Friday, August 13, 2010 - Day 28
Stats for the day: started at Soldier Lake (10,650') at 7:00 - ended at Twin Lakes (7,200') at 1:20pm. Total ascent 1577'. Total descent 4724'. Total Distance 10.0 miles. 4 hrs 40 mins walking.
If I had known it was Friday the 13th before the day started, I might have been more nervous. We had made it 27 days without a mishap of any significance and now we had just two passes left to climb and descend before the exit out Horse Creek. I have to admit to being a bit nervous about Stanton Pass as my memory of the guide book description was the descent on the north side was a little dicey. Having come this far, I did not want to blow it on the final day.
We were up at 6, as usual, but we were out of camp a bit quicker, by 7. The approach to Stanton was a lovely walk over a shallow pass and a traverse across the typical meadow, slabs and streams of the Sierra above 10,500'.
As we approached the headwall up to the pass, Andy referred to Stanton as the "Stinger", the pass that makes sure we respect the High Sierra right up to the last moment. The climb to the pass looked less straightforward than some of the others we had approached, but proved again that the ramps and ledges that are hidden from below manifest themselves once you gain the rock.
From the pass we could see Horse Creek Pass in the distance, a gentle slope up to the 10,600' pass. The route down was steep and jumbled and it was apparent it cliffed out to the right, so we angled left and found a route down to the requisite boulder field at the base of the headwall. Hopping boulders we soon hit the meadows, then traversed right into the Matterhorn Canyon angling toward Horse Creek Pass. The willows in the canyon were thick on the broad valley floor, so we traversed the side of the valley to gain the west to east pass.
The east side of Horse Creek Pass was a jumble of snow and talus made of metamorphic rock, not the typical granite we had mostly experienced to date. We started our descent, expecting to follow the v shaped notch of a valley continually downward, but within a quarter mile a 75 foot high "dam" of rock debris blocked our path. It was an easy walk to the top to clear it, but surprising to see the valley completely blocked as if two huge avalanches of rock from each side had conspired to block our path. No water gathered behind this "dam", but snow many feet thick still lie in the bottom.
The rest of the route down was a series of use trails through the upper canyon floor and a steep drop of 800 feet to another gently sloping stretch of canyon. 2 miles brought us to the trail that in a mile and a half brought us to the Twin Lakes parking lot and the end of your 28 day adventure.
We needed to get Karen's car back to Tioga Pass by 3 to meet her and Matt, so we piled in after a end of trip photo and headed out of the crowded resort that is the end of the trail. We picked up two 18 year old kids hitchhiking, a guy and a girl, from Germany as we left the resort. They had been in the backcountry for 40 days, hiking from Sequoia on the JMT, extending it north to Twin Lakes. They were interested in Mono Lake, so we agreed to drop them at the visitor's center there as it was right on our path.
Milk shakes in Bridgeport slowed us a bit, but we made it to Tioga only 15 minutes late where Matt and Karen were waiting. They had had a lovely hike through the Saddlebag Lake area while we were finishing the SHR.
We traded cars, and soon we were speeding along in the VW toward Reno, a hotel, a shower and a pizza.
Simply put, the finest mountain adventure ever! Incredible route. Incredible scenery. Incredible weather.Incredible hiking companions. I would do it again in a heart beat.
Final stats of the trip (distances, times and elevations recored daily with GPS):
Miles of cross country travel: 113
Miles of trail travel: 110
Total Elevation gain: 67,359
Total Elevation lost: 66,631
Total Hrs Actually Moving: 117
Total Distance: 223 miles
Total Zero Days: 4 (Marion Lk, Bear Lake, Reds Meadow, Twin Island Lakes)
Total Days When Rain or Hail Fell: 4 (Grouse Lake, Muir Pass, Bernice Lake, Reymann Lake
Total Passes Crossed: 33 (Grouse Lake Pass, Goat Crest Pass, Grey Pass, White Pass, Red Pass, Frozen Lake Pass, Mather Pass, Cirque Pass, Potluck Pass, Knapsack Pass, Bishop Pass [twice], Muir Pass, Snow Tongue Pass, Puppet Pass, Feather Pass, Bear Lake Pass, Gabbot Pass, Big Horn Pass, Shout of Relief Pass, Duck Lake Pass, Dear Lake Pass, Mammoth Pass, Nancy Pass, Iceberg Lake Pass, Glacier Pass, Blue Lake Pass, Vogelsang Pass, Reymann Lake Pass, Elizabeth Lake Pass, Conness Arm Pass, Sky Pilot Pass, Stanton Pass, Horse Creek Pass)
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