On a two week trip in the mid-80's, I skirted the edge of a wild, trailless area we called the Lake Basins. I had come down to the Middle Fork of the Kings from "Enchanted Gorge," after hiking through Ionian Basin for the first time. I was keen on exploring all of the most remote areas of the Sierra, and this Lake Basins area was the next in line... yet it took me till this year to finally get up there! Coming up the Middle Fork on that 1986 trip, I almost chose to head south up Cataract Creek to enter the northernmost of the three "Lake Basins," but I was lured away by visions of climbing in the Palisades, and Evolution Valley. Since then, the Lake Basins area has been in and out of my vision, and my plans. Ten thousand things, plus the dog restriction, have been in the way until just now. Strange turn of events-- one month ago Bearzy and I crossed Taboose Pass, and gazed at the wall of Cirque Crest that guards the Lake Basins from the south and east. That set the hook in me again. On the way back down the nasty, rocky trail, Bearzy broke his dew claw. Then back home, he sliced his forearm, and so, Bearzy was sidelined. My friend Frank was free, and Voile! a trip was born. We would head in again via Taboose Creek, exactly one month after my last trip over that same pass, and finally get to explore the named "Lake Basin" of the main fork of Cartridge Creek, and the "Dumbbell Lakes" basin of the northern branch.
Our route after crossing Taboose Pass was straight across the South Fork of the Kings, then up the south slope of Cartridge Pass. Here is that section in photos:
You begin the T.Creek trail in lizard habitat, and a desert flower garden. Last month it was the Lupines blooming, this month it was the penstemon, buckwheat, and chia sage who were in peak bloom. This is
Penstemon floridus, or Panamint beardtongue, and it was found everywhere from 6,000' to 7,500.'
There is a thin conifer belt beginning at 8,000.' This is where I saw the Bear on my way down and out last month. No such luck this time, but these white fir, and Jeffrey pines trees are also home to Woodpeckers, Grouse, Squirrels, and one sunset-colored Western tanager, all of whom I had the luck to see.
The willow flowers had turned to wind-blown seeds. When I lobbed a stone into these stems, a cloud of puffy white seeds floated all around me like snowfall.
The currants were also in full flower. That forest belt is a very welcome surprise on the way up T. Creek. All of a sudden you feel cool, water is everywhere, birds are singing. Frank and I chose to stop there for our first night.
As an amateur scatologist, I can pick apart bear scat to my heart's content. This bear had been eating old pine nuts (lower right), and chewing up willows, perhaps for the seeds. This bear is not particular, there were bits of granite in his scat too.
Above is the water birch as I found it in late April, and below are the same plants on May 28.
Much of the T. Creek trail surface is composed of loose, angular rock, and stable footing is rare. I find it especially hard on the way down. Still, it is a wildly beautiful canyon, and so strikingly different from the interior Sierra that one finds beyond the pass, it is as though you get to experience two totally different mountain ranges.
The rocks at the top of the pass can be fascinating, like this oddity. The green inclusions are baseball to softball-sized spheres. I even brought one home with me though it weighs 4 lbs!
When you finally pass behind the great orange wall of Mt. Goodale, you find that wall to be part of a very striking mountain, with multiple peaks.
Properly trained, a man can be dog’s best friend.
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