TR:a 2021 trip to Mineral King's Amphitheater Lake and Beyond

[cgundersen]

Mineral King: the big panoramas

I've been sitting on this TR for a long time, because I had trouble shrinking the photos. And because there has not been a deluge of MK TRs this year, well, nothing ages like a fine TR. Dream on!

For anyone who has not enjoyed those Thelma & Louise impulses whilst navigating the road to Mineral King (MK), well a treat is in store when you finally make the journey (all 398 curves and 3,000 foot drops?). It had been at least 15 years since I started a trip at MK, and besides the road, there are those infamous marmots that devour rubber and plastics in early season requiring extra precautions for vehicles. In spite of these considerations, my random impressions from 2020 were that MK was among the few areas of the Sierra that was not chronically tinged by smoke. Since my East coast buddy could not get away till late August for a trip, I reserved a MK slot way back in April. Even with the Walkers fire burning nearby, the forecast on the eve of our trip was for propitious winds and little or no smoke. Well, Three Rivers was pretty thick with grunge when we arrived in late afternoon on the Sunday before the hike was to begin. But, by the next morning things had cleared out as predicted and we loaded up on coffee and had a wilderness permit in hand by 8:30am. After a year’s covid-induced hiatus, we were delighted to be back in the saddle. Since my buddy had hit the big 70 a couple weeks earlier, we packed a bevy of luxury consumer items, including a quart of 151 rum to celebrate. With flammable material on board, it provided incentive to avoid wildfires and get into camp early. And where were we going with all this stuff? As it turned out, nowhere fast……

My last trip to MK was with a pal from work, and we had wanted to get up over the ridge behind Crystal Lake and into Amphitheater (Amp) Lake basin (yes, the MK Amp Lake, not the one that feeds Cataract Creek which is spectacular in its own right). On that earlier trip, we’d been forced to camp at Crystal by a late afternoon thunderstorm that put on a great light show, but deprived us of a chance to really enjoy Crystal or Amp. When we made it over the ridge the next day, we were left with regrets that we had to push on past Amp, or otherwise severely curtail our trip. Ever since, I’ve wanted to get back to Amp, and this was it.

Crystal Lk.jpg

By the time we got to Crystal Lake, age, elevation, jet lag and rum were competing with the delight of being back in the wilderness. No, the ridge over to Amp did not look that bad, but with a perfect western exposure for alpenglow, great camping spots and no strict itinerary, we decided to stay at Crystal and follow with a very easy day over to Amp the next day. Just as the warm rays of the setting sun coated the rocks with a red blush, the alcohol had a similar effect on our cheeks. And, nary a hint of smoke from the Walkers fire. The only glitch is that my buddy realized he’d failed to power down his cell phone and had already lost about 20% of his charge…….and his phone was our only camera. Um, better than losing it, no?

alpenglow at Crystal .jpg

Day 2 found us re-energized and ready to hop the ridge and explore Amp Lake and the upper reaches of Soda Creek canyon. As we got closer to the ridgeline, I thought I espied the route I’d gone over ages ago with my work pal. Making our way up that crease, we reached a point at which the little angel on my shoulder told me that it was unwise to proceed further. We backed off and looked for plan B. Plan B almost worked, but again we were stymied 20 feet from the ridgeline. Really? I’d not recalled this hop being problematic, but it sure was beginning to be a challenge. My buddy chose a third line of assault, but it too failed. We went back to the original route, and I maybe inched a couple feet closer to the ridgeline before quitting. Now we were in a quandary. Our entire trip was predicated on getting over the ridge to Amp. That was a given. And now it was looking increasingly dubious. What sealed the deal is that we found that even sans packs, we could not breach the last 10 feet to the ridge. Foiled. #&*%@!!^#. The ensuing discussion first scotched the idea of bailing down to the Franklin pass trail. Instead, we headed for the ridge leading to Monarch Lakes with the idea of catching the Sawtooth Pass trail and completely re-routing our trip. It’s a short traverse to the Crystal-Monarch ridge and from there it’s a benign descent to a mini-bowl that feeds into the lakes. As we were approaching that bowl, it became clear that the ridge now separating us from Amp Lake did not look that “bad”. Was it worth a peek? After all, the contours appeared no worse than the Crystal-Amp contours. Yep, it was worth a peek. Of course, the peek revealed that there were cliffs strung all the way up the ridgeline almost to the summit of Sawtooth peak. But, there were a couple spots that just might offer a way off that ridge and into the chutes leading down to Amp. Well, we’d already consumed most of the morning on this Walter Mitty escapade, why not take a look? As we gradually climbed the class 2 ridgeline leading up Sawtooth Peak, there were a couple spots (amply endowed with cairns) that led to catwalks that almost offered a way down. Almost. On one, it was no more than a 15 ft drop to the chute, but it just was not happening with loaded packs. Even lowering the packs was not going to help (we do not bounce like we used to). So, we kept climbing until we reached a point no more than 50 ft from the summit of Sawtooth that offered direct access to the desired chute. I could not help but recall Flamingo’s post from earlier this summer of a climb over Parsons peak as being the most accommodating route into Ireland basin. Well, same idea here. Sure, the descent was moderately loose scree and talus, but all that the terrain required was constant traversing toward Needham mountain and gradually we got down to the huge plateau in which Amp sits. Being inordinately dry this year and a month later in the season compared with my first time at Amp, the grasses were turning golden and the vegetation was washed out. But the lake was still eye candy and very much undisturbed. By my reckoning, it is no more than 2 miles (as the crow flies) from the MK trailhead. Yet, a quick search of the HST archives reveals very few visitors (outside the usual suspects like, Maverick, Rogue and maybe Giantbrookie and Shawn). From the remnant shooting stars, I’m guessing the meadows are a cacophony of flowers in July. The muted palette of late summer created a zen environment that encouraged us to consume a bit more rum than on night 1. I’m unsure whether zen and rum are compatible, but they sure seemed to be that evening.

Amph lake.JPG

Amph Lake and Sawtooth.JPG

Day 3: As long as we were visiting low-impact lakes, we had decided over cocktails to connect with the developed trail down Soda canyon and then exit at the creek that drains the last pair of un-named lakes (one long and skinny, the other sporting a prominent peninsula) in an east-facing cirque southeast of Needham mountain. The walk down from Amp lake to the Soda canyon trail was as pleasant as I’d recalled. Easy forest trucking with very few downed trees. Definitely nice to be going downhill for a bit! But Soda creek was a mere vestige of its former self. This was a harbinger of what creek levels looked like the rest of the trip. Consequently, by the time we reached the targeted creek crossing, there was no sign of water. There was no sign that water had been flowing in the preceding several weeks. Not wanting to climb more than 1500 feet up a manzanita and talus-bedecked hillside with no running water and the possibility that the lakes were tapped out, we went for another plan B: which was to keep hiking as long as we could until we found a scenic spot to camp or ran out of gas. By the time we got to the Lost Canyon trail junction (and the robustly flowing creek), we were hot, dusty and thirsty and decided to hole up for the night in the woods. Yes, we discovered that this area has well-developed campsites, bear boxes and huge provision-storage boxes for those coming in by horse. There were even recessed fire pits, and gobs of tiny, ripe blueberries. But, no big panoramas, yet! We pulled way back on the rum consumption.

Soda Creek Canyon.JPG

Day 4. From Lost Canyon one ascends a ridge on the way to Big 5 lakes. As you get higher and closer to the lakes, the distant views start popping: Red Spur and Mt. Kaweah are the first to occupy the horizon, and gradually more of the Big Arroyo and the Kaweah Peaks ridge become visible. It’s smooth trail-sailing and we ran into a steady stream of folk doing different loops out of MK. Our goal for the day was Lake 10410 (as any sports fan knows, someone going 10 for 10 is most likely having a VERY good day; I’d day-hiked to 10410 many moons ago, and was way past due to get back), which sits a bit off-trail north of Little 5 lakes. Even if you do not run into the use trail to 10410, it’s easy trucking to get there. I’d forgotten that campsites are a bit sparse around this lake, but the views of the Kaweahs are incomparable. A big wow spot! There also was a trio of large ducks making the rounds of 10410………….occasionally quacking up a storm. From their size and plumage, possibly canvasbacks? A similar trio of ducks showed up at Spring lake, too.

Kaweahs.JPG

Kaweah Peaks.JPG

Kaweah closeup.JPG

Up big arroyo.JPG

Across 10410.JPG

alpenglow from 10410.JPG

Day 5 A sobering feature of day 4 was that the creek crossings at Big & Little 5 lakes were dry. Outflow from 10410 was non-existent. Since we’d been thinking about crossing the Big Arroyo to ascend to some of the off-trail lakes that sit in the shadow of Black Kaweah, the dearth of water had us worried once again: What if those creeks/lakes were dry? Instead, we decided to do a short stint on trail further north and then ascend to the boomerang-shaped lake (~11,000 ft) a bit southeast of Lippincott mountain. It’s an easy scramble and we reached the lakes before lunch. Lakes, because the one lake shown on the map had evaporated to the point of being three lakelets with dried lake bottom in between. We had lunch before looking for a place to camp, and as we gazed around, we noticed some healthy bear scat. Being above treeline, we were a bit surprised to see bear poo, so for sure the bear cans were going to get locked tightly. After lunch, I climbed the ramps up to the ridge southeast of Lippincott to check out the lakes on the other (western) side of the ridge. Well, at least the upper two lakes were completely dry. I did not get a good enough sight line to the lowest lake to see if it had water, but this was not promising. The times they are a changin’! But as the sun set, the views of the Big Arroyo and Kaweahs rocked once again!

Day 6 This was going to be our last night out, and the target was either Spring or Cyclamen lake on the other side of Black Rock pass. It was a sparkling morning as we ascended above Little 5 lakes toward the pass. We ran into a couple eager beavers who had already come up from the other side and were tickled to be heading down (after the long ascent). Just as has happened every time I’ve been on the Black Rock trail, as we were getting to about 11,200 ft, I felt the siren call to leave the trail and go for the “shortcut”, direct route over to Spring Lake. My buddy was game, so we did (go over the lower ridge a bit south of Blackrock pass). The descent seemed looser and less convivial than I’d remembered, but just about all of my memories seemed to have been a bit off, so this was in keeping with the theme. On past trips, Spring Lake had been occupied by at least two parties, so I’d always moved on up to Cyclamen, a gorgeous lake with very few spots to camp. This time, Spring was deserted and remained that way. I had never really stopped to appreciate the prominent, cathedral-like wall of granite on Spring’s southwestern shore, but camping at the southern end of the lake allowed us to revel in its prominence (sadly, we did not get a photo, but the shot below gives an idea). It also revealed something we’d not seen the rest of the trip: there was a small patch of dirt-coated ice in a crease in this wall of granite. It was the only sign of snow/ice on the entire trip. Not a hint of snow/ice on the Kaweahs or any of the other peaks lining the Big Arroyo. I suspect this aberration will soon become the norm. As we were settling in to consume the last of the 151, we noticed a party of 6 folk heading up Blackrock pass. Wow, very intrepid; did they have any idea how far it was to water on the other side? By our estimate, they reached the pass just as sun set. Yep, it was gonna be a late dinner for those folk.

Columbine Cyclamen.JPG

Day 7. There are plenty of options for ascending from Spring to Cyclamen and with much lighter packs, we intentionally chose to do a little easy climbing. Once at Cyclamen, I pulled out the map and again thought about looping around the lake clockwise to take the shortest line up to Columbine lake. Instead, as I’ve done on other visits, we headed up the crease almost due west of the lake’s outlet. This path led us into some terrain that required gyrations I’d not been expecting. As with the hop from Crystal to Amp, I’d remembered this route being pretty straightforward class 2, but in reality, we hit several sticky spots. The good news is that this time we were literally able to get over those humps. Yes, I acquired the lion’s share of bruises and lacerations, but as I licked my wounds, the elevated perspective convinced me that making the clockwise hop from Cyclamen to Columbine is a better route. Next time. In any case, there was wonderful spring water flowing for the better part of this climb, so by the time we finally traversed into the Sawtooth trail, we were well hydrated and ready for the exhilarating slide down the west side of the pass. Oh, but Sawtooth is one of those passes that you dream about: looking down, Columbine lake is this spectacular blue mirage in a sea of granite. The Kaweahs loom as prominent sentinels to the northeast and then rising out of the Kern trench on the far horizon is the eastern Sierra crest from Mt. Langley up to Whitney. It’s breathtaking! We paused for nearly an hour to soak it up before starting the gravel glissade. When we finally hit the solid trail to Monarch lakes, I had one final bad idea. Back when I originally visited MK and ascended Sawtooth pass, the trail had been on the north side of the creek coming down from the Monarch lakes. A sign now clearly points out that this old trail is no longer maintained, but I was curious whether I could find it and what shape it was in. My buddy demurred, so we set off separately, and after an initial easy descent to the meadow below Monarch lakes, things got a bit more prickly. On a couple occasions, I thought I’d found remnants of the old trail, but it was not sustained. I finally decided to choose the best available line and just go. After all, the MK trailhead parking lot is visible from Sawtooth pass , and all you have to do is go down, down, down. In due course, I did catch the old trail, and I was impressed to see lots of boot prints from folk who obviously shared my curiosity. And the old trail is a mess. There must be rockslides every 50-100 ft that would have driven trail crews crazy. It’s no wonder that they gave up on this route. But, it is appreciably more direct, so I got down to the car in time to take a bath in the creek before my buddy caught up. He claimed to have been stopped a couple times by folk who wondered about the antiquated gear he was carrying. We were both equipped with circa 1980 external frame backpacks from A16. They are great, because you can load nearly 2 weeks worth of food into these things, or a lot more than one quart of 151 rum. Well, we did walk out with a lot of excess edibles, but no leftover rum. This will definitely inform our next trip!

[cgundersen]

And one more photo of the perps:

CG MCS Sawtooth.JPG

[shawnterustic]

Thanks for a HIGHLY entertaining trip report! In all my years of Sierra wandering, I still haven't been to Mineral King, so it's always extra-fun to read those trip reports. One of these days!!

[Shawn]

Great trip report cg ! Some of my favorite places in there...not to mention the 151 and the amazing photos.

[sekihiker]

Great report of an interesting adventure. It seems like you were able to see a lot of that country despite the 151.

[Gogd]

A fun to read TR. MK, XC with external frame packs? Not bad for old fossils! That was hard for me with my old Kelty external frame pack, in my youth, back in the 80s. A16 used to sell several brands of packs; do you recall the brand/model of your packs? I relate to how the experience of retracing trips to old stomping grounds vary from memories. But our perceptions are not due to memory creep; rather we are so old the terrain has geologically aged! At least that is my alibi.

Ed

[sekihiker]

I relate to how the experience of retracing trips to old stomping grounds vary from memories. But our perceptions are not due to memory creep; rather we are so old the terrain has geologically aged! At least that is my alibi.

I'm with you.

[cgundersen]

Hi Ed,
The packs we're using are visible in the 4th photo. They were manufactured for A16 and were their own (proprietary?) brand. I think they called them the hiphugger model (which came in different capacities).....and reflects the fact that they distribute most of the weight to the hips and leave much of the back exposed (which I like, because I sweat like crazy most days up there). I had a 1976 version that finally made its final trip a couple years ago, because the duct tape no longer held it together (the frame was fine, the canvas, not so good). I managed to score a largely unused replacement on Ebay. My buddy got a replacement directly from John Mead (who was the president of A16) when his pack could no longer be repaired. They did have lifetime warranties! While this gear is clearly ancient, so are we and we're just accustomed to how these packs ride. And like Sekihiker, I'm on board with your alibi; in fact, I may even quote you as the situation demands! Thanks, Cameron