Mineral King to Whitney Portal, July 2014
Day 3, 4 & 5

Day 3 was easy. I slept in, then hiked down the Kern River trail to the Rattlesnake Creek junction. My friend Paul had asked me to take some pictures of the junction where the hump trail from Big Arroyo over to Rattlesnake creek trail joins. Since I had explored the off-trail route down the Big Arroyo to the Kern River, I missed the Rattlesnake junction. I had lots of time to spare, so I day-hiked down the Kern and up to that junction.

Beaver activity along the Kern. That tree was 15-18" in diameter!   Also, a cascade on Rattlesnake Creek.
 

Here's the trail junction. Metal sign, several cairns. I returned to the Kern River from here.


Looking down the Kern River canyon from the Rattlesnake trail.


I didn't see any rattlesnakes, but hundreds of these...


Hiking up the Kern River trail, I passed lush and woodsy Upper Funston Meadows. There was a gate, signs for riders to allow grazing a maximum of 48 hours, but no sign of horses being there. A little beyond the meadow, I joined the High Sierra Trail, and met hikers for the first time in about 30 hours. I met Mark and Mark from Sacramento at the junction, and they finished at Whitney Portal the same time I hiked off the trail, and they were nice enough to give me a ride down to Lone Pine. They had some heavy driving: 5 hours back around to Sequoia National Park to retrieve their other car, and then almost that many on to Sacramento. Fun!

Here is the bridge over the Kern just south of the Hot Springs.
                             

At long last, Kern Hot Springs! There is a little one-person concrete tub with hot water running slowly into it (it could take 30 minutes to fill), and it needed some water from the river to cool it a little. Just below the tub, there is a pool by the river that is cooler, where several people could soak for a long time.


KHS has camp sites about 50 yards upstream on the trail. There were about ten camper groups camped there, some spending two nights. I spent the night, then continued on to Whitney Creek, to find the next off-trail shortcut I wanted to try.

Whitney Creek Shortcut
It is 11-12 miles on the High Sierra Trail between the Whitney Creek crossing and the Crabtree Ranger Station. I have read several Internet discussions about rangers and others hiking down to the Kern River trail from the Crabtree area via Whitney Creek, so I wanted to give it a try. I'll put a write-up of that section in a separate thread. (Here it is: Whitney Creek - Kern River Shortcut )

It took nearly 3.5 hours, and I came upon a horse-packer camp less than a mile from the PCT trail, so I stopped and camped for the night. The camp had a table, bear box, seats and a camp fire.
The horse camp:


I caught a few small trout in the stream, and was ready for another fish dinner. Unfortunately, a rain storm had made everything so wet I was unable to light a fire, even ruining my lighter. Dumb move of this trip: No backup matches. I ate peanut butter and jelly on a flour tortilla for dinner. Had to bury the fish! I begged a new lighter off a hiker the next morning.

Next day I continued on, hitting the trail in less than an hour. Here is Crabtree Meadow, first view of Mt Russel, and a tiny piece of Mt Whitney:


A deer in the meadow.


I made my way to the Crabtree Ranger Station just to have a look, and encountered ranger Rob Pilewski. He was waiting for a helicopter, so I waited around to get a picture.

Helicopter, pilot, Rob Pilewski, backcountry crew, pack train rider.



Beautiful summer quarters! Crabtree Ranger Station.


From the ranger station, I made my way back to the south, looking for the no-longer-maintained trail to Crabtree Lakes. Ranger Rob pointed me in the general direction, and I found it. I headed up and had lunch at the first lake, caught and released a few small trout.

The first Crabtree Lake


The small lake just above the first had more active trout, but smallish. I had some fun with them. I then moved up to the largest lake at 11,300' elevation, where I spent the night on an excellent sandy beach.
Looking west toward the lower Crabtree lakes.


Here's where I spent the night.   Sunset beach.



I fished (one 13" golden) and sat around for a few hours waiting for sundown, wishing I had brought a book. In hindsight, I should have climbed to the upper lake at 12,100'. That would have made the climb to Discovery Pinnacle the next day a little easier.