Chasing Big Bird

On Friday September 28, I set out with my friends Gabe and Dan on a cross country backpacking adventure in Sequoia/Kings Canyon. The route started at the Wolverton trailhead, with a plan to hit Big Bird Lake on day 2, and return via Moose Lake and Alta Meadow to Wolverton on Monday October 1.

Upper Big Bird Lake Loop at EveryTrail
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See the EveryTrail post for this trip here

Quick Stats
Trailhead: Wolverton Trailhead (Lakes Trail)
Route: Wolverton to Pear Lake to Upper Big Bird Lake to Alta Meadow
Distance: ~25 mi
Elevation Gain: ~3000 ft
Highest Elevation: ~11,200 ft



Day 1 - Wolverton to Pear Lake (6.5 mi)
Friday morning started at my brother's house in Reedley, where we all met up before driving the 1.5 hours or so to the trailhead.  One of the reasons I like doing trips in Kings Canyon is that i get to see my brother and his family on the way, including my adorable niece and energetic nephew (number two of three), and his home serves as a convient "base camp" to get an early start on the day of a trip.

Since this was our first meeting all together for the trip, we had to start with dividing up equipment and snacks.  Zip locks, jerky, and trail mix were strewn about the room as we packed individual servings of food into the bear canisters (thank you dad!), and while I strapped the tent to the bottom of my pack.  Dan was concerned about the sleeping bag he had to pack, saying that the down smelled a bit rotten when he first got it from REI, but he hadn't had a chance to exchange it in time.  But i think the desensitization of backpacking BO prevented it from being a problem during the trip.

We loaded up our stuff into Gabe's rental car, hit the store for some missing items, grabbed some Jack-in-the-Box curly fries, and then we were on our way.  Almost.  Halfway up the mountain, I asked if any of us grabbed the dinner that was in the freezer - and we turned around.  Fast forward an hour and... NOW we are on our way!

Before hitting the trail, we had to stop in Lodgepole and get our wilderness permits.  This late in the year they were free of charge, and it did not seem that quotas were a concern at this time either.  We made our last pit stop in a real restroom, took a look at some posted maps, and then headed on to Wolverton.

When we eventually got to the trailhead, we had risen to about 8000ft of elevation.  Our path started in dusty forested areas, but you could get small glimpses of promising views - a teaser hinting at what was to come.  We talked and walked, though somewhat out of breath due to the altitude and our desk jobs, as the trail rose gently but steadily.  After about two miles, we reached a trail junction, with options of heading toward Panther Gap or Pear Lake.  It was here that I first turned on my GPS, remembering that I brought it all this way with spare batteries for a reason!

From the junction, we continued east toward Pear Lake.  We ran into the Pear Lake ranger, headed down from her post.  We asked about water availability during our trip, particularly in Alta Meadow.  She said there should be one spring that still had water, on the west edge of Alta Meadow, but she indicated that the flow may not be deep enough to fill anything very well.  We all logged that info thankfully into the memory banks, and continued on our way.


As you travel the Lakes Trail to Pear Lake, there are two optional routes.  One is the Watchtower trail, which takes you to the Watchtower and runs on the face of the canyon wall.  The other is called the Hump trail, which goes up and over a "hump" (at least that's my assumption...) before meeting the Watchtower trail headed into Heather Lake.  We ended up taking the Watchtower trail, and I'm glad we did.

The Watchtower trail takes you to an outcropping of rock (the Watchtower itself i think...?), where you get some excellent views of the canyon looking East.  For some, standing on the trail is probably enough, and definitely worth the hike.  But for us, scrambling over to the point of the outcropping was a must.  The scenery looking east, west, and...well... down, was breathtaking.  It was one of those spots where I love to linger awhile, even though it gave me very vulnerable feeling due to the heights.  And of course, I could hear my mother's voice all-to-well in my head - "Timothy! You have a wife and a child to think about now - don't you go bouldering or do anything dangerous!"

We wasted a good amount of time there on the ridge before moving on.  From here there wasn't much net altitude gain for us to get to Pear Lake, though the trail did have its ups and downs.  Shortly after the Watchtower, we came to Heather Lake, followed up by Emerald Lake.  At Emerald, the sunlight was noticeably changing toward evening, and we considered the idea of stopping for the night.  But, knowing that would mean more miles in the morning motivated us to make it to Pear Lake before sundown.

"Gabe, do something epic"  Gabe: "OK"

At Pear Lake, there are actually numbered campsites, along with a permanent outhouse.  We saw signs instructing us to stay in the numbered campsites only, but we were a bit too tired to look around for a free one (there were four or five other groups there already), and we figured that as long as we stayed on granite we couldn't really hurt anything.  So, naturally, we parked it right next to the water!

I nominated myself to be the cook, since I had the stove and dinner in my pack, and Gabe and Dan took care of the tent.  To continue the tradition of first-night-of-backpacking-meat-consumption we had brought along some cheddar sausages.  Man did they taste good - good enough, in fact, that we polished off twelve of them without a problem.

This trip was my first chance to try my new water filter, a gravity-feed filter bag, called the Katadyn Base Camp.  The flow turned out to be a little slow, but what I really got it for was the ability to fill it, hang it, and forget about it.  I've always been a water-pill person up until now, so a filter that I don't have to think about or make multiple trips with is like heaven to me.  Anyway, all that to say we got some water to re-hydrate that evening, then it was off to bed.


Day 2 - Pear Lake to Upper Big Bird Lake (5.8 mi)
On the morning of Day 2, we took things pretty slowly.  Pear Lake, like many high sierra lakes, basically sits in a bowl of granite.  And bowls of granite usually see the sun a bit late.  So we relaxed around the campsite after breakfast - me in a hammock, Gabe in the tent, and Dan Helms taking awesome photos.  Eventually the sun made it over the rim of said bowl, and we slowly packed things up to start our Day 2 hike.

From Pear Lake we would be traveling cross country for two days.  We were equipped with a Kings Canyon Trail Map and a couple of GPS devices.  The goal of Day 2 was to cross over toward Table Meadows to the northeast, and then continue east through the Tablelands to Big Bird Lake.

Starting out, we first crossed a crumbling slope, the first of many in the Tablelands, toward a stream outlet at the west end of the Table Meadows canyon.  We found the canyon to be fairly dry, with no running water at all.  But the terrain wasn't too difficult.  The ranger we had spoken to had advised that we stay to the north of some tarn in the canyon, but it turns out that there were several.  So, we just went off of instinct and made our way upwards through the canyon.  After a lunch break with small doses of beef jerky, dried mango, trail mix and granola bars, we made it to the eastern end of the canyon, and were faced with a healthy ascent to get out.  Several routes were available to us, but I think we almost managed to pick the most difficult one.  At least it felt that way from the top.  But, as would become a bit of a theme for our trip, while our route didn't prove to be the shortest or the easiest, it worked.



 

Start of Canyon

End of Canyon

From the top of the canyon rim, the Tablelands could be seen gently rising in front of us.  Somewhere to the east lay Big Bird Lake.  At this point one of my legs tried to start cramping on me.  But as we moved forward, I kept hydrating regularly to keep it at bay and it never became a major issue.  As we meandered through the Tablelands, a lot of things that I had read about this area were affirmed in my mind.  It really is an alien landscape, with endless piles, layers, and slopes of exfoliating granite, broken up only by some patches of grass or sand.  There were no trees, no bushes, and no wildlife of any kind as we passed through.  And yet, it does have a certain "cool factor."  Something about all that granite, looking like it's ready to start flowing down hill at you and yet laying there for years and years unmoved - it's just unique and, well, cool.

I should mention at this point that once we began our ascent out of Table Meadows, our group was much quieter.  I think we were all entering that zone where you just put your head down and slug it out with the altitude, the hill climbing, and the route finding.  Personally, this was my first real cross-country experience.  And while I thoroughly enjoyed it, it is MUCH more taxing on you physically and mentally.  The incessant need to make sure you know where you are going, look out for hazards in front of you, and stay on course really can be mentally and emotionally consuming.  And of course, not being on a trail means you will inevitably hit spots that are physically difficult - usually because of slope or physical obstacles.

It was in this less-than-cheery mood, yet still somewhat positive, that we slowly made our way to the ridgeline above Upper Big Bird Lakes.  Gabe and I reached the ridge first, and put down our packs to explore a way down.  After ten minutes or so, we realized we should be looking for Dan.  So we returned to our packs, and started scanning back down the slopes to look for him.  Gabe took off down hill to try and find him, while I romed around a bit on the ridge.  Five or ten more minutes later, its Dan and I that are looking for Gabe... seriously?  These are the things that the stupid people in horror films do - any minute now our electronic equipment is gonna scramble and someone will get the urge to take a shower alone in the dark.

Anyway, we finally regrouped, and started down towards Upper Big Bird Lake.  We went north at first, hoping to find something easier than the straight-down-hill approach that looked pretty intimidating.  But that didn't get us anywhere.  So, straight down the hill it was!

Soon we were at the bottom of the bowl that surrounds the Upper Big Bird Lakes.  Feeling thoroughly exhausted, and more than happy with the view and surroundings at Upper Big Bird, we decided to cut our route a bit short and set up camp between the two lakes rather than continue to the Big Bird Lake.  As we setup camp and broke out dinner equipment, clouds blew over us and actually started dropping rain!  We were quick to get everything into the tent that we wanted to stay dry, but the rain was very sporatic, and didn't by any means cut our evening short.  After three quick servings of boiling water, we were chowing down on some freeze-dried meals of terriyaki chicken and beef stew.

"I know it's gonna be freezing, but I'm going swimming in that lake, I don't even care.  I just have to wash off all the grossness on me."

I laughed when I heard Gabe say this - laughing because I knew just how cold the water was when I filled up our filter - and because I knew I'd be joining him 'cause I wanted the grossness off, too.  So after dinner, all three of us were planning our own strategy on how to cope with the death-grip of freezing-coldness that we'd be feeling after getting out of the water.  I borrowed Gabe's extra backpacking towel, grabbed my long sleeve shirt and beenie and a clean pair of socks, and headed toward the water.  If you think there's something missing there, perhaps I should make a confession at this point - I took one pair of boxers.  That's it.  This was a conscious choice believe it or not, but I don't think I'll even try to explain it because I'm betting that no matter what I say, you'll still think it was a disgusting and repulsive idea.  And it kind of was - which is one more reason why I needed to take a swim.

I undressed at the water, and began that almost-hyperventilating breathing action with my elbows tucked in and fists clenched and wriggling, while my ankles, feet and toes moved downhill into the water, inch by inch.  Now, cold is a word for oceans and summer lakes in the heat, and drinks that are delicious after a basketball game.  This was some other word - probably not one of the words I was saying on my way into the water - some other word for your goosebumps and lack of oxygen and ankle pain and uncontrolled convulsions - not to mention a magical unmentionable disappearing act.

I sank lower, and lower, and lower - then I was knee deep.  And I slowly went deeper and deeper over the next few minutes - to about mid-thigh.  From here, it was dipping time.  So i took several deep breaths, gathered up my gumption, and dunked.  I proceeded to hand scrub all the grossness off in a bit of a fury, and one minute later I was drying off.  The air actually didn't feel too bad after getting mostly dry, and I threw my clothes on as quickly as my wetness would allow.

Satisfied with the lack of grossness after the swim, we relaxed for a bit in the semi-darkness of the full moon.  Dan setup his camera and we actually got some good night pics of the group before heading to bed.  I ended the evening reading in my sleeping bag and happily dozing off.

Day 3 - Upper Big Bird Lake to Alta Meadows (6.8 mi)
On Day 3, we woke up knowing that we had a steep climb to backtrack out of the valley we had descended into the evening before.  For the second day in a row, I had oatmeal and hot chocolate for breakfast.  It's hard to say no to oatmeal when you pack for backpacking because its just so easy, but every time I pack it I end up getting tired of it quick.  I guess I'm just not an oatmeal person.

We packed up earlier than the day before, hoping to give ourselves more time at camp in the evening than we had the last two days.  After a short discussion (which we had already started the night before), we decided on our route out of the valley.  It was hard to find one that looked appealing, and from the bottom it was in some ways hard to believe we had come down that way at all.

Well rested and getting a bit more used to the altitude, we embarked on our journey and were out of the valley in about an hour.  We took a quick break to enjoy the view of the lakes in the morning, and then continued on through the Tablelands.

Our next step was to cross the granite slopes toward the southwest and hit Moose Lake, which is actually somewhat close to Pear Lake.  From the ridge above Big Bird, we could actually see Moose Lake pretty early.  We headed for it in pretty much a straight line, going mostly downhill.  The last half mile or so was a pretty decent climb, though not quite like the ones we had done the day before, and we were at Moose Lake.

I had heard that some people like to camp at Moose, where there is some pretty good fishing.  It wouldn't be a bad spot, but when we got there I was glad it wasn't our plan to camp there.  The view was pretty unique, because the far edge of the lake looked like one of those endless pools (or whatever they are called), where the edge of it just seems to rest at the edge of a cliff, and beyond it are the mountain peaks in the distance.  And most of what you see is actually below you.  Yet, for some reason, it just didn't fit my taste for a campsite.

Once we made it around the lake, we filled up on water because Moose was our last known water source for the day.  From here, there was supposedly an unmaintained trail that crossed the ridgelines and headed to Alta Meadows.  So we headed over the first ridge at what looked like the most likely spot for this trail, but saw no sign of it.  Less than a mile ahead of us was another rideline, which looked basically like a long pile of boulders.  We crossed over to it and decided to climb up to the top to take a look at the other side.

The scramble up was pretty slow going.  It was half climbing, half walking, to the top, with a lot of care needed because of unstable rocking boulders.  Gabe was the first one up.

"Gabe, see anything promising"

"Uh... I dunno... yeah, maybe..."

Taking this to mean we might be able to get down the other side, I finished the climb and stepped up to where Gabe was standing.

"Holy! Wow... I thought you said it looked doable"

"Yeah, I dunno.  It's definitely sketchy.  I can kind of see a way down to there (pointing about 50 feet below us), but after that..."

After that there was nothing.  The ridge we stood on was basically a knife-edge ridge.  I felt like climbing up to the top too fast could have sent me over the other side.  And there was no real way getting down... other than falling.  However, there was a great view in front of us.

Dan joined us shortly, and we all took in the view together.  After a couple minutes, we headed back down the way we came.  Once back on solid ground, we just headed downhill, looking for a place to cross the ridge.  Eventually, we actually ran across the trail! It was unmistakable with some piled rocks and a line of stones about eight feet long.  We followed this to the top of the ridge, much lower and not far above us now.

At the top, we followed somewhat distinguishable switchbacks down the other side... for about five minutes.  I think somewhere in there I led us onto a game trail, and we suddenly realized it had ended.  But, we could make it down from there, so we just continued downhill.  Near the bottom of the hill, we regrouped to figure out which way we were headed.  I had a couple waypoints in my GPS that I had marked as part of the trail.  Between those and our instincts we headed toward Alta Meadow.  We were on a fairly level course now, but the exact direction we needed to head in was hard to agree upon.  I think all of us were getting pretty frustrated with finding our way, and we were pretty impatient with the whole ordeal in general, wanting to just get to the meadow and make camp, and hoping there would be good water.

Back below the treeline now, we continued through forest and meadow, less than a mile from Alta.  We crossed a creek bed, headed uphill a little bit, and then suddenly saw a large meadow in front of us.  We knew it wasn't THE meadow, but it felt close.  And sure enough, after cresting the next hill, we were in Alta Meadow.  And the peasants rejoice...

Only problem was, we didn't see any water, any level campsites, or the trail heading back to Wolverton yet.  Dan dropped his pack and scouted ahead.  I looked at my GPS, and realized we had passed, on the north side, my waypoint for Alta Meadow.  I walked a little bit towards it, and caught a view of a clearing.  And as I got closer, it dawned on me that the waypoint I must have gotten online was someones campsite at Alta Meadow. 

All three of us were still in bad moods, but we gruntily agreed to head to the clearing.  Dan said he hadn't seen anything real definite, but thought maybe he knew what direction the trail was in.  With more pressing things on our minds though, like food and rest, we walked toward the clearing.   On the way we actually stumbled upon a thin and faint trail, and followed it into our campsite.  We found our spot of choice for the tent and broke camp.

I anounced to Gabe and Dan that I was going looking for water.  I grabbed the filter and a water bottle and headed down the trail we had discovered.  In my head I was considering the possibilities if we didn't find water, and trying to decide how far I would be willing to walk to find it.  But after just a quarter mile, I could hear running water!  And the peasants rejoice! YAY!

It was a running stream, with pockets of water deep enough to get your ankles wet.  I was so happy, after all the frustration of that day and feeling hot and tired, that I nearly cried with joy.  I immediately began filling the water filter, scooping with my bottle and loading the thing up with at least a gallon and a half.  Then Gabe showed up, just as stoked as I was to see water, and we both removed our shoes and got our feet wet.  I washed my shirt in the water and rinsed my face before heading back to camp, feeling like this was the best day ever!  Now that I had water, I was able to enjoy the beauty of the meadow, which was full of ferns from green to yellow to gold, with views of far off ridgelines and peaks. 

When we saw Dan we shared the good news, and broke out the cooking gear now that there was water for our freeze-dried food.  During dinner we were much happier than we had been just an hour before.  It's amazing the difference that water and food can make.  We enjoyed our last night on the trail, hanging out and joking around, knowing that tomorrow would bring warm showers and real food.  I spent a little time in my hammock now that we were near some trees again, and actually contemplated the idea of sleeping there for the night.  But I knew that the temperature would probably be in the thirties so I decided against it, and went to bed in the tent with the others.

Day 4 - Alta Meadows to Wolverton (6.6 mi)
Our last day started with just a little bit more trail finding.  We wanted to get down the mountain early to get home at a good time, so breakfast went pretty quickly and we started on the trail that led to the stream the evening before.  At the stream, we filled up with water one last time, and continued on the trail.  Within a couple-hundred yards the trail became faint, and we were wandering around in somewhat marshy grasses and ferns.  Ahead of us we could see that the meadow narrowed between two lines of trees, which seemed like a likely spot for the trail to be.  While we ventured a little off course a couple times, we eventually reached the end of the meadow, and sure enough, there was the trail right in front of us.

Now that we were actually on a path, we could turn off our brains and just walk, which was really nice to do at this point.  We covered ground pretty quickly, but took time once in awhile to enjoy the surroundings.  One of my favorite views of the whole trip was on this section, looking across the valley to the south at Castle Rocks.  Its a group of peaks croweded together, which I imagine would be a rock climbers paradise.  Also, we saw a rock just below the trail which looked EXACTLY like a lion.  No joke - just look at it in this photo.

After a couple miles we reached Panther Gap, where the trail crosses over to the North side of the ridgeline and heads downhill toward Wolverton.  Once again we were back in the forest, and pretty soon we found ourselves in the parking lot unloading our packs.

As we headed home, Dan and Gabe both mentioned that this needs to be a tradition for us.  I, too, was thinking about our next trip already, considering what we should have done differently to prepare for the cross-country travel, and making mental notes about the food I still had left over that didn't seem the least bit appetizing (oatmeal is definitely in danger of losing its spot on the menu).  Overall, this had been a great trip, with some new challenges and some great locations to see and experience.  I can't wait to see where we end up next.