Sequoia National Park, High Sierra Trail backpacking trip - day 3
07/03/07 09:02 PM Filed in: travel | backpacking
We slept through the
night and at times we both thought we heard bears
rummaging around our campsite. There were definitely
bear tracks leading to the more dense forest beyond
our tent. We were thankful we camped at a site with a
large bear-proof metal box for us to store our food,
first aid kit and anything with a scent...
Bear Paw High Sierra Camp to Upper Hamilton Lake
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Day 3 we enjoyed another freeze-dried breakfast, this time blue berry granola with milk. We were both well rested for the most part and eagerly excited to start our journey beyond Bear Paw. We took our time enjoying the morning, so it was 1:15 pm when finished packing up camp. We decided to save 8lbs of weight by leaving additional food we would not need until day 6 in one of the corners of the bear box at our campsite. As we started our hike out of Bear Paw, two nice hikers interested in our campsite, Peter & Tracy, hiked up so we were able to explain the bear box situation and left knowing our stuff would be okay. On our way up the trail, we passed a ranger station and were greeted by a friendly ranger, Nina, eager to see our wilderness permits and paperwork. At this point, I still had the bear bell attached to my hiking pole, and the ranger commented that I really didn’t need that bear bell out here. Very shocked and interested in her response, I asked why..? She added that bear bells are meant to scare fierce Grizzlies off of trails in Alaska, while in the Sierras, Black bears are generally timid & elusive. Not only can they be scared away quite easily with yelling and throwing rocks if needed, but their population is so low that seeing one you should consider yourself lucky. She also added that she personally felt if too many people used them, bears would associate bear bell sound with food, doing the exact opposite as intended. I immediately packed away my bear bell, and began asserting a more confident feeling than I had yet hiking in this wilderness.
We crossed many streams and small waterfalls. The sights were amazing.. the more we hiked the more the environment became sub-alpine, with less trees, different foliage, boulder fields and bulging mountain peaks..
It was hot and dry outside, in the mid-day sun our thermometer read 95 degrees. Frequently we would stop to catch our breath, drink water and snack on trail mix & Cliff Bars. The Cliff Bars were okay for an energy bar. They definitely gave us the electrolytes we needed but they looked like a brown lump with nuts and berries, and the taste could be better.
We crossed the foot bridge over the Middle Fort Kaweah river. The waterfall was amazing. Pools of turquoise blue over layers and layers of granite. There was an old, metal bridge 100 feet below us, hanging on a giant bolder, which was stuck in a 15 ft granite wall gap.
*view of the top of the waterfall from bridge crossing*
90
*the new bridge*
*waterfall, north view* & *waterfall, south view with remains of old bridge*
fter passing the Middle Fork Kaweah bridge (below), we headed up a steep hill and took a break on the trail to partake in lovely Cliff Bar refueling. As we looked about a quarter mile away was a large brown bear and two cubs climbing down from a large tree!! The little ones, galloped like small children up the same trail we just hiked on, heading back to Bear Paw. They were beautiful. We wondered if the momma bear saw us pass a half hour earlier, and waited until the coast was clear to lead her cubs onward.
After our second bear “sighting” we continued uphill, on our trail along the mountain’s edge. More and more granite became exposed along the trail and it was apparent we were in the sub-alpine zone. We were eyeing up a distant waterfall and after another hour we had reached that cascading waterfall, which to our amazement, was directly on the trail! We stopped there to pump water into our camel backs and take everything in..
*awesome views..*
*the exposed, mountain-ledge trail *
*the cascading falls - looking up*
*standing next to the falls facing the direction we came from*
The waterfall felt like it was on the edge of the world, it was amazing, and honestly, at that point I was particularly overwhelmed with the emotions of taking part in this amazing adventure.. something I never thought I would have the opportunity to do in my lifetime, just by not knowing I could do this. The feeling of being immersed with nature at it’s rawest and most beautiful state, seeing views most people only see in magazines. After weeping with joy, I felt a strong, feeling beyond myself, that we should name our first daughter, Sierra. The ever-present beauty of this place and how drawn we’ve become to it’s jewels, the name Sierra holds so much meaning to us and I can’t wait to tell our daughter one day, when she’s in this world, that this great moment in our lives, inspired her name ;)
Moving on from the cascading waterfall, the hike continued uphill for another hour and a half. Our first glimpses of the magical Valhalla, jutting mountain tops, also known as “Angel Wings” by the shape of their formation. This indeed was the coolest sighting we’ve seen yet.
*Valhalla Peak*
*Lower Hamilton Lake*
Following the trail, we eventually came upon Lower Hamilton lake, which was surrounded by trees & brush, and this gorgeous lake was a bright, turquoise-green. Falls from Upper Hamilton lake, fed into this smaller lake, which then flowed downhill to the cascading falls shown above.
Shortly after reaching Lower Hamilton lake, we arrived at our next campsite at Upper Hamilton lake. The area was a giant, vast bowl made up of mountain peaks, with a gem of a lake in the middle. There were three waterfalls feeding into the lake that we could see and hear from our water-front campsite. Simply breathtaking. To top it off, we were very happily surprised to see that we were the only people there. It was the 4th of July holiday week, and from what we had read online, this site is typically PACKED with people, in a sense like “good luck” finding a campsite if you get there too late! When we finally reached the campsite, the sun was already fading from this vast mountain range. We went for a brisk swim in the lake all to ourselves! The day was incredibly hot and we were in need of a soothing bath, in this gorgeous alpine lake!! It was chilly to the bone, but eased our sore muscles and recharged us in time for dinner :) Friends in the form of Yellow-bellied Marmots and other cute, fuzzy rodents which were a cross between a squirrel and a mouse kept us company while we set up our stove and prepared for the night. It was unbelievable that it only took 3 days of hiking to get to a place like this. We ate another freeze-dried dinner, Jamaican jerk chicken & rice, (our least favorite of the Mountain House meals) and watched wild Sierra trout jumping from the lake, catching their dinner of bugs looming above them. :)
*Upper Hamilton Lake - our campsite!*
Bear Paw High Sierra Camp to Upper Hamilton Lake
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Day 3 we enjoyed another freeze-dried breakfast, this time blue berry granola with milk. We were both well rested for the most part and eagerly excited to start our journey beyond Bear Paw. We took our time enjoying the morning, so it was 1:15 pm when finished packing up camp. We decided to save 8lbs of weight by leaving additional food we would not need until day 6 in one of the corners of the bear box at our campsite. As we started our hike out of Bear Paw, two nice hikers interested in our campsite, Peter & Tracy, hiked up so we were able to explain the bear box situation and left knowing our stuff would be okay. On our way up the trail, we passed a ranger station and were greeted by a friendly ranger, Nina, eager to see our wilderness permits and paperwork. At this point, I still had the bear bell attached to my hiking pole, and the ranger commented that I really didn’t need that bear bell out here. Very shocked and interested in her response, I asked why..? She added that bear bells are meant to scare fierce Grizzlies off of trails in Alaska, while in the Sierras, Black bears are generally timid & elusive. Not only can they be scared away quite easily with yelling and throwing rocks if needed, but their population is so low that seeing one you should consider yourself lucky. She also added that she personally felt if too many people used them, bears would associate bear bell sound with food, doing the exact opposite as intended. I immediately packed away my bear bell, and began asserting a more confident feeling than I had yet hiking in this wilderness.
We crossed many streams and small waterfalls. The sights were amazing.. the more we hiked the more the environment became sub-alpine, with less trees, different foliage, boulder fields and bulging mountain peaks..
It was hot and dry outside, in the mid-day sun our thermometer read 95 degrees. Frequently we would stop to catch our breath, drink water and snack on trail mix & Cliff Bars. The Cliff Bars were okay for an energy bar. They definitely gave us the electrolytes we needed but they looked like a brown lump with nuts and berries, and the taste could be better.
We crossed the foot bridge over the Middle Fort Kaweah river. The waterfall was amazing. Pools of turquoise blue over layers and layers of granite. There was an old, metal bridge 100 feet below us, hanging on a giant bolder, which was stuck in a 15 ft granite wall gap.
*view of the top of the waterfall from bridge crossing*
90
*the new bridge*
*waterfall, north view* & *waterfall, south view with remains of old bridge*
fter passing the Middle Fork Kaweah bridge (below), we headed up a steep hill and took a break on the trail to partake in lovely Cliff Bar refueling. As we looked about a quarter mile away was a large brown bear and two cubs climbing down from a large tree!! The little ones, galloped like small children up the same trail we just hiked on, heading back to Bear Paw. They were beautiful. We wondered if the momma bear saw us pass a half hour earlier, and waited until the coast was clear to lead her cubs onward.
After our second bear “sighting” we continued uphill, on our trail along the mountain’s edge. More and more granite became exposed along the trail and it was apparent we were in the sub-alpine zone. We were eyeing up a distant waterfall and after another hour we had reached that cascading waterfall, which to our amazement, was directly on the trail! We stopped there to pump water into our camel backs and take everything in..
*awesome views..*
*the exposed, mountain-ledge trail *
*the cascading falls - looking up*
*standing next to the falls facing the direction we came from*
The waterfall felt like it was on the edge of the world, it was amazing, and honestly, at that point I was particularly overwhelmed with the emotions of taking part in this amazing adventure.. something I never thought I would have the opportunity to do in my lifetime, just by not knowing I could do this. The feeling of being immersed with nature at it’s rawest and most beautiful state, seeing views most people only see in magazines. After weeping with joy, I felt a strong, feeling beyond myself, that we should name our first daughter, Sierra. The ever-present beauty of this place and how drawn we’ve become to it’s jewels, the name Sierra holds so much meaning to us and I can’t wait to tell our daughter one day, when she’s in this world, that this great moment in our lives, inspired her name ;)
Moving on from the cascading waterfall, the hike continued uphill for another hour and a half. Our first glimpses of the magical Valhalla, jutting mountain tops, also known as “Angel Wings” by the shape of their formation. This indeed was the coolest sighting we’ve seen yet.
*Valhalla Peak*
*Lower Hamilton Lake*
Following the trail, we eventually came upon Lower Hamilton lake, which was surrounded by trees & brush, and this gorgeous lake was a bright, turquoise-green. Falls from Upper Hamilton lake, fed into this smaller lake, which then flowed downhill to the cascading falls shown above.
Shortly after reaching Lower Hamilton lake, we arrived at our next campsite at Upper Hamilton lake. The area was a giant, vast bowl made up of mountain peaks, with a gem of a lake in the middle. There were three waterfalls feeding into the lake that we could see and hear from our water-front campsite. Simply breathtaking. To top it off, we were very happily surprised to see that we were the only people there. It was the 4th of July holiday week, and from what we had read online, this site is typically PACKED with people, in a sense like “good luck” finding a campsite if you get there too late! When we finally reached the campsite, the sun was already fading from this vast mountain range. We went for a brisk swim in the lake all to ourselves! The day was incredibly hot and we were in need of a soothing bath, in this gorgeous alpine lake!! It was chilly to the bone, but eased our sore muscles and recharged us in time for dinner :) Friends in the form of Yellow-bellied Marmots and other cute, fuzzy rodents which were a cross between a squirrel and a mouse kept us company while we set up our stove and prepared for the night. It was unbelievable that it only took 3 days of hiking to get to a place like this. We ate another freeze-dried dinner, Jamaican jerk chicken & rice, (our least favorite of the Mountain House meals) and watched wild Sierra trout jumping from the lake, catching their dinner of bugs looming above them. :)
*Upper Hamilton Lake - our campsite!*