Backpack Section
Loma Prieta Chapter
Sierra Club

Kings Canyon NP - Jennie Lakes Wilderness
Summer, 2001

Trip Leader: Dave Barry
Trip Report By: Dave Barry

"Here's a Trip-Report about backpacking
25+ miles looping and lake-hopping from~
Kings Canyon National Park - Jennie Lakes Wilderness
Big Meadows Trailhead(TH) in theSequoia Nat Forest
~up & over and sleeping on-top-of 10,188 foot
SILLIMAN Crest PASS on the Kings Kaweah Divide
with an incredible panoramic North & East-ward view
of the Sierra Nevada Great Western Divide
with many 12k & 13k mountain peaks

...Bear signs were everywhere, but, no sightings... !"

***





Starting-out from trail-head, there were a few clouds and
a gentle thunderstorm, with a lite rain-shower

but a bandanna was enough for a rain-hat.
It was actually refreshing 'cause the air was really warm...


and we heard lots of birds starting-out from the 7500 ft elevation TH 
--The elusive Clark's Nutcrackers, noisy Steller's Jays, fleeting 
Flicker woodpeckers, chattering Chickadees and Juncos...

and saw more conifer tree varieties farther South in the
California Sequoia National Forest & Kings Canyon National Park,
especially Giant Sequoias, as well as various pines & firs

and, ahhh, it was a time for Pine-Cones shedding
their seeds in a multitude of falling helicoptering spinning "scale" 
fins, littering the forest floor with tiny triangle fans of

And sometimes there were tidy
"scale" fin-mounds dropped on the same spot
from high above by the Chickaree squirrels...

Here's~ some Giant Sequoia & Conifer info:

"...Giant Sequoias only grow in small groves within the Ponderosa Pine -
Sugar Pine - Fir - Cedar types. They never make up pure stands except 
over small areas..."

"...In some species, pinecones open at maturity and the seeds are 
released. In others, the cones remain closed for several years until 
opened by rotting, by food-seeking animals, or by fire. In other pines, 
the scale bearing the nut-like seed may expand
to form a wing for airborne dispersal..."

"...pine trees are gymnosperms, nonflowering plants that produce 
exposed 
seeds not enclosed in an ovary. They are monoecious, bearing gametes of 
both sexes on the same tree. These gametes are housed in a structure 
called a strobilus, or 'cone'. ...Female pinecones are generally found 
in the upper branches of the tree crown, above the male cone. This 
reduces probabilities of self-fertilization by the wind-borne male 
gametes ...The female pinecone, or megastrobilus, produces the ovule, 
or 
unfertilized seed. Scales (modified leaves) on the female cone
open to receive pollen, then close..."

here's~ female Pine-Cone microscopy & info

"...the male pinecone, or microstrobilus, produces the pollen, or male 
gametes. These cones are covered with fertile scales (modified leaves), 
each of which bears two pollen sacs. --In the spring or early summer, 
the pollen sacs release their pollen grains, each of which has two air 
bladders for wind dispersal. During pollination, the pollen grains or 
male gametes sift among the scales of the female cone and land directly 
on the ovules,
the unfertilized seeds.
Over a two to three year period after fertilization, a woody female 
pinecone develops..."

here's~ male Pine-Cone microscopy & info


and, at other places we saw some shy yet seemingly unconcerned deer, 
including a few Mule Deer, gray in color with their really big ears and 
large nose!
*

***

After a full day on the dusty brown trail ending at a lake-side

campsite, we made an early sleeping-bag entrance--

***

--Then we started lake-hopping, cross-country
which meant some strenuous hiking up-hill,
around rock ledges and really big pine trees,
over pine-needle soft and grassy ground, all turning green to gold,
skirting bushes and boulders, up, up, and up, breathing heavy, and
stopping often to catch new breath and to regain some strength to go 
on...


Hey, the next lake we found is named "Lost Lake"
--however, there are two of them!   We found the first, smaller one,
higher-up so it seemed like Lost Lake To-a-higher-degree,
then we traversed down to the larger Lost Lake below, but oh, oh,
  it was full of a dozen 12 to 15 year-old home-school kids
and 3 pack Llamas from San Luis Obispo
on a wilderness backpacking field-trip!
Needless to say we felt more cross-country
was worth the effort to find another more tranquil location,


so, off we went, bush-whacking and
jolting down some granite ledges,
then climbing-up and up and up some very steep terrain
to Ranger Lake, which was deserted, just for us,
and where we found an out-cropping over-look
with a view to the East of the Great Western Divide
of the Sierra Nevada with many inspiring mountain peaks
in the far distance...

***

Such as luck would be, the nights were clear and it was time for a first full moon!   ~The October moon showed us its man-in-the-moon face, awesomely vivid from our elevation above 8000 feet. ~The eyes, nose, and mouth were big and prominent;  it was difficult to stop staring ...or, was he staring at us...

***


Another morning we hiked-up, oh, just another 1000+ feet,
2 miles to Silliman Crest Pass on the Kings Kaweah Divide

During the walk up a long and winding, but pine-shaded trail, a pair of 
maybe Ferruginous Hawks took advantage of the warming morning up-drafts 
and circled spiraling above us...

...Then on top of the pass, we fell in love with the views to the East 
and North of the Great Western Divide with a long line of peaks 
silhouetted against a hazy blue sky~ 12k & 13k feet high mountains with 
names likeMidway, Milestone, Table, Thunder, Brewer, Stanford, 
University, Split, Goddard, Rheinstein


Yes, deciding to spend a night on Silliman Pass crest
on a high protruding cliff ledge was easy,
and the breeze during the evening encouraged us to set-up
our tents to sleep protected from the cooler air
of another clear night with full moon glowing gold,
and filling our camp-site with light.

Then at dawn the warm morning sun
gave us a different perspective of the mountain ranges around us
as well as the terrain and 'miniature' lakes far below

***



The journey down from the crest pass was a cross-country
adventure led by fearless  Mountain-Man-Dave,
who guided us stiff-legged down steep forest duff, then
easily thru dry grass meadows and along rock strewn streambeds,
smoothly over steep but walk-able granite slabs,
and blindly thru openings among tall bushes,
--yep, --right to the top of a dry water-fall CLIFF
Hundreds of Feet just Above
beautiful & picturesque, the larger of, Twin Lakes
~way~ below!


I was thinking a rope-rappel down was the only way!
But Mountain Man scoped out the terrain, called "Tally-Yo"
and traversed us over and along some gigantic granite ledges
right to the main trail in the trees going to and from the pass! Whoa!

~And soon we were mid-day skinny-dipping in the cool water
from a sand-bar of the sun-filled deserted lake...

***


The remainder of the day was 'trail-work'
as we headed into the Jennie Lakes Wilderness
traveling over "JO" Pass, a really old-time horse-trail
that went more-or-less straight, continuously
gradually up
and up and
up

***


At various places along the trail during the trip,
we had noticed downed, dried-out big tree trunks
that had been broken open.
--At the center of those rotting logs
a colony of placid, but persistent mountain bees
had hollowed out a nest for their eggs and honey,
and some bear had sniffed-out
the sweet and nourishing hive-comb stash,
ripped open the log at the exact spot, and devoured every trace...
leaving only the rounded-out cavity!


And going down the other side of "JO" Pass
we saw very fresh big bear foot prints in the soft dust of the trail.
A little farther on, two large RAVENS were k-r-r-u-u-c-k-i-n-g
and flying low among the pines close-by...

The old bruin may very well have been foraging nearby because
those magnificent dark scavengers could have been waiting
to pick through his diggins after he was finished...