First of all, two of us planned this trip to begin before the first of August 2002. I had done this trip in the reverse direction ten years previously. However, this time my body weight was about ten pounds heavier than before, and my pack weight was about 20 pounds lighter than before.

In the panorama, we started roughly at the lake hidden in the center, then went toward the crest 1/4 way from the left. We crossed onto the west side of the crest and traveled north (right), then crossed back to the east side about 1/4 way from the right. Then it was a hike down to the start.

Refer to the map of this area west of Bishop California. (Upper right corner) We started from the dam at Lake Sabrina and went south into the lakes of the Middle Fork of Bishop Creek and camped the first night above Moonlight Lake. One marmot was guarding us the whole time in camp. There was a forest fire a long way southwest of us, so there was a high haze in the sky on some days. Therefore, I concentrated on the flowers along the trail.

Fireweed

Above Moonlight Lake, we passed Echo Lake and continued up through Echo Col (Class 3). We really did not know what the Echo Glacier was going to be like, so we brought along two ice axes and one trekking pole. Having relatively light packs allowed us to scramble up through the rocks without a balance problem.

Echo Col viewed from the east, above Echo Lake

Echo Col viewed from the west

We were now in Kings Canyon National Park, and after downclimbing through lots of rubble on the west side, we made it out to the John Muir Trail above LeConte Canyon. As we got up near Helen Lake, the view back toward Echo Col was less distinct.

Echo Col viewed from the John Muir Trail

At the Muir Pass break in the Goddard Divide is the Muir Hut (12,000 feet elevation), built out of stone in 1930 by the Sierra Club. Since John Muir was the famous Scotsman and environmentalist who was the founder of the Sierra Club, I had brought along another Scotsman with me for good luck and unimpeded access. I was shocked to find that he carried no single malt Scotch whiskey, which would have been good snakebite medicine.

a simple campsite (no campfire rings) for our second night

the nice magenta penstemon flowers covered the fields around us

After heading north on the John Muir Trail though the upper Evolution Basin, we turned off and ascended to Darwin Bench, which was loaded with more flowers. The third night camped there put us into position to head up through Darwin Canyon and then up to Lamarck Col (Class 2), which is about 13,000 feet ASL.

one stream pours down across Darwin Bench

a tree snag with flowers in the background

I had to take a quick breather here high above Darwin Canyon

the northernmost of about three notches, looking east

As we approached Lamarck Col from the west, it was difficult to tell exactly where the hiker's trail was, so we cut through the notch where we had skied through three years previously. GPS was helpful for navigation, although it was never necessary.

(viewed from the east) we had crossed through the notch on the right, and some other hikers cross in the center, and these five hikers crossed on the left

Lamarck Lakes is around the corner to the left, Grass Lake is in the center, and North Lake is in the center-rear

flowers at the outflow of Upper Lamarck Lake

Since crossing Lamarck Col, we were now back into the John Muir Wilderness. We camped the fourth night up high near Lower Lamarck Lake and then hiked down to the trailhead at North Lake. Another couple of miles along the road led us back to the car parked near Lake Sabrina. Instead of hustling through this entire trip in three days or so, we hiked only five hours per day for slightly more than four days, and this made for a more pleasant trip. Further, we deployed some lightweight gear to reduce our total load and to avoid feeling like pack mules. All in all, a recommended backpack trip.

Click here to return to Bob's Home Page