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One of the nice things about camping next to the meadow was seeing several deer,
both in our camp and in the meadow. The boys spent several minutes just
quietly watching them eat in the meadow in silence.
Deer at our campsite
Big Pete Meadow
The CCC crew left before we did, marching out past our camp. One of them
came by around 9:30am, asking us when we were leaving. Apparently they
were going to do some blasting and they said they'd wait for us to pass.
As we had come in late last night and I hadn't had time to filter water
for everyone, it took us a little while to get started. We finally left
camp just before 9:45am.
The first part of today would be old hat, as we had done the trail to
the Dusy Basin turnoff before. The first part would also be all downhill.
We descended past the CCC crew, scattered about between Big Pete Meadow
and the much larger Little Pete Meadow.
Mountains to the west
Descending to Little Pete Meadow
Little Pete Meadow
About 30 minutes after we started, as we were descending toward the Dusy Basin
turnoff, we heard a loud BOOM behind us. The blasting had started. We
were quite far away by then, and it had sounded very loud. I am glad
they waited for us to pass.
Le Conte Canyon
Mountains on the west side of Le Conte Canyon
The trail is fairly gradual downhill, never very steep. We passed the Dusy Basin trail,
then stopped in a small clearing above the Middle Fork of the Kings River
at about 11:30am. It was another sunny day, in fact it was starting to get
uncomfortably hot.
After lunch we continued past Grouse Meadow, then past some nice waterfalls and
cascades and soon reached an intersection at the bottom of the descent, having
descended about 1200 feet. There were three backpackers here. One of them
was giving away some food, as he had to cut his trip short because of equipment
failure (hip belt). My wife took a dehydrated granola packet off his hands
(days later we would find out that it was quite good - granola with milk and
blueberries!).
Grouse Meadow
We now turned left and at 12:45pm started the climb toward Mather Pass.
We were not planning to reach the pass today; rather, we were planning
to camp at Lower Palisade Lake. A few minutes on this trail, however,
and we started having our doubts. The heat had intensified, my watch
reading 92 degrees at one point. Plus, there was no shade on this
steep stretch of trail. At 1:30pm we needed extra water and a break, so
we stopped in a nice shaded spot by Palisade Creek to rest and filter
water.
While we were resting a solo woman hiker came by and filtered, as well.
She said she was from Long Beach and had started at Duck Pass. She
said she was happiest when she was doing 10 miles per day, and only planned
to camp at Deer Meadow today, far below the pass. She'd stayed at Starrs
Camp last night, and McClure Meadow the night before that. She was planning
to hike out at Kearsarge for a resupply, getting picked up courtesy of
the Mt. Williamson Motel.
Meanwhile, the two young men and their father who we had first seen on Day 10
(4 days ago) passed by. We would soon find them camping before Deer Meadow.
After our break, we continued on the trail. We noticed several others camping
before Deer Meadow, but we kept going. We reached a large vacant horse camp at Deer
Meadow around 3:45pm. I knew we at least had to filter water, so we made
the small detour to the edge of the camp next to the creek. I also began
to think that maybe we wouldn't make it all the way to Lower Palisade Lake
today. Jared said he was too tired to climb anymore (it had been a
gradual uphill to this point), and we still had the Golden Staircase to climb
and a total of about 1700 feet still left to climb. Plus, though it was cooling
down a little now, the earlier heat had drained us.
To his credit, Nathan wanted to continue hiking. Then we considered what camping at
Deer Meadow would do to our plans for tomorrow. Camping at Deer Meadow would mean
3300 feet of climbing tomorrow, and a 14 mile day. To top it off, we knew that there
was a chance of afternoon thunderstorms tomorrow. I had the very real worry that
there was no way we'd be able to climb 3300 feet before the thunderstorms hit
without getting up obscenely early. Faced with those realities, we convinced
Jared that he could keep going, and we sucked it up and decided to climb up the
Golden Staircase to the lake today.
After filtering water, we left the horse camp at 4:15pm. We crossed some streams
and passed a few more campsites. We noticed some clouds starting to form to the
west, so I started to take note of a few empty campsites in case we had to retreat
if the weather turned sour. In the end, though, we didn't have to worry. Thankfully
the cloud cover blocked most of the sun, allowing us a much cooler ascent of the
Golden Staircase than if we had done it earlier in the day.
The switchbacks began. It was not immediately clear when the Golden Staircase
began, but eventually we found ourselves on some crazy switchbacks that looked like
they were going up the vertical face of a cliff. The trail itself was not
too steep, but it was crazy impressive to look back down the trail.
Heading up toward the Golden Staircase
Heading up toward the Golden Staircase
Looking back toward Deer Meadow
Climbing to the Golden Staircase
Palisade Creek
View to the east
Looking back down from the Golden Staircase
Looking back down from the Golden Staircase
We pretty much did the climb from Deer Meadow to the lake without a break. We
paused occasionally, but no food breaks. All I had readily available was a couple
of Shot Bloks. I admit to being the slowest one up this climb. We made good
steady progress. Near the very top we felt a few drops of rain, but that was it.
We reached the lake at 7pm, seeing about a dozen tents spread out around the north and
west ends of the lake. Still, we found a great site up on the hill. It was a little
far to get water, but not nearly as far as at Lake Virginia. Plus, it had tremendous
views of the lake and surrounding area. We probably had the best campsite view
except for one couple perched on a ledge just above us to the west.
Looking back toward Deer Meadow
Crepuscular rays from near Lower Palisade Lake
Palisade Creek below Lower Palisade Lake
Lower Palisade Lake
Looking back from our camp above Lower Palisade Lake
Moon above Mt. Bolton Brown (left) and others
Moon above Mt. Bolton Brown (left) and others
After setting up camp we enjoyed seeing a beautiful sunset thanks to those
aforementioned clouds. The moon was almost full that night, illuminating the
lake nicely. All in all it was a great site and I am glad we made the extra
effort to get there. I'd feel even better about it the next day and the
day after that, for reasons I
will explain...
Sunset at Lower Palisade Lake
Sunset at Lower Palisade Lake
Sunset at Lower Palisade Lake
Moon above Lower Palisade Lake
Moon above Lower Palisade Lake
Moon above Lower Palisade Lake
Stars over Lower Palisade Lake
Moonlit mountain above Lower Palisade Lake
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