Attendance

Thursday, August 10

The story really starts the night before we were to leave. I got a call that one of the Scouts had come down sick. We were down to a group of eight. Since the food had been packed and distributed, the only thing I could do was reduce the fresh food portions. Everybody got to carry two extra food packages.

Friday, August 11

This was a travel day. Two cars left the Scouthouse around 10:20 am and headed up to our usual lunch spot at Pixley Park. We got there a little after 1 pm and ate our sack lunches. We proceeded up highway 99, turned east onto highway 198, and made a gas stop at Mooney road. That was a bit of a mistake as gas prices were high there. We continued up highway 198 to the Ash Mountain entrance to Sequoia National Park. After paying our fee, we continued up the long winding road to Lodgepole. There were many scenic tourist stops along the way but we passed them all up figuring we'd have many more during the upcoming week.

We arrived at the Lodgepole Visitor Center at 4 pm. Unfortunately the Wilderness office closed at 3:45 so we couldn't pick up out wilderness permit. So we proceeded to Wolverton Scout Camp and tried to check in. The camp master just happened to be out so we selected a suitable site and settled in. He came back a little while later, welcomed us, and verified we picked an acceptable site. He then showed us all of the ins and outs of the camp and took a group picture for an upcoming presentation that he is putting together.

Dinner was three Costco chickens, rice, and green beans. Everyone ate until they couldn't eat any more. This great dinner was provided by Mr. Tsao. Dessert was yummy homemade brownies that were provided by Mr. Dawson. We were in bed shortly after 8 pm in anticipation of our first day on the trail.

Saturday, August 12

This was our first day of hiking. The goal was to get to Clover Creek.

We were up at 6:00 am and ate a breakfast of donuts, orange juice, bananas, apples, etc. Again, Mr. Tsao provided the meal. We then went over to the Lodgepole Visitors Center Wilderness Office and picked up out permit and found out that there are two bear boxes at Clover Creek and two more at Ranger Lake. There were no bear boxes anywhere else on our hike.

After a very short drive we were at the trail head at 8:20 am. After the customary "before" picture, we started hiking at 9:00 am sharp. The trip up to Clover Creek was slow as the packs were heavy and we were in no hurry. Everyone we met along the way was either coming out or going into Twin Lakes. That must be a very popular destination. Along the way we stopped to admire Cahoon Meadow. It was beautiful. After reaching Cahoon Gap, the trail was all downhill and we quickly reached Clover Creek.

The first bear box and first campsite option is at the first stream crossing. There were a number of small campsites there but nothing big enough for a group of eight. We continued on to the second stream crossing and the second bear box. There are two group campsites there. We took the largest one that just happened to have the bear box. Both of those campsites are right at the J.O. Pass trail junction.

After the traditional Top Ramen, spaghetti and french bread dinner we had a small campfire. There were a few mosquitoes but they were bearable. Everyone was in bed by 8 pm.

Around 11:15 pm Tim was awoke by a stranger. It turns out Tim's tent happened to be closest one to the trail and this man was looking for help. He and his wife were camping at the first stream crossing and his wife had slipped and fallen into their campfire. She had severe burns on one hand with pieces of white flesh hanging down. She also had some deep cuts on her forehead. (Fortunately, or unfortunately, we never saw his wife.) The man was asking about available help and if we had a first aid kit he could have. The closest help was back at Lodgepole. After some deliberation, and a little coercion, Tim gave up his first aid kit to the man. The man's plan was to patch up his wife and then hike out at first light. We never heard from them after that and assume they made it out ok.

Sunday, August 13

This was our second day of hiking. The goal was to get over Silliman Pass, climb Twin Peaks (rated B), and get to Ranger Lake.

We were up at 6:00 am and on the trail by 8:00 am. We got to Twin Lakes about 9:40 am. It was very nice with trees, multiple campsites, and even a toilet. I can see why this is a popular spot. Continuing on we stopped for water and made the top of Silliman Pass at 11:20 am. After dropping our packs, stringing up a couple of bear bags, and grabbing our day packs, we started up Twin Peaks. It only took fifteen minutes to climb the west most peak. We went around it to the west and up the back. No technical challenge and only about 200' of elevation gain. This peak was so simple it was a disappointment. It was, however, a rated peak, and we were all glad to have it under our belts.

Before proceeding down the backside of Silliman Pass we had a brief Scout's Own service with a view looking east. Then down to Ranger Lake. It was beautiful and it turns out this would be the nicest lake we would visit.

There were two bear boxes here. One was on the east side of the lake, just east of the trail. The other was on the north side of the lake, just west of the little island. Having been advised that the best spots were on the north end of the lake, that is where we looked first. There were several groups at the lake but no one was in the northern campsite with the bear box. It is nestled in a grove of tall trees right at the edge of the lake. Just beautiful. We got lucky.

We had a couple of hours of rest before dinner. During that time we got bombed by a couple of green pine cones. There was a squirrel that would go high up in the trees and chew off a green pine cone. It would drop well over 100' and made quite a loud sound when it hit. It looked like he was doing it on purpose to get rid of us so we declared him a "squirrel with an attitude". He stopped after a while.

After dinner we had another small campfire. Everyone was in bed by 8:00 pm.

Monday, August 14

This was the day to climb Mt. Silliman. (Rated E)

It was a 5:45 am wake up so we could be on the trail by 7:00 am. It took a little over one hour to climb the 1,000' back up to Silliman Pass. Then we started our 2 mile off-trail adventure to the peak. This would take us four hours to complete.

The first part was tough because we started too high and followed the ridge. We then had to drop down and follow a very poor ledge for about 1/2 mile. It would have been faster to drop down 200' from the pass and walk along and up a nice gully. We reached two small meadows. We crossed the first one and walked up the edge of the second one. At that point we could see the summit very clearly. It was a little over a mile away. To the right of the summit is a notch, or gap, that is affectionately named Rose's Gap in honor of our own Dr. Rose. Along the way there were several snow fields. None were in our way but there was snow in the gap. Before proceeding on, several people decided to stash their hiking sticks by a large, obvious tree. We would pick them up on the way back.

The method of attack from here was very clear. We needed to traverse to the left around Little Lake, staying about 400' above it at the lowest point. The was no reason to go any lower as there is a fairly defined shelf, or ledge, along there. From that point we could easily traverse up huge rocks to the base of the gap. We stayed on the rocks as much as possible as the hike was easier that way. We were always to the left of the gap.

Once at the base of the gap, it was a quick scree scramble to the bottom opening of the gap. (Actually, you can avoid the scree entirely if you stay on the rocks to the bitter end. The only downside is there is one large step right before the gap. Long legs help. We didn't find this on the way up but did use this shortcut coming back.) From the bottom opening you could see that the snow was only on the right side and there was a clear route up the left side. Only one person could climb at a time due the danger of kicking small rocks loose. It took about 5 minutes each but we all made it to the top. From there it was a straight forward climb diagonally to the left and up. The optimum route is probably to go several hundred yards out and slightly up. Then head up at a very steep angle straight up.

We reached the summit at 12:15 pm and had lunch. The views were great. After about an hour we started back down. Getting to Rose's Gap was a cinch. Getting down the gap took another 5 minutes per person. We then retraced our steps down the rocks, around Little Lake, and back to the head of the second meadow. It was time to pick up the stashed hiking sticks. The large obvious tree that marked the sticks was not so obvious. It took about 15 minutes of randomly searching around until a glint from one sticks caught our eye. We quickly retrieved them.

After hiking down the left side of the second meadow, we crossed to the right of the head of the first meadow and avoided it entirely by doing a short rock scramble. Then we followed the same small, poor ledge and diagonal up to the pass. In retrospect, it would have been easier to drop the 200' and then climb back up to the pass. At least going in this direction the route is obvious. Not good, just obvious.

We were back at the pass at 4:45 pm and back in camp by 6:00 pm. A good dinner was had by all but me. I felt like I was going to throw up but didn't. No campfire tonight since everyone was tired. Bedtime was 8:00 pm.

About 2:30 am I heard footsteps outside of my tent. They were real close. I peeked out and saw a 6 point buck deer standing 10 feet away. Cool.

Tuesday, August 15

This was lay day.

Pancakes were served from 8-10 am. There was a choice of real maple syrup or the conventional store-bought kind. There was one snowman pancake, complete with eyes, mouth, and two arms. We all ate until we couldn't eat anymore.

The boys relaxed around the lake all day. There was the usual amount of swimming and Ryland even made a log raft and rode it out to a small island. A very relaxing day after yesterday's peak climb.

Back in camp, I did laundry, cleaned my tent and generally relaxed and enjoyed the surroundings. That new Sling-Light chair sure was handy.

We had a big campfire after dinner and burned all of our trash. Bedtime was 8:30 pm.

Wednesday, August 16

This was the day to move over to Rowell Meadow.

We were up at 6:30 am and out of camp at 8:10 am. This morning we passed a meadow on our left that had a doe eating breakfast.

We stopped in Belle Canyon to get water. Both streams were flowing well. The beginning of the hike out of Belle Canyon was unusual because there had been a fire through that area a number of years ago. The trees were burnt but the forest floor was green and making a real comeback. There was a smoky smell and you could still smell the burnt trees. Once we got pass the burnt trees we stopped for lunch.

We arrived at the Rowell Meadow bridge at 1:30 pm. (Note: The campsite they used on the 1997 longterm to the north of the trail is no longer there.) There were a lot of people in the area of the bridge. A quick search turned up a suitable campsite on the left just past the bridge. The only problem with this campsite is it was already inhabited by a group of gophers. Their main holes were 10' from the cook area. They kept peeking out, scampering around, and on one occasion cussing us out for 10 minutes. Overall they put on a good show and we enjoyed watching them. In the end we ignored them and they tolerated us.

Rowell Meadow had more mosquitoes than any other place we camped. We had to break out the mosquito head nets after dinner.

We had an early dinner. Right after finishing three young men visited us carrying casseroles. They were part of a wilderness leadership training program and it was their last day. They were using up the last of their food and had a lot of their dinner left. They wanted us to help them finish it off. We were glad to oblige. There were three choices: couscous, mashed potatoes with cheese topping, and mashed potatoes with vegetables. I had three helpings of the later. It was delicious. We've got to add that to next years longterm menu.

One side note is that all of our food (3 1/3 days worth) and personal snacks now fit into the bear canisters.

We had a campfire that night to burn more trash. It turned chilly. Bedtime was 7:45 pm.

Thursday, August 17

This was the day to climb Mitchell Peak (rated C) and move over to Weaver Lake.

It was cold last night. We woke up at 5:45 am to a frozen wash basin. So it obviously got down below 32 degree F last night. This was definitely our coldest night yet.

We broke camp and did most of our packing before departing at 7:30 am for Mitchell Peak. Before leaving Rowell Meadow we encountered the fellows that delivered the extra food last night. We thanked then again.

The forest along the trail up to Marvin Pass is beautiful. The best so far.

There is a trail all of the way to the top of Mitchell Peak. Ignore the topo map (1993 edition) as it is wrong. The trail does not end but turns south and eventually turns north east just before the peak. They had just installed brand new trail signs this year. Navigation was a breeze. We got to the top at 9:22 am. We couldn't find a register. The views were breathtaking. Totally awesome. You are in the middle of a large bowel, at least 10 miles in radius. There was an unobstructed 360 degree view and it was crystal clear. We picked a good day. You could see Mt. Whitney, which was 25 miles away, just like it was next door. The fire in Kings Canyon was very obvious as the smoke was laying in the canyon and slightly spilling over to the next canyon. We stayed about 20 minutes and then departed for camp. We arrived back at 11:10 am.

We picked up our packs and headed over toward Weaver Lake. We ate lunch just after crossing Gannon Creek. The stretch down into Boulder Creek descends along a steep hillside that doesn't have many trees, despite what the map indicates. The sun hits you twice, once directly and again as it radiates off of the rocky hillside. This stretch could be miserable going the other way in the heat of the afternoon. Climbing up from Boulder Creek wasn't too bad but there were treeless stretches that weren't pleasant. We arrived at Weaver Lake at 4:50 pm.We were in camp at 5:00 pm.

The day seemed hard since we did the peak first and then the hiking. The afternoon heat didn't help. But Weaver Lake is a very nice little lake. Shell Mountain was clearly visible behind the lake and to the right. We were to climb it tomorrow. The lake water was the warmest yet.

There are a couple of campsites to the left as you come into Weaver Lake. The majority of the campsites are to the right and around the lake. There are a few sites suitable for a group and at least two dozen fire rings. We choose a site just to the right of entering the lake. It had a massive cook area which proved useful because it was SPAM, mashed potatoes, and gravy night. Dinner was delicious and was enjoyed by all. Somehow all nine servings of mashed potatoes got consumed by eight people. We had a doe walk by before dinner. She wasn't bothered by us.

There were only three groups there that night. One was across the lake and the other was to our far right. It seemed like we had the lake to ourselves.

We had another campfire and turned in at 8:45 pm.

Around midnight I heard my pack cover rustling. Since there wasn't any wind I looked out and saw nothing. Strange.

Friday, August 18

This was the day to move over to Jennie Lake and climb Shell Mountain (rated A) along the way.

Wake up was at 6:30 am. I found a small hole in the snack pocket of my pack. There wasn't any food in t but that didn't stop them. I also found mouse droppings inside the pack. Some little critter had spent the night.

We ate breakfast and departed at 8:23 am. After hiking counterclockwise around Shell Mountain, we arrived at Poop Out Pass at 11:10 am. We exited the trail to the left and found a nice spot in the middle of the saddle to stash our packs and eat lunch.

We departed for the peak at noon and arrived a half of an hour later. It is an easy peak to climb since it is totally forested. You can attack the mountain from any direction as there are no rocks in the way. The top of the mountain forms a large U. You have to walk around the U to get to the top which is on the far side. The top 20' was stratified rock which was trivial to climb. Once again we didn't find a register to sign.

The challenge came in finding your way back to the packs. Since it is totally forested, you can't see where your packs are. Finding your way down and back to the packs was a bit of a navigation problem.

We did pick up our packs at 1:40 pm and then headed to Jennie Lake. We arrived an hour later and took 10 minutes to find a campsite. There were many people there already. After setting up camp the boys gravitated to the lake. Most of the adults went in for a quick dip. The water wasn't quite as warm as Weaver Lake.

It turns out Jenny Lake is on state property and is not in a permit area. Anyone can just walk in. It was Friday night and people poured in. Most campsites were full. One person next to us came over and asked to borrow the proverbial can opener.

We could see four campfires in our immediate area. Unfortunately we had a couple of noisy and obnoxious groups by us. One person was yelling four letter obscenities at the top of his lungs. This was the most "un-wilderness" experience of the trip. Maybe a Thursday night would have been better.

We had another good campfire and were all in bed by 8:30 pm. Everyone else around us kept going. The place finally quieted down about an our later.

Saturday, August 19

This was the day to return to Clover Creek and climb Kettle Peak (rated B) along the way.

Our last full day. We were up at 7:00 am for an 8:22 am departure. It took a little under an hour to get to J.O. Pass. We stashed our packs and had a rest break.

At 9:33 am we departed for Kettle Peak. Like Shell Mountain, there are no bad routes. Although not heavily forested, there were a few trees. The biggest obstacle was fallen trees. We climbed straight up for a hundred yards until we encountered a small gully. Then we diagonaled up the hill heading almost due east. It took about a half of an hour to make it to the ridge. We noticed a rocky outcropping and proceeded to climb it. When we got to the top we noticed another, higher, rocky peak behind it. The map does not show this. So we climbed down and traversed around to the second peak. We climbed it and declared success, again. Actually we made it to within 5' of the top. We could touch the top rock but didn't feel safe going up on it. Since we couldn't find a register we suspect it might have been up there.

We started back at 10:33 am and walked the ridge until we got to the low point. Then we turned west and descended. The route is straight enough and the forest is thin enough that navigation back is a snap. You can visually see the pass and estimate where the packs are. We got back to them within a half of an hour. In retrospect, any route back would probably work just as well. There was nothing special about this one.

After a brief rest we departed at 11:22 am. It only took about 50 minutes to come down off of the pass and get back to Clover Creek. The walk down was amazing. There were lush forests and large meadows just full of wildflowers. Some of them were chest high. The Lupin grow like weeds. This was definitely the prettiest stretch of the trip.

We got to last Saturday's campsite at 12:15 pm, just in time for lunch. After lunch the boys played in the stream and looked for fish. They found some pretty big ones. I just rested and tried to enjoy the last full day of longterm. There were noticeable fewer mosquitoes here than last week.

Mid afternoon a ranger camp by. It was the same person that issued us our permit at Lodgepole. She was on her way up to Twin Lakes for the night. We talked about the previous week and generally had a good chat.

The mystery of the critter in my pack the other day got solved. It turns out he/she was after the 3" candle which was in the bottom of my main pouch, next to the snack pouch. The critter had nibbled wax off of one end and left a million wax chips in the bottom of my pack. Moral of this story - candles are smellables too. Put them in your bear canister.

After dinner we had our last campfire and burned the last of our trash. We all stayed up huddled around it until the very last ember went out. I guess we hated to see it and longterm come to an end. Bedtime was a relatively late 8:45 pm.

Sunday, August 20

This was our last day of hiking. The goal was to get back to civilization as soon as possible.

We were up at 6:00 am for a quick breakfast. We then headed out for Cahoon Gap at 7:15 am. It was a quick half of an hour climb and then it was all downhill back to the cars. We got back to the trail head at 9:30 am and took some "after" pictures.

Our second car had been moved to Crescent Meadow by the trans Sierra longterm group. We retrieved it and were off to get our showers at Camp Wolverton.

There is one group shower at Wolverton. It can accommodate four people at once. The adults went first and then the boys. We headed down the hill for Sizzler at 11:37 am.

We got to the Sizzler in Visalia at 1:25 am. That was the peak of their Sunday afternoon crowd so there was quite a wait. First to place our order, then again to be seated. There wasn't a table big enough for us so we had to sit at two tables. (Maybe next time we should try the Sizzler in Bakersfield.)

After Sizzler we went to the Baskin-Robbins on Walnut Street for dessert. They were not crowded and the staff is very friendly. We all stuffed ourselves again. We departed for home at 3:30 pm.

We were all very thankful for the safe and fun week and for being able to climb all five peaks. Even the weather had cooperated, not even threatening to rain. In fact, it was relatively warm with only one cold night. It was another very good longterm.

We made it home about 7:15 pm. It was also good to be home again.

Conclusions

This was a very good longterm and is an excellent longterm for younger boys and those that enjoy a more leisurely pace. The weather cooperated as it a was warmer than usual and there was no hint rain. Going counter clockwise around the loop is definitely the way to go. Both from a food and hiking perspective. Jennie Lake should be avoided on the weekends.

Everyone enjoyed themselves. Tim was our senior scout and Ryland was our official campfire builder. As usual, the scouts out-hiked the adults. I had a solid lock on anchor dragger. Next year the boys get to carry my pack.

Submitted by Tom Thorpe

Longterm Journals