TR: Lake 10,232! (via Reinstein Pass / Finger Col / etc)

[frozenintime]

thanks all!

@Flamingo i really appreciate your comment and it won't surprise you to hear that i loved his book. 

i assume that everyone has some amount of "psychogeology" going on with the sierra -- otherwise why go through the various labors to get there?

[michaelzim]

I can only second all the compliments on your TR and just wonderful photos. I read the long version and agree that you have a rich use of words and imagery, backed up with such a plethora of super pics.
Indeed that valley and the meadows below 10232 are a superb bonus to the lake itself. I really like your "psycho-geology" inferences too as that area exudes it big time. Isolated gorgeousness with a good dose of 'magical' thrown in is a mild summary from my memory.

A couple of Courtright questions if I may...
What campsite did you sty at there and did you have to book well in advance?
What and where is that weird "James Bond" structure? Is that the gaging station, or a weather bunker of some sort? I don't recall seeing it on my passes through Courtright, yet it looks hard to miss?!

Thanks much for a delightful, vicarious, mid-winter sojourn into the heart of the Sierras!

Michaelzim

[sekihiker]

I took the exact same trip thirty years ago from 31 July 1991 through 3 August 1991. The first day I suffered one of my worst cases of hypothermia during a rain storm and barely made it to Disappointment Lake. I camped at Lake 10,232 on day two, enjoyed an evening of fishing, and poached (cooked not stole) three trout for dinner. On day three, I climbed Finger Peak then headed for Finger Col. I spotted an Outward Bound group from the Col and avoided them by staying at Chapel Lake. On day four, I returned to the Maxson Trailhead.

The photos I took look really primitive compared to the beautiful ones you captured. Once over the ridge to Lake 10,232, I felt the same remoteness you mentioned. The ponds on the way out of the canyon toward Finger Col were especially beautiful.

Thanks for your report. It brought back great memories.

For my old school report, see: http://www.sierrahiker.com/ELeConte-Whi ... index.html

[robertseeburger]

Echoing Sekihiker comments.. I took the exact same trip.. in 2015 (plus a few excursions for fishing).
I did it in 11 days vs. your five. (Also climbed Blackcap Mtn and spent one glorious layover day wandering around Blackcap Basin.)
Climbed Finger Peak on a different trip.

Your photos are wonderful. I really loved a simple one..just view over Hell For Sure Lake.. somehow the blue sky is better in this pic than the times I have been there.

10232 is a magical destination location. It has a feeling of being very isolated and strikingly beautiful.

I had a similar thing happen to me when I hiked out. I was at Pearl lake and planned to camp where the trail leaves the N fork of the Kings River.
But I made it there before noon, and there were only 11 miles to go and I decided to just keep hiking all the way out. Mostly downhill or flat, the total mileage from Pearl to Maxson was I think 22 miles and it was relatively easy.

This is a fantastic itinerary, and one that I think about repeating at some point.

[Wandering Daisy]

I found it interesting that you found the same route that traversed above Crown Basin to get from Midway Lake. I found the route in 2021 coming from Crown Basin headed to Cathedral Lake. It is a good route, and quite obvious. I am surprised that it has not shown up in any guidebook.

The lake below Lk 10232 is also a nice lake and also has fish. I have been by Lake 10232 three times but never camped there or fished. I was going to go back and camp there in 2021 but unstable weather prevented it. I did a bivouac at the lower lake in the late 1990s when I somewhat unplanned, got too curious and my day-hike from Chasm Lake to peek down the canyon kept going, and ended up in a 2-day loop via Enchante Gorge-Lake 10232 and over the top back to Chasm.

Thanks for the photos of Finger Pass. I really should have used it in 2021 instead of going all the way back around to Crown Basin. But weather was iffy. Your photos really help.

Your photos are wonderful. And your "long version" really was not that long. Everyone should read it.

[pcole]

Great pics and an excellent TR. If you were to do it again, you might consider a couple of alternatives to keep it new. When you cross Reinstein Pass stay high on the so called Goddard Bench all the way to lake below Finger Col. Then from Cathedral Lake head north around a shoulder to Pearl Lake, Division Lake and Rainbow Lake. Then over Confusion Pass and quickly back left over Gunsight Pass. After that wander down to beautiful Six Shooter / Schoolmarm lakes. From there cross over the 2 easy Lucifer Passes and on down to Devil's Punchbowl. That gets you back to the main trail and a shorter walk out to Courtright. None of these passes are any harder than the crossing of Finger Col

You might even consider doing it in reverse and finish at Hell For Sure Pass.

A trip report of this loop w/ map done in 2019 - "A six pack of Passes" - can be found @ https://amountainlifetime.net/content/g ... =50&pNUM=2

[frozenintime]

@michaelzim thank you for the compliments. we stayed at marmot rock campground, which is run by pg&e. it was not especially hard to get a site and it wasn't full on the night we were there. i think you're forced to book two nights, which is mildly annoying for our purposes.

the sites are all right by the (beautiful) reservoir. they are fairly close together, but we had chill neighbors so it wasn't an issue.

on google maps, that building is labeled as a pumphouse, but i think we know that something more nefarious is afoot. 

[frozenintime]

@sekihiker that's so cool -- i'm sure that i've looked at your very report multiple times, but i'm not sure that i ever read the whole thing front to back, so didn't recognize that we did the same (fairly off the radar) route 30 years apart! i love that.


@robertseeburger i was very impressed with blackcap. the granite of the white divide is especially, uh, white. and dramatic. i would love to check out the lakes between pearl and ambition, lightning coral meadow, etc. i may need several years before i feel like tackling all that forest again, though


@Wandering Daisy yeah i'm surprised that the incredibly easy and beautiful route from midway to portal doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere. descending that headwall looked totally doable but, at least for me, unpleasant.
and i really wish that we had made time to see the lake at the bottom of the meadow below 10,232 but... we just didn't. 

@pcole
thanks for the route idea, i think i might be interested in some version of the blackcap basin side of that itinerary someday.

[Jimr]

I've been to Goddard creek twice. Stayed at lake 9797 both times. The first was via HFS pass doing a trans-sierra from Courtwright to South Lake in 1985. The second was 1989. We came in over Finger col., then down Goddard Canyon and across all three forks of the Kings river. I did both of those trips in 8 days.

[paul]

So - now that you've been to 10232, what's next? Tunemah?