Day 1: Taboose Pass trailhead to the creek that drains from Striped Mtn Lakes
I have been up Taboose Pass before, but it was in 2006, when I swear the road was much better and I drove a 2WD pickup truck! For this trip my husband graciously loaned me his Jeep. That guy is a keeper. I had a campsite down below for the night before day 1, but ended up using it as a rented spot to have dinner and stick my feet in the creek, it was really hot down there and I had planned to sleep in the car. At dusk I drove up to a flat spot off to the side just below the trailhead; I was treated to both a beautiful sunset and sunrise, and the temperature got down to the low 70’s. I had some trouble getting to sleep though, and was a little slow this morning; I hit the trail by 7 AM. I put my head down and braced myself for the long uphill trek.
Within a couple of miles, I met a woman coming down with her dog. She told me that the 1st creek crossing was treacherous, described some tree branches that had been placed across the whitewater, and said that she got across by crawling on them. I was taken aback; I said, “you literally crawled?” She confirmed this; said she was with some men who kept going, but helped carry the dog across for her when she turned back. Well, this sounded rather terrifying, so I continued up feeling a bit of dread. While it was raging whitewater, the branches were solid, and I understood why she didn’t want to walk on them. Because she had said there were some deep holes, I took her advice and stashed my poles and boots in my pack, put on water shoes, and used my hands to guide me along the branches. The water was refreshing after the long hot climb up. After the crossing I enjoyed some nice shade for the first time that day. Soon I ran into another hiker, and he told me that the 2nd crossing was washed out and was a deep chasm, and indicated that he crossed it maybe 30 feet below the trail crossing where there was a break in the brush and it only involved one rock step across, then came back up on the talus on the other side. That was great advice, I was glad I ran into him.
I continued up; I remembered the seemingly endless series of rock piles (moraines maybe?) that you had to ascend, which would have a brief break between them before you went up another. It was still tedious, but at least not as demoralizing as the first time I encountered it. The trail was washed into deep ruts in several places. At one point it went through willow over my head. All in all, though, it was easy to follow. I reached the top at around 4 PM, enjoyed the view of Bench Lake, and headed down to the creek below Striped Mountain where I found a nice comfy spot in the trees with a great view of Cardinal Mountain.
- 1st creek crossing of Taboose
- Bench Lake from Taboose Pass
- Cardinal Mountain
- The Saddlehorn and Staghorn Peak
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I was still pretty fatigued from the day before, so I was slower than usual in the morning and despite my best efforts didn’t get onto the trail until 8 AM. I enjoyed the downhill to the Southfork Kings crossing, and since my legs were feeling pretty shaky still I opted to wade across rather than take a log further upstream. The old Murro Blanco trail was easy to follow for awhile, until it abruptly ended at a talus field that came down nearly to the water, but the alternate would have been to fight through thick brush at the water’s edge. I had seen a spot not much earlier where it appeared that the trail I was following crossed the river, but opted not to do that because the old trail wasn’t shown as crossing. In hindsight I probably should have crossed, but being unfamiliar with that part of the river I thought I might have trouble crossing back later on, so onto the talus it was. It was stable, just slow. It turned out to be the 1st of 2 of these talus fields and after that I found the trail again briefly, then lost it again, and bumbled around until I found where the old trail began its assault on the hillside above. I had heard it was steep. Oh my….it was. I used a slow walking and power breathing technique I have used before to keep myself from just panting and wearing myself out. Amazing views started to open up to the east – soon I could see Mt. Pinchot and Mt. Wynne. This was a nice distraction.
When I reached the lake I lost the trail around it, so ended up going up and down around rock outcrops and located the trail again when it began to head uphill. Soon I was up high enough to see Bench Lake again! It was still another 1,000 feet up to the pass, and I was tired, so it was slow going; I reached Cartridge Pass at 4:30 PM. The views of the lakes on the other side were stunning, as were the mountains rising all around. I could even see the Kaweahs now. The north side of the old trail was really loose. I continued to be amazed that this used to the part of the JMT. No wonder they wanted to find a better route! My destination for the night was Marion Lake, but due to the lateness of the day I opted to stop short of that. There were a few campers at the first lakes – the first people I had seen since leaving the JMT earlier that morning. It was lovely walking around all of the lakes and seeing the landscape open up before me, there were flowers and birds everywhere, and wonderful light from the setting sun. At the lake I stopped at, I encountered my first mosquitoes, but only a few, which was nice. I didn’t have to deploy the bug spray once on this trip.
- The trail disappears in talus along Cartridge Ck
- The South Fork of the Kings
- Bench Lake appears while going up Cartridge Pass
- Lake Basin from Cartridge Pass
- Looking back up towards the pass
- Camp for the night
I took a rather circuitous route upon leaving, thinking I might get a view down to Marion Lake below Red Point, but I couldn’t. I headed up towards Dumbbell Pass through meadows and past small lakes. Flowers were everywhere. I was still too taken aback by the vistas to take any pictures of the flowers, but I did notice the scents, particularly the spicy scent of the pennyroyal. At a small lake on a bench I ran into my favorite trees, a nice stand of Mountain Hemlock. Skirting around the lake I was captivated by the texture of the grasses floating near the shore, and the holes in the mud, and then noticed at little garter snake swimming. Not long after continuing the ascent above this lake, I stopped for a break, looked back, and then…..oh my god, there was Marion Lake. It took my breath away – I have never seen anything that color blue. All the way up I kept stopping to look back at it. Wow.
I reached Dumbbell Pass and enjoyed the nice large open area at the top. There was still a big snowfield which approached the talus that would be the main descent; firm packed, but not too angled, which was nice as I had not thought to bring traction devices for my boots. Before me now lay what I had been getting ready for – there would be no more old trails to follow for a couple of days. I had read descriptions of the descent down the north side of the pass, and had read some accounts of people seeing the talus to the east and thinking that the route didn’t look like it would go, but that the other alternative would take you down the draw and might cliff you out. This rang true for me; I so wanted to go down the draw! It was choked with snow though, and I nervously plunged ahead to the east on the smaller talus. It was stable, and I picked my way carefully down it until I arrived at a kind of bench, then headed northeast and followed a final talus filled chute down to the lake, near the southeast shoreline. At the shoreline I finally discovered what people mean when they describe talus hopping! The talus that contoured around the lake was on relatively flat ground, large, and stable, and walking easily on it did feel like gravity was lessened, as close to “hopping” as I could feel, I guess. It was a nice break.
I continued on down the drainage from Dumbbell Lakes to a small set of lakes. It was now about 2:30 in the afternoon, and I came to a decision. My original plan had been to continue over Observation Peak Pass down to Lake 10,565 on this same day to camp before coming back up and going over Cataract Creek Pass. I have been a bit obsessed with this lake ever since I saw Claude Fiddler’s photograph of it in a book of his about 20 years ago. Back then I actually found a poster of it in Mammoth, purchased it, bought a frame kit from Michael’s Crafts, and it has been hanging in every place I’ve ever lived since then. I have long dreamed of seeing it in person. But now, I was tired, and the reality of how long these off trail miles were taking was setting in. I had to let it go. I needed to stop and get some rest. The ground around the lakes was very rocky, and it took quite awhile before I found a spot that I could work with to get the tent pitched. After a couple of long days, it felt so nice to stop early. My little spot looked down the drainage below, where the lake drained through a small meadow with a little pond.
- Mountain Hemlock
- Garter snake swimming
