The Big Loop: Day 1 & 2

Well, my notes from day one are a bit on the light side so I thought I would throw in a few notes about the trip as a whole too. More like statistics I guess. I am a scientist so what can you expect.

My Big Loop was about 410 miles long and went over 36 mountain passes with 19 of those being cross country. According to my mapping software the total elevation gain was somewhere close to 94416', but the software is not that accurate. And it does not include the side trip I made to climb Split Mountain, one of the 3 14er's I climbed along the way. I would guess that in actuality the total was 5-10% higher than that. My high point was Mount Whitney at 14,497'. My low point was the start and finish at Road's End in King's Canyon at 5075'. My first 6 nights were all spent at above 10,000'. My lowest camping spot was at Roaring River 7,414' on the last night of my trip. My highest camp was at 11,745' just below Frozen Lake Pass on my second night. It seems like I may have gotten less and less able to stand cold nights.

The High Route starts out with the Copper Creek Trail that climbs over 5,000' in just 6.5 miles. Kind of a butt kicker to start out with, but as proves to be the case any time there is no way to avoid heading down below the tree line, Roper tries his best to get you back into the sub-alpine zone as fast as possible. In all the HR blasts from the floor of King's Canyon at 5075' up to Grouse Lake Pass at 11110' in a mere 8.2 miles. Guh. On day one I covered about 13.75 miles and went over two (easy) cross country passes.


DAY 1
(Notes presented without editing for content)

From The Big Loop

Damn hot and dusty up Copper Creek (steep!) kicked my ass (Passed a pack train!) Started at 8:40am. Got to Grouse Lake in about 4:20 (1:00pm). Storm moved in while resting and eating at Grouse, decided to get over 1st pass while lightning was still far away. Waited for storm to clear under boulder in 2nd cirque.

From The Big Loop

The storm cleared away to the NE, leaving me to cross Goat Crest and descend past 2 Glacier Lakes and through Glacier Valley. All super beautiful.

From The Big Loop

Totally made up for the 6000' hump from the trail head to "Grouse Lake" Pass. I am camping tonight at the upper of the State Lakes. Got here just before 8. ~3hrs from my storm boulder. I am one day in and this already feels like the best thing I have ever done.



DAY 2

From The Big Loop

I need to eat when I am hungry rather that waiting to reach certain landmarks. I have reached Marion Lake. I should have eaten lunch an hour ago, maybe 2. But I wanted to eat here, and so I have. I have hiked for 6 hours so far today (2pm). I have covered some good ground but I worked myself a bit too hard between meals and I ran out of juice coming down to this lake. The lake is possibly the 2nd most amazingly deep blue lake I have ever seen. Certainly not the aquamarine usually seen in the Sierra. Looks stormy again, but no rain yet. Very pretty again
today with more expansive views.

From The Big Loop

More talus though, I managed to take a few wrong turns, not that it was a real problem. Just not the best route.

From The Big Loop

Lake Basin was nice but chock full of mosquitoes. I wanted to rest more often but I was spurred on by the whine of little insects. There was a very steep section on the way to Frozen Lake Pass that I was not expecting, but it was still only class 1. So far the passes have been easy. But I guess if you have recently traversed Rosy Finch Peak, a lot of things will seem like a piece of cake. Surprisingly warm below FLP at 11,700'. Hope it stays this way.

From The Big Loop