Day 6 - Click on Map
Day 6 (July 31) was an easier day than the last couple of ones, as I was relieved to make it over Glen Pass yesterday and was now stoked to make my full ascent on Pinchot. As Pinchot and Mather are fairly close together, we were shooting for a setup on Mather tomorrow with a camp site somewhere in Upper Basin below the 11,000 foot mark. We woke up to the most awesome view of Lower Twin Lake, as the sun broke through the mountains on the east and cast it's shine on the lake which now had the mist hovering slightly above. A couple of the photos of that morning turned out great!

There was definitely a change in the weather this morning, as when we looked down the canyon we could see the clouds beneath us. This would continue all the way up to the pass. It seemed as it the fog was rolling into the canyon, much like it does into the San Francisco bay! It was also much colder this morning than the last several, a definite sign of a changing pattern! Maybe those trail stories were true. We made our way up to Pinchot and I had no problems with this ascent as well. This was reassuring to both Mike and I, as I am sure he was in no mood to continue to carry my weight and his. It was also reassuring to me that I would not have to watch over my shoulder to make sure he wasn't going to come after me at some time as well!

The trip down the north side was easy and as we made our way past Lake Marjorie and towards the Bench Lake trail, the clouds began to really form in the west but not build in the east. We took off our packs and geared up our fly rods at the outlet streams just above the trail junction to Bench Lake and began to again catch several trout. Brookies from the lake and goldens from the river. We fished for about an hour and then packed up to head on down the trail. The stream crossing near the trail junction was one of my most eventful, as the rock hopping turned out to be quite the jig! I was able to maintain my balance after hopping onto several rocks in succession (both frontward and backwards), but never did fall in thank god! After that we headed down the trail to the Kings River crossing and had lunch before the ascent to Upper Basin.

The climb up canyon was not very difficult, just seemed a little long. Several seasonal stream crossings got in our way, but we finally made it to where we crossed the river for the second time to the east. We had to head upstream from the trail crossing to find adequate rocks to keep our feet dry, but were lucky to find the spot from some southbound hikers. They were a father and daughter team that were hiking the trail in segments. She had started with others from Glacier Point and the father had joined part way down the trail. Her husband and the kids were joining them in a next day or two with a pack outfit. He told us of the many fish he caught in the outlet of Palisade Lake and it was nice to have a conversation with them along the trail. I envied her and her family being able to do the trail as she was!

We made it to camp early that evening (late afternoon) and were able to do some wash and dry out the trail clothes in the remaining sun! We also took advantage of the free time to fish the upper reaches of the South Fork of the Kings River to catch many golden trout. Although the river was still flowing fast in this area, we were able to find a considerable amount of slow water near the edges and take advantage of the hatch! The goldens in this section of the river did not disappoint us and we both had a great hour's worth of fishing. We both figured we got between 20 to 30 fish each in the 4 to 7 inch range. That night we settled down to a nice dinner and got some early rest for the day ahead!

To view photos of our trip please refer to the Photo Albums section of this site!