Anyway this year I had a window of time of free time in June, and of course it’s a low snow year. And I’ve been contemplating a route that some of my family would not be interested in. Thus this solo adventure.
My planned route was as follows: Begin at the Big Pine trailhead. Brainerd Lake or so (I’ve never been to Brainerd Lake), then over the tall ridge to the east to Birch Lake (never been there), then south over Birch Creek Pass (never been there) to the lakes above the JMT & Palisade Lake basin (never been there), west & north over Cirque or Chimney Pass to the lake at the head of Glacier Creek (been there as a lunch stop on the standard Dusy to Palisade cross-country traverse, liked it a lot), over Scimitar Pass (never been there) to Elinore Lake (never been there) and back to the trailhead. My window to complete was six days. Ambitious.
As it happens, I’ve still never been to most of these places.
In the map below, the purple is my planned route. Orange is actual, as described following:
I got off to a late start – began hiking from the Big Pine trailhead at ~1:00pm. Weather reports called for chilly & windy weather the first 2 days of my hike… then supposed to turn balmy. Chilly & windy was OK with me – still worried about mosquitos.
The trail into the South Fork drainage is well-defined until it gets uphill from (south of) Willow Lake, then it splits in various directions and is ‘unmaintained’. I passed and occasionally chatted with a number of folks on this trail, some intending to climb or at least approach Middle Palisade, also many folks hiking with their dogs. It was getting late-ish, I was a bit knackered and I came to fork in the vague trail to Brainerd – either down into a brushy area or on up a ridge. Rather than choose a direction I chose to crash on the spot… would leave that decision to morning.
Day 2
I was hiking by 6am. I chose to go up the ridge… this route took me around the brush, across a talus slope and spit me out on a ridge above Brainerd Lake. I needed to get to the other side of Brainerd, so descended and crossed the outlet stream. There I noted a trail coming up from below – likely this was the way I would’ve come if I had chosen to dive into the brush. Would’ve saved time I’m sure.
I wasn’t impressed with Brainerd, as Sierra lakes over 10,000 ft go. Set in a little bowl, such that the only camp spots are near the outlet. A fair amount of brush in the potential camping area and on this day pretty crowded with campers.
Up the hillslope on the east side of Brainerd. Over a small ridge into the next valley – pretty meadows, a stream still crusted with ice in the morning. I filled up with water and began the serious attack of the SFBigPine-to-Birch ridge.
The contour map and observation suggested that the main ascension of this ridge is via a long 2000-vertical-foot incline – nothing too scary. There is a short & steep slope to get to the bottom of this incline though. I angled NE to get to the bottom of this slope. There was talus, and some rock outcrops to work between, and then scree with intermingled pine brush that provided branches to grab onto and pull myself up the scree. Done – now to begin the long incline.
There’s not much to tell here. I spent all afternoon walking up this hill. All on rocks… sometimes smaller rocks imbedded in the ground, other times small or medium-sized talus. There were false summits of course, i.e., I thought I was nearing the top only to see another ridgeline further up – that’s to be expected. But as the afternoon went on such unrealized expectations got more discouraging. Finally it was 5:00, the next ridge was a ½-hour away, and (even if that ridge was the top) I still had a 2000-ft descent to Birch Lake. I had to abort, both my attempt to get to Birch and my planned loop as a whole.
The thing is that I’m just Too Dang Slow. I’ve never been a fast hiker. Right now I have ankle issues on one side and a perpetually sore knee on the other. These affect my balance, and also my willingness to hop across small or medium-sized gaps. I use my hiking poles liberally to help with balance, but in such cross-country terrain it means that I have to choose spots to put down 4 appendages instead of 2. Which takes time. All my body parts (with the possible exception of one ACL) have been in use 7 decades now, so there’s no guarantee that it’ll get better.
But enough Whining.
I retreated back down the slope a few hundred feet to a saddle. This saddle had a few things going for it as a campsite: A flat-ish area that could be used for sleeping, a nearby snowbank as a water source, and incredible views to the east in one direction (looking over Owens Valley & the White Mtns) and to the west (Palisades!). A strong and chilly wind was blowing through, but Hey! – no chance of mosquitos. I slept well.
[Continued ---]
