Day One: Courtright Reservoir to Disappointment Lake
We knew that this day would be a grind. We woke up in Los Angeles at around 3:30 and headed up to pick up our permit in Prather and continue on to the trailhead, ultimately getting on the trail around 10:30. Despite the fact that I've done dozens of backpacking trips in the Sierra over more than a decade, this was actually my first west side entrance -- all of my previous trips have departed from the east. I liked it. Starting at 8,000 feet is a lot more pleasant than starting at 10,000, particularly when you're coming from sea level completely unacclimated. A gradual hike through the forest also has some advantages over an immediate climb up a steeper pass, and the meadows and trees of a forest are still beautiful and novel when you're used to living in a concrete city. We made it to the junction at Post Corral in good time and with no problems, and then started the uphill grind into Red Mountain Basin. We were getting tired by the time we hit Fleming Lake, but the availability of more daylight (and the presence of mosquitos and other campers) convinced us to push on to Disappointment. The last stretch was a struggle (particularly because we took a wrong turn and headed up toward Mosquito Pass for a bit before realizing our error and backtracking), but we finally made it around 7:30. Counting our detour and other assorted wanderings, we made it 14.9 miles and more than 3,500 feet up. The weather helped -- we had overcast skies and light rain to keep us cool, but no storms or other serious weather that would slow us down.
Evening at Disappointment Lake
Day Two: Disappointment Lake to Martha Lake
I expected today to be relatively easy -- just a short climb to the pass, then down into Goddard Canyon and up to Martha. The weather forecast warned us that today was the stormiest day we were likely to see, and we woke up to clouds in the sky, so we packed up quickly in an effort to get over Hell-for-Sure before any storms rolled in. A light rain started falling around the time we hit Hell-for-Sure Lake, but serious weather held off and we made it to the pass in good time. The trail becomes somewhat informal after Hell-for-Sure Lake, but was still easy to follow. The pass doesn't offer the conventional big basin view, but looking out to the wall of Goddard Canyon, and up the canyon toward the higher peaks, was exceptional.
From here, we dropped down the trail into Goddard Canyon. This was one of the more surprising parts of the trip to me -- the trail is quite informal, the initial descent is steep, and then the traverse along the canyon wall involves a decent amount of rolling terrain. This was not difficult necessarily, but required significantly more energy than I had expected to invest to drop off the pass. On the plus side, the terrain was beautiful, as we crossed streams dotted with wildflowers and enjoyed ever-changing views up, down, and into the canyon. We ultimately hit the main trail and headed up the canyon. The upper reaches of Goddard Canyon were stunning, with streams meandering across the canyon floor and giant fields of lupine providing color. We made it to Martha Lake and were surprised to see two other groups there. One we had met earlier in the day and was staging for a day hike of Goddard, while the other had come in via Lake Confusion and planned to drop down the Enchanted Gorge. We did a little fishing and watched the clouds roll by. The weather treated us well -- while we saw several big storms in the distance, we never got hit by more than a light sprinkle ourselves (save for a period of hail that lasted maybe two minutes).
Climbing toward Hell-for-Sure Pass
Upper Goddard Canyon
Looking toward tomorrow's destination.
Day Three: Mount Goddard and the Ionian Basin
The morning of day three saw brilliant blue skies, a welcome sight given that today was our chance to climb Mount Goddard five years after having been driven off of it by storms. We watched the Enchanted Gorge group head out toward Goddard Col, then picked up our packs to follow them. The climb to the pass was full of rocks but surprisingly easy. We stopped for a snack at the first lake, and then headed over the Col to the high lake right underneath Mount Goddard. From there, we had a clear view of the Southwest Chute, and the little sandy use trail that heads up its left side. We dropped our packs and started scrambling up. The west chute was fun and reasonably straightforward. You generally have a choice of scrabbling up the sandy use trail, or heading to the left end of the chute and clambering up sturdier rocks. There was one very short stretch -- probably no more than twenty vertical feet or so -- where the sandy trail got a little steep and required some scrambling, but in general the chute presented minimal problems. Beautiful views started opening up atop the chute, and all that remained was the long slog up the rocky slope of the mountain. We popped out on the south summit, took a look at the route between the two summits, and quickly decided that we were happy to stay where we were. After half an hour of snacks and photos, we reversed the route and headed back down the mountain to the lake.
We were now presented with the challenge of moving through a portion of the Ionian Basin, a place about which I've always heard stories and never actually walked through. I had always heard that you should plan on moving about half as quickly as you'd move through anywhere else, on account of all the rocks and the cliffs, and the basin did not disappoint. We headed down toward Lake 11,818, circling the west side of the large lake directly north of it. Circling this lake was the most challenging part of the entire trip in my opinion, and required some extended class three. There is likely an easier, less direct route, but we were in the mood for direct routes at this point. We ultimately hit Lake 11,818 and were again surprised to see another group camping there. Fortunately, it is a large lake and we were able to find a lovely campsite that gave both groups plenty of privacy.
The Ionian Basin lived up to expectations -- a land of jumbled rocks, difficult route-finding, and absolutely beautiful lakes. 11,818 goes up fairly high on my list of scenic lakes. Between views of Goddard on one side and Scylla on the other, an infinity pool style drop-off with views toward the White Divide, and the beautiful colors in the water, it really set a high bar for rugged, high-altitude lakes.
Climbing above Martha Lake
Climbing the Southwest Chute
On the South Summit
Heading back down
Lake 11,818
Day Four: Lake 11,818 to Finger Basin
This was a day I had been anticipating for a long time -- a chance to see Goddard Creek. Fortunately, it was easy to reach the outlet of Lake 11,818 by crossing the isthmus and then traversing the south shore. Soon thereafter, we got the big view down the creek I had been waiting for. The view was beautiful, and the descent even more so -- traversing down ledges and slabs across miniature meadows and past waterfalls and wildflowers. The route-finding was fun. We got ourselves into some class three at a few points, including one where we lowered our packs with cord, but these stretches could easily have been avoided with a little backtracking. When we reached the top of the cliff rising out of Lake 10,232, we decided to circle the lake to the east, traversing diagonally across the rock field that drops into it. In retrospect, I would take the long way around -- that rock field was longer and more unpleasant than it looked. But we made it down, and the lake lived up to my expectations for it. We relaxed and enjoyed some lunch, fishing, and swimming before continuing down the creek. From here the walking became very easy, across grassy meadows and big slabs. After a mile or two we turned west and began traversing into Finger Basin. Both the terrain and navigation were very easy, and we quickly found a beautiful lake to camp at. We had views up to Finger Col and down toward the Ragged Spur, and the light reflecting off of the sheer white rock in this region was gorgeous, and a wonderful contrast to the darker, broken rock we had seen in the Ionian Basin just that morning.
Lake 10,232
Goddard Creek
Easy walking into Finger Basin
Day Five: Finger Basin to the North Fork of the Kings River
This day marked our departure from the high country and return to the trail. We woke up to skies that were surprisingly cloudy and ominous, so made short work of breakfast and began heading up the basin toward Finger Col. We took what I suspect is an unconventional route, sticking to the boulders toward the south side of the basin, and then traversing a high line across the basin toward the Col. Conventional or not, it worked well and we made it across the divide with no problems, and the clouds fortunately never built into anything threatening. This was one of my favorite passes, with fun climbing to ascend it, a beautiful crack in the cliff to clamber through, and lovely views on both sides. The descent to Cathedral Lake was less delightful, but at least it was over quickly. We took off our boots and rinsed our aching feet in Cathedral Lake while we had lunch, then traversed around to Pearl Lake and followed its drainages downhill to intersect the trail a mile or so below Portal Lake. From here, it was simply a long trail hike out. Fortunately the trail was beautiful, passing through flowery meadows, cascading streams (albeit much drier than they should have been), and lovely forests. We knocked out several trail miles and found a beautiful campsite on the river, where we swam and ate dinner and enjoyed our last night in the mountains. This left us with a bit over twelve miles to hike out on day six. We knocked this out by 2:00 (seeing our first people since Lake 11,818 in the process) and headed straight for Shaver Lake Pizza, which provided a welcome return to the comforts of civilization.
Leaving our campsite in Finger Basin
The striking north wall of Finger Peak.
Finger Basin
Cathedral Lake and Blackcap Basin
This trip was a great success overall. The lengthy off-trail stretch between Martha Lake and Cathedral Lake was a complete stunner. It's hard for me to imagine stringing together a more beautiful, unbroken succession of scenery than what we saw there. Even the lengthy trailed sections we used to access the area were lovely and very pleasant to hike through. I'm frankly not sure why this loop isn't more popular among the off-trail crowd, as it seems like an obvious loop with varied scenery.
I was also pleased to find that the itinerary, though challenging, was well within our abilities, and that the navigation felt quite straightforward. We had great luck with the weather, as a forecasted week of storms turned into nothing more than an occasional cooling shower, and our timing in a drought year meant that we avoided any significant mosquitoes or stream crossings, but still managed to see plenty of wildflowers.
The only minor downside was that we did move fairly quickly through a lot of incredible places, and it would always be nice to have more time to relax and explore. Fortunately, though, this was my first time through any of these places, so it will serve as helpful scouting for future trips. I've already got my wheels turning a bit for a trip built around the Blackcap/Blue Canyon/Tunemah area, which would give me an opportunity to revisit these locations in more detail.
