A trip into the Golden Trout Wilderness is becoming a yearly Memorial Day weekend trip. In 2016 my plan was to hike from Horseshoe Meadow over Trail Pass down to the Kern River and then return.
After driving up from San Diego I spent the night in Lone Pine, and after securing my permit I got a mid-morning start on May 28. There was a light dusting of snow remaining on the mountains surrounding Horseshoe Meadow, but nothing that presented any problem.
- Creek in Horseshoe Meadow
I made my way over Trail Pass down to Mulkey Meadow. This year is was pleased to find that several of the small creeks running south from Trail Peak still had nice flows in them. In 2015 these were all dry.
- Kern Peak
After reaching Mulkey Meadow the trail turns west to the South Fork Kern River. I followed this down to Tunnel Meadow and then to the west end of Tunnel Meadow. Just past the Tunnel Guard station the trail branches in several directions – the Chickenfoot. I continued to the crossing of Golden Trout Creek. Just south of this crossing there is a large rock formation with several campsites around it. I went there to camp for the night.
- South Fork Kern River
After setting up camp I started to filter water only to discover that my squeeze filter was seriously plugged. I tried for an hour to force water through it but was unsuccessful. Lesson learned: checkout your equipment before your first use of the year. I did have as backup the ability to boil water, but even this was a challenge because I didn't have a large fuel supply with me.
The irony is that after I went to bed it started raining. Sometime during the night as I rolled over something caught on my air mattress and made a long slash into it. End of air mattress.
- Tent with flattened air mattress inside
The next morning I decided to hike out early as the stars seemed to be aligned against me. I followed Golden Trout Creek to Big Whitney Meadow where I took a short siesta at the spot where I had camped in 2015. After my break I continued up and over Cottonwood Pass back to the Horseshoe Meadow trailhead.
- Meadow along Golden Trout Creek just north of Barigan Stringer
- Approaching Big Whitney Meadow
- View north across Big Whitney Meadow
- Cottonwood Pass viewed from Big Whitney Meadow
