R04/R01 TR: Blackcap and Beyond (SEKI), 07/19/24 - 07/28/24

[druid]

My daughter and I loaded nine days worth of food into our backpacks and drove up to the Courtright Maxson trailhead, starting hiking around 3:30 PM. It was hot and our packs were heavy as we walked up the trail, taking a slight detour to Hobler Lake for the night. The lake turned out to be nicer than I expected it to be. Despite it being close to the trailhead, we had the place all to ourselves. It felt good to be back in the wilderness again.

Hobler Lake

Since we're not the fastest hikers, we had allocated two more days for the hike up to Blackcap Basin. On the way to our next camp near the Kings River, we startled a deer near the trail, which then startled us as it bounded off over the piles of deadfall beside the trail.

The following morning we finally started the climb up to Portal Lake. As we climbed we began to see more and more flowers.

About half way up to the lake, we ran into the outfitter Allen Clyde, who told us that he was supporting a trail crew that was doing a route from Wishon to Courtright, clearing downfall along the way. Every day or so he would move the crew's supplies to a new location, in the process improving the crew's efficiency. He let us know that we would probably see the crew a few miles ahead, as they were heading down from Portal Lake to a lower camp.

As the Sierra NF ranger that was leading the trail crew was checking our permit, he noticed that we were planning to cross over into KCNP, and asked us which route we intended to take. Finger Col, I answered. Pause. "Well, I've heard that some people have taken that route before", he finally replied. I guess our appearance must not have inspired a great deal of confidence.

Freshly cut

Anyway, that afternoon we made it up to Portal Lake, which we had to ourselves, just as the trail crew had suggested would be the case while we were speaking with them. It was a bit cooler above 10000 feet, which was a relief after two and a half days of hiking in the heat. Our plan for the next day was to do a day hike around the lakes in Blackcap Basin.

Portal Lake

View of Blackcap Mtn from Portal Lake

There is supposedly a use trail over to Pearl Lake, and we did see a few ducks, but there are a variety of ways to get there, all of which are relatively easy. We had thought about first climbing up to Midway and Chapel, but decided to save our energy for the next day's hike. We did manage to visit quite a few of the other lakes in the basin, though.

Pearl Lake

Regiment Lake

Battalion Lake

Flowers everywhere

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[druid]

Bighorn and Ambition

Division Lake. Tomorrow's objective in the distance

The basin was full of flowers.

Pearl Lake again

I just read in viewtopic.php?t=23728 that the flower below is called "Little Elephant's Head" (thanks Rockyroad and Sekihiker). First I thought that the petals looked like little ghosts, but now I can see the elephant trunks, too.

Little Elephant's Head

The weather was still nice, so after the day hike, we did laundry, went for a quick swim and lazed around a bit.

The following day, we got an early start (for us) and headed up for the col, taking the roundabout route to Cathedral Lake. Just before Cathedral, we ran into some scattered bones. Anybody have any guesses about which animal (or animals) these are from?

Jawbone

More bones

Cathedral Lake

Halfway up

Nearing the top

A little snow to contend with

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[Oubliet]

Friends and I just returned from an 8 day trip to Black Cap via the Upper Rancheria TH near Wishon reservoir. We went to Half Moon Lake, Portal Lake, back to Half Moon, then Woodchuck Lakes. We spent 2 days at Portal. Got a nice walk up to Pearl Lake and around the waterfalls of Portal Last Saturday before the Lightning storm in the midafternoon. It was pretty spectacular! Really wish I'd had more time to get up to see more of the upper lakes, so thank you for the pictures of those here.

We saw lots of fresh cuts on downed trees across the trail coming from Wishon. It was nice to see that some trailcrew was working in the area. It seemed like there were lots of spots where the trail was less obvious than it should be. I guess these trails don't get as much maintenance work than would be ideal.

[druid]

Flowers near the top

The Finger

I'm not sure that the moves on either side of the col merit being called "class 3". The one move at the top of the NW side was certainly easy.

The maybe class 3 move

On the SE side, we elected to use Erutan's "gap wiggle" up-and-over move, rather than trying to do Michael's "sidle around" move, which to us looked way more sketch. See viewtopic.php?t=9014.
We were so intent on getting over the col that we probably weren't paying as much attention to the weather as we should have been, but as you can see from the photos, the clouds were starting to darken. After a quick photo or two, we started heading down the Goddard Creek side.

View to the SE

View back to the col from the east

Good thing, too, because twenty minutes or so later we heard thunder and started to feel sprinkles. As soon as we had our rain gear on, it began to hail. A few minutes later, when the lightning got as close as a mile away, we dropped our packs and hunkered down in a small drainage for 15 minutes or so until the lightning eased.

It rained very lightly for most of the rest of the afternoon, but we were able to make camp at lake 10620+ during a short break. The skies cleared a bit in the late afternoon giving us nice views of Ragged Spur and the Goodard Creek canyon.

View down canyon

Lake 10620+

Lake 10620+

The following day we angled down to Goddard Creek and then began following it upstream.

Yet more flowers

Lake 10232 in the distance

Goddard Creek

Goddard Creek

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[druid]

Our original idea had been to head over Reinstein Pass today, then take a layover day at or near Martha Lake, maybe climbing Goddard as a day hike. But the weather forecast was showing a high probability of afternoon thundershowers, and when it started to cloud up again around midday, we decided that in addition to being dangerous, it was silly to rush through an area that we had walked so far to reach in the first place. So instead, we stopped and set up camp at lake 10232. After reading previous reports, I had high expectations for this lake, and it did not disappoint. We both enjoyed marveling at the lake and its surrounding slopes as varying bands of light illuminated the area throughout the day and early evening. Stopping early proved to be a good choice, as we had to duck into the tent during two separate hailstorms during the afternoon, both of which also included a fair amount of lightning.

Lake 10232

The next day we started up towards Reinstein Pass. However, it began to cloud up again mid-morning, giving us another choice to make. Today's forecast called for a lower chance of thunderstorms than yesterday's, but neither one of us had ever been over Reinstein and we didn't have any idea how long it would take us. Plus, the forecast for the following three days (Fri-Sun) was for clear weather, so we decided to stop early again and set up camp in a relatively safe location, this time along a small creek just above lake 11010+, and take another "nero day". In the end it didn't end up raining or thundering at all the rest of the day, but this wasn't obvious to us at the time.

Afternoon clouds that day over the Ionian

During the afternoon, we scouted the pass a bit. Later on we ended up having a nice wildlife sighting that we probably wouldn't have had had we not stopped when we did. Around 6PM, as we were eating dinner, we saw a marten climbing the snow slope across the lake, around a couple of hundred yards from where we were sitting. The marten astounded us by scampering up the entire steep ~250' slope in less than a minute. It actually spent more of that minute navigating a small rock band than it did on the snow portion itself. We weren't quick enough to get a photo of the marten, but here's a photo of the slope it climbed.

Lake 11010+ with marten snow field behind and to the left

Fortunately, the next day was mostly sunny as was forecast. Reinstein isn't the easiest class 2 pass, but the advice we had read to stay left proved very useful, allowing us to avoid what looked like class 3 clifflets just below the pass.

Flowers along the way

Reinstein pass with its little cliffs directly below

Staying left, almost there

View south

View north

Martha and Goddard

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[druid]

We had originally thought to return via Gunsight Pass followed by either Quartz Pass or Lucifer's Saddle, but after the weather delays we decided that using the Hell for Sure trail was a safer option than tackling more cross-country passes that neither of us had been on before.

The slopes just downstream from Martha Lake were carpeted with field after field of lupines and other flowers.

We found a campsite near a creek just upstream from the Hell for Sure junction. We were aware of the trail's reputation, but in the end we didn't find it all that bad. I'm sure it helped that we started on it first thing in the morning on a day that wasn't too warm.

Hell for Sure Lake

We stopped for lunch at Disappointment Lake just as a group of around 15 people were departing, leaving the lake just for us.

Disappointment Lake

But as we were hiking down toward Fleming Lake, we passed five separate groups, two of which having over a dozen people (each), and all of which were headed to Disappointment for the night. Maybe the lake was named by someone that had been hoping to find solitude there? I'm sure it didn't help matters that it was a a sunny summer Saturday, or that Disappointment is one of the easiest to reach lakes from the trailhead that has an "alpine feel". We were a bit concerned that we would end up camping in some other party central location, but we found a nice quiet place a quarter mile downstream from Fleming Lake.

The next morning, it was actually a bit chilly for the first time in our trip, but we forced ourselves out of our bags for the walk back to the car, which we reached mid-afternoon, tired but happy.

[The Other Tom]

Wow! Nice trip report. Loved the flowers!!

[balzaccom]

Wonderful report. Makes me want to go back to that area and do it right. And that photo of Battalion Lake is world class!

[CAchief]

Thank you for the trip report and photos. Love all of the wildflowers blanketing the area.

[thegib]

Great report, what made you identify it as a marten? Process of elimination?