View from New Army Pass

Siberian Outpost

Looking west from the Pacific Crest Trail you can see the Siberian Outpost sweeping through the middle of the picture (a sprinkling of meadow in an otherwise sandy expanse). The Boreal Plateau sets highin the right background and the peaks surrounding Rock Basin Lakes in the left background. We often packed down through or across the Siberian Outpost, coming from Big Whitney Meadows over Siberian Pass, to Middle and Upper Rock Creek. Seldom if ever were camp sites selected here. There usually was never enough water to support anything other than the sparse meadow that existed. Following the middle canyon near the center of the outpost you can pack over a small pass into Rocky Basin Lakes; or, continue crosscountry up onto the Boreal Plateau to Funston Lake. If one continues off to the immediate right they would drop into Upper Rock Creek with access to the Miter Basin, Sky Blue Lake and Army Pass. Continuing on down the outpost, the trail will eventually lead you to middle and lower Rock Creek.

The picture to the left (with the small lake) was taken from a pass on an arm of the Siberian Outpost which drops you right into Rocky Basin Lakes. In the background left of the picture, covered in clouds, is Mt. Langley. I climbed this once, by myself (never recommended of course to anyone) and was trapped on the summit by an electrical storm. I managed to find a big enough hole amongst the boulders on the the summit to scurry into and wait the storm out for 40 minutes or so. It was rather neat on the summit. The old summit ledger was still there and contained such names as Clarence King, Norman Clyde and Walter Starr. These days those ledgers are locked up in Sierra Club archives because vandals began taking the originals. Even the tops of mountains aren't safe from vandals anymore. It is so sad what we have become as a people that even the tops of the mountains, and the efforts it took to get there, aren't sacred.

Red and Black Kaweah

This is another one of those locations which words fail to adequately capture. Part of the Wright Lakes complex, this meadow virtually starts at the lakes and follows Wright Creek until the creek drops off of the glacial plateau in the Kern River gorge, approximately one mile beyond the meadow. Off in the west are Red and Black Kaweah on the Great Western Divide and Colby Pass. Although I never packed over Colby Pass, I did hike over it and I can see why it's easy to have a wreck there. If you don't loose herd your stock and keep an eagle's eye at every switchback along the way, you're looking for trouble. Some of our packers found this out the hard way during the summer of 1966. Dead mules and a horrible mess were the reports which eventually found there way back to the Whitney Portal Store where Ed Brown, my brother Tom, and myself were "doing time" that summer.

This meadow saw many a wrangle from me since we always camped at Wright Lakes with the Trail Riders of the Wilderness and with the Sierra Club (when they were in this part of the Sierra). Because the meadow was soooo long, it invariably made for long wrangles; and, because the stock never seemed to always stay together there was ample opportunity for everyone to get in plenty of "frequent packer walking miles" in their riding boots.

Sawmill Pass

Although I never packed over Sawmill Pass, only hiked, it is one of the most picturesquely overlooked trails in the Eastern Sierra. The trail to Sawmill Pass and Woods Lake is still in great condition; but be forewarned, it is ruthlessly steep with no water for the first seven miles. The views of Owens Valley and the trail climb are memorable beyond belief. Woods Lake can be reached via two trail heads - the roadend at the Division Creek Powerhouse and and the roadend at Harry Birch Springs. Either trailhead has you starting from the desert floor of Owens Valley. This can be particularly brutal considering that the temperature on the desert floor is often in the 90s early in the morning. When I decided to make this "trail adventure," I hiked under a full full moon, at about 9:00 P.M. from old U.S. 395 to Harry Birch Springs. The next morning I was up bright and early at 5:00 A.M. heading up the face of the mountain. I only stopped for a brief moment at Sawmill Creek to "wake up" and get some much needed water since the next water was seven miles away.

This was a memorable trip in two ways. Firstly, it was the only trip on which I ever hiked alone; and, while that may be some folk's "bag of tea," it definitely turned out not to be mine! It was quite difficult to laugh or tell a joke to a chipmunk and get any sort of response. I didn't see another person on the trail the entire weekend. The only other people even remotely close were some gun totin' shootin' people on the north end of Sawmill Lake. Secondly, it was the first trip on which I literally "collapsed" on the trail. Remember I told you how steep this trail was. About the time I reached the sawmill (some 6 miles up the trail) all of the sudden my legs just gave out underneath me. If you don't think that was a ridiculous sight! There I was lying face down on the trail covered by my pack and unable to move. I managed to "roll" myself off of the trail just in case any stock came along. It took me about 5 minutes to recover from that incident so I could just sit up and another 20 minutes before I could actually start hiking again.