HST: Day 3

High Sierra Trail: Day 3

7/12/2021

Precipice Lake - Kaweah Pass - Big Arroyo Jct - Moraine Lake

Miles hiked: 11.1 miles

Elevation gained: 1,516 ft (10,494 - 10,707 - 9,567 - 10,606 - 9,218)

Animals seen: lazy bone marmots, bootylicious tree

Elevation chart created on AllTrails.com

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Jake had stayed up the previous night to do star pictures. I didn’t even know this many stars existed in the sky. Yes, we had stars in Minnesota, especially while camping. LA we get like six. This far in the backcountry though, with almost zero light. Magical.

Wanna guess how I slept? Like crap, that’s how. Nauseous, choking on snot from congestion, just lovely. We all slept in since it’s supposed to be an easy almost all downhill day. Crawled out of the tent as Jake was making coffee and brekkie again (chocolate banana oatmeal, instant coffee, carnation brek mix). We took our time breaking down camp and had a very satisfying cathole experience. No wag bags yet! We were the last to leave Precipice Lake this morning at 8:30am.

We began the climb to Kaweah Gap slowly and came upon the best way to start a day. Kaweah Gap has to be the best kept secret of the whole HST. High altitude alpine meadows, with babbling brooks, sleeping lazy bone marmots, wildflowers galore. It was a gentle climb and we couldn’t stop staring, mouths agape, and the disney-ques picture in front of our eyes. I had to double check that we were still smelly backpackers and had not in fact morphed into big-eyed, perfect-haired Disney princesses with chirping birds following us.

Best way to start the day.

Approaching Kaweah Gap

We made it through the pass, almost begrudgingly since it was so perfect, and looked down to the valley below. One of the mountains at the pass is Stewart Mountain, named after the guy who pushed to make the area the Sequoia National Park. Good guy, Stewart.

Looking down into the valley to the south (where we will go).

Looking into the valley below to the north.

We descended into this valley, cruising now that it was officially downhill, thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

We also had our first “real” water crossing. Target went first, balls to the wall, trail runners and socks all still on. Jake did his rock skipping across, not wanting to flood his boots or take the time to switch to sandals. I switched to sandals since my boots would take forever to dry out and would fall flat on my ass if I attempted rock skipping.

And then the mosquitos hit. Oh, did they hit hard. It was like being back in the midwest. While the mosquitos were feasting, we came upon Big Arroyo Junction where we had lunch (Starkist tuna creation - bacon ranch, spam, electrolyte mix). We watched as a large, angry cloud rolled over the ridgeline. Jake looked at the map and found to our surprise that our nice, downhill day would have a 3 mile uphill slog to gain 1,000 ft along a ridgeline, only to drop back down to roughly 9,000ft. Ugh, why?!

See the angry clouds?

So we began the slog up. We went up and up, over switchbacks, and exposed ridgelines. Taking breaks periodically to let the storm we were following get further ahead. Our electronics were packed in tight so as not to get wet, you will have to excuse the lack of pictures on the climb. During this slog, I ran into Brian & Charlotte having their lunch break at a waterfall. I got an updated time table from Brian (one more mile up that would take about an hour, then cruising the rest of the way to the lake and at camp by 4:30pm). They set off while I waited for the guys to catch up. The slog finished at an alpine meadow.

The end of the sloggish up!

Celebrating the end of the climb.

The trail then continued through a covid-distance-friendly forest.

Trees practicing social distancing.

As we made our way along this relatively flat elevation to the next junction, my feet started expressing their discomfort with the granite rocks we have been traversing over. We made it to the junction that had the spur trail leading to our next campsite, Moraine Lake. Brian was chilling, waiting for Charlotte. The three of us took a spot on a very comfortable looking rock and took a break. Charlotte rolled up and parked herself with us on the rock. After a short rest to regain some hit dice, all five of us began the trek to Moraine Lake.

Not quite halfway to the lake we came upon a exposed cliff ledge that showed amazing views. Naturally, we had to stop for photos.

Jake in his element.

Result of Jake in his element

And then we descended. Down, down, down about 1,000 ft. My feet were screaming in pain at this point and I was getting impatient to reach the lake and subsequent fishing I could do at this elevation. Tired, impatient, and screaming feet led to very sloppy Jurassic Park references that naturally no one understood. “You do plan to have lakes in your park, don’t you?!” I’m sorry Ian Malcolm, it was such a disgrace.

We did make it to Moraine Lake, and it looked like it had recently had rain. The tent pads were all saturated and there were a lot of them. Someone was already there enjoying the view of the lake. Boone, who would shortly earn a trail name, had hiked all the way from Hamilton Lakes. He was one of the nonsocial hikers to arrive at the time Chad had.

Me in my element.

We quickly set up camp, made happy hour cocktails (backcountry whiskey sour) and I got to fishing. The sun was fierce, which after a day of chasing storms and overcast clouds, was a shock to the system. The lake had so many bugs dancing on the surface, but surprisingly not a single fish breaking the water to eat said bugs, even though it was getting closer to sunset. Suspicious.

So I didn’t catch any fish, not even a nibble. My conclusion is that the lake doesn’t actually contain fish, and not that I suck at fishing. There wasn’t any feeding creek and no outlet creek so likely a seasonal lake created by snowmelt. That’s what I am going with at least. No fish.

We ate dinner (Tomato Basil Shrimp and brownie crisp). Target wasn’t feeling very hungry and tried to eat his meal but gave about half to Jake. I was over the sleeping like crap and took dramamine to hopefully help with the nausea the altitude has been causing at night.

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