"I think I had better go out."
Not what I wanted to hear. I was so excited to share this portion of the route with Ed. The route to Grey Pass, the magnificent McAlister cirque, the airy position of White Pass and the pocket that Marion Lake fills. Bummer.
I confer with Craig. He is still happy to go out with Ed, get to Yosemite and then ride with Barb to our food resupply at Southlake outside Bishop where he will rejoin the route. I remind Ed that if his knee gets better he can rejoin us at Southlake and do the next leg of the trip. There is an easy exit after about thirty miles if his knee flares up again.
Packing and breakfast are a somber affair. None of us wants to do what we are about to do, but we are resigned that it is the best choice.
About 7:15 am, we each don our packs and head opposite directions, Dave, Noah and I for Marion Lake, Ed and Craig to follow the State Lake trail out over Granite Pass and back down to Road's End.
Dave, Noah and I retrace our steps from yesterday for the first 1.7 miles. Then we are in new territory. We descend on an angling traverse to Grey Pass. We stop for a moment to contemplate the route up on the other side of McAlister Cirque, then quickly descend the final 600' to the South Fork of Cartridge Creek.
Here we find the creek rushing across granite slabs only to quiet in limpid pools. It is breathtakingly beautiful. We pause for a bit to eat, then traverse the broad base of the cirque on solid granite bedrock benches to the east side of the valley and the wooded slope we hope to climb.
The ascent through the woods goes well and we are soon climbing granitic slabs and broken rock until we enter a exquisite meadow, about 500' below White Pass. Here we stop, drink some water and eat. A family of three Germans, mom, dad and 21 year old son, catches up with us as we laze in the meadows. We talk for ten minutes and they are off. We give them a five minute head start and follow them up the last slope to the pass.
The final 50 vertical feet to White Pass is solid granite and quite steep. But with poles and hands, we quickly topped out. Albert, Margaret and Andy were close behind. We ate lunch at this airie perch, enjoying the view and the cheese and hummus tortillas I had put on top of my pack for lunch today.
We watched our German friends drop out of the pass and begin the traverse to Red Pass. We finished lunch, then climbed up the side of the pass and began a high traverse to Red Pass, hopping boulders and friction info down slabs.
Red Pass is so named for the color of the rock. A band of iron rich metamorphic rock stretches through the area, all the way to the summit of Marion peak, the western half is red, the eastern half grey granite.
We dropped the 1200' into Marion Lake down boulder fields, screw slopes and grassy fields. The last three hundred feet is down a very steep shoot eroded from human use to loose rocks and scree.
Once at the lake I was surprised to see trout swimming in the lake. When here six years ago I never got a bite while fishing son assumed their were no fish in the lake. I was very surprised to see trout swimming by. Dave and Noah were about ten minutes behind me coming down the shoot, so I extended my fishing pole and landed two fish in two casts. I guess there are fish in Marion Lake.
There were three people at Marion Lake, on a small day trip from adjacent Lake Basin. We chatted with them for 20 minutes. They were uitw derogatory about all the people on the JMT when there were such beautiful places such as this off trail. They headed back to their camp and we soon headed out, seeking a camp up in Lake Basin, an incredibly wide area, miles long full of lakes, meadows, granite slabs, glacial erratics, and clusters of trees all encircled by towering granitic peaks. It is impossible to depict in photographs due to its immense size and diversity, and its remoteness. It is a place I could return to again and again.
We found a wonderful camping area overlooking one of the lakes, perched about 50' above. To keep our streak going, we went for a delightful swim in the lake. It is startling how warm these lakes at nearly 11,000' are!
I fished for half an hour, catching and releasing about 15 fish while Dave and Noah explored a rock cliff on the lake shore perfect for high diving into the lake.
Dave suggested a photographic expedition into the surrounding glacial landscape, catching the slanting rays of the setting sun across the dynamic landscape. After an hour, with the sun now set behind ridge, we headed back to camp and settled into our sleeping bags for the night. I went to sleep wondering where Ed and Craig were, how their day went and how Ed's knee had faired. After descending Gray and Red Pass, I was certain Ed's knee would have been exceedingly aggravated and very painful by the time he reached the bottom. He made the correct decision.
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