To have an adventure there must be uncertainty and typically discomfort which pays off with surprise, presence and exploration. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in Kings Canyon and for this backpacking trip I wanted to get back into the high country and access an off-trail, high elevation lakes basin. A loose plan, an opportunistic permit grab and a cursory Summit Post look at a peak was all that I needed to push my self physically, feel like I was in a wilderness, have scrambling fun and be surprised by maybe the most beautiful, blue alpine lake I’ve ever seen on this 36mi, 13,000 ft, 3 day trip.
Day 1: Taboose to Cartridge Lakes (14mi, 7.5k)
It’s worth sharing that the 3mi dirt road to Taboose Trailhead is in decently rough shape and slow going with many large rocks. The truck did fine, but I have no idea how the Prius I saw at trailhead got there.
My friend and I overnighted in the truck bed with amazing stars and had a later start around 7:45am at 5,400 ft. Hiking up trail I had quite the sweat going on, but we were also keeping good pace. Things cooled down a lot with the first major stream crossing that gave a respite of some tree cover at 8,000 ft. After a quick lunch we made the pass (11,400) at 12:45pm. We were feeling surprisingly good after five hours, 7 miles and 6,000 ft gain with a pack so we decided to push it to Cartridge Lakes instead of trying for Bench Lake or a similar camp location.
Once on the PCT we started seeing some decent Southbound traffic but quickly hopped off at the Kings River heading Southwest on a well defined use trail.
The trail was unmaintained with frequent (but not oppressive) downed trees over it. It became more fine, crossed two talus fields and eventually disappeared through a forested section. Since we were already off-trail and on talus we did half the gain to Cartridge Lakes up a runoff gully defined by a slab spout up high.
At the spout, we traversed diagonally upward left and eventually found the trail to gain the lakes bench.
We were starting to feel pretty worn out going up this steep sandy, but defined use trail. After reaching Cartridge Lake (10,800) , it was a quick dinner and then into the tent to relax and recoup.
Day 2: Ruskin to Pete’s Col (8mi, 3.5k)
We were both happy to feel only a little tired but not destroyed after the big day before. I had done a cursory look at Mt. Ruskin from Summit Post to see that the easiest approach wasn’t from our direction but generally was Class 3/4. That was enough for me to have a low-beta adventure to see if “it went” from our direction. We could see the West ridge attached to Cartridge Pass was pretty solid granite and likely decent exposed Class 4 so we gained the nearby SW ridge up a gulley to avoid the lower bushy ridge section.
I was able to stay mostly on the ridge which went became very fun Class 3, but would back off anything was too technical and stay a little lower on the right side of the ridge. Gaining the mini-peak (12,600) before Mt. Ruskin got a little steep but it was generally easier if you crossed below the ridge junctures and took the joining right ridge up.
Eyes on Ruskin, it looked pretty Class 4 from our direction to finish it out and wasn’t the move for us. So we descended off the saddle towards Cartridge Pass and hiked a cross-country loop around the lakes valley towards Marion Lake with an exit out Pete’s Col.
The cross country was pretty with many high alpine lakes, talus walking, even some flat dirt sections.
However, we were blown away by Marion Lake which turned out to be one of the most beautiful, bluest alpine lakes we’ve ever seen. It was unnaturally deep blue. It looked fake. There was some mineralization on rocks around the streams, so something is helping create this otherworldly effect.
Finally we exit’d our loop up Pete’s Col (11,570) through an echoing talus field and a very chill gain to the pass where to our greatest surprise, we encountered anther party. Apparently this section is part of the Sierra High Route, so despite being cross country we did encounter this and one more party this day.
Day 3: Exit out Taboose (14mi, 2k)
Luckily the exit was pretty chill in terms of elevation gain. Like most exits on an out-and-back, it was kinda unremarkable outside the beautiful settings. Six hours got us to the trailhead with the lower section feeling like you were almost there for longer than expected.
Summary
What I loved most about this trip was how I got to be surprised by what the Ruskin ridge would be like, active route finding, encountering the incredible Marion Lake… all because I didn’t overly plan the trip so it felt more explorative and a fun adventure. I was really happy and appreciative to feel so physically fit after fighting a toe injury, mental health, a near miss, etc. that has kept me out of mountain shape for so long. It was my first trip with this friend and we worked really well together and had a great shared experience.
Its summer and it feels great to be in the High Sierra mountains.
