Ionian Basin Loop

[ausreisser]

Ionian Basin Loop: Lake Sabrina, Echo Col, Helen Lake, Black Giant Pass, Chasm Lake, Lake 11592, Goddard Pass, Martha Lake, Davis Lake, JMT, Lamarck Col

This is a belated trip report on a solo backpack I did at age 70 during the pandemic in the summer of 2020. The reason I’m reporting now is that I met a hiker on top of Cirque Pass this year who was very interested in this route. So this report is for the highsierratopix user “slepak”, who has a great love of the Sierra.

Some of the landmarks I mention are shown in the 7.5-minute topo maps and others are shown on CalTopo. You can see my tracks here: https://caltopo.com/m/V7NFPD8. And you can also see how my Garmin GPS got confused in the vicinity of the appropriately named Echo Col.

Day 1: Lake Sabrina to Echo Lake. There is some talus to get through in the vicinity of Moonlight Lake but it ends above the lake and the rest of the route to Echo Lake is straightforward.

Day 2: Echo Lake to Helen Lake – I’d been over Echo Col twice before but of course conditions are different each time. This time I wanted to avoid the very loose ascent up the right-hand side of the col so I cut across the snowfield intending to reach a set of ledges that intersect the trail. But I was crossing early in the day – the further I advanced the less happy I was about the firmness of the snow and the angle of the snowfield. So I used my ice ax to cut steps until I could get onto the rock ledges. This was very time-consuming; in the meantime two backpackers came up from below and quickly ascended the scree on the right. After the short, steep descent at the top of the pass I went just about due south, keeping the inlet of Lake 11428 on my left. As I learned on a previous trip, descending in this direction leads to a decent grassy ramp down to the lake. I followed the lake shore and turned slightly southwest at 11S 0353798E 4110408N to find the straightforward ramps that lead to the Muir Trail.

Day 3: Helen Lake to Lake 11592. The most difficult part of this segment was the ascent from Chasm Lake to Lake 11592. The narrow ravine was full of large blocks; I tried going steeply up the side to cut across but this was exhausting in itself. At the lake I decided that I would see in the morning whether I had enough energy to continue or whether to bail out over Wanda Pass.

Day 4: I was somewhat surprised that I felt good enough to continue. After a short ascent at the southeast end of Lake 11592 there was a difficult traverse around Lake 11837 – difficult because cliffs made it impossible to walk the shoreline. After an ascent to an unnamed pass at 12000’ the terrain was quite moderate between Lakes 11818, 11951, Goddard Peak Pass, and Goddard Col. Soon I was looking down about 1500’ to Martha Lake at 11004. I made it down to the lake, which has a wide grassy perimeter, by following ramps on the right and ascended a small ridge to a good campsite at Lake 11184.

Day 5 started well but ended with difficulties. The plan was to go north and then northeast to Martha Davis Pass. I got there easily and could see the magnificent sight of the enormous Lake Davis 1000 feet below. But I could not see a way down that I was willing to risk; I know from CalTopo that people have done this descent but I could see only scree and exposure in that direction. So I turned back and decided to continue generally northwest, circling around Peak 12434 (near the top-left corner of the Mt. Goddard 7.5 minute topo) while losing as little altitude as possible. The idea of staying high was all right in theory but didn’t work out because of a series of steep-sided ravines that kept pushing me lower and lower towards the confluence of North Goddard Creek (the outlet of Davis Lake) and the South Fork of the San Joaquin River coming out of Martha Lake. After a lot of up-and-down and some bushwhacking (I hate this) in the ravine bottoms I finally made it to the creek and ascended without difficulty to a point one short climb west of Davis Lake. I still am not sure of the best route – there must be a trail along the outlet of Davis Lake because near my campsite I met two fishermen who had come up that way.

Day 6: made the long traverse of the south side (I crossed the isthmus) of the very beautiful, stark, and isolated Davis Lake – a good deal of it over boulders – followed by a steep 700’ climb up to Davis Lake Pass, which overlooks Wanda Lake and the Muir Trail. It’s amazing to think that the huge Davis Lake is separated by one ridge from the JMT. The descent was very easy through a sparse boulder field and hiking on the Muir Trail was like being on Highway 5. I made it to the first lake on Darwin Bench.

Day 7: over Lamarck Col and out. Just below the Col I dismantled a monstrous cairn that looked like an imitation of Angkor Wat. I arrived at North Lake by 3:30 but had to walk to my car at Lake Sabrina. There just wasn’t anyone going down at that hour.

[tomba]

Thank you for a great first post!

PM to slepak sent.

[Slepak]

Hi ausreisser!
You remembered! Thank you very much! It was so great to talk to you, I could not imagine a better place to meet a person like you!

[sjforman]

Great post indeed, thanks for sharing this @ausreisser!

Considering Ionian basin as a destination among some other possibilities for this summer & this is a very helpful starting point.

[Flamingo]

Hi @ausreisser, thank-you for sharing your TR. I appreciated following along with your CalTopo track. I'm headed to Ionian this summer, and you got me curious about Martha Davis Pass. I had not heard of it before, but indeed I see it marked on CalTopo (on the MapBuilder Topo layer). However, I'm not finding other HST reports mentioning it. I'm curious if you---or anyone else reading this thread---has more information about this pass?

[Gazelle]

I have been over this pass as I accessed both 13040 and 12434 from it. I went end of july 2019, I found no problems but there was snow. These are some pictures of it. peak 13040 was a little exciting, especially solo.

looking down to davis lakes

over to mcgee from pass

towards easy part of 13040

side of 13040 towards martha lake

pretty sure snow I went down

my track

[thegib]

I went over M-D pass w/o snow and found it straightforward stable talus. Didn't register as threatening at all. I remember a camera-trap at the top, so look your best. Like Gazelle I went up peak 13040 and it was plenty scary enough for me. I always forget how much dicier non-granite is.