TR: Kaweah Canyon to Nine Lakes Basin, June 11-17

[csc]

This was my my wife's and my first Sierra Nevada backpacking trip. It was incredible. Long story short, although while planning we were worried about the snow above Hamilton Lake early in the season, it ended up being the perfect time to go as the snow was just melted enough to follow the trail over Kaweah Gap without too much trouble, there were no mosquito bites (mosquitoes would hover in the air after sunset, but they never bit us), the wildflowers were phenomenal, and it wasn't too hot. Presumably there were fewer people on the trail too.

A general impression I have as a first time Sierra backpacker is that we were way too ambitious in planning how many miles we would go each day. The packs at probably ~40-45 pounds felt very heavy. After getting past Bearpaw Meadow, it was a pleasure to do a few days of just a few miles each day. I would amend this itinerary by adding a zero-mile day in the Nine Lakes Basin, but other than that, this was a great one-week trip. I want to express thanks to the HST community for helping with the planning.

Also, helpful information we received while on the trail--once up in the higher country--Hamilton Creek and up--the abundant marmots and deer will apparently chew on anything with your sweat on it. We were specifically warned about trekking poles. We saw someone's poor pants that had been left outside their tent to dry totally shredded by a marmot. Out of precaution, we slept with all our gear in our tent for a few nights.

Trip Report:

June 11 - When we arrived at the park, we rented a bear canister from Lodgepole visitor center and got our wilderness permit. When we reserved our permit, the High Sierra Trail permits were all booked, so we needed to reserve for the Alta trailhead. Fortunately, getting a walk up permit for the High Sierra Trail was not an issue even though we didn't arrive until about 2:00 pm (this was a Monday). Since we couldn't pack our backpacks until we'd rented the bear canister from the visitor center, we had to take some time at the trailhead to pack up our bags. We eventually hit the trail at 5:30 pm, aiming to just make it a couple miles in before setting up camp. We hadn't expected that given the terrain there, there was *nowhere* to camp until we got to Mehrten Creek. We arrived to Mehrten Creek by headlamp and eventually found a nice flat spot to set up our tent. Although this day was supposed to be one of our easiest days in terms of mileage and elevation gain, we felt beat!

June 12 - Mehrten Creek was a great place to wake up! We had breakfast on a boulder and saw the view across the valley to Castle Rocks that we hadn't seen the day before when we arrived in the dark. We pumped water out of the creek and hiked to Bearpaw Meadow, where we got the first glimpse of the Hamilton Creek Basin and the Kaweah Gap (our future destinations), and saw a crew disassembling an old ranger cabin, and hauling off the debris by helicopter. The crew members gave us very helpful information about the trail ahead and we enjoyed talking with them. We had seen the helicopter carrying loads back-and-forth was the a long rope and big pouch underneath all day, and had speculated that it could have been a search and rescue helicopter or a firefighter, but fortunately it wasn't either. Along the way, we encountered a rattlesnake during the descent into Buck Canyon, which we passed very close to, prompting a rattle. Later in the day (while descending into the Lone Pine Creek Valley), we saw a California mountain kingsnake, which was red, black, and yellow striped. On the way to Bearpaw Meadow, We got some some nice views, and passed a couple groups of pack animals hauling supplies in and out of the valley. Wild flowers were everywhere and amazing! There were many different kinds and they seemed to be all in peak bloom. We finished that day by going to Lone Pine Creek, where we passed over a deep gorge with a raging river on a bridge (and saw the wreckage of the old bridge beneath us), and enjoyed a delicious meal while watching the sunset light up the mountains that we would go up soon.

June 13- We hiked from Lone Pine to Hamilton Lake. We started the day by spending many minutes pumping water as our pump was in need of a cleaning. The trail up was very steep, but has beautiful views the whole way. There was a long waterfall in the valley that we walked toward for a long time and eventually crossed over the top of by crawling over a log. Even though it was only shin-deep, I did not feel comfortable with this crossing since it was right at the top of the big waterfall! There were beautiful mountains on both sides. Especially spectacular was Valhalla as we approached the lake. Once at the lake, the site was so lovely that we decided to set up camp even though we had only gone 2.5 miles that day, especially since we weren't sure if there would be good camping sites farther up the trail (ended up being the right call). There were several marmots running around as we pumped water and a deer that came by in the evening. The sunset lighting up the mountains around the basin was stunning. We did some night time photography of the Milky Way over Eagle Scout Peak. It was the new moon, so the skies were especially dark.

June 14 - Today we headed to the Kaweah Gap. The climb was tough, but since we were expecting a very hard time, it ended up not being so bad after all. The hike was very long and hot, but the views were incredible all the way. We started in a landscape with lots of plants, wildflowers and awesome old, gnarled juniper trees and ended up at the top of the valley in just rocks and snow. We had to cross over several cascades on the way to the middle lake of the valley, where we stopped for lunch. The marmots were so bold at the middle lake that we had to continually chase them away from our packs with our hiking poles. They just kept coming back over and over again. We saw two marmots fight over territory and one guarded his hole valiantly. After lunch we continued up to Precipice Lake. There was no snow on the trail until we were almost at Precipice Lake. The lake was totally covered in snow and ice and there was nowhere to camp, so we continued on over the Gap to Nine Lakes Basin. Finding our way through the snow was challenging to begin with, but once we found the trail, we could follow it pretty easily. No traction devices were necessary. The area between Precipice Lake and the Gap was amazing. There were crazy bogs with lush green grass and moss and even frogs croaking, even though the ground was barely thawed. Crossing the Gap was awesome and we immediately had amazing views. The Basin was incredible and we were totally surrounded by stunning mountains and big boulders strewn everywhere on the ground. We had the basin all to ourselves, with no one else around. Once the direct sunlight was blocked by the mountains behind us, it got cold fast, but we got to watch the setting sun light up the mountains orange/red all around us for a long time from the comfort of our sleeping bags and open air tent. The stars were amazing this night.

June 15 - In the morning we discovered that our silicone cooking pot had been chewed through by animals (should have hung it from a tree!). We ate breakfast down by the river and pumped water. It was a very scenic spot with the river and the mountains all around us. We hiked back over the Gap, enjoyed the frogs croaking again, and stopped at Precipice Lake. Precipice had amazing cliffs and crazy rocks as a backdrop. Small holes in the ice over the lake showed that the lake was vivid turquoise-blue and teal--similar to the blue in icebergs. We chatted with some other hikers for a while and then headed back down the trail to Hamilton Lakes, which seemed to take forever. We made it down in about half the time it took to go up. As we got closer to the lake, Valhalla loomed larger and larger all the time. We stopped at Hamilton Lake for a long, leisurely lunch and soaked our feet in the lake. The lake was so nice that we decided to just stay there for the night again. Since our cooking pot was holey from the rodent, we did a cold water soak of our cous cous and chicken dinner in a Nalgene which worked surprisingly well. We enjoyed the sunset illuminating the mountains all over again.

June 16 - We left Hamilton Lake early and began the long downhill hike back to Mehrten Creek. We found a much easier way to cross the waterfall as someone had set up stones for crossing, rather than having to take off shoes and walk through the river. We stopped briefly at Bearpaw Meadow to check in with the rangers who had given us advice on the way out. We enjoyed lunch in Buck Canyon, which had a river rapidly flowing through (but it is bridged). No rattlesnakes on the way back up at this time! At Mehrten Creek, we hiked the ridiculously steep and slippery hill that the campsites were on, and ended up at a great tent site where we had amazing views all around. It got cold quickly as the sun went down, and we ran off to bed as soon as we could. We enjoyed the views until dark and could see the lights of the city below.

June 17- We woke up early when the sun came up (5:45!) and started hiking back towards the trailhead. It was cold! We did not have any sun for the first couple hours. There were clouds that had settled in the valley with the mountaintops poking out. We were hiking on top of the clouds for quite a while and got some amazing views above the "sea of clouds." We saw many bees flying around the ground, although we could not find a hive. We ended the hike at the giant sequoias and were very excited to sit down in the car for the trip home.

[cgundersen]

csc,
The Big Arroyo was the destination of my first backpacking trip in the Sierra and it still holds unique memories, especially those long switchbacks going up to Kaweah gap. It's still hard to imagine a better introduction to the mountains! Thanks for the report.
cg

[sekihiker]

Congratulations on completing your first trip which wasn't an easy one. You picked a great route. Hopefully you will reduce your pack weights so hiking will be easier. For some ideas for future hikes, visit: www.sierrahiker.com

[maverick]

Hi Csc,

Thanks for the TR, wonderful place, keep Tamarack Lake in mind the next time you visit the area.
Any photo's to share?