RO3/R01 TR: South Lake to Sawmill Pass 7/10 - 7/15/18
Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2018 12:45 pm
This trip started out with the realization that we would be backpacking during an Arizona Monsoon. We decided to proceed knowing that we may have to hunker down from time to time due to rain. We also mapped out an early exit location in case we needed to get out of the weather early or if we fell behind schedule. We already had good gear and clothing to handle getting wet.
As it turned out, we kept to our original schedule and only endured one long afternoon/evening when we had to hunker down in the tent due a rain storm. Although the effect of many clouds sometime dampened the beauty of some areas, the effect of less sun light and heat helped our hiking endurance. Overall, the goals for the trip were to summit two more of the JMT Passes(Mather and Pinchot) and to have a “spa” day at Bench Lake and we accomplished both goals.
Day 1: South Lake to Grouse Meadow via Bishop Pass and Dusy Basin. 13 miles. We camped the night before in the Four Jeffrey Campground, near the South Lake Trailhead. We got up early and got on the trail by 730 am. It was a long day of hiking and we didn’t make it to Grouse Meadow until 530 pm. We tried to hike fast and to not stop very much since we had hiked this area last year. The main highlight, which was actually a lowlight, was the viewing of about 25 dead dear along the trail near the top of Bishop Pass. These are part of deer that perished last winter as they ran off Bishop Pass to their death and there is a report about this on High Sierra Topix.
We did have lunch at the new Armadillo Willy’s that has opened up in Dusy Basin and enjoyed their delicious tri-tip sandwiches served up on granite. Unfortunately, the 7-11 has closed. Probably Starbucks coming soon.
We now always bbq tri-tip the night before we start hiking and bring the leftovers for sandwiches on day one of the trip. The trick is the keep the bun from getting smashed in the backpacks.
We were able to fish in the Middle Fork of the Kings River, relax and have a camp fire at Grouse Meadow which was a very beautiful area.
Day 2: Grouse Meadow to Lower Palisade Lake, via the Golden Staircase. 7 miles
We again rose early and managed to make it to Lower Palisade by around 3 pm. The hiking through the area between the Palisade Creek/Middle Fork Kings River junction and the Golden Staircase was mainly forest with many wildflowers.
The hike up the Golden Staircase was quite tiring but marveling at how this trail was built took our minds off of the fatigue.
The Palisade Lakes area was very stunning and we could see many peaks around us.
We did have a short rain and hail storm in the afternoon. This fish proved to be bit elusive and on the small side.
Day 3: Lower Palisade Lake to Main South Fork Kings River Crossing Via Mather Pass. 9.5 miles
We woke early again and we were able to make it to the top of Mather Pass by 11 am. The climb was tough, but again we had overcast skies which kept the sun off of us.
The trail coming down the North side of the pass was another engineering marvel.
Looking back up the North side of the trail.
Views coming down the JMT towards camp.
We made it to camp by 330 pm just in time for the rain to start. We did have on and off rain until about 730 pm when the heavy, persistent rain started and lasted for about 3 hours. This forced us into our tents, were we had to cook dinner, and had to digs trenches to make sure our tents did not flood, but we survived.
Day 4: Main South Fork Kings River Crossing to Bench Lake. 3.5 miles
We made it to Bench Lake by 11 am and had the lake entirely to ourselves for the entire time we were there. Bench Lake is a real gem! We set our camp and then took a day hike to the Emerald Pools located off trail towards the Southwest from the lake. We had good views also of Muro Blanco along the way. Unfortunately the true colors of the pools and exit creek did not show due to over cast, skies, still the area was remarkable.
Bench Lake
Muro Blanco
Emerald Pools area
We caught some nice trout in the late afternoon at Bench Lake and just relaxed. It was really nice to have a down, “spa”, day to rest and to actually spend some time exploring and enjoying an area for once.
We night skies finally started to clear that night and the next morning was amazing.
Day 5: Bench Lake to Woods Lake via Pinchot Pass and Sawmill Pass Trail. 10.5 miles
Again we woke early and hit the trail early. The area from Bench Lake to the Pass was very nice.
As we neared the pass it started raining and then turned to hail. We stayed on the summit just briefly due to the hail and we were peppered along the way down on the North side for about 30 minutes until it finally stopped.
We made it to the Sawmill Pass/JMT junction by early afternoon and started to head up the unmaintained trail towards our destination for the night, which was the largest of the Woods lakes. The trail was at times not easy to find, but for being an unmaintained trail, we never did get lost. There was a very pretty first of the lakes about one mile in.
We made it to the largest Woods Lake by 4 pm and took it easy and rested and fished and cooked for the remainder of the day and were treated to pretty nice sunset finally. Again, we were the only ones at the lake or in the area. We never saw another sole once we got on the Sawmill Pass trail.
I was able to take a few night sky pics also.
Woods Lake Milky Way Timelapse video
[youtube_vid]https://youtu.be/JaI3DRdlkHY[/youtube_vid]
https://youtu.be/JaI3DRdlkHY
Day 6: Day of Days. Exit out over Sawmill Pass and down 7k feet! 10.5 miles
We woke at 530 am to ensure an early start. The hike up to the pass was easy. The wooden pass marker sign needs an upgrade by it a pretty cool sign and looked to be hand carved by Muir himself.
The initial descent was steep but was ok and the route finding was easy and the unmaintained trail only had a few sections that needed maintenance due to downed trees or falling boulders.
The descending trail was relentless and by about noon we were both quite exhausted. We had to keep moving however to ensure that we would make it in time for our shuttle pick up, by SherpaMax, at the trailhead. We managed to make it to the trailhead in time for our pick up but we both had to push ourselves beyond what we thought we could do. The trail become quite hot as we descended into the high desert environment. One saving grace was that the trail was quite soft on the feet as it was made up of many inches deep, fine pulverized granite. Can’t imagine someone hiking up that pass with a full pack!
We made it back to our car at South Lake, via the SherpaMax shuttle(which I would recommend for both being on time and affordable), changed clothes, put on deodorant and drove as fast as possible to the Texas BBQ place in Bishop for beers and brisket! We were a bit disappointed that the restaurant had been slightly upgraded by taking down all of the fly papers hanging from the ceiling and put in new ceiling tiles. The good news is that the lack of flies did not degrade in any way the quality of the brisket!
We did meet quite a few great folks along the trail and camped near many for a few days in succession. About half were doing the entire JMT and the other half were section hikers like us.
Final stats: 6 days, 55 miles, 12k ft vert, 17k ft down. 220,000 steps! Successful trip. Note to self – do not plan any more trips that involve the use of Sawmill Pass.
Couple of last thoughts. One of the best parts of the day that we always looked forward to was the 5 pm “Smoked Gouda and Pistachio” Happy Hour. Grizzly found a couple of years ago that this combo goes great together. I am wondering what your “go to” trail treat is?
This trip I removed the food contents from the freeze dried dinners packages and put the contents into zip lock bags and only brought 2 of the original packages and kept re-using them to reduce waste and bulk of the dinner packages.
As it turned out, we kept to our original schedule and only endured one long afternoon/evening when we had to hunker down in the tent due a rain storm. Although the effect of many clouds sometime dampened the beauty of some areas, the effect of less sun light and heat helped our hiking endurance. Overall, the goals for the trip were to summit two more of the JMT Passes(Mather and Pinchot) and to have a “spa” day at Bench Lake and we accomplished both goals.
Day 1: South Lake to Grouse Meadow via Bishop Pass and Dusy Basin. 13 miles. We camped the night before in the Four Jeffrey Campground, near the South Lake Trailhead. We got up early and got on the trail by 730 am. It was a long day of hiking and we didn’t make it to Grouse Meadow until 530 pm. We tried to hike fast and to not stop very much since we had hiked this area last year. The main highlight, which was actually a lowlight, was the viewing of about 25 dead dear along the trail near the top of Bishop Pass. These are part of deer that perished last winter as they ran off Bishop Pass to their death and there is a report about this on High Sierra Topix.
We did have lunch at the new Armadillo Willy’s that has opened up in Dusy Basin and enjoyed their delicious tri-tip sandwiches served up on granite. Unfortunately, the 7-11 has closed. Probably Starbucks coming soon.
We now always bbq tri-tip the night before we start hiking and bring the leftovers for sandwiches on day one of the trip. The trick is the keep the bun from getting smashed in the backpacks.
We were able to fish in the Middle Fork of the Kings River, relax and have a camp fire at Grouse Meadow which was a very beautiful area.
Day 2: Grouse Meadow to Lower Palisade Lake, via the Golden Staircase. 7 miles
We again rose early and managed to make it to Lower Palisade by around 3 pm. The hiking through the area between the Palisade Creek/Middle Fork Kings River junction and the Golden Staircase was mainly forest with many wildflowers.
The hike up the Golden Staircase was quite tiring but marveling at how this trail was built took our minds off of the fatigue.
The Palisade Lakes area was very stunning and we could see many peaks around us.
We did have a short rain and hail storm in the afternoon. This fish proved to be bit elusive and on the small side.
Day 3: Lower Palisade Lake to Main South Fork Kings River Crossing Via Mather Pass. 9.5 miles
We woke early again and we were able to make it to the top of Mather Pass by 11 am. The climb was tough, but again we had overcast skies which kept the sun off of us.
The trail coming down the North side of the pass was another engineering marvel.
Looking back up the North side of the trail.
Views coming down the JMT towards camp.
We made it to camp by 330 pm just in time for the rain to start. We did have on and off rain until about 730 pm when the heavy, persistent rain started and lasted for about 3 hours. This forced us into our tents, were we had to cook dinner, and had to digs trenches to make sure our tents did not flood, but we survived.
Day 4: Main South Fork Kings River Crossing to Bench Lake. 3.5 miles
We made it to Bench Lake by 11 am and had the lake entirely to ourselves for the entire time we were there. Bench Lake is a real gem! We set our camp and then took a day hike to the Emerald Pools located off trail towards the Southwest from the lake. We had good views also of Muro Blanco along the way. Unfortunately the true colors of the pools and exit creek did not show due to over cast, skies, still the area was remarkable.
Bench Lake
Muro Blanco
Emerald Pools area
We caught some nice trout in the late afternoon at Bench Lake and just relaxed. It was really nice to have a down, “spa”, day to rest and to actually spend some time exploring and enjoying an area for once.
We night skies finally started to clear that night and the next morning was amazing.
Day 5: Bench Lake to Woods Lake via Pinchot Pass and Sawmill Pass Trail. 10.5 miles
Again we woke early and hit the trail early. The area from Bench Lake to the Pass was very nice.
As we neared the pass it started raining and then turned to hail. We stayed on the summit just briefly due to the hail and we were peppered along the way down on the North side for about 30 minutes until it finally stopped.
We made it to the Sawmill Pass/JMT junction by early afternoon and started to head up the unmaintained trail towards our destination for the night, which was the largest of the Woods lakes. The trail was at times not easy to find, but for being an unmaintained trail, we never did get lost. There was a very pretty first of the lakes about one mile in.
We made it to the largest Woods Lake by 4 pm and took it easy and rested and fished and cooked for the remainder of the day and were treated to pretty nice sunset finally. Again, we were the only ones at the lake or in the area. We never saw another sole once we got on the Sawmill Pass trail.
I was able to take a few night sky pics also.
Woods Lake Milky Way Timelapse video
[youtube_vid]https://youtu.be/JaI3DRdlkHY[/youtube_vid]
https://youtu.be/JaI3DRdlkHY
Day 6: Day of Days. Exit out over Sawmill Pass and down 7k feet! 10.5 miles
We woke at 530 am to ensure an early start. The hike up to the pass was easy. The wooden pass marker sign needs an upgrade by it a pretty cool sign and looked to be hand carved by Muir himself.
The initial descent was steep but was ok and the route finding was easy and the unmaintained trail only had a few sections that needed maintenance due to downed trees or falling boulders.
The descending trail was relentless and by about noon we were both quite exhausted. We had to keep moving however to ensure that we would make it in time for our shuttle pick up, by SherpaMax, at the trailhead. We managed to make it to the trailhead in time for our pick up but we both had to push ourselves beyond what we thought we could do. The trail become quite hot as we descended into the high desert environment. One saving grace was that the trail was quite soft on the feet as it was made up of many inches deep, fine pulverized granite. Can’t imagine someone hiking up that pass with a full pack!
We made it back to our car at South Lake, via the SherpaMax shuttle(which I would recommend for both being on time and affordable), changed clothes, put on deodorant and drove as fast as possible to the Texas BBQ place in Bishop for beers and brisket! We were a bit disappointed that the restaurant had been slightly upgraded by taking down all of the fly papers hanging from the ceiling and put in new ceiling tiles. The good news is that the lack of flies did not degrade in any way the quality of the brisket!
We did meet quite a few great folks along the trail and camped near many for a few days in succession. About half were doing the entire JMT and the other half were section hikers like us.
Final stats: 6 days, 55 miles, 12k ft vert, 17k ft down. 220,000 steps! Successful trip. Note to self – do not plan any more trips that involve the use of Sawmill Pass.
Couple of last thoughts. One of the best parts of the day that we always looked forward to was the 5 pm “Smoked Gouda and Pistachio” Happy Hour. Grizzly found a couple of years ago that this combo goes great together. I am wondering what your “go to” trail treat is?
This trip I removed the food contents from the freeze dried dinners packages and put the contents into zip lock bags and only brought 2 of the original packages and kept re-using them to reduce waste and bulk of the dinner packages.
