Onion Valley to Mount Whitney - Day 2
Distance: 9.2 miles.
Elevation: start: 9,910 feet. Highest: 13,110 at Forester Pass.
Total gain/loss : 3193 feet total gain, 1000 feet total loss.
Bubbs Creek early in day two, starting the ascent to Forrester Pass
Wildflowers of a number of varieties abound even at high elevation
These valleys were carved out by glaciers. This should be readily apparent to even a layman. Ironically, Josiah Whitney, the State Geologist of California in the mid 1800s, rejected this idea and openly disagreed which John Muir, who had originally proposed the theory that the Sierra Nevada was at one time covered in glacial ice (the unanimously held view today). Ultimately, the summit at the end of the John Muir Trail and the highest point in the lower 48 states is a tribute to this this disagreeable, ignorant California State official named Whitney. Interesting how education and status can lead to hubris which blinds in every generation. Yet, the name Mount Whitney persists, while the lower, less impressive, trailess peak further south bears the name of the great John Muir. I digress.
Clear waters of upper Bubbs Creek in a meadow right at the tree line = delicious. This area reminded me of the Bighorn Mountains, where my parents used to take me in the summer when I was young.
Along the climb...
On the way up to Forester Pass, above the timberline there are still clusters of wild flowers and scattered meadows. These pictures are a classic case of my camera not being large enough to capture the awesomeness. The dark green timberline in the distance is about an hour hike from this vantage point, most of the surrounding peaks would take a full day to walk to from this spot.
There were a handful of amazingly blue nameless small lakes amid the talus. The water in these lakes was completely clear/blue, like Hawaii or Tahoe.
Note the tiny line in between the lakes which is the trail. The visible stretch of trail is about a 20 minute length from left to right and over an hour from this vantage point.
The last part of the climb to Forester Pass. On the left and below, lake at 12,500 feet (that is the name). On the left in the second saddle, Forester Pass (still a brutal 30 minutes away). In the background, the first warning of what turned out to be over four hours of rain later on that day. For me, the climb from this point to the pass was the most difficult stretch of our trip, and the only place I can say I really suffered.
Marmots met us at Forester pass to offer congratulations and see if we wanted to celebrate together by sharing a little food. I resisted the temptation to feed this guy, although I'm sure plenty of people have just based on how he was acting. They were incredibly bold and persistent; categorically different behavior than the marmots at other places along the trail. During our 5 day trip, we probably saw a hundred of these guys, but the only beggers were at Forester Pass, the rest were pretty wild, and could be seen foraging grass and whatnot.
View and time lapse from the other side of Forester Pass. Hikers traveling the Pacific Crest Trail climb the pass in the opposite direction, and we passed quite a few of them on our way dawn. If you study this picture carefully, you might be able to find the trail, or even a hiker. Forester pass, at 13,110 feet is the highest point on the Pacific Crest Trail, and an ice chute below (no ice when we were there), has posed a significant obstacle to hikers of the PCT in the past. You can actually see the location we camped at from here. It is on the right hand side of the smaller, more distant lake on the left; a two mile hike from this vantage point at Forester Pass.
Panorama at Forester. On the left, Kings Canyon National Park, On the right, Sequoia National Park. Note the marmot hiding out of view. I shot a time lapse from here, but the camera had to be guarded, as the marmots will mess with all of your stuff and I didn't want my camera pushed down a thousand foot cliff on the other side.
A little uphill stretch on the descent from Forester Pass. From farther away, you would never believe there could be a passable route over the pass.
Forester Pass is the low point in the range in the background. It is the V shaped saddle about 1/4 of the way from the left of the photo with a darker shadow beneath it. This photo was taken from the second lake from the left in the photo taken from Forester pass. Again, the camera is not big enough, as the descent from Forester pass to the valley below is about 1000 feet. I include this picture to support what I stated after the previous photo, which is that you would never believe a route through Forester would be possible.
Camp at night two. This photo was taken a while after our rapid descent from Forester. It started raining coming down Forester pass. We found this site, and set up the tent just in time before the rain fell for over four hours.
Taken just above our camp on night two. Our site was down a little lower, chosen for less exposure.
This lake, noted in the view from Forester pass, is a part of the headwaters of Tyndall Creek and was just below our campsite.
Sunset panorama taken near our campsite on night two. The panorama feature distorts the skyline, but shows over 180 degrees of the sunset which surrounded us that evening and seemed to last for hours. I considered it a reward for sitting in the tent while it rained the four hours prior.
In the middle of the night on the 4th of July, we awoke to an extremely bright moon. When we looked down the lake below the tent, we could see hundreds of flickering lights in the dark part of the lake, or reflections of light from something on the other side of the lake. I had no idea what these could be, but it was similar to fire flies I have seen on my uncle's farm in northern Michigan. After we got back, I did a little research and found that there are a variety of bioluminescent millipedes in the southern Sierra Nevada. This 30 second exposure was a failed attempt to capture these lights. In it, you can see the moon, stars, and shadow cast by the moon into the lake. The bugs had chilled out by the time I got the camera set up, and those that continued were not bright enough for the camera sensor. The experience was among the most surreal of any in my life. Again, my camera was not big enough.
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