TR: Kern Headwaters basin exploration

[shtinkypuppie]

Some people like peaks. I like basins. The Kern Headwaters has some of the best and most accessible basins in the Sierra, so that's where I went.

Day 1 was the usual slog up Shepherd to The Pothole. Do not start Shepherd in the afternoon. Bring twice as much water as you think you need. Remember that there is no water from Symmes Creek to just before Mahogany Flat. So far as I can tell, there is only one really good camp spot at The Pothole, unless you like sleeping on REALLY uneven ground (I don't).

Day 2 I came over Shepherd Pass. The snowfield that lingers at the top was big and steep, so I decided to try scrambling straight up the chute to the crest. Don't do that. It's loose and steep and it goes way higher than it looks before you finally top out. After that, I took the Tyndall Creek Trail, but I veered off the actual trail onto a little use trail that heads almost due west to meet the JMT sooner and a little higher, saving maybe half a mile and ~150 ft of elevation. Then it was up and over the little saddle to Lake South America.

LSAcamp.jpg

Day 3 I went west from the north shore of Lake South America. I descended an easy slope to the unnamed lake with the tiny island, which has a stunning view of the Kern-Kaweah Divide.

WofLSALake.jpg

I traversed its north shore, then contoured up toward Lucy's Foot Pass.
There were three notches that I suppose could be Lucy's Foot. If anyone knows which is the real one I'd be much obliged. Not that I'd ever try them, as they all look suicidal from above. From there I climbed over to Little Joe's Scramble. That descent actually looks halfway doable. The top has two good cairns.

LittleJoe.jpg

The view from the very top of the ridge just north of Little Joe's is out of this world.

EastCrView.jpg

After getting my fill of the East Creek drainage, I started down the west edge of the drainage, passing right below Millie's Foot Pass before descending to that big flat multi-lake basin due east of Genevra. From there I contoured around to the lake south of Genevra, which I'll call Checkmark Lake. The view across Checkmark was astounding.

Checkmark.jpg

From the east edge of Checkmark, it was easy going over the little mound on the south shore, then following the outlet stream down to around 11,300', then contouring south->southwest-> west into the drainage that feeds Casper (Three-Bay?) Lake. After an easy walk up the meadow, I climbed a steep but not technical slope to the large lake around 11,900'. This is a gorgeous spot, but I could find no decent places to throw a tent, so I passed an uncomfortable night on some uneven granite. Worth it, though.

LakeAboveCasper.jpg

Day 4 I came back down the steep slope to the meadow and cruised down the meadow. As I approached a small willow bush, a bird darted out. I looked into the willow to find the newest citizen of the Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness:

Birb.jpg

After a laborious contour along Casper Lake's north shore, I attempted to contour straight across to the Lake South America Trail. This was difficult, as the slope here is riven with granite gullies which force constant ascents and descents. The Kern itself is in a pretty deep ravine and I had to hunt around for a viable crossing. If there's a better way to connect Casper Lake to the trail, I'd be very interested to hear about it.
I followed the ""trail"" down to the Milestone Creek junction. That segment of trail was so faint, I could only follow it half the time. I don't remember having any trouble the previous two times I'd traversed it. An easy crossing of the Kern quickly took me to the Milestone Basin trail, which, paradoxically, is in remarkably good shape for a trail that doesn't officially exist. It was clearly built with a lot of love back in the day, with good tread and well-built switchbacks. Shame it's now fading into obscurity.
Once the Milestone trail faded out, I climbed up to a lake referred to in another TR as Manta Lake, then west to the small lake at 11,600. What an astounding view from this lake. The broad, flat sand patches on its northwest shore could host a dozen tents.

MidMilestone.jpg

After narrowly resisting the urge to camp here, I walked up some clean granite slopes to the high lake due west of Midway Mountain. Although I couldn't see Milestone's distinctive peak anymore, the view here was the finest of the whole trip. My amateurish pictures don't even begin to do it justice. There are abundant flat, sandy spots here, making it one of my favorite campsites in the world.

UpperMilestone.jpg

Day 5 I backtracked out of Milestone and took the Kern-Tyndall Cutoff to Tyndall, where I saw humans for the first time since leaving Tyndall three days prior. I took a short detour to peer into Williamson Bowl and was not disappointed.

WilliamsonBowl.jpg

Then back to The Pothole for the night, then Erick Schat's for pastrami on Day 6 (does anyone else plan their trips so they can make the sandwich bar before it closes??).

Two final notes:
- Shoutout to Wrightsocks and their excellent two-layer socks for preventing even the slightest hotspot on this trip. With my feet all tender from a winter indoors and all the uneven terrain, those sock were worth their weight in gold.
- Unfriendly reminder that releasing helium-filled balloons is just long-range littering. Stop it.

balloons.jpg

Thanks for reading! Below is a rough sketch of my route, in case my descriptions don't make sense:

route.jpg

[shtinkypuppie]

These are the three gaps I thought might be Lucy's Foot. If you can tell which is the actual pass from these shots, I'd love to hear from you!

Lucys1.jpg

Lucys2.jpg

Lucys3.jpg

[balzaccom]

WoW! Stunning photos, and a great report. Thank you! And that baby chick photos is an all-time winner!

[astrogerly]

Awesome photos!! Makes me want to be back there right now! That area was part of our annual Labor Day week trip last year, but sadly that half was scrubbed due to the smoke. Great days in Wright Lakes and Wallace/Wales area… and your pics have me itching to reschedule the rest of the trip ASAP! Thanks for posting!

[acorad]

Fantastic TR!

But, wait, Wrightsocks is still in business?! I bought a dozen or so pairs over 20 years ago before my oldest son was born and most of them are still in use today. I got them from a local running store, but never saw them again. I trail-run. A lot. And the double-layer Wrightsocks are my go-to. Each of my Wrightsocks has, literally, thousands of miles on them. In fact I'll be running in them again tonight.

Hot dang you made my day! Just found them online and I'm ordering another dozen pairs today!

[tlsharb]

Absolutely great tr. Thanks for sharing.

[stevet]

Thanks for the trip report. I was in the upper Kern a couple years ago, absolutely beautiful. Lake 11900...stunning!

Also like your description of Lucy's Foot Path. "Suicidal" I too am not sure which couloir to head down. I thought perhaps this:

Lucy's Foot Path.JPG

And definitely didn't want to go that way. I tried but couldn't match this up with your three shots. But interesting there was more snow in early September 2019 than in mid-June 2021.

BTW, Little Joe's is long and challenging, but not scary.

[shtinkypuppie]

Also like your description of Lucy's Foot Path. "Suicidal" I too am not sure which couloir to head down. I thought perhaps this:Lucy's Foot Path.JPG

And definitely didn't want to go that way. I tried but couldn't match this up with your three shots. But interesting there was more snow in early September 2019 than in mid-June 2021.

Thanks Steve, I'm 90% sure that's the third couloir I photographed, just taken from a little more westerly perspective. Either way, not doing it!

[sukhoi_584th]

Nice report! What's the Kern trail like from around the Milestone turn-off down to the Tyndall junction? I'm going to be coming up the Kern from Colby in a couple weeks and am curious what to expect and how hard the travel is going to be.

[wsp_scott]

Awesome report. I hope to see some of the Upper Kern this summer.

I also was impressed by the Milestone trail when I stumbled across it a couple years ago.

Thanks for picking up the balloons. I think there should be a large deposit on balloons like beer kegs. I'd bet that a lot fewer would end up in the middle of wilderness that way