North from Silver Pass
Monday, 01 August 10.5 miles, 6:55
Squaw Lake, on the climb of Silver Pass
Having been frustrated by short hiking days truncated by morning storms, I got up at 6:30 hoping to get over Silver Pass before today’s fireworks. There were already clouds in the sky but they were not cumulus and the sky was still more blue than grey or white. We hit the trail shortly after 7:00 and passed several other soggy groups of campers with the same goal. The climb began early with, of course, many switchbacks. We were under a very dense forest (dense for the Sierra, that is) and there was even moss on the ground! It almost felt, and smelled, like home. For once the odor of sun-scorched earth was tamed by a scent of rich, fertile humus. Gradually, the tree cover thinned and we gained clearer views of the terrain ahead. We were approaching a granite shelf which I guessed, correctly, would contain Squaw Lake, yet another beautiful high-Sierra tarn. A bit more climbing and clever route finding brought us to Chief Lake, still bearing chunks of ice but with enough liquid water to provide a splendid reflection of the snowy pitch behind it. From there we climbed a bit further until we were faced with a quite steep, snow-covered wall about ten meters high. We slowly and carefully kick stepped our way up it to find ourselves at the height of the trail, just above the pass. We paused for extensive picture taking.
Crossing high country just south of Silver Pass
The descent was lovely, over more snowfields, meadows, and past more pristine lakes. We met a pair of rangers, two women, who were checking permits. They were also able to identify two trees for me: cedar-like Western Juniper which I'd seen a couple times, and tall, chunky-barked Jeffrey Pine which has been a regular sight all along. We had several stream crossings and we didn’t bother to take off our shoes. The crossings ranged from knee- to thigh-deep and were moving pretty fast. We approached the first on switchbacks down a steep slope. We could see the river we would have to cross as it ran down a very steep wall of granite. This could be interesting. When we finally got to the river we found that the trail used the one flat place. There was about a five-meter level stretch between high waterfalls...and that’s where the crossing was. The crossing wasn’t hard but it was definitely a don’t-slip situation. That wasn’t our worst crossing of the day. The worst one was lower down and after trying (and failing) to cross at the trail we followed a rough and sketchy herd path downstream to where the river divided and logs spanned two of the three branches. After this one we entered Pocket Meadow, rich with wildflowers, tucked into a narrow valley between high granite walls.
Showy Penstemon
After Pocket Meadow was another switchbacking descent with views over the valley containing Lake Edison. We came to the junction and followed the Lake Edison trail for one and a half miles to the ferry dock which we reached early at 14:15. I had plenty of time to dry my tent before light rain began, and then chatted with other hikers (Anita and Robert are from Britain) until the boat arrived at 16:45. Once we arrived we were greeted by Vicki and Roberta who offered us a ride to Muir Trail Ranch on Wednesday so we can avoid a treacherous crossing of Bear Creek. We accepted enthusiastically.
