Pear Lake As A Day Hike

Dale Matson

Click on photos to enlarge

Taking A Break At The Watchtower

When I hike, I like to hike to a view or hike to water. This hike combines both and while strenuous, is one of the best day hikes in Sequoia National Park. The trailhead is two hours from Fresno taking highway 180 east and the General’s Highway south to Wolverton. Wolverton is just south of Lodgepole. 

While the outbound trail sign at Wolverton states that it is 6.2 miles to Pear Lake, my GPS had the round trip at over 14 miles with over 3,000’ of altitude gain over the course of the entire hike. The beginning elevation is about 7,275’. This was a long hike of 9.5 hours.  This is a civilized grade throughout most of the hike with the trail in shade until it breaks out into the open at the “Watchtower” if you take this loop rather than the “Hump” route. 

 Telephoto Shot Of Tokopah Falls

Telephoto Shot Of Trail To The Falls View

At the Watchtower, you can see and hear the Tokopah Falls on the Kaweah River far below. You can see a trail out of the Lodgepole campground (less than 4 miles round trip) that takes you to a viewing area of the falls. Both the Watchtower and Hump Trails rejoin before Heather Lake. We took the Watchtower loop both outbound and inbound.

Heather Lake

After the Watchtower, the trail follows a ledge and one must be careful about walking along this spot. The trail as far a Heather Lake is popular since it is only 8 miles as an out and back. Water resupply is not an issue with the lakes along the way. There is no overnight camping at Heather Lake.

Aster Lake From Trail Above

Emerald Lake

Looking Back At Watchtower

Telephoto Of Ranger Station/Ski Hut

Sharon Standing Next To Evergreen Tree

After Heather Lake, the trail travels between Aster Lake and Emerald Lakes. While Aster Lake can be seen from the trail, it is less accessible at over 100’ below the trail, Emerald lake is an easy walk and worth the view. There are established campgrounds at both Emerald and Pear Lakes with lavatory facilities also. An overnight wilderness permit is required.

Pear Lake

The trail climbs another 300’ to Pear Lake and the view is the best of the lakes along the way. The vistas are great along the trail and become even better as the afternoon clouds begin to roll in with the better lighting of the sun angle. The Pear Lake Ranger Station is on a separate trail, considerably north and 300’ below Pear Lake.

There are trail markers in the trees that indicate that this is also a winter ski trail. The Ranger Station is a ski hut in the winter. While rare, a man was killed in an avalanche in 2008 near Heather Lake.
There is a YouTube video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWkKpJHsLmQ&list=UU0G3jx2PLv6FOw2NM5Aa6Yw  

Taboose Pass As An Overnight Hike

Dale Matson

See Note On Waypoints At End

3D Version Of Route

Taboose, Sawmill and Baxter Passes are three lesser-known routes into Kings Canyon National Park (Fresno County) from the East in Inyo County. They are lesser known because they all have difficult climbs over 6,000’. Part of the attraction for me was the possibility of seeing the endangered Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep.

From Fresno it is a tossup to go south over the Tehachapi Pass or North over Tioga Pass. I prefer the seasonal highway 120 route through Yosemite. It is about 4.5 hours to Bishop to pick up the wilderness permit. Taboose Creek/Aberdeen Station Road is about 12 miles south of Big Pine off highway 395. The 5-mile drive west to the trailhead is slow, confusing and painful even in a high clearance 4X4. Think of it as a warm up! The trail follows Taboose Creek up the gorge and is made obvious by the thin green line of vegetation. Red Mountain to the northeast is a prominent feature that can be seen for much of the climb as you look back to the east toward the White Mountains.

Because the steep sides limit the trail route options and falling scree/talus covers the trail, it is easy to understand why this trail would need continual maintenance. It is also why there are only about four established campsites along the 9 miles from the trailhead to Taboose Pass. The trail travels primarily on the north side of Taboose Creek but crosses over to the south side for a time. The best campsite is on the left side outbound near the “No Fires” sign at about 8,400’ of elevation. There are two small campsites as the trail crosses the creek again and remains on the north side. The final campsite I noticed outbound is a spot for a single tent in a small grove of trees to the left. I spent the night there after reaching Taboose Pass. I was able to reach my wife by Satellite phone to let her know my location for the night. There is no good place near the pass so I hiked back about three miles to that spot.

Signs At Taboose Pass Weather Closing In

Campsite At 9,600'

Cardinal Mountain (13,402')

There is a certain disappointing irony about the trail following the creek. Much of the time the brush is too thick to get to the water or the creek is so far away or below the trail that it is impractical. I was ‘fortunate’ in that my outbound climb was overcast and rainy. This is not ideal weather for photography but great for climbing in the mountains. When I got to the pass, the weather had completely closed in and it was quite windy and rainy. I thought of Lawrence Conn who perished near there in 2012. Even though I was a bit weary, pitching my tent at a lower elevation (9,600’) seemed like a better location and easier breathing and less chance of the rain turning to snow.

I don't believe that starting at 10:30 am would have allowed me to make the long and steep climb on a hot day. I did not see many folks. Eventually the trail leads over the pass to the John Muir Trail to the west. If one needed to exit the JMT, It would not be a difficult 3-mile climb from the JMT to Taboose Pass with about 2,000’ of altitude gain.

The following morning the sun was shining and I got some brighter photographs. The return leg from where I camped was 6 miles of descent. On rested but still weary legs, it was enough hiking for that day. The drive home required two stops for naps.

Note: I like to download waypoints into my GPS along a trail from my mapping software program on my computer. My GPS allows me to do a “Go To” a selected waypoint and this gives me more exact information as to where I am on a trail. I always mark the trailhead before I begin too. Waypoint 1 above Waypoint 42 is an excellent campsite on the south side of the creek. I considered camping there on the way back down on day one. It would have been "A bridge too far". There is a YouTube video of this hike with more graphics here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spVLakr7Qys&feature=youtu.be     

    

27th Anniversery Of High Trails Reunion

Dale Matson

Leconte Divide From Viewing Area Above Courtright Reservoir
Note: click on photographs to enlarge

34 Years ago Art Sallee and some friends used their four wheel drive vehicles to transport some disabled Veterans into the wilderness. Art saw it as a means to get them into the wilderness for fishing and camping.

They have not been able to do this every year but I had an opportunity to visit the site this year as they once again transported those with mobility impairments to the high country where the air was considerably cooler at 75 degrees (above 8,000’) while it was 105 degrees here in Fresno.

What I didn't realize at the time was that Voyager Rock Campground is three miles from the southern end of the Dusy Ershim Trail. This 31-mile challenge that terminates to the north near Kaiser Pass, is nearly impassable to all but the best-equipped 4 wheel drive vehicles.

I ran into Art coming down from Courtright as I was going up. He had done his part and was headed back to Fresno. He had left the group in the journeyman hands of the regulars. He told me I could easily navigate the Dusy Ershim Trail to the campground with my truck. “Just don’t go past chicken rock”, he said. Chicken rock for me was the first rock I saw just past the open gate.  Not wanting to risk my precious truck, I decided to walk to the campsite from the Maxon Parking area. It took me about an hour outbound and I enjoyed the sights of the first few miles of the trail as a hike. The reservoir was down considerably because of our drought.

The annual event is sponsored by Bertha and John Garabedian Charitable Foundation.  The foundation also sponsors the Search and Rescue "Wild Run" which is also this weekend. The transportation is provided by various fourwheel drive clubs and some of the rigs are both retro and rad. Other personnel are from our Mountaineering Unit of the Fresno County Search And Rescue Team.

 Clem From The Mountaineering Unit On Left

 Jeep With Special Wheel Chair Hoist

 Old Dodge Powerwagon

 Leader McDivitt On Left

 Another Dale From The Mountaineering Unit

More People Coming In As I Was Leaving

 This Vehicle Is Better Suited Than My Truck

My Hike Route From The Maxon Parking Area 

My hat is off to this group of volunteers and especially Art for continuing to coordinate the event again this year. The campers I talked to all had broad smiles from ear to ear when I asked if I could take their photographs.

Art has kindly forwarded a description of the event which more accurately describes the history as the founders remember it.

HISTORY OF HIGH TRAILS REUNION

I have confirmed this account with my friend, Trent Jaeckel, who was involved from the first day.

The beginning date was in late 1979 or 1980 when we were approached by Nick Grogan, US Forest Service, who had been a door gunner on a helicopter in Vietnam and, because Trent and I had jeeps and were active 4Wheelers, Nick asked if we would consider taking a few disabled veterans into the mountains for an outing. We agreed

Nick found 6 veterans who wanted to go and we rounded up a few more
4Wheelers to assist.   That first trip was to Red Lake where we used some rubber rafts to allow our guests a chance to fish on the Lake.  We provided hot dogs and beverages.  That first trip went very well.

Following year we had additional 4Wheelers that volunteered to help so we had another group from the VA who wanted to go.  That trip was to Coyote Lake and was very much like the first trip with rubber rafts, hot dogs, etc. The same year we were put to the task of taking them deep sea fishing from Avila with the local VA hosting a dinner for all after the trip.  All went pretty well with the VA supplying a bus from Fresno and back again.  It was up to Trent and me to finance the fishing trip, which proved to be a challenge.

The original plan for trips to our local Sierra's was getting morphed into something we were unable to continue so we decided to offer 4WD trips to any and all folks who were physically challenged. We had random guests who were aware of the offer and continued with the one-day trips.  We met another group of handicapped folks, headed by Joel Bernal, who were active in sport related activities and they became active with us and were annual guests.  They numbered about 12. We tried several destinations for overnight trips before settling on Voyager Rock on Courtright Lake.

We dug a hole for our toilet facilities, fabricated a toilet with handicapped rails, made a frame of PVC pipe and covered it with vinyl.  Used it for years. Pooled our resources to purchase tents, sleeping pads and the necessary items to continue year after year.

Eventually, with the help of Bob Hegland, who had been assisting us every year, we were able to meet with the Bertha and John Garabedian Charitable Foundation and explain our goal of working with Handicapped folks.  The Foundation agreed to fund us with an annual grant that was generous enough to purchase more tents, sleeping bags, air mattresses, a used party barge and new trailer that we use every year to take our guests fishing on the Lake, a very good sit down dinner and breakfast and all of the items.