Troop 8, 50 Miler, Mineral King 2011Sequoia National Park, Sierra Nevada Mts.
California - Aug 13, 2011.
On August 6-13, 2011, Max Sims, age 15, 1st Class Scout,
led a 50 mile backpack loop starting and ending at Mineral King in Sequoia National Park. Kenny Lund, age 15, Star Scout and Nishon Mood, age 17, Life Scout. Adult leadership fromAssistant Scoutmasters Sean Willets, and Chris Savage.
The following is Max’s write-up of the hike.
(and following that is one helluva video)
Day 1- The weather that day was sunny and pretty hot. When we arrived at the Mineral King ranger station, we found out that we could not pass over Farewell Gap due to the fires going on in the area, so we decided to go over Franklin Pass and change up our route.
Since we had lunch on the road, we started at the trail head around noon on the first day. We began that day from the parking lot to the base of Franklin Pass and planned on staying at Franklin Lakes. On the way up, we found a creek and decided we would cross country a little to the source to check if there was a spring. The source was inaccessible so we headed back to the trail. Fortunately, there were many spring on the way up. I decided today was a perfect day to do a little project; Nishon, Kenny, and I moved a tree off of the trail. We got to camp around 5 pm. Kenny and I set up our tents while Sean and Nishon set up their tarp. We ate chili mac and beef that night; then skipped stones on the lake. We all went to sleep at around nine under a clear sky.
Day 2- We got up to a warm morning. We all had oatmeal, except for Nishon who dislikes all breakfast— he had a power bar or two. Sean sprained his ankle while walking to a spot to go pee, so we helped him out by going much slower on the hike as he could still walk but with some pain. It was a lot of uphill hiking, marmots, and gravel, but when we got to the top it was all worth it. There was an amazing view of the valley underneath Franklin Pass. Sean’s ankle was hurting so we took a long break, and Kenny, Nishon, Chris and myself went “bouldering” a little to pass the time. We decided we might want to take a shortcut straight to Little Clair Lake, but while we were hiking down the trail we saw from a distance that our short cut lead to certain doom as it was a sheer cliff. We decided that going on the trail was not so bad. We had lunch at Forester Lake and then stayed the night at Little Clair. Dinner consisted of another meal of chili mac and beef. Nishon, Kenny and I went swimming in Little Clair; it was very cold. We had to make a decision if we should stay another day because of Sean’s ankle. We figured not take a lay-over day, because if we did, the rest of the trip would much more difficult. We all fell asleep very fast.
Day 3- We woke up early and ate breakfast. We got on the trail at around 7 a.m. Sean’s ankle wasn’t doing very well so instead of going to Little Five Lake we decided to hike to Big Five Lake which was closer. There was a lot of downhill and just as much uphill until we reached a river crossing that required us to stop and change clothes. We waded across to the other side only to be met with mosquitoes. We made it quick and rushed back on to the trail. We stopped by a little stream and ate lunch. We then got to the uphill portion of the day. It was hard but we eventually made it to the top. We could see Big Five below us and moved with great haste down to our campsite. The place we chose to sleep at was perfect. It had a huge dead tree for a wind breaker and a campfire for burning trash. There was a lot of mosquitoes but everyone was prepared. We had a serving of the goulash and went to bed.
Day 4- We woke up, ate breakfast, and were on our way around 7. In the beginning of the day we had a good amount of hard uphill. Sean was saying his ankle hurt worse so we slowed down considerably. Kenny, Nishon, and I got to Little Five Lakes first. Since we could not go over Farewell and had an extra day we didn’t want to stay here. I went to the ranger station but no one was posted there; so I took some paper and went back to Kenny and Nishon. I wrote a note for Dan, Bob, and Nathaniel letting them know we wouldn’t be meeting them because we were well ahead of schedule. When Sean and Chris arrived, Chris used my medical tape to wrap Sean’s ankle. He said it felt amazing and we went on. When we stopped for lunch, a ranger came by and Chris talked to her for a while. She brought our attention to fact that caching food and trash in bear boxes for long periods of time is not permitted; she said we could take any food that was stored there, but we would have to pack out the trash. We commandeered Pop Tarts and Power Milk. When we got to camp we devoured our delicious find. We decided that night we would stay at a meadow at the base of Kawea Gap and bag Eagle Scout peak in the morning.
Day 5- Chris, Nishon, and I woke up early at around six-thirty to climb Eagle Scout peak, while Sean and Kenny stayed by the road in order to see if Dan’s group was going to show up. It was all loose gravel and snow to the top. There, we found an “I climbed Eagle Scout Peak” roster; we all signed it. We hiked down, ate lunch and went on our way to go over Kawea Gap. When we got over to the other side, there was snow everywhere. We had to cross some sketchy ice fields that sloped into ice cold lakes, but everyone made it fine. We stopped by Precipice Lake, which was completely frozen and threw rocks into it to see how thick the ice really was. We left Precipice Lake and started going down the mountain towards Hamilton Lakes. About half way we went through a small cave where Chris took lots of pictures. We booked it down the trail and went straight for our campsite. It was beautiful with lots of deer and a pit toilet. We ate dinner and happily went to sleep around dark. There were no mosquitoes.
Day 6- We woke up lazily, ate breakfast, and figured we might check the campsite’s bear box for any leftover food. We found a ton of rope, trash and spam. It wasn’t the best haul but spam none-the-less. Chris used the rope to fashion our long-term neckerchief slides. We all packed up fairly fast and went on the trail. Chris mentioned that we should fix the pit toilet because it was severely thrashed. It took us about half an hour. We added two walls for some privacy and we went on our way. We then stopped by a sturdy wooden bridge. Below it was a less than fortunate metal bridge that seemed to have collapsed. At that bridge we met another troop. They looked quite unprepared for their hike. The troop offered us their homemade smoked beef jerky because they didn’t want it. For lunch we stopped at a place where hikers could buy lemonade, brownies and much more. After eating lunch we departed and went down the trail for Redwood Meadows. On our way we found some bear boxes to see if anyone had left anything inside. There was plenty of Top Ramen packages, two for each of us. We finally arrived at our destination at Redwood Meadows and discovered how lucky we were for going there. At our campsite there was an abundance of wild raspberries and strawberries. We all picked the berries for hours. Chris was taking his evening stroll when he found a working cold-water bathtub. Nishon happily took the first bath, followed by Chris. For dinner we devoured our noodles and went to sleep full. That was by far the best night of the trip.
Day 7- We didn’t want to leave, but we had to because we were running out of days, so we got up and headed for Timber Gap. For breakfast we ate all of our leftover breakfasts mixed with the Power Milk,— a good meal. On the trail we found there were ridiculous amounts of steep uphill hiking. It was the most challenging and exhausting day by far. We had a problem: At the top there wasn’t any water. Chris, being Chris, managed to find us a spring. We ate our dinner near the sound of trickling water. There was still one final push to the top. When we got there it was so nice and beautiful. We ate, set up camp, went to sleep, and happily awaited the next day.
Day 8- We woke up at around six and packed up in record time. We got on the trail without eating breakfast and sprinted down the hill. We made it to the bottom in about an hour and a half. When we left the wilderness in Chris’s car we stopped and feasted on Italian food at We Toss Them, They’re Awesome. We were home by one-thirty in the afternoon, ready for a shower and a comfortable bed.
Music: A Little Help From My Friends, by Joe Cocker
Photos: Chris Savage
Video: 2dog productions
Help promote Troop8- click the YouTube icon on the right
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Original photos with write up by Chris Savage:
You are invited to view Chris Savage’s photo album:
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This was by far the best backpack trip ever.