High Sierra Topix

wildhiker wrote: ↑Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:58 pm Thanks for the report on your epic trip! Your timing was impeccable - just before the Ferguson and Lions wildfires started smothering Yosemite Park and surroundings in smoke.
-Phil

Stanley Otter wrote: ↑Mon Aug 13, 2018 12:01 am

giantbrookie wrote: ↑Sun Aug 12, 2018 8:42 pm I particularly like the Lyell Fork. That is a really special place and I don't ordinarily rank a fishless drainage so high on my list. That was part of one of my favorite layover dayhikes of all time: a loop that began at Blue Lakes went over Foerster, then to the Lyell Fork, then over Electra, then back.

Thanks for the note. I know from reading some of your previous posts you are an avid fisherperson, so your appreciation of the Lyell Fork drainage is high praise indeed. I hope to get back there some day when the sun shines more reliably, and I wouldn't mind trying my talus-hopping boots at one of those other cross-country passes that you must have used. Did you return to Blue Lake over Old Bones Pass?


So here's one that I am going to ask my geology colleagues the next time we are out for Friday beers: what's a quartzite (I think) outcropping like this doing in a place like this on the south slopes of Foerster Peak near Blue Lake Pass?

The contrast to what surrounds it is striking to me, but what the heck do I know? Everything else around seems to be the usual granitic rocks, so to the untrained civilian eye this is way out of place. Do you think this a remnant of all the other top layers that have eroded away? Or is it the result of some more complex geologic event? Any undergraduate level explanations would be appreciated.

Dennis

giantbrookie wrote: ↑Sun Aug 12, 2018 8:42 pm Hi Dennis,

Regarding the route back from the Lyell Fork to Blue Lakes what I did was to climb right over the top of Electra Pk which meant ascending Electra's W ridge and descending the ESE ridge. I then "wrapped around the corner" at approx 10400 to descend into Bench Cyn (at about the 9700 level) and heading back upstream (W) to Blue Lakes. The entire route from Blue Lake to Foerster then down to the saddle then into the Lyell Fork then over Electra was done at the class 1 to 2 level except for a smidge of class 3 near the top of Electra's E ridge. This would have been pretty easy but I was climbing more or less one-handed because I had broken two fingers on my left hand the day before while dayhiking to Harriet Lakes.

Quartzite among granitics. This can be explained in several ways. First is that quartzite is locally present in the metamorphic rocks intruded by the Sierran granitic rocks, so it would be possible to have a small wedge of the stuff in otherwise completely granitic rock. Another possibility is that the rock is very pale and quartz rich but not necessarily a quartzite. It may be a very quartz-rich dike or it may be a quartz vein.

kpeter wrote: ↑Mon Aug 13, 2018 8:44 pm And interesting trail report indeed. You went over some of the territory on the Lyell fork that was part of the HST meet-up two years ago, and so I saw a few glimpses of familiar terrain. But a report with Tolkien and guinea pigs and the Lyell Fork is truly one-of-a-kind!