Day 1, 5/19:
Six (!) friends and I drove into the park and dropped off a car at Hospital Rock for our return trip. We drove up to Giant Forest Museum to get started on the High Sierra Trail. It was a beautiful morning to get our first glimpse of the trail and surroundings.
We thought about stopping to camp at Mehrtens Creek since we got a late start, but decided to push on to the campsite at 9 Mile Creek because we wanted to make it to Hamilton Lake the next day. We're glad to pushed on after making it to camp! Here are a few pics of the trip to 9 Mile.
Day 2, 5/20:
We started out the next day towards Hamilton Lake. We stopped at Buck Creek for some water:
We continued onwards to Bearpaw Meadow. Bearpaw was still closed for the season (we couldn't grab a beer unfortunately), but we stopped for lunch to enjoy the scenery.
After lunch, we kept climbing towards Hamilton. The climb keeps on going - every time we thought we were almost there, it kept going up. There was one moment of excitement when we had to navigate across some water next to a pretty sheer dropoff. Thankfully the water was relatively slow and shallow, so no real worries there.
We finally made it to big Hamilton Lake - the lake was gorgeous and the pit toilet was a nice amenity! As a note, we didn't experience any high water crossings on the way to Hamilton - no issues there.
Day 3, 5/21:
The previous night had dropped temperatures quickly and the wind was coming strong off the lake. We woke up to see that the waterfalls coming down into Hamilton Lake had frozen:
We had originally thought about making a day trip to Precipice Lake if the weather would allow it and it wasn't snowbound, but we decided against it. Our decision was validated after it starting snowing that morning. We headed back towards Bearpaw Meadow and quickly warmed up on the trail. However, it kept snowing and snowing...
We made it to a campsite just south of Bearpaw Meadow and decided to stop to make camp (and a fire). While we worked to set up camp, the snow kept going and getting heavier - we started getting a little worried about finding the trail to make it out! We went to bed early to stay warm that night. It finally stopped snowing at around 8 pm. It had started at around 8 am that morning and, all told, ended up being at least 6 inches on the ground.
Day 4, 5/22:
The night before we had tuned our Ham radio into a weather forecast, which called for potentially more snow the next day - so we decided to try and pack out and make it back to our car so we wouldn't get snowed in. We were worried about finding the trail, but fortunately the trails were still relatively obvious even with snowfall and all the intersections were clearly marked (thanks, SEKI NPS). We continued south (I'm not sure of the trail name) until we made it to the Middle Fork Kaweah Trail, then took that trail west.
As we dropped in elevation and the day warmed up, the snow become more sparse, although the trail wasn't particularly well maintained (especially closer to Bearpaw). There were a lot of big trees across the trail and pretty heavy shrubbery into the trail as we continued west. But we were able to keep to the trail even with the snow, so no complaints! Here's a view from where we were down in the foothills:
We kept going across some more (easy) water crossings. After a looong day, we finally made it to the end of the trail. It was longer than we calculated - we had thought we were in for around 12-13 miles, but ended up closer to 17 miles after getting to the trailhead then walking down the road to get to Hospital Rock where we had parked the car. But we survived!
Overall, it was a great trip - it even rained a few drops on us the last day, so we basically experienced 4 seasons in 4 days. The cold and heavy snow made it tough but we will have a great story forever. The High Sierra Trail was probably the best trail I've ever done before - the scenery was unmatched and the terrain was really diverse and interesting. I'd love to come back to the High Sierras - Rae Lakes Loop is definitely on my list for the future (maybe later in the year so it doesn't snow on us...)!
