On our hike last year, Brian suggested this trip for this year. It’s to one of his favorite basins in the Sierra and had a great peak for me to climb.
Brian, Dave, and I timed our arrival at the Taboose Pass Trailhead to coincide with the sun disappearing behind the Sierra Crest. It would have been too hot in the valley this time of year. A nice breeze from the mountains kept us relatively cool and we prepared dinner. We went to bed early since we had an early start planned for the morning.
Day 1 (8.7 miles / 6000 ft gain; 14 km / 1828 m gain)
After breakfast, we headed out with about 30 min left before the sun appeared over the White Mountains. Fortunately, some low clouds shielded us and we were able to gain some elevation before it got too hot. Taboose Pass is one of the 4 “nasty” passes (Baxter, Shepherd, Sawmill, Taboose) to get into the Sierra from the east. The nasties have between 6,000 and 7,000 ft of elevation gain. We knew it would be a hard day with heavy packs loaded with supplies for 7 days. So we each settled into our own pace.
From the top of the pass, we went down along the unmaintained trail. Once we got to some trees, we looked for a campsite. Dave found a great spot that has been used for 100’s (1000’s?) of years. We could tell because the area close by was littered with obsidian shards. There is no local obsidian up here, it was all brought up by people. Taboose Pass has been part of a route across the Sierra for a very long time.
(click on any image to enlarge/start slide show)
Day 2 (4.63 miles / 1565 ft gain; 7.45 km / 477 m gain)
We continued down to the South Fork Kings River and crossed it. It was much lower this year than when I came here 2 years ago and we were able to rock-hop across. Now we continued a short distance on the John Muir Trail (JMT) before following the river west. Just before the turnoff, we met a hiker and during a little chat, it turned out she was a serious rock climber/peakbagger. When she heard that we wanted to do Observation Peak she said: “Uh, that’s a great get”. Validating what Brian had told me.
Brian and Dave had warned me of some talus fields to cross, but we found the old, unmaintained trail along the river. It added 2 river crossings, but that was well worth the effort compared to the tedious negotiation of talus fields.
Next, we had a 1,400 ft climb up a steep, sandy, unmaintained trail. The reward for the effort was a beautiful lake and a campsite overlooking the South Fork Kings River valley with the imposing mountains above it.
Day 3 (3.17 miles / 1102ft gain; 5.1 km / 336 m gain)
We continued up to the top of Cartridge Pass where I got my first view of Lake Basin. The northern side of the Pass was steep and the use-trail sandy. Once at the first lake, we stopped and filtered some water. The easy availability of water with all the streams and lakes in good shape allowed us never to have to carry more than about a liter of water.
We went down further into the basin to find a campsite that would give Dave and me a good starting point for Observation Peak and Brian for Marion Lake the next day. We found a nice spot and set up for 2 nights.
Day 4, Observation Peak (12,362 ft, 3768 m), (7.7 miles / 3800ft gain; 12.4 km / 1158 m gain)
Dave, who had been at the peak many years ago, and I started around 7 am to take advantage of the cool morning air. In fact, there was frost on the ground. We headed up to Dumbbell Pass and soon reached the top for the first view of Observation Peak. The north side of the pass was steep, had loose talus and had an ice field we had to cross. Fortunately, the ice field was almost level and easy to negotiate with just boots. It took us quite a while to find a route down to the lower Dumbbell Lake. At the outlet of the lake, we topped of water and had some snacks.
Crossing the Dumbell Lake Basin was easy, but we had to give up a few hundred feet of precious elevation. We aimed for Cataract Pass from where we intended to follow the ridge to the top. A little before the pass we came across a sandy slope that served us as a shortcut to the ridge. The remainder of the climb was over talus, mostly quite big. I ended up bush whacking a little not being comfortable with some of the exposure on the edge of the ridge.
The view from the top was amazing! There was no cloud anywhere in the sky and the air was very clear. As we were signing the peak register a young guy came up. He was fast. For a somewhat remote peak like this, it was a bit of a surprise to have company.
For the descent, we went straight down, first through talus and then a sandy slope. While shorter than our ascent I would not choose this slope to go up. At Dumbbell Pass we took a good look and found a better route up. Much easier going than what we had tackled on the way down.
At camp, we met Brian who also had just come back from his exploration. We took a dip in a lake, had dinner, and talked about our day’s experiences.
Day 5 (4.98 miles / 1860ft gain; 8.02 km / 567 m gain)
We took a different route to Cartridge Pass and then retraced our steps to the South Fork Kings River. There we had planned to cross the river and climb up 1,000 ft to Bench Lake. However, looking for a crossing we saw some very enticing pools in the river. It was warm and already 15:30. So it did not take long to decide to camp right there and dip into the river and skip Bench Lake. We all had been at the lake before, so it was not a big loss. Cooling off in the river and then warming up on the rocks felt so good. Certainly a highlight of the trip. At dinner time a doe with two fawns walked right through camp just giving us a casual glance but otherwise totally unconcerned.
Day 6 (8.34 miles / 2300ft gain; 13.42 km / 701 m gain)
We returned to the JMT the way we had come. At the river crossings, Dave showed off his superior balance by crossing on a big log, even doing a Yoga pose in the middle, and making some rock hops that allowed for no margin of error. Brian and I went with the more conservative approach of fording. At the JMT we chose to follow it south to the crossing of the trail to Taboose Pass, rather than retracing the unmaintained trail we had come down. This gave us different scenery and hiking up on a well-groomed trail is simply much more comfortable. By this time we felt we had done enough rough stuff.
We crossed Taboose Pass and went down to 9,600 ft where there are some nice campsites. This left us with a little over 5 miles and 4,000ft of elevation loss for the next day. There are not many good campsites in the canyon, so this site is popular, and with that comes thieves. As soon as the sun was down little mice started darting around. One of them ended up eating a hole into the belt pocket of Dave’s pack where he had forgotten some electrolytes.
On the way down some trail runners passed us, and then there were more while we were at camp. I started to speculate that this might be Bob Burd’s Sierra Challenge, which is held in August. Turns out that’s exactly what it was. They were on day 8 of 10. Kind of cool to run into this informal event I had heard about years ago.
Day 7 (5.17 miles / 100ft gain; 8.31 km / 30 m gain)
After coffee, we headed down and arrived at the trucks around 10:00. Along the way a rattler crossed the trail in front of me. It was not happy and vigorously rattling. We cleaned up, had a little celebratory after-hike beer, and started our journeys home.
Another great week in the Sierra!
River crossing: