Day 4: Over Pants Pass, to Junction Meadow, and the JMT.
Sept 6: This was going to be a long day, so I set my watch alarm to wake up about 4:30. It always takes me almost an hour to break camp, but I was off by 5:15. I decided to just eat a granola bar and hike a few hours before breakfast. It seems to work for me.
Here's a view from my highpoint the day before:
I set off in the early dawn, with just enough light that my headlamp wasn't necessary. I found a bench-like area to use to head up to Pants Pass -- I think it was a geologic "dike" of rock that was a bit softer than the surrounding granite. It was easy walking until the slope steepened and I had to climb the loose talus. That's where the fun began.
Heading up the ramp, with Pants Pass in my sights.
The west side of Pants Pass would be fun to descend. With enough loose rock, some of it small enough, one might be able to plunge-step, or step and slide a bit with each step. Going up was not easy. I was glad my pack was probably about 20 pounds. It was tough finding anything solid enough to stop and rest every few steps. If I stopped on anything in between, it might have started slipping downward. I carefully worked my way up, finally topping out in a notch, two hours from my starting point.
Looking back west from where I'd been, in Nine Lakes Basin. I had started from outlet of the closer lake. Kaweah Gap is the low pass just above the far lake.
My SPOT unit reported Pants Pass at:
GPS coordinates: 36.57432,-118.52812
Caltopo view (Pants pass is 2nd contour north of the 12000 contour--the pass is
not the lowest point.)
Looking down the east side of Pants Pass was an "oh crap" moment. The chute was too steep with loose gravel over hardened dirt. I took the blocky rocks to the left.
Had I known there was an easier way, I would have used it. I've read afterward that all I needed to do was climb south out of the notch, follow the ridge about 50 yards, and the descent is down much larger blocky rock. I could look up and see once I got down -- it would have been easy.
An hour later I had descended to near the first small lake in the picture above. Finally, a sunny spot to stop and eat breakfast. Here's a picture of the Titanium Esbit Wing stove. I make my own wind screen with aluminum foil. It takes a quarter ounce of fuel to heat my granola the way I like it. The Esbit hexamine tablets worked well on this trip, except on the Mt Whitney summit. Not enough oxygen there, I guess. (Edit: on a subsequent trip, using a new tablet worked great at the summit! Remnant fuel wouldn't burn as hot or fast.)
After my breakfast, I continued down to the lake at the headwaters of the Kern-Kaweah River. Other hikers have take a more east-west route, staying south of the river, on a roughly direct line between Pants Pass and Gallats Lake. Once I finished descending to the headwaters, the walking was as easy as a trail -- flat meadow and shallow stream. It took 4 hours to cross Pants Pass from my camp to the first K-K lake.
The fish in that first lake were abundant and voracious. I stopped and fished a short time, catching and releasing about half a dozen 6-inchers. They hit the lure as soon as it touched the water.
After the fishing, I covered a lot of miles. Down the nearly flat drainage, until I hit the trail coming from Colby Pass. Down the trail past Gallats "Lake". Not really a lake, but a huge meadow with a stream meandering through it.
I stopped for a very late lunch in Junction Meadow.
My original trip plan was to hike to hike to Wallace Lake to fish, then take a cross-country pass to Arctic Lake. After realizing how tough it was to do any climbing that was not described in Secor's book, I figured I'd better scratch that off-trail pass. Turns out that was a very wise decision, as hiking up the Arctic Lake drainage the next day, I could see the pass I'd hoped to cross was at best a 4th class rappel. So... I decided that since I was skipping Wallace Lake, maybe I could spend the last night on Whitney. To do that, I needed to make it to the JMT. So off I trudged... 4.3 miles later:
Last picture of the day.
It had taken 13 hours to cover the distance. I should have taken some pictures at my camp at the Wallace Creek crossing on the JMT. There must have been 30 campers that night. I met a trio who I'd encountered my first day. They had stayed on the trail down to Kern Hot Springs, arriving here the same time. My shortcut over Pants Pass allowed me to spend one day climbing Black Kaweah.
