Some Of My Favorite Kings Canyon Photographs

Dale Matson

As the years go by, I reflect more and more on the wonderful times I have spent in Kings Canyon National Park. It contains the heart of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and much of the John Muir Trail. Because access is limited, it is virtually an unspoiled area with rivers and lakes galore. The backcountry rangers are a special resource and I have had an opportunity to chat with most. Many have been with the Park Service for over 20 years. I have found my fellow pilgrims to be good environmental stewards that leave few traces other than footprints. Some of you folks who see this may have crossed paths with me on the trail and shared brief conversations. I thought at the end of this hiking/backpacking season, it would be fitting to show some of my favorite photographs taken in Kings Canyon. I already miss the wilderness and now await the first snow for backcountry skiing in the Sierra National Forest nearby. Many of the photographs were taken this summer. I hope you enjoy them.

Click On Photographs To Enlarge

 Campsite Off 60 Lake Basin Trail

 Fin Dome Rae Lakes

 Lake On 60 Lake Basin Trail

 Palisades Viewed From Dusy Basin

 Bear On Bubbs Creek Trail Switchbacks

 Dragon Lake Above Rae Lakes

 Dusy Basin

 John Muir Trail With Junction Peak In Center

 Golden Bear Lake Center Basin

 Bullfrog Lake

 Kearsarge Lakes And Pinnacles From Kearsarge Pass

 Trail Across Bubbs Creek

 Sphinx

 Bubbs Creek

 East Creek

 East Lake

 Reflection Lake

 Glen Pass Looking North

 John Muir Trail McClure Meadow

Rae Lakes Painted Lady

Marjorie Lake

JMT Golden Staircase

East Lake In The Morning

SAR Hasty Deployment Hike 10-11-14

Dale Matson

Click Photographs To Enlarge

Route From My Suunto Ambit As A Screenshot

This is the second time this year the civilian Mountaineering Unit of the Fresno County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team had its session of hasty deployment training. Once a year, each civilian team member is required to hike an eight-mile loop trail in the San Joaquin River Gorge area as a part of mission readiness. Each participant has a backpack with a minimum weight of 25 pounds and must cover the 8-mile loop trail in less than 3 hours. There are rattlesnakes this time of year too and loose free-range cattle to avoid. Yes, the San Joaquin River is still flowing through the gorge and under the bridge.

Russ With Briefing Before Hike

This time for me was the test of a 70-year-old man and I recorded a 2:27 for the course. At least I finished ahead of the trail sweep. This is four minutes slower than the last time. This was a relatively fast group combination of veterans and new candidates. Kyle crushed the course in about 1:23 with no one else even breaking 2 hours.

There was also a larger group that had gathered for high angle rescue training and I passed by them inbound above the gorge near the bridge. They yelled encouragement. The sweep kept asking me if I was OK. My ‘normal’ gait looks like an injury to younger folks.

Bridge Over San Joaquin River

   

The trailhead begins at about 1,000’ and drops down to where it crosses the San Joaquin at an elevation of 600’. This is the low point in the trail as you cross the footbridge. From there the trail rises to about 1,800’ at about the midpoint of the loop with a great view and then begins descending toward the river again. As you cross the bridge, you are facing the 400’ climb on legs that are no longer fresh. This time the temperature was about 80 degrees at the finish.

It is good to see how far this team has come and I am proud to still be a part of it even though I am not involved in high angle rescue or swift water rescue. Some day I will probably assist with transportation when I can no longer hike off trail.

 San Joaquin River Below

Powerhouse Area

Hiking Mt. Whitney Part II: Multi Day

Dale Matson

Click On Photographs To Enlarge

Mt. Whitney In Center Along Whitney Portal Road

Even with a 2am start this year, this hike dragged on much further into the day than I had imagined. Finishing at 6:30pm I didn't have much left in my 70 year old ‘day hike’ legs and confirmed my prior resolve not to do this hike as a single day hike again. I don't know what percentage of folks hike Mt. Whitney from the east as a day hike versus those who do it as a two or three day hike.  However, if and when I hike Mt. Whitney the next time it will be at least one and perhaps two nights on the trail. Most folks use trekking poles. I needed to put on MICROspikes because of snowy and ice trail conditions.

From Fresno, even a Whitney day hike amounts to a two-night, three-day commitment. You are required to pick up the trail permit before noon on the day before the hike. This means an overnight in Lone Pine before the hike and another overnight following the hike even starting well before daylight the day of the hike. It is reasonable to believe the 21-mile hike with over 6,000’ of elevation gain will take between 12 and 16 hours for a young fit person.

The next question then is, “Where should I camp out along the trail the night before the hike?” There are two spots that folks generally choose. The first area with established campsites and access to water (Lone Pine Creek) is “Outpost Camp” at about 10,000’ and four miles from the 8,300’ trailhead at Whitney Portal. While this does not give one a huge jump toward the top, it has certain advantages over “Trail Camp” which is six miles from the trailhead and 12,000’. Generally, one is less likely to suffer from altitude problems at Outpost Camp as an overnight. Additionally, the trip back is closer to the trailhead before you have to break camp and pack out your overnight gear if you decide to hike all the way out after summiting Mt. Whitney. This is probably the place I would camp if I were to do Mt. Whitney again. There is no camping allowed near Mirror Lake.

Plan B would be to pack all the way to Trail Camp. My conversations with folks who spent the night there was that it was windy and colder than further down. There are stone enclosures around the campsites to help block the wind. I have talked to several people at Trail Camp on my three trips up and down Whitney and more than a few have complained of headaches loss of appetite and nausea. You do not acclimate to altitude in 24 hours. Those are symptoms of altitude sickness and I guarantee that sleeping is difficult under those circumstances. Aspirin or Ibuprofen may help the headache. Trail Camp is the last place for water resupply along the trail climbing up to the Whitney summit.

Some folks get a prescription for Diamox to help deal with the altitude and the results are mixed. Check the side effects before you decide to use it. It is a diuretic and one danger of climbing at altitude is dehydration. The effort also requires you to breathe through your mouth a lot.

If sleeping at 12,000’ at Trail Camp is not a problem then it is only a 4.5 mile 2,500’ climb to the top in the morning. You could even start at daybreak from this spot. Remember though that you will have a six-mile backpack out if you chose not to stay another night at Trail Camp. I suppose plan B1 would be to camp down at Outpost Camp on the way down.

My first day hike to the top of Whitney was in 2004 and I developed a headache at about 13,000’. It was a long climb to the top and I didn't stay long knowing that the only way the altitude sickness would diminish was to get down. My headache didn’t go away until I got back to Whitney Portal and drove down to Lone Pine (4,000’). This is an out and back hike, which means that you can turn around and head back down at any point.  My final caution is, do not do this hike if you are not fit and sound.

Hut On Top Of Mt. Whitney   

Mt. Whitney Day Hike 2014 Part I

Dale Matson

Click On Photographs To Enlarge

Partial Map Of Route With Odd Triangle Leading From Trail?

I decided last year after day hiking Mt. Whitney that I would do it one last time after turning 70. This time of year trail permits for single day hikers are usually available and the weather forecast for the Lone Pine area indicated sunny for the entire week. We did have rain in Fresno on Sunday and I worried what would happen to the trail. Whitney is not just about the weather the day of the hike. It is also about trail conditions the day of the hike. This is a very difficult day hike of 21 miles round trip with over 6,000' of elevation gain.

When I picked up my trail permit Wednesday morning, the rangers did not know the trail conditions, which is par for the course. They said something about maybe needing microspikes, which immediately made my palms sweat knowing the trail from two previous hikes. It was also very windy in Lone Pine on Wednesday.

Mt. Whitney Center From The Alabama Hills

(14,505') 

I drove up to the Whitney Portal store and one of the clerks did not offer much encouragement either. As I was pulling out of the parking area, I was thinking of plan “B” which would be a day hike to Lake 5 at Cottonwood Lakes to see if I could spot some Bighorn Sheep. Just then two folks came down the trail and I asked if they had been up to the top. They said yes and the trail was not bad. That was comforting enough to make the decision to go but I wanted to talk to some folks about getting microspikes. This of course breaks the old rule not to change something the day of a race, hike, whatever.

Sony Cybershot X30 Cropped Showing Folks On Top Of Whitney From Portal Road

I went to the Elevation Hiking and Backpacking store on Main Street and he showed me some microspikes. They looked good but he did not have any in a “Large”. There had been quite a run on them lately, which told me more about the trail conditions than I really wanted to know. He said they might have my size at The Whitney Portal Hostel and Store. They did and the salesman showed me how to put them on my trail shoes. Thank You! I bought a carabineer at Elevations and hung them off the back of my daypack.

I thought I'd get a bigger jump on the clock than last year by starting out at 2am on Thursday instead of 3am. [It was a good choice because for some reason, I was an hour and a half slower than last year.] It’s not like I didn't have the trail miles under my belt with 280 miles of hiking and backpacking this summer.

I pulled up at Whitney Portal and had my choice of good parking spots. I took care of business and was glad I wouldn’t have to use the “pack it out” bag. The trail can be somewhat sketchy in the dark but the worst place for me is always where the trail passes through Outpost Camp. Some young guys, Rubin and Alex pointed to the trail with their headlamps and I continued on. They were just getting ready to set out from there, having camped out overnight.

I didn't have daylight until I began climbing out of Trail Camp on the switchbacks. I walked up through the snow on a few switchbacks and decided it was time to put my microspikes on over my Speedcross III trail shoes. They really dug into the snow and had great traction on the icy spots too. After about a half an hour, I realized I had the right shoe spikes on backwards. I fixed that and continued on. In the meantime Rubin and his hiking friend passed me on the way to Trail Crest (13,600’) the highest pass on the JMT.

 Guitar Lake

I was doing OK to this point and climbed past the cable railing area, which seems to always have some snow and or ice. I had forgotten that after Trail Crest, the trail actually begins to drop down again for a time. I made a note of that for the return trip knowing that mentally, it would be a bad patch. Some folks had told me I wouldn't need my spikes after Trail Crest, so I took them off and hung them back on my pack. The section from Trail Crest to the top of Whitney is 2.0 miles and it took me 2 hours. I had to sit a few times to rest.

 One Of The Knife Edges

I got to the top about 10:30 am and signed the register. I rested and realized that I had used up all my water. I asked if anyone had extra water and a young man mercifully filled up my water bottle. It was a rookie mistake for me and I should have known to take two bottles up from the last water supply area at Trail Camp. The weather was perfect and the wind negligible. The air was clear also.

Getting back down was slower than expected too and I rested again at trail camp where I got more water and had some food. One guy from Grand Rapids who had walked with me for a while and eventually passed me was beginning to break camp but I never saw him again. Rubin and his friend Alex were still behind me and caught me at Mirror Lake where I rested, ate and resupplied water. My legs were holding up and my lungs were working better below 11,000’.

 Owens Valley With Inyo Mountains To The East

 Mirror Lake

Lone Pine Lake

I passed them at Outpost Camp and never saw them again. The last 2 miles reminds me of heading to Onion Valley from Kearsarge Pass. You can see where you have to go but it doesn't seem to be getting any closer. I arrived back at Whitney Portal and 6:30 pm. This was too long to be out on the trail for a day hike. It’s time for another plan if I ever do Whitney again. The $64.00 I spent on microspikes was money well spent.