"Peter Lake" Mystery
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:20 am
Here's a little High Sierra mystery. I have a strong hunch but doubt that it can ever be resolved for sure.
There's place name entry "Peter Lake (Tehipite, George W. Stewart)" in Francis P. Farquhar's Place Names of the High Sierra but not in Peter Browning's Place Names of the Sierra Nevada. One assumes Browning never succeeded sourcing it. It's not found on any map I've ever seen and the description "up the canyon above Wet Meadow ... (Palmer and Wallace)" doesn't provide enough.
Wet Meadow is found on some, but not all, editions of the Tehipite 30-minute and corresponds to present lower Bearpaw Meadow in Sequoia Park. Barring confusion with Lonely, Tamarck, Moose or Hamilton Lakes, which Farquhar would have been able to confirm, there seems to be no candidate lake up the Kaweah Middle Fork, so that leaves Eagle Scout and Granite Creeks.
I've always thought it most likely to be lake 9500' on Granite Creek. I first wondered about it gazing from the High Sierra Trail at a remote lake tucked in a cirque on the Great Western Divide. I've been there a couple times -- predigital photography unfortunately. Besides being a great destination, we mainly confirmed that there's no good way in or out. The "easiest" is to cross the GWD from Little Five Lakes so you're looking at 3 doable or 2 very long days from Mineral King or Crescent Meadow. We tried the short 2-day approach from Cliff Creek once and didn't find it very enjoyable -- we got to the "pass" only to discover we had topped a side ridge overlooking upper Cliff Creek. Down or up Granite Creek from near Redwood Meadow is a long slog with some significant brushy stretches.
I still want to reach Eagle Scout lakes sometime.
There's place name entry "Peter Lake (Tehipite, George W. Stewart)" in Francis P. Farquhar's Place Names of the High Sierra but not in Peter Browning's Place Names of the Sierra Nevada. One assumes Browning never succeeded sourcing it. It's not found on any map I've ever seen and the description "up the canyon above Wet Meadow ... (Palmer and Wallace)" doesn't provide enough.
Wet Meadow is found on some, but not all, editions of the Tehipite 30-minute and corresponds to present lower Bearpaw Meadow in Sequoia Park. Barring confusion with Lonely, Tamarck, Moose or Hamilton Lakes, which Farquhar would have been able to confirm, there seems to be no candidate lake up the Kaweah Middle Fork, so that leaves Eagle Scout and Granite Creeks.
I've always thought it most likely to be lake 9500' on Granite Creek. I first wondered about it gazing from the High Sierra Trail at a remote lake tucked in a cirque on the Great Western Divide. I've been there a couple times -- predigital photography unfortunately. Besides being a great destination, we mainly confirmed that there's no good way in or out. The "easiest" is to cross the GWD from Little Five Lakes so you're looking at 3 doable or 2 very long days from Mineral King or Crescent Meadow. We tried the short 2-day approach from Cliff Creek once and didn't find it very enjoyable -- we got to the "pass" only to discover we had topped a side ridge overlooking upper Cliff Creek. Down or up Granite Creek from near Redwood Meadow is a long slog with some significant brushy stretches.
I still want to reach Eagle Scout lakes sometime.