A High Sierra Adventure (with Scouts) Part 4

From my notes at 18:55 on 2013-07-19
At Soldier Lake

Terrain map showing our start (1) and end points(2) for the day. New Army pass is the red maker ("A"). The hardest portion of the day's hike would be the 1.6 miles (and about 1200 vertical feet) from Long Lake to New Army.

The next morning we were up with the sun. Despite best intentions, we didn't hit the trail until about 08:15. We still needed to get familiar with what it meant to get up, take down the tents, eat breakfast, and finish packing our backpacks. And some of the boys are really not "morning people."

While we ate breakfast I was sneaking looks at John C. to see how he was doing. He actually seemed to relapse a bit after eating, and was complaining of stomach pains. I sat with him and gave him a quiet "rah-rah" speech and told him that I thought he could make it up and over the pass, but let him know that we'd be able to revisit as we went upward.

We finished packing up all our gear, including distributing most of  John's gear amongst the other Scouts and set off at a very deliberate pace. I was determined that we'd take it slow, even if that made some of the stronger Scouts a little impatient. And I was feeling the altitude myself.

Despite our worries about John, we made it up and over New Army Pass ("A" above) from our campsite at Long Lake (1). Although only about 1.6 miles along the trail, we ascended nearly 1200 ft -- according to Google Earth, that's an average slope of nearly 14 degrees. And since we were starting at about 11,160 ft above sea level, the air was pretty thin.

View of the trail upward from just above Long Lake. The trail can be seen extending from lower right to near the center. New Army Pass summit is just to the left of the small (from this perspective) outcropping seen right of center along the ridgeline.

Our first milestone along the way was High Lake, nestled snugly up against a steep slope/cliffs (700-800 ft high) to the north. We took a break and ate a snack before pressing onward and upward.

High Lake and adjacent cliffs

This next portion of the trail was probably the toughest - mostly from a mental standpoint. The wide-open moonscape of rocks and boulders left no illusions about the height of the hill we had to climb. The boys just kept at it -- all of them struggling at least somewhat. Sam even suffered a mild asthma attack at one point - the first one he'd had in over two years. Nathan was a great help, walking along with two of the boys (John C and Gage) who were struggling a bit more. One problem that would get us later was that Gage only had a single 1-quart water bottle - and so Nathan ended up sharing a good deal of his water with Gage.

By 10:30 we estimated we were slightly more than 2/3 of the way up the pass and took a break. It was a little nerve-wracking for me since the boys were not always as careful with where they placed their equipment, or whether they dislodged any rocks. The slope was quite steep -- if  a pack got loose here, it could easily tumble a couple hundred feet down.

John, Gage, and Nathan as we overlook Long Lake(nearest) and Cottonwood Lake #1(farthest).

Now we could see that the summit was getting closer. Recognizing we'd gained that much altitude and knowing we'd done the majority of the hard work seemed to buoy the boys spirits. All through the ascent we'd also benefited from a cool breeze that mitigated the bright sunshine. And then, as the breeze died down, high clouds began to form, which also helped keep us from overheating (see pic below).

View from the trail of the escarpment at New Army Pass. The last remaining bit of snow (which was still feeding High Lake and other) is in the center. You can also see the high clouds and shadowing from them that began forming mid-morning.

As it turned out, we were not far from the summit and reached it by 11:00. What a relief!

The group at New Army Pass

We took another break and ate lunch while taking in the incredible views. Gary and I mapped out the remainder of the day's hike and then I tried to capture some of the scenery. Below are a couple of the better ones:

Sam absorbing the view. Mt Langley is the massive peak filling most of the upper part of the frame.

View to the northwest. There are several peaks in view. From right to left, Joe Devel Pk, then Mt. Pickering is left of center, Mt Newcomb is in the center (just right of the unnamed foreground peak that appears higher), and Mt. Whitney is the highest peak in the distance on the right.

After lunch and some equipment adjustments we headed downhill and into Sequoia National Forest. The trail was moved downward at a reasonable slope, with long switchback segments until we reached the valley below. Soon we'd moved back below treeline and were walking along the path of a small stream. We followed the well-marked trail and had arrived at Soldier Lake by about 1:30. We had to do some reconnoitering to find a campsite - the heavily used spot near the lake had been closed by the Park Service so it could recover. We found a nice spot on the slope above the meadow and the lake thanks to Gary.

The only downside of the spot was its distance from the lake and the outlet stream that we depended on for water. But we sent a few of the boys down to pump water for the group. And that's when our troubles with water filters would begin (and persist through the end of the trip). After waiting a long time for the water party to return, I took a walk down to see what was happening. One of the three filters the boys had brought (all Katydyn Hiker Pros) had broken - somehow the outlet attachment portion had broken off the main body of the pump. And the other pump they were using was very very slow. Sure enough, its filter was heavily contaminated. I cursed the Scouts who'd used it last month for not servicing it, and we swapped the filter cartridge with the broken filter. I figured that would fix the problem since the broken filter was brand new (with a new cartridge). That seemed to fix things.

After dinner (Mac and Cheese for them, Gary and I had pasta with Thai peanut sauce) we discussed the next day's plan. Given that everyone seemed OK (if a bit tired in some cases) I'd decided we should pack up and move the next day to Sky Blue Lake. The option was to do this as a day hike, but I was convinced that once we got there, we'd want to stay. There were a few grumbles but that seemed to work for everyone. Since we only had about 4 miles to cover (although without a marked trail), I figured we could let everyone sleep in a bit.

It looked to me like the trip was working out quite well. We'd made it through a major challenge and were ready to take on the rest of the trip.