Day 1 - Onion Valley to Kearsarge Lakes
We got a leisurely start on the first day and picked up our permits from the ranger station in Bishop after the initial line of people getting permits died down a bit. On the drive down to the trailhead, the amount of smoke in the air had us concerned, but visibility got better one we arrived at the trailhead. It still wasn't exactly clear skies though and the smoke ended up being something we'd have to deal with to varying degrees for several days of our trip, at least in the afternoons.
The first day was rather uneventful, it was just about getting over Kearsarge Pass. On the way up we took a break to eat our leftover pizza from the night before, which is always on nice treat on the first day. There were quite a few people hanging out at the pass, so we just continued on through without taking a break and hiked down to Kearsarge Lakes. We didn't bother taking the trail over to the upper lakes since we figured there would be a decent amount of people already camped at them. Instead, we continued on the main trail for a little bit longer and then cut over to the lowest of the Kearsarge Lakes, where we found some campsites without anyone else around.
Day 2 - Kearsarge Lakes to Lake Reflection
The skies were clear as we started our hike on the second day. We quickly passed Bullfrog Lake, then hiked down to Lower Vidette Meadow and then further down to Junction Meadow. The trail crossing of Bubbs Creek looked pretty sketchy, so we crossed rather easily near the meadow just west of the trail that HST member levi had mentioned in this report of a trip nearly identical to ours. After crossing, we took a break for some lunch and to let our feet dry out. During our break a group of three hikers came down from East Lake and asked us if we knew of way to cross without having to go over the logs upstream from the trail that they used to get across in the opposite direction previously. They seemed pretty relieved when we let them know about the easier way near the meadow.
The smoke really started rolling in as we hiked up to East Lake and then on to Lake Reflection. When we got to Lake Reflection, we crossed over to the west side of the creek to look for a place to camp. There were three other sites occupied, which kind of surprised us. We ended up finding a spot just up the hill from the lake rather than camp next to others down at the lake. The smoke was bad enough that we didn't bother to take any pictures and we went to bed that night hoping the smoke wouldn't continue to get worse.
Day 3 - Lake Reflection to upper Cunningham Creek
On the third day we again woke up to clear skies. We immediately left the trail and the first obstacle was to get around Lake Reflection. One of the people we met camping at the lake the night before suggested after staying high initially we should descend and stay pretty close to the lake. We started on that path, but neither of us liked the way that looked, so we went back up high and found a reasonable way through to the other end of the lake. It ended up being a little bit more challenging than we were expecting, but overall not too bad. Once we go to the other end we looked back and saw a lone hiker approaching. It turned out to be HST member robertseeburger (Bob) while he was on this trip. You can see how smoky it was at Lake Reflection in one of his pictures since he did bother to take some pictures.
The way up to Longley Pass had some minor route finding challenges, but overall it was pretty straight forward. Once we arrived at Lake 3496, we took a break and discussed the threatening clouds that were approaching. We decided to continue on to the smaller lake just below/east of Longley Pass and reassess. Shortly after arriving at that lake it started raining and we decided to set up our tents and wait it out before continuing over the pass. I think we waited about two hours for the storm to pass before finally deciding to go for it.
The sandy slope up to the pass was a bit tedious, being one of those two steps forward one step back type of climb for part of it. From below, the traverse below the cornice looked a bit sketchy, but as usual it looked pretty reasonable once we got a closer look. In hindsight, we probably should have traversed a little bit further below the cornice where it seemed to be a little bit flatter and a use trail might have even been forming, but it worked out just fine traversing right next to the cornice.
Once we were finally over the pass and down to Cunningham Creek, we parted ways with Bob as he headed over to South Guard lake and we camped near Cunningham Creek.
Day 4 - Cunningham Creek to Big Wet Meadow
Based on levi's trip report and some other beta, we knew this wasn't going to be an easy day. We started off following Cunningham Creek down towards Cloud Canyon. We stayed on the north side the whole way down and that worked out well. When we got to the first steep section, we benefited from levi's report and knew not to go down where they got cliffed out. So we stayed high for a little bit longer and noticed a few cairns that we sort of followed and ended up finding a faint use trail that led us down that section somewhat easily. When we got to the final steep section that drops you down to the trail we had a little bit more difficulty. We originally tried traversing northwest down the slope, but that wasn't really working out. We hoped to get down to the bottom before stopping for another break, but it was clear that we needed to get some food in us before we started making stupid decisions. Of course the storm clouds then began to roll in to add to the excitement. As we were wrapping up our break, I decided to walk over towards Cunningham Creek, which seemed to drop off sharply from where we had been sitting, but actually revealed a promising way down. We decided to give that way a shot and, while steep, it provided little pathways that allowed us to avoid most of the unpleasant bushwhacking that we were expecting. Before long we were back on the trail and we made it there just in time. Shortly after we starting hiking up the trail the thunderstorm began and we saw a few lighting strikes that appeared to be pretty close to where we had been taking a break. By the time we rolled into Big Wet Meadow we were soaked, so we decided to take a break there. We originally planned on hiking up to Colby Lake that afternoon, but that was still a few miles and nearly 2,000 ft of climbing away, so we decided to just stay at Big Wet Meadow. That would give us a chance to relax for an afternoon and to let our stuff dry out.... because drying out your stuff in a place named Big Wet Meadow just makes sense!
Day 5 – Big Wet Meadow to treeline below Colby Pass
We woke up to clear skies again and began our hike up to Colby Pass. We took a nice long break when we finally arrived at Colby Lake and yet again the clouds started rolling in. As we approaching the final push up to Colby Pass the hail started to fall, so we kicked it into high gear and got up to the pass as fast as we could. When we got there, we didn’t linger. We just took a few quick photos and then hurried down the trail. We had a few ideas of where we wanted to camp that evening, but when got to the treeline just before the trail descended down towards the Gallats Lake area, we were really enjoying the scenery and decided to scope out the area. After a little bit of searching we found a nice site with views towards the Kaweah Peaks Ridge.
Day 6 – Treeline below Colby Pass to Wallace Creek
On the way down to Junction Meadow we passed Gallats Lake and also scoped out a potential route up to Picket Guard Lake for a future trip. While hiking through this stretch we heard a sound that didn't quite sound like a bird in the distance, but we weren't quite sure if it was a whistle. As we continued the sound grew stronger and it became clear that it was a whistle, with the person blowing on it loudly every 30 seconds or so. I began to think I might need to use the inReach if we came across an injured hiker and in my mind it was surely someone lying on the side of the trail in agony with a broken leg as Chris and Julie came to the rescue! Fortunately, as we rounded a bend we saw two girl scout leaders approaching with all of their legs in tact. It turns out one of the scouts was missing and they were on a mission to find her. We chatted with them briefly and they asked us to lead the scout back to the rest of the group if we found her, which was somewhere down the trail in the direction we were heading. Then about 20 minutes later we ran into another one of the scout leaders that was looking for the first two scout leaders. Apparently the scout in question was not lost at all, she was just taking some pictures nearby. Eventually they all found each other (we saw them later that day) and while we were disappointed that we couldn't be heroes, we're glad it all worked out for them.
As we began the final descent to Junction Meadow, it starting raining again and strengthened into a downpour. We hustled down to get a little bit of protection from the trees and wait it out as the worst of it passed. Upon arriving at Junction Meadow, we had to cross the Kern River. There was definitely a lot of water to cross there and I remember the water moving pretty quickly, but the river was braided in that area and pretty shallow, so it wasn't really an issue to get across. A couple of the girl scouts that were ahead of the rest of their group were also crossing and seemed to do so rather easily as well. Apparently they had no idea about the earlier incident with the lost scout and were shocked when we told them the rest of their group was probably about an hour behind us at that point. They seemed to be having a great time playing in the rain though, which made us feel a little bit silly for being a bit frustrated with it.
Eventually the rain slowed down and we continued on our way up the High Sierra trail chasing the sunshine that teased us until we got to the next junction. From there we decided to continue north on the trail along the Kern River and hopefully end up at Casper Lake. Then we got to Tyndall Creek. The crossing right at the trail was clearly not going to happen, so we checked out some other options upstream. There was one way that we probably could have crossed, but the consequences of a fall in that spot would have been pretty bad, so we decided to play it safe and turn back and hike through Bighorn Plateau instead – not a bad alternative. We were really looking forward to hiking through the upper kern area, but we’re also happy that we didn’t rush through it and it’s most likely the destination that we will be planning a trip around for next year.
About 20 minutes later we were back at the junction and headed east on the High Sierra Trail towards the JMT. Before getting to the junction with the JMT we decided to stop for the night at a spot near Wallace Creek with more nice views of the Kaweah Peaks Ridge.
Day 7 – Wallace Creek to treeline north of Forester Pass
The hiking through Bighorn Plateau is spectacular and despite our disappointment the day before, we were now pretty happy that we got to hike in this area again after getting turned around at Tyndall Creek. After a couple long breaks we continued on to Forester Pass and arrived there late in the afternoon. This has been one of the nicest weather days of our trip as there weren’t any thunderstorms or smoke for most of the day. When we arrived at Forester Pass, the smoke did start to roll in again, but it wasn’t quite as bad as it was on the first couple days of our trip. From the pass, we hiked about three miles down to the trees to camp for our final night.
Day 8 – Forester Pass to Onion Valley and back home
The morning hike down to Vidette Meadow was pleasant, but uneventful. From Lower Vidette Meadow, we hiked the steep trail up to Bullfrog Lake and took a break near there before the final push back over Kearsarge Pass and down to the trailhead. While taking a break, we noticed full bear canister that appeared to be stashed as a resupply for a JMT hiker. There was a note on it letting the person know that was illegal, but we could only make out the first few words as the rain from the previous days had washed away most of the note. Interestingly, the canister wasn’t hidden very well at all, but maybe that was because the person that left the note moved it somewhere that a ranger might be able to see it? Anyway, once we got over Kearsarge Pass and were about half way down we started chatting with a woman that was hiking with her husband and two kids. It turns out they were bailing on their trip because the son got a bad infection on one of his toes and they needed to get to the hospital in Bishop. We ended up giving two of them a ride to Bishop while someone else gave the other two a ride. If they happen to be reading this, I hope it was nothing serious and it all worked out!
After dropping them off at the hospital we had an early dinner in Bishop and then drove the four hours back home, complete with views of the thick smoke on the 395 near Yosemite. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of that, but it was quite a sight.
