Silver Divide Advice

[kpeter]

I have booked reservations out of Edison for an 8 day trip to the western part of the Silver Divide beginning July 24. A couple of years ago I came over McGee Pass to Cottonwood Lake and had to stop short of further destinations. So this will be completely new territory for me. I've never even been to Edison before. (And yes, I've heard tales about the Kaiser Pass Road!)

Tentative itinerary

Day 0 Drive to Prather, pick up permit, drive to Edison, camp in Vermillion Campground

Day 1 Take 9am ferry across the lake, not sure how far we will go. Silver Pass Meadow, Silver Pass Lake, or over the pass to Warrior. Will depend on how well I handle the 3300 feet of elevation gain, whether I am in better shape by then, snow in the pass, etc.

Day 2 Down the JMT to Fish Creek, up Fish Creek and then cross-x up the Hortense outlet to Hortense Lake.

Day 3 Layover and dayhike around Hortense Lake.

Day 4 Reverse route, back up the JMT and then turn off via Lake of the Lone Indian. Not sure how far. Lake of the Lone Indian, Wilbur May Lake, or perhaps all the way to Peter Pande Lake, but not likely.

Day 5 Peter Pande Lake

Day 6 Layover and dayhike around Peter Pande Lake, Anne and Olive Lakes.

Day 7 Option 1. Reverse course, head back over Goodale Pass, camp at Graveyard Lakes. Option 2. Head over the Peter Pande/Graveyard pass. Supposedly talus on the north and ledges on the south. Camp at Graveyard Lakes.

Day 8 Back to Edison from Graveyard Lakes and home.

Questions.

1) Is Silver Pass lake a decent camping destination while in transit, or should I stop earlier (and lower) in Silver Pass meadow?

2) Any advice about Silver Pass, Goodale Pass, and/or the Pande/Graveyard pass as far as likely snow conditions? It is looking like an above average year, so passes that normally hold some snow on the north side I think could be expected to do so. Anyone been over them in late July and found snow?

3) I am going out of my way to see Hortense, since so many have described it as particularly beautiful and since I have been sad to have missed it with my other trip into the region. Cutting it out, however, would allow me to spend significantly more time further west. For those of you who have seen Hortense as well as the rest of the Silver Divide region to the west, does my plan make sense, or would you leave out Hortense and focus more on the west? It is really my most important strategic decision to make.

4) Is WIlbur May worth a wayside stop, or should I bypass it to spend more time at Peter Pande?

5) The Pande/Graveyard pass does not appear to be listed on the HST map as a cross-x pass and I am not sure why. I'd like to know how challenging it would be. I've read a couple of descriptions, but I trust HST more than random stuff I find here and there. It is appealing to cut off 4 miles and Goodale Pass, but it could be more trouble than it is worth, too. Advice?

6) Any advice about particularly scenic, hidden, or favorite camps or spots along the route would be welcome.

[michaelzim]

Ken... Looks like you may finally make it to Peter Pande re your planned trip. Good! I think you will like it a lot as it is a really super lake. If not occupied I would suggest heading for the far west side to a campsite by the inlet creek from Anne Lake. It is a beautiful spot with fantastic light playing over the lake and cliffs. Here is a photo of the spot with my tent circled in red:

Red circle campsite PP.jpg

When day-hiking to Anne Lake (gorgeous water colour in sunlight) keep going up to the spur due west (slightly WNW) to around 11,150 ft. and the view is superb.

I would definitely go over "Graveyard Pass" - which has another name I can't recall. It is indeed talus on the north side but stable and not that hard. It shortens the trip considerably and is very doable for you I suspect. This photo does look like a lot of rocks for sure, but it goes pretty quickly:

N. side of Graveyard Pass.jpg

The Kaiser Pass road has been 'repaired' c/o Creek Fire money and it is less pot-holed on the main stretch, but once after the junction to Florence it was in traditional bad shape this past summer. Knocked my car around a lot. (See report soon).
If somehow decide to skip the ferry and hike up to Graveyard Lakes from Edison and drive to that end TH parking lot, watch out for an easy to miss root that crosses the road and can give a startlingly jarring bump! I have interacted with it a few times.

Best ~ Michaelzim

[LMBSGV]

I’ve camped at Silver Pass Lake twice and loved it. Both times I crossed the outlet creek and camped on the other side in a large area with great views in all directions. However, that was in 1998 and 2001 so things could have changed in the last 20+ years.

When I went over Silver Pass in August 1998 there was a lot of snow on the north side. In August 2001, there was no snow.

There were three other parties camped at Graveyard lakes in 2001. There was also a campsite-raiding bear who tried and failed to get our counter-balanced food, but from the yelling we heard in the distance may have succeeded at one of the other campsites. Since this was in pre-bear canister days, that's probably changed, too.

[Wandering Daisy]

Hortense is really nice, but may be logistically better with another route. It makes more sense to do it from the east, McGee Trail for example.

If you still want to do Hortense, how about a loop going in via the trail to Tully Lake and back cross country. The cross country looks tricky if it is similar to the cross country on the High Route getting to Lake Isack Walton. A loop would be longer with two days walking, without layover, but you would see more country. I have not done the x-c route from Hortense to the PCT. I would not want to do it going uphill. But perhaps you have more information on it than I do.

There is so much to do between Olive Lake and Lake of Lone Indian to keep busy several days.

[kpeter]

Thanks for the terrific suggestions.

I discovered that the "Graveyard/Pande" Pass is labeled SIlver Fox Pass on CalTopo, and that there is a thread on HST on "Graveyard Pass." So I was not finding the right name for it. It should, however, be marked on the HST map, but it is not. That threw me off. But here is the thread:

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=19125&hilit=silver ... ss#p142601

SSSDave has carefully laid out the route on both sides. Thanks!

Michael, that looks like a fabulous camp site, and well situated for the dayhiking! And thank you for a view of the north side of Graveyard Pass. That looks doable and not too terribly tedious. How did you find the south side??

Laurence, that is great to know that Silver Pass Lake is a worthy first day destination. This year's snowpack is very close to the snowpack in 1998, so that is useful information for me. Do you recall how much snow you had to walk across, or whether there were issues at the top?

WD, going up the outlet was the route recommend by our own intrepid Giantbrookie, who says he did it with a bad knee! On the other hand, I know he is much more advanced when it comes to cross-x hiking than I am. It is about 1000 feet of elevation gain coming up from Fish Creek.

[LMBSGV]

When I went over Silver Pass in 1998 from the north side, the snow covered the trail from a little above Chief Lake to a little beyond the top of the pass. Since the trail was covered, I just went straight to the top of the pass. The snow was about thigh deep powder on the north side, knee deep or less on the south. There weren't any issues except for the post-holing on the north side. Since I was 25 years younger at the time, I thought it was lots of fun.

[Lumbergh21]

This year is looking similar to 2017. I hiked over Goodale and Silver passes that year in mid to late August and there was snow on Goodale that was mostly avoidable by getting up on some slabby rock so you only had to walk across a snow field at the top. Only about the top 100 feet of Silver Pass still had snow on both sides. I included at least one photo of Goodale Pass in my trip report, though I don't think I had a pic of the bowl of snow at the top or the ridge I used to avoid the snow below it.
viewtopic.php?t=16837#p126949

[michaelzim]

Ken

"How did you find the south side??" of Silver Fox Pass (aka Graveyard Pass).....As per that pass description it is super easy if you follow the very obvious ramp. If memory serves it only takes about 15 minutes to get down to the lake from the crest there. Overall, the whole pass is one of the easiest I have been over for X-country, so I would definitively utilize it unless there is some bizarre snow condition that changes everything.
Some old-timers we met on one trip to Peter Pande said that in "normal snow years" (way back somewhere) it was not possible to get in there until late July or even August! Which I presume would mean that north side of Silver Fox being a snowfield late into the season. However, the elevation is not that great so I doubt it will be a deal-breaker issue even if we get a bomber year for spring snow.

Best ~ Michaelzim

[Gogd]

Graveyard Pass:
The route on the south side is a boulder scramble. If there is some snow this could a be difficult mix of exposed rocks with snow that conceals voids that can find you in unstable situations. Once off the slope leading from the pass, bear to your left and work around to the opposite bank of the largest of the high lakes, then set a route leading directly south off the far end. If you wander too much to the west, you will stumble into very steep inclined fields of class 4 loose boulders.

Hortense Lake:
I've done both Giant Brookie's and WD's approached to Hortense. If taking GB's route, keep north of and well above the drainage ravine of the outlet to avoid the steeps and brush choked riparian zone. When at the same elevation of the lake, the route south to the outlet becomes apparent. Regarding the approach from the Horse Heaven vicinity: we head up, skirting the south side of the outlet draining Izaak Walton Lake to about 10,200+', then traversed, descending south then west to Hortense. We spied a possible alternative to the Horse Heaven route. If one continues further along the McGee Pass trail another route may present itself, starting just downstream of the Fish Creek/Lee Lake Creek junction. Follow the contours W/SW to the aforementioned 10,200' waypoint. Going up the outlet from Hortense is the most direct option, but the other two options out of the Horse Heaven area gain significant elevation on good trail before resorting to the XC approaches. The major obstacle with the first two routes mentioned is getting lazy and allowing yourself to stray into the riparian zones along these routes. The third route option is very compelling, however, I did not walk it so cannot vouch for it level of difficulty.

Ed

[kpeter]

Graveyard Pass:
The route on the south side is a boulder scramble. If there is some snow this could a be difficult mix of exposed rocks with snow that conceals voids that can find you in unstable situations. Once off the slope leading from the pass, bear to your left and work around to the opposite bank of the largest of the high lakes, then set a route leading directly south off the far end. If you wander too much to the west, you will stumble into very steep inclined fields of class 4 loose boulders.

Hortense Lake:
I've done both Giant Brookie's and WD's approached to Hortense. If taking GB's route, keep north of and well above the drainage ravine of the outlet to avoid the steeps and brush choked riparian zone. When at the same elevation of the lake, the route south to the outlet becomes apparent. Regarding the approach from the Horse Heaven vicinity: we head up, skirting the south side of the outlet draining Izaak Walton Lake to about 10,200+', then traversed, descending south then west to Hortense. We spied a possible alternative to the Horse Heaven route. If one continues further along the McGee Pass trail another route may present itself, starting just downstream of the Fish Creek/Lee Lake Creek junction. Follow the contours W/SW to the aforementioned 10,200' waypoint. Going up the outlet from Hortense is the most direct option, but the other two options out of the Horse Heaven area gain significant elevation on good trail before resorting to the XC approaches. The major obstacle with the first two routes mentioned is getting lazy and allowing yourself to stray into the riparian zones along these routes. The third route option is very compelling, however, I did not walk it so cannot vouch for it level of difficulty.

Ed

Ed, that it fabulously helpful. With regard to Graveyard Pass, however, did you mean "the NORTH side is a boulder scramble"? The north side seems to be mostly talus and the south side seems to be a ramp, from the photos. But point well taken on mixture of snow and boulders. There is that treacherous in-between phase when snow melts slightly away from boulders but not far enough to allow footing on solid ground, just far enough to form deep, slippery slots. The good news is that we can spy this out on a dayhike and decide in advance whether to try that approach--knowing the south side will be better--or whether to take the longer route back over Gooddale.

With regard to the approaches to Hortense, do I understand your 2nd and 3rd potential approaches as coming very near Mace Lake and approaching Hortense from the south end? There is something appealing about gaining 600 or 800 out of the 1000 feet elevation on a main trail, as compared with going up the outlet. Follow up: is there a use trail from the Fish Creek/McGee Pass trail up to Isaac Walton Lake? Would that be similar to the 2nd and 3rd options? Fish Creek Trail > Walton > Mace > Hortense ?