Capture California, the Game-2012
Adventure: 008, Hike 045 –
Sapphire Lake to Davis Lakes
Team: Thing One, Thing Two
Date: July 28, 2012
Location: Kings Canyon National
Park
Hike Info:
Trail: John Muir Trail and Cross
Country
Distance: 4.4
Duration: 10:48
Elevation Rise: 1,044'
We get up at 6:30 or so. The wind is blowing but not as strong. We
hit the trail at 7:40 and start our 400' climb to Wanda Lake. We
cover the 1 ¾ miles in an hour and a quarter—it is not a bad
climb, but we are over 11,000'. It is a nice temperature and we make
good progress.
We stop when the trail crosses the creek below Wanda Lake and have
a break. It is so wonderful looking back down the canyon. Even with
it with a series of unnamed lakes. The sloping ground and the cut off
of the land below our view.
But it is time for us to start our cross-country adventure. We
will be going up to a small 11,700' saddle and then drop down into
Davis Lakes. 40 years since I have been here. We make it up to the
saddle pretty good. But now we start going down. It is a boulder
field all the way down to Davis Lakes and Thing Two does not like it.
The mountains are a good backdrop and anytime we want to breath, they
are there to admire—ie, a good excuse for Thing One to stop and
breath.
But the boulders are a calling and they are there to hamper our
progress. It consumes a lot of energy and time going up and over and
around them. Plus, we are going on a pretty steep incline as well.
Thing Two is a bit spooked by then. I help her before lunch. After
lunch, Cat in the Hat works with her. She does really good with Thing
Two. Even when we get to the lake. There are boulders and a cliff
which force us to go high. We come back down a ravine, which gets
progressively steeper. We eventually get down to the lake, but the
shore disappears and there is 8' of rock cliff which we scoot along
in the water. Thing One is in his boots and is able to hop from low
rock to low rock. The others are bare feet or Teva's. We are tired,
but not sure where we can camp. So we trudge on. The Cat in the Hat
does find a place on a peninsula and we decide to settle down by Davis Lake for the
night. It is a beautiful lake. We even have a little bit of energy
and spirit to play a short came of catch with the frisbee.
Trail Lesson: Fear is a mind killer—Bene Gessart saying from Dune.
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