Crossing Shepherd Pass
For nearly two weeks now I’ve been meaning to start writing up the two longish Sierra Nevada pack trips I took earlier this summer, but life and the major task of describing two weeks of trail travel and putting together the photos have held me back. Rather than continuing to wait, I’ve decided to start with some shorter posts covering sections of the trips. This description of crossing Shepherd Pass is the first.
The second week-long pack trip, with the talusdancers gang, began on August 5 at Horseshoe Meadow in the eastern Sierra south of Mount Whitney. Basically we skirted the Whitney area to the west, coming over New Army and Crabtree Passes (the latter definitely being worthy of an upcoming post) and then heading north on the John Muir Trail (JMT) to Tyndall Creek where we headed east to exit the mountains.
This exit was via Shepherd Pass. I’ve read about this pass for years, and I know that it has a reputation as one of the most difficult trails across the Sierra Crest. Some people say it ties with Baxter Pass (which I’ve also crossed) for the title of second worst pass, behind Sawmill Pass – which seems to hold the undisputed title. Those who climb Shepherd from the east start in low altitude desert at the base of the Sierra and climb thousands of feet to the pass, a climb broken only by a 500 foot descent which is then made up with an extra 500 feet of climbing.
We, however, wisely approached the pass from the east.
We began at Tyndall Creek on the JMT where the last (or first, if you are descending from the north) campsites in timberline trees are located. We’ve camped here a number of times so it was familiar territory for us, though no less enjoyable for the familiarity. If you ever visit there, be sure to check out what Owen calls the “rock garden” where the creek passes near the campsites.
Near here the 3+ mile trail to Shepherd Pass begins, first briefly traversing through the upper reaches of the forest before emerging above timberline. If you like gentle but high, alpine scenery, this is the trail for you! The trail ascends quite gently, rising only a bit more than 1000′ over the distance to the pass, and traveling through alpine meadows and rock fields. There are striking views of high ridges in all directions; the Great Western Divide to the west and behind, the ridge between Tyndall and the Wright Lakes basin to the right, the high peaks at the north end of the Kern Plateau to the left and dominated by nearby Diamond Mesa, and the low saddle of the pass ahead.
Diamond Mesa and the Shepherd Pass Trail. Sierra Nevada, California. August 10, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
In a more normal year much of the path would probably be green – during this year of historic drought in the southern Sierra nearly everything was brown and the general appearance was more like September than August. There were some wetter places where the trail crosses the creek, but they were few and far between.
The pass is a very gentle one, with a very gradual slope continuing all the way to the crest. Although the pass appears to be just ahead, the distances are deceiving and there are a few more small ridges and valleys to cross near the top than you might expect.
Shepherd Pass – West Approach. Sierra Nevada, California. August 10, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
At the very top there is a small lake just before the pass; we stopped there for a lunch break and to filter water for the descent on the other side. (We did not have good information about the availability of water, so we went over the pass with more than we needed. It turned out that there was plenty of water.) The lake is quite barren and the water was a bit stagnant, though the setting is quite amazing. After finishing lunch we said goodbye to the Kern Plateau and headed over the pass.
Lunch, Near Shepherd Pass. Sierra Nevada, California. August 10, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
The east side of the pass is the yin to the yang of the west side. Where the west side was gentle and covered with alpine tundra, the east side is one of the rougher trails I have descended. It first traverses north along the upper canyon but then drops precipitously down a set of rough switchbacks into a gully that is filled with loose and slippery scree/talus. While a few of us were willing to descend at a good clip, the majority of the group was reduced to one careful step at a time; and even with this approach we had to deal with minor slips and slides. We could only be grateful that we were not coming up this steep and treacherous trail. (The following photo shows the purported trail descending from the saddle of the pass.)
Shepherd Pass, East Approach. Sierra Nevada, California. August 10, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
Once below the very steep upper section of the pass, the trail wound down to and through an area known as “The Pothole,” an astonishing jumble of glacial and/or landslide rocks filling the bottom of the canyon. I’m not sure whether it was harder to imagine how someone conceived a trail through such terrain, or how they actually constructed it – or why. As is common to east side trails, the descent continued without break for a great distance until we finally reached the first good campsites (we had passed usable campsites earlier) at Anvil Camp. (Perhaps in deference to the strains of climbing this this trail, one person we talked to kept referring to it as “Advil Camp.” ;-)
The next morning we continued our descent. The trail continued its steep downward trajectory, more or less following Shepherd Creek as it drops into a narrower and narrower canyon. Finally the trail could no longer follow this route, and the infamous 500 foot climb over the ridge to Symmes Creek canyon began. Frankly, it wasn’t all that bad, though there are a couple of false summits before the short climb actually ends. From the top of this ridge the trail once again resumes its steep and continuous descent, though the quality of the trail is quite decent and the hiking is not that hard… at least traveling in the downward direction as we were.
The trail reaches and crosses Symmes Creek and then follows it (crossing back and forth several times) through a narrow section beneath a cliff and then down the valley to the road end at what can only be described as the base of the Sierra.
Sunflowers in Almaden Valley
Cait (from Light of Morn) shares a hint about sunflower plants in Almaden Valley:
A family that lives along Old Almaden Road as it nears downtown New Almaden plants a bank of sunflowers every year at the entrance to their property. There’s no curb, so I usually pull over under a pine tree just to the right of the sunflowers. If you have any interest whatsoever in taking photos of sunflowers, I encourage you to drive by the location over the next 2-3 weeks. There’s only a few blooming now, but this year’s display promises to be the best yet! I’ve never seen so many sunflowers planted so close together in one spot!
She has posted photos at http://lightofmorn.com/html/sunflowers.htm
Thanks, Cait!
Two-Heel Drive on Sanborn-Skyline Park
Tom Mangan (Two-Heel Drive) writes about one of my favorite local hiking areas:
Latest Hikes column: Sanborn-Skyline County Park. From my Hikes column at the Mercury News.
… A typical Saturday afternoon at Sanborn-Skyline might see a wedding reception, a family reunion and a half-dozen large cookouts all happening on the park’s main grounds. Busy, crowded, noisy. With an 8 a.m. sharp start, however, you might get to see a couple of young deer casually grazing within a stone’s throw of the park’s visitor center, as I did the last weekend in June. Quiet, calm – you know, what you go hiking to find.
One of my favorite “hikes with a climb” starts at Sanborn Park and ascends through forest (including some second growth Redwoods) to the ridgeline before traversing to Castle Rock State Park.
In John Muir's Footsteps
A Santa Cruz couple are hoping to restore some popularity to one of the classic early views of Yosemite, reopening a 19th century door on what Muir came to regard as a holy vista — the “sanctum sanctorum of the Sierra.”
Donna and Peter Thomas, a husband-and-wife team of artists who spend most of their time producing hand-bound fine-press books, have rewalked a long-forgotten trail from San Francisco to Yosemite that Muir took, also mostly on foot, for his first Sierra visit in 1868. The couple spent two days last week on the last — and certainly most spectacular — segment of the trail into the valley, the culmination of a guidebook they’re writing to help others follow Muir’s footsteps.
Eventually, they’d like to see directional signs and even overnight accommodations along the 300-mile route they are calling “John Muir’s trans-California ramble” — as reminders of the continuing power of Muir’s legacy and his infectious love of Northern California’s outdoors.
“In 20 years, hundreds of people could be doing at least parts of this trip, maybe thousands,” Peter Thomas said as he and his wife walked the last portion with a Chronicle reporter and photographer.
The <a href="In John Muir’s Footsteps“full article is worth a read… and the whole trail sounds like it might be worth the walk!
—–
Spring at Point Reyes National Seashore
Tom Stienstra at SFGate:
Every March, it can be vital for people to stop for a day, go to their favorite spot in nature and take in the coronation of spring. There’s no better way to get a restart on life, especially when your real New Year’s resolutions can start taking hold.
I do this myself, over and over, after the arrival of spring — from the coast, to the desert, to the foothills, to the highest Sierra peaks — from now through July. For the next four months, there will be a pretty landscape somewhere in California where spring is just arriving.
The top spot now is on the coast, and there are hundreds of stellar spots you can choose, from Crescent City to Morro Bay. My favorite idea for a mind-clearing spring walk is to take the Coast Trail to Alamere Falls and back, or maybe turn the trip into an overnighter at Wildcat Camp.
—–
Firefall Photos
This year has been a great year for waterfalls and I’ve been getting some great photos of Horsetail Fall and the firefall. Here are a couple of my favorites… [Yosemite Blog]
Click the title link to visit the original post at Yosemite Blog where photos are posted.
This firefall is “organic” – it appears early in the year when a seasonal waterfall on El Capitan catches the sunset light for a few weeks when conditions are right. I have a pretty good idea where this fall appears, though I’ve never been there to photograph it.
While the major waterfalls of Yosemite Valley are better known, during the early runoff period (before the all of the snow on the relatively low areas just above the Valley melts) there are small but quite beautiful seasonal waterfalls all around the valley. They may lack the overwhelming power of Yosemite, Bridalveil, Vernal, or Nevada falls during peak runoff, but they have a very special charm of their own.
Readers whose history in with the Valley is relatively short may not completely understand the reference to “firefall” in the title. When I first visited the Valley as a kid there was a nightly “firefall” that stopped everything on the Valley floor. A large fire was made on Glacier Point and after dark, accompanined by a cry of “Let the fire fall!”, the embers were pushed over the cliff creating, yes, a fire fall.
—–
A Yosemite Web Cam Alert!
(An old article – posted here so as not to lose it during the site transition.)
This should be a good day to keep an eye on the Yosemite web cams – a very cold Pacific storm dropped snow down below 2000 feet across much of California yesterday and last night. It will probably be a stunning sunset at Wawona Tunnel view tonight… and a great sunrise in the morning tomorrow!
Ohlone Wilderness
A Tom Stienstra article about the Ohlone Wilderness:
The higher, the better / Ohlone Wilderness It seduces hikers into going just a little bit farther along its steep trails. The rewards are waterfalls, wildflowers and nights at rustic campgrounds.. “If only we go a little bit more.” That’s the tease when you take off from the trailhead into the Ohlone Wilderness out of Del Valle Regional Park. You walk for a half hour and you rise high enough for a pretty view of Del Valle Reservoir…
By Tom Stienstra. [SFGate: Tom Stienstra]
—–
A Very Long Drive and a Brief Visit to Mount Shasta
No hiking this weekend – a long drive instead. I had some family business to attend to in Seattle, and it was business that required me to drive there rather than fly. I was able to leave the SF Bay Area a few minutes before 2:00 on Friday afternoon and make it as far as Grants Pass, Oregon that night, finishing the rest of the drive by mid-afternoon on Saturday.
The weather reports from the Seattle area are true – snow, though not deep, is everywhere. I saw it on the ground everywhere as soon as I climbed Siskiyou Pass at the California/Oregon border, and the temperature stayed below freezing the whole time I was in Oregon and Washington.
Having limited time and being somewhat prone to epic drives, I chose to drive all the way back to the Bay Area from Seattle… on Monday. I left before dawn and returned home after 11:00 p.m. I had my iPod and I listened to all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies, a few hours of various local radio stations, two hour plus podcasts, and quite a bit of other music.
And, of course, there was no hiking for me this weekend. Between the driving and my (family) business in Seattle I had little free time. My one brief escape was to drive east on a small dirt road north of Mount Shast on the way home, where I found an a stark landscape offering an interesting perspective on the north side of the peak as the sun set.
Mount Shasta and Frozen Pond, Evening. January 15, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell. (Sales)
Mount Shasta and Gate, Twilight. Northern California. January 15, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell. (Sales)
—–
Tioga Web Cam View
A web cam was recently installed (last year, I think) at the Tioga Pass entrance station to Yosemite National Park. It provides a view of the area just inside the park boundariers including portions of Mt. Gibb, Kuna Crest, and the Mono/Parker Passes area. (Coincidentally, similar to certain photos I have posted here recently.) Additional information is available here.
Here is a beautiful sunrise shot taken today:
—–
Subscribe
-
Archives
- April 2012 (1)
- January 2011 (1)
- September 2010 (2)
- August 2010 (1)
- July 2010 (4)
- June 2010 (6)
- May 2010 (11)
- April 2010 (4)
- March 2010 (1)
- February 2010 (1)
- January 2010 (5)
- October 2009 (4)
-
Categories
- Abstract
- Black and White
- Castle Rock
- Commentary
- Death Valley
- Desert
- Environment
- Equipment
- Events
- Gear Reviews
- Green World
- History
- Mission Peak
- Mono Lake
- Mount Shasta Area
- News
- Ocean
- Owens Valley
- Pacific Northwest
- People
- Photography
- Places
- Point Lobos
- Quicksilver
- Quicksilver Historical
- Quotable
- Random
- San Francisco Bay Area
- Santa Teresa
- Sierra Nevada
- Site News
- Technique
- Trails
- Trips
- Uncategorized
- White Mountains
- Wildlife
- Yosemite
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
Dan's Outside 
