, mile and a half in and up out of camp tomorrow.
Day #3
18.4 miles to Trailhead
What a day! Up at 6:30 and we had decided the night before to eat lunch on the ridge instead of in camp. Seville Lake has "two trails" to it so we decided to take the western trail that would save us a couple miles. Finding the trail was tough. One of the group finally found a cairn and we started up. It was rough going from the start. The cairns were few and far between and eventually non existent. The mosquitoes were relentless the entire time. They seemed to follow us up the draw in an angry buzzing cloud.
Further up, it got even tougher with brush to boony crash through and marshy muddy inclined meadows. We finally reached the pass and took a short break before heading back down to find the main trail. After another 20-30 minutes we silently celebrated as we rejoined the main trail.
After about 2.7 miles we reached Rowell Meadow. A group was camped there and the mosquitoes were everywhere. The meadow was huge and lush, but we moved parallel to it with a quick step to try to find some relief from the bugs. After another mile, mile and a half we found it and thankfully held onto it most of the rest of the hike.
After a bit more we found the trail to Weaver Lake. Our "destination" for the night. Before the trip, I had researched our route. When reading about the J.O. Pass area, I found an unnamed lake near the summit. When reading online journals I found many people going to Jennie and Weaver Lakes. Not finding Weaver Lake on the map I assumed, based on it's proximity to Jennie Lake, that the unnamed lake was indeed Weaver.
So... we took the side trail to Weaver. It was not the lake I had planned to go to. After about a mile of walking we figured out our mistake and made our way back to the main trail. Our miles were really adding up at this point. Once back on the main trail, the unnamed lake was only about a mile away. But...the lake was no more. Now, no more than a marsh, it was not a place we wanted to stay. After a group pow wow, we decided that our best bet was to walk the 7 miles back to the car and head out. We made a short snack stop and continued on.
As we got closer to the trail-head we passed a few groups heading in. All were very clean and smelled much better than our rag tag group. Hit the trail-head at 4:30 and scored some showers for 4 quarters each in the campground before making our way back home with a stop at In and Out.
Terrific trip....
Day #1
9.25 miles to Twin Lake
Another 4 miles wandering
We started at 8 from the Lodgepole campground and hiked through the forest to Sillman Creek. There have been many warnings about this crossing as a woman lost her life a few weeks back while crossing. The early morning crossing proved helpful and we were able to boulder hop across.
Cahoon Meadow was beautiful...filled with pink wildflowers. We stopped and took pictures to get ready for the climb to Cahoon Gap. The gap marked 2/3 of the climb to Twin (1700 ft thus far).
Met a couple guys at the gap going the opposite direction as our loop. Also met a dad and two sons that had had to turn around at Merhen Creek because the crossing was too dangerous.
The final push to Twin was down into the Clover Valley and then up another 1000 feet to Twin Lakes. There is a large lake and a smaller one with a couple Bear boxes and an outdoor privy (pretty fancy).
We camped on the big lake just under an amazing waterfall coming down in section after section for almost 800 feet.
Did some swimming, rafting (on my Big Agnus sleeping pad), some eating, and lots of relaxing. A couple other groups showed up but camped far away from us and we hardly even noticed them.
Mid afternoon I decided to go on a bit of an adventure. I wanted to circumnavigate the lake in a clockwise direction. Crossing under the falls was beautiful. The water crashing into the rocks and splitting into two deep and narrow channels. Those channels were filled with Brook Trout zipping back and forth as they tried to hide from my shadow.
The next 300 or so yards was an intermittently snow covered boulder field. At first, I had a snow field to cross that appeared solid and safe. Upon reaching the end and hopping onto an enormous boulder, I saw that the next section would be very tricky indeed. Snow bridges, some 3-5 ft thick and others only a few inches thick, connected the boulders like a completed dot to dot coloring book.
Since so many of the crossings were a guess in terms of snow thickness, I decided to move boulder to boulder. This turned out to be quite a puzzle. The boulders ranged in size from a large microwave to the size of a car. They were strewn about in a way so at times I could hop across chasms looking down into the inky darkness below. While at other times I would have to climb straight up or down to get my footing.
I would make my way over a 50 yard stretch before stopping to evaluate the next 50 yards.
Finally, making it to another safe snow field I crossed once again to the spot I was aiming. The notch that led up to the ridge. After a class 2 scramble on the back side of the lake, I entered a class 3 scramble to the top. Footing was sketchy, and I always had to make sure to have 3 solid points of contact/holds.
Finally at the top, I was able to look back on Twin Lakes, Twin Peaks and the waterfalls off the ridge. It was spectacular. The way down was uneventful until I got to the outlet of Twin.
Where the water left the lake, were hundreds of logs all gathered to slow the water to a trickle. Moving across the logs was a bit tricky as some rolled, others sank and the rest held stable. What an amazing day.
Day #2
10 miles to Seville
(Fitbit shows 14.1 today)
Today started with a climb up Sillman Pass. Nine hundred feet of beauty. There was lots of water running through the lush forest. The top was amazing. We could see the Kaweah Range and the Great Divide. We rested and snacked before heading down the other side. It got very buggy around Ranger Lake but we were able to find a breezy rocky outcrop and we took an extended break there having lunch, reading, writing and just soaking it all up.
It's night now. Sitting at Seville Lake in my chair looking out at the last bits of sun on the peaks above. I didn't mention that I’m in pants and a jacket that the mosquitoes can't get through. And a head-net to boot! Sometimes we must suffer to witness true beauty.
Seville Lake is pretty...but not as pretty as the lake we stopped at after lunch. Lost Lake as on a .5 mile spur back towards the crest. Set in a bowl, the backdrop was awesome. Twin Peaks, which just yesterday I spied from the back side in my hike around the lake, stood solemn watch over the windy lake. And the wind was blowing, which was much appreciated as the mosquitoes had started about 90 minutes before in force. We stayed for a quick swim and later, at buggier Seville, wished we had stayed for good. Planning on breakfast a mile, mile and a half in and up out of camp tomorrow.
Day #3
18.4 miles to Trailhead
What a day! Up at 6:30 and we had decided the night before to eat lunch on the ridge instead of in camp. Seville Lake has "two trails" to it so we decided to take the western trail that would save us a couple miles. Finding the trail was tough. One of the group finally found a cairn and we started up. It was rough going from the start. The cairns were few and far between and eventually non existent. The mosquitoes were relentless the entire time. They seemed to follow us up the draw in an angry buzzing cloud.
Further up, it got even tougher with brush to boony crash through and marshy muddy inclined meadows. We finally reached the pass and took a short break before heading back down to find the main trail. After another 20-30 minutes we silently celebrated as we rejoined the main trail.
After about 2.7 miles we reached Rowell Meadow. A group was camped there and the mosquitoes were everywhere. The meadow was huge and lush, but we moved parallel to it with a quick step to try to find some relief from the bugs. After another mile, mile and a half we found it and thankfully held onto it most of the rest of the hike.
After a bit more we found the trail to Weaver Lake. Our "destination" for the night. Before the trip, I had researched our route. When reading about the J.O. Pass area, I found an unnamed lake near the summit. When reading online journals I found many people going to Jennie and Weaver Lakes. Not finding Weaver Lake on the map I assumed, based on it's proximity to Jennie Lake, that the unnamed lake was indeed Weaver.
So... we took the side trail to Weaver. It was not the lake I had planned to go to. After about a mile of walking we figured out our mistake and made our way back to the main trail. Our miles were really adding up at this point. Once back on the main trail, the unnamed lake was only about a mile away. But...the lake was no more. Now, no more than a marsh, it was not a place we wanted to stay. After a group pow wow, we decided that our best bet was to walk the 7 miles back to the car and head out. We made a short snack stop and continued on.
As we got closer to the trail-head we passed a few groups heading in. All were very clean and smelled much better than our rag tag group. Hit the trail-head at 4:30 and scored some showers for 4 quarters each in the campground before making our way back home with a stop at In and Out.
Terrific trip....