Skeeters and Rain and Grouses, Oh My!

“BowlderSon & I went on a 2-nighter over the weekend to Mosquito Lakes in Sequoia NP over the weekend. Full TR to follow - there are several questions to be answered:

Will our two intrepid hikers stay dry in the rain?

Will our boys survive the voluminous bloodletting during the ascent, courtesy of zillions of mosquitos?

Will our team survive four hours inside a tent during the rain?

Will they make it to the summit of Hengst Peak?

What was the mysterious galloping nighttime beast?

What were the quiet, careful footsteps at midnight?

What kind of creature lived under the neighboring rock?

Will the grouse chicks be reunited with their mommy after their encounter with BowlderMan's trekking pole?

How were the burgers at Silver City? How was the pie?

These, and any other questions will be answered later this morning. Photos, too!!”

“I'm on the edge of my seat!”

“awww poor grouse babies!! so there were mosquitos at Mosquito Lakes, shut UP! haha, whoever named that place was a smart-ass, huh?”

“Tending the crops Bowlder???”

“The short answers:
Sort of; yes; yes; no; deer; ?; marmot maybe?; yes; delicious!


OK, so here we go....

Day 1 - Thursday, August 4, 2005
I meet BowlderSon and -Gal at 'Son's swim lesson, and we depart, while 'Gal heads home to a quiet weekend without the boys. Traffic is OK, which was our hope, leaving at 7 PM as we did.

Everything goes smoothly down I-5, over on Hwy 152 through Los Banos, and down 99. Then - oops! - a sign appears: "Construction - Left Lane Closed Ahead" Arg! So much for getting into Visalia ahead of the expected time. OK, moving again. Aack! Another sign: "Construction Ahead - Left 2 Lanes Closed Ahead" What will we drive on?! OK, that went OK. Then - not again! - "Freeway Closed Ahead" What else could happen?! Turned out that was it. Got in to the motel in Visalia at 10:30 - room was OK, went right to bed.

Day 2 - Friday, August 5, 2005
Up and out of the motel at 7 and on the road! Oops! Realized I left my gear lists and road maps at the motel. Oh, well, no great loss. We arrive at the ranger station a little before 9 and secure a permit. The ranger informed us that all of the marmot damage to cars has ceased as of a few weeks earlier, so we were glad to not have to utilize the giant blue tarps we brought. Back down to Silver City for a giant breakfast, then back to the little shed by the ranger station to drop off our cooler. Then we were at the trailhead by a little after 10. Last minute gear sorting 'n' stuff, then off we went at 11.

Actually, right before we started, we felt the first couple of raindrops. Then, about a half mile up the trail, it started raining, so out came the pack cover and rain jackets. At one point, it really poured, so we paused in the trees until it let up. It stopped after a half hour or so, so off came the jackets. We passed through a gorgeous clearing filled with flowers, and were glad for the cloud cover. We veered off onto the Eagle/Mosquito trail, then onto the Mosquito Lakes trail. Stopped for lunch around 1:30, then pressed on.

Upon our arrival at M. Lake #1, we met our nemeses for the weekend: the mosquito. And ten zillion of his friends! From lake #1 up, it's either a use trail or cross country, depending on whether you can find the use trail. The skeeters were relentless, so we hiked as fast as we could up the steep slopes. We arrived at M. Lake #2, where the bugs weren't quite as bad, and encountered the only other campers in the whole drainage. They pointed us toward the most common route up to the upper lakes, and off we went. Once above lake #2, the going was pretty easy - less steep and mostly granite. We ended up finding a nice campsite by the uppermost lake (#5?) by about 4 PM, so had plenty of time to set up camp and arrange gear before cooking dinner. Just after starting to eat, the rain started again, so we went into the tent and ate in there. Yes, we were super super careful to not spill anything so any large furry neighbors would not be attracted to us. Not long after cleaning up and storing all the usual stuff in the canister, we hit the sack.

Day 3 - Saturday, August 6, 2005
I got up a little before 6 to get breakfast going. We wanted to get an early start on our attempt on Hengst Peak, especially in light of the early rain we had had on Friday. We were slower than I thought we would be, so didn't leave camp until about 9. It was a little cloudy already, so we knew prospects weren't that great for summiting. We worked our way up the ridge dividing our drainage from the Eagle Lake drainage, heading for the base of the prominent "fin" at the head of the ridge. On the way there, we encountered a very cute pika, and I took a few photos of him.

We topped out on the ridge at around 10:30 - awesome views over to Eagle Lake, as well as over toward Sawtooth Peak, etc. We had been scouting a route up the side of the fin during our ascent, so we came down a bit to start up that. We worked it for about a half hour, until we encountered a steep sandy chute as our only option. It just didn't look good for our skill level. Besides, some darker clouds had moved in. So we reasoned that, even if we could either make it up the chute or find a different route, we'd have to pretty much turn and run upon reaching the plateau behind the fin. So down we went. We considered stopping for lunch somewhere on the way down, but we were descending so quickly, we just decided to go all the way back to camp and eat there. It started raining just as we got back, and rained lightly for about a half hour (no thunder or lightning).

The sun came out in a while, so we went down to the lake. I skinny dipped for about 10 seconds until shrinkage set in - a refreshing plunge. BowlderSon waded and splashed a bit, but couldn't bring himself to actually get in all the way - can't say I blame him! I rinsed out my shirt, and we headed back to camp. Not long after we were back in camp it started raining again. This time it rained pretty hard, including some hail, for about 4 hours. We played a lot of cards. We played hangman. We played more cards. We took brief naps. We played more cards. Finally, it stopped long enough for me to cook dinner. We ate in the tent again, as it sprinkled some more. We pretty much stayed in the tent after dinner to avoid the mosquitos, which were congregating at our tent's screen by the dozens. Shortly after it got dark, we were just organizing our gear, etc., when we heard several loud galloping steps right outside! Of course, it startled us both, as we first thought of bears. Then I realized that bears don't really gallop, and sure enough, we shined my headlamp outside and saw a deer. I went out to try to get a photo, but failed. There were two pretty big deer, and they wandered off when they saw me coming after them with a camera.

Off to sleep we went. At about 11:30, I happened to wake up and heard footsteps outside the tent. They were kind of slow deliberate steps. I thought they could be a bear, and I debated whether to go outside and look. I finally decided that, since I was confident all of our food and other scented items were safely stored in the canister, which was about 100 feet away from us, there was not point in creating any kind of situation with a bear, so I just laid there until whatever it was wandered off.

Day 4 - Sunday, August 7, 2005
I slept in a bit, until 6:30 or so, then went out to get ready to cook breakfast and take some photos of the surrounding mountains as the sun came up. BowlderSon got up around 7 and I commenced with the water boilage. Due to the awakening pestilence, we again ate in the tent. After breakfast, we gathered our gear in the tent and packed up. We hit the trail at 9:30 under nearly cloudless skies.

The hike down was much easier, as we were able to see the small cairns others had place more easily than on the way up. The mosquitos were much less voracious, too, and we had really lathered up on the repellent. We passed each of the lakes, crossed the stream a few times, then went up over Miner's Ridge into the Eagle Creek drainage. We paused for a photo at the Eagle sinkhole, where the creek disappears underground - very cool!

It started raining again, this time pretty hard. We pressed on. We reached the beautiful flowered clearing and I heard a strange sound, almost like a distant seal barking. I was walking along and scanning the opposite hillside about 200 feet away, when BowlderSon said, "Dad, watch out!" Sure enough, there was a grouse right in the middle of the trail, only 20 feet ahead of me. That's what the sound was. I said, "She must have a nest nearby, and she's trying to distract us." Oops, we had inadvertently gotten between her and her three chicks, which were about 4 inches tall. Two of them went into the foliage alongside the trail, while the other rushed past me when I stepped to the side. I quickly snapped photos as this one chick tried desparately to hide under its mom, but was just a hair too big. We waited, not wanting to disturb them more than we already did by accident. We hoped she would move to the side but she just stood there. So we decided to try to gently encourage her to move over by slowly moving toward her in a way to appear to be trying to go around. It worked, as she stepped into the flowers alongside. Unfortunately, the chick didn't, instead running down the trail ahead of me. So I reached ahead with my trekking pole, encouraging it to move aside. Finally it did, and we scurried past, as the chick was able to backtrack and reunite with its mom. Whew!

It kept raining until about a half mile from the car, and we were almost dry by the time we finished the hike. We changed into dry clothes and headed down to the ranger station to get our cooler, then on to Silver City for burgers and pie - yes, they were delicious!! The drive home was delightfully uneventful, and BowlderGal had dinner ready for us when we arrived - yahoo!!

There's probably some more stuff I don't recall right now, which I'll add later, but it was a good trip!

Photos here:
http://community.webshots.com/album/416812360tEOGfe

Order isn't right yet, and no captions, so be sure to check back later!!!”

“aww look at that cute little grouse baby! good pics, the blister one is especially yumbalicious. looks like the kid had a good time!

you left out the most important part...what kind of pie was it??”

“Great TR and pics!”

“So how is THE cash crop of Sequoia?

I'll have to read the TR at home.”

“OK, captions are done! Of course, as usual with Webshots, they may not appear to you until about a half hour from now....

Geo, I didn't know SNP had the kind of "cash crop" I think you're talking about!

Lyra, we had one slice of Razzle Dazzle (raspberries, blackberries, and boysenberries) and one slice of apple streusel. Mmmmmmmm.”

“Sounds like a memorable trip.

Here's a link to a grouse description along with a sound file of its call. Was that its sound?

http://www.percevia.com/explorer/db/birds_of_north_america_western/obj/234/target.aspx”

“Just a random pick of what you get if you Google Sequoia National Park marijuana: http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/21385/”

“Hi Marty!

What a beautiful area you two BP to...those lakes are really pretty. To bad about the rain..but it sounds like all went okay.

I absolutely LOVE pika's!! They have to be just the most adorable little creatures of the Sierra's..they are so very cute and sweet..I have only seen a few of them...Lucky for you two to see that sweet one.
Thank you for sharing a nice trip report..I really enjoyed reading it.
That pie sounds delicious

When you and bowlderson did Mt. Price last summer...what side of smith lake were you on heading up? Im planning on doing price on Thursday from Smith if the weather is not to threatening. I remember telling you that my friends started up on the right side, but I have heard people going up on the left side”

“Geo: Wow!
last edited: 8/08/05 3:58:12 PM”

“Hey MIT! We went up on the right side. It was fun and do-able, but after getting up there a ways, it looked like the left side may have been easier. Have fun!”

“Ruby, that's a cool site. The sound was very similar to the recording on that site, but not exactly. It really was like a seal's "ar, ar, ar", but sounding like it was way off in the distance.”

“Hi Marty. We went to Mosquito Lake #1 a couple years ago on a day hike but there was not enough time to find our way up to the upper lakes. (Son was nine at the time and very slow!) Was it easy to cross the outlet from the first lake, or was it more like wading through a swamp?

We are going to try again to view Hengst Peak in a week or two when hopefully the thunderstorms go away for a while. Son is 11 now and is a much better hiker. Now that you have been up and down, any advice on finding our way past Lake #1 would be great! Oh, and why do we want to see Hengst Peak? Because our last name is Hengst :) (Probably no relation, but it is certainly not a common name.)

Oh, we were up to M.K. last Friday and again on Sunday, but we went on the other side of the valley, up Sawtooth Pass Trail.

Since I'm new here, howdy to all!

Moondust (Alice Hengst)”

“Hey Moondust!

It was easy enough to cross the outlet - there are some logs and rocks about 100 feet downstream from the edge of the lake. Once across, you can either follow the cairns, as we did on the way back, or just find your own route, as we did on the way up. On the way up, we went further away from the lake to try to avoid the mosquitos; on the way back, we followed the use trail, which was tricky at times, going through mud, under fallen trees, etc. Either way it is somewhat difficult but definitely doable. Once up above Lake #1, the going is quite easy, although steep at times. Good luck!”

“Ok...be that way.
Come to my yard....play all weekend and don't even tell anyone you're here.

I'm 45 minutes away from the MK road Marty :) I was at a Mountain Festival in Camp Nelson last weekend anyway but wanted to razz you a bit.

Hasn't anyone warned you about descriptive place names? LOL!

Welcome Moondust!”

“Got a chance to look at your pix BowlderMan...you got some really cool shots there!”

“Ha! I told a friend that I was going to Mosquito Lakes, and, instead of asking if I was crazy, said, "Well, pretty much every lake in the Sierras is 'Mosquito Lake' right now anyway."

I remembered you were in that part of the world, but it turned out our timing was so tight we wouldn't have any spare time to hook up with anyone - just straight to the trailhead and straight home! Next time!”

“Hi Windwalker. I bet you live in Visalia. I'm near the lovely community of Alpaugh. Hopefully we'll be getting up to M.K. again this weekend.”

“Lunch is over :-( I'll copy and read your report. Can't see webshots from work anymore, so I'll look later.”

“Moondust....I live in the great big metropolis of Porterville ;)

Have fun up there...I'm heading for Hetch Hetchy this weekend!”

“Heh heh. I think when my dad was growing up in Visalia he used to get into fights with the Porterville kids....”

“That red bacteria is called "Watermelon Snow".
http://www.mammothtimes.com/articles/2005/05/26/this_week/good_times/1watermelonsnow.txt

Cute pikas! Grouse are cute when they're running around all confused.”

“I thought the pika would be a little more skittish, but he came right out and posed for the pictures!”