For some reason my cousin and I think it's a great idea to do the big East side passes. Summer of 23 it was Shepherd so we decided summer of 24 to give Taboose a go. I figured since we were in the area we should tackle a couple 14ers and finally get up to the Palisades Crest and exit via the South Fork of Big Pine Creek.
This is likely the one and only time I'll do Taboose Pass, not because it was all that tough, but mostly because the road in takes forever. Hah.
DAY 1
Plan is to get an early start (we hit the trail at 5:30) to get up high and out of the heat and camp at a lake below the approach to Spit Mt.
Desert starts begit desert sunrises
The trail wasn't too bad. Overgrown in a couple spots. In one the trail basically turned into a creek bed. But overall it was ok. Just continuous up up and up with the views getting better and better as you go.
Crossed the creek a couple times, this was the only one memorable enough for a pic
And then you are in the upper basin
And then, there was the pass. Took us right about 6 hours. We were happy with that as we weren't in a huge hurry.
A whole new world unfolded to the West
And a great spot for lunch
From the pass the plan was to stay high along what looked like some benches so we didn't drop down to the JMT. At least initially. What started off as pleasant cross country turned not so pleasant....
At this point we just said eff it and angled down towards the JMT. Once we hit it we stayed on it just under3 miles and branched off toward Split just as thunder threatened above.
And just like that 7 years of adventuring in the Sierra with perfect weather was done with as we got a nice little rain.
Just as we found a nice little lake to camp at the rain stopped and the sun came back out and we were treated to an amazing Sierra light show.
