Last weekend Kevin suggested to go up to the Sierra for a quick 1-night backpacking trip. Initially I balked at the 300 miles driving each way, but then his enthusiasm got me exited and I signed up for it.We agreed to do a little research and then just drive up to Lone Pine and see what permits we could get. Our goals were simple: a) get up to some higher elevation b) spent a night camping in the back country. We met Saturday morning at my place, transferred Kevin’s gear and headed north. As we discussed possible targets for our hike we noticed that both of us had Taboose Pass on our list of ideas. So it was settled, we would try to get a permit for there. We arrived at the Lone Pine visitor center just before noon after a quick stop in Pearsonville to fill up and grab some sandwiches. We went to the permit desk and asked for a Taboose Creek Trail head permit, which was available and issued in no time. Afterwards we sat outside the visitor center under some trees enjoying perfect views of the Sierra while eating our lunch. After lunch we drove about an hour to the trail head.
The trail head is located at the end of a dirt road that starts out as a graded road and then gets progressively rougher. The 1.5-5 miles should only be attempted by high clearance vehicles, with the truck it was actually fun to drive :). There was one other truck parked at the trail head. We changed into hiking clothes, arranged our backpacks and set off at about 2:15pm. The sky was clear with some clouds starting to move over the mountains from the north west. South of us in the distance we could see some rain falling, not a good omen…
We started at 5300ft and made good progress as the trail starts out gently climbing towards Taboose Creek canyon. By 3:30 we were at 7000ft and the clouds had thickened and actually started to let out some precipitation, a mixture of rain and graupel. The canyon is pretty narrow and did not look like it would offer many good camp spots. As we happened to be at a spot that might accommodate one tent we decided to wait for a little bit. After 40 minutes things cleared up and we decided to push ahead a bit more. Around 5pm it started to rain harder again and we stopped for half an hour under some dense trees at 8100ft. When it let up a little half an hour later we continued because we were running low on day light. Just 100ft higher we found a perfect, previously used camp spot that could easily hold 3 tents if needed. Since the clouds were thick, we were wet and cold, and it did not look like the rain would stop we decided to set up camp right there. We were in no mood to continue and face the risk of putting up our tents in the dark, in the rain and on some uneven ground. Lacking experience it setting up in the rain we both got wet inside tent floors, got to practice this a little more. We were not hungry, so we skipped dinner. Around 7:30 as I was putting the bear canister away from the tents I ran into a couple of day hikers coming down the trail. They talked about snow further up and they looked pretty wet. From this point they probably had at least 3h hiking to their vehicle. We, on the other hand, just crawled into our warm sleeping bags and rested.
We got up at sunrise to completely clear skies. It was cold, very cold. We had plenty of ice on our tent rain flies inside and outside. We wore all the clothes we had brought and were barely comfortable. Hands and feet were a bit cold. The cold did slow us down in our breakfast preparation and packing for the day hike so that we did not hit the trail until 8am. 40 minutes later at 9000ft we met the hikers who’s truck we had seen at the trail head. They were camped at a spot right by the creek and we filled up our water bladders. The encounter and filtering took about 20 minutes, then we were off again. Right away we saw a couple of deer in front of us on the trail. They also detected us and checked us out. They ended up staying ahead of us for about 40 minutes and we saw lots of dear trail in the saw all the way to the pass. Talking about snow, at a little over 10,000ft there was more than just a snow dusting and there was about 1-2 inches of snow on the trail and rocks. Enough to make waking on rocky sections more treacherous than normal, this should become an issue later in the day. We took quick snack breaks every hour and used those times to watch the constantly changing fog/clouds around us. Views would open up for brief moments, the sun would peek out for short intervals, then we were surrounded by very cold fog again. We reached the pass plateau at 11,100 ft just before 11am. Finding the way to the actual pass and pass sign required some route finding skill with the little snow cover obscuring the trail just enough. The deer tracks helped some because apparently they like the people path and we saw plenty of tracks following the trail, more than from just the two deer we had encountered. We reached the sign at 11:12am, it was very windy and we put on some more clothing.
In the blowing fog we tried to make out the peak we were going to attempt, Cardinal Mountain. We caught glimpses of the the ridge we wanted to start out on and headed for it. Did I mention it was cold? In the wind on the path both of us had very cold fingers, we just didn’t have the kind of gloves these conditions would require. In addition Kevin’s feet were cold from wet boots. We decide to keep on going to see if conditions improved. They did, a little, when we got to the ridge and could get a bit on the lee side. We climbed up going north on some talus/scree. When we reached the point where our route had us turn east up a very steep slope for the remaining 1400ft of climbing the snow layer became a problem. Climbing this type of surface always dislodges and moves the rocks. When it’s dry and one can see the rocks one is about to step on, one develops a feeling how they may move and one can prepare for it. With the snow layer we did not see the rocks and when they slipped they did so more then they would without snow. In addition we slipped off of rocks. Bottom line we were moving at a snails pace. We had set a turn around time to guarantee that we would be back on the maintained try before 6pm, we did not want to be on steep slops in the dark, especially with the current conditions. It became apparent that it was very unlikely that we could make the peak in time. We also did not know if all the snow might melt during the day or if what was soft now would freeze and become ice. So just after 1pm we made the always tough decision to turn around at about 12,000 ft.
We found a flat spot behind a big boulder and cooked up a meal and some hot broth. We enjoyed the food with spectacular views west and south from Taboose pass. At 2:30pm we started our descent. With only short brakes for snacks and to check out some camp sites in the canyon we reached our tents just before 5pm. Taking down camp and packing took about 45 minutes so that we left with a little under an hour before sunset, maybe 1.5h of light including twilight. We pushed the pace trying to avoid hiking with head lamps which is always a little slower. In the end we made it to the truck with no time to spare, any longer and we would have needed the light.
We changed, loaded our gear in the truck and headed down the dirt road. Suddenly Kevin alerted me to a very unusual light in the sky over the mountains. It was very bright, appeared stationary and we heard no sound. Really no other explanation than UFO. We looked at it for a bit, then saw it change shape and suddenly Kevin remembered that there was supposed to be a SpaceX launch from Vandenberg. That explained it, so not quite UFO, but space related. We stopped in Lone Pine for some mediocre (at best) fast food and started our track home. At 1:30am we arrived, transferred Kevin’s gear to his car and a great weekend came to an end.
It was well worth the long drive. Lots of new stuff: setting up tent in the rain, a new trail over a new pass into the Sierra, experiencing scree in different conditions. We will have to go back and finish that mountain and maybe tackle some of it’s neighbors.
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Great hike guys! Looks like a Fun mix of everything. The pictures of Kevin grimacing in the rain and Kevin looking upset about not making the peak really capture the emotion quite well ;). As always, amazing views from the Sierra – I really miss those mountains.
Great photos and a great sounding trip but it looked and sounded maybe a little too cold for me.
Great adventure. Shame you guys didn’t have more time. Lots of driving. Beautiful pix. Maybe we can do this again….when it’s not so cold!!