Day 4: Blackcap Traverse

On our fourth day, we hiked from Guest Lake to Blackcap Basin via a high traverse.  Secor has a route that stays at about 10,400', but we worked our way quite a bit higher.  In fact, we ended up climbing the mountain, dropping our packs maybe 500' below the summit.  Still, Secor's route is class two, and we stayed class one the whole time.


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One surprising feature of the traverse was that we would come across the occasional little meadow along the creeks hanging off the side of the mountain.  We took lunch in one that was right at the origin of the trickling stream seeping out of the rocks.

Libby in high meadow

From that meadow, we straight up the mountain after grabbing some cool water straight from the source.  Without packs, the walk up the will was fine, and the view from the top was rewarding.  We could see from the peaks around Whitney in the south to Ritter and Banner in the north (and beyond).

Ritter and Banner

After leaving the summit, we picked up our packs and headed for Blackcap Basin.  After traversing a few ridges, we headed straight down to Lightning Corral Meadow.  It was great cross-country hiking across dry grassy swards and granite ledges.  The meadow itself was very lovely.

Lightning Corral Meadow

From the meadow, we hiked up to Division Lake to camp for the night.  The path from the lake was interesting.  There were lots of shallow fault lines running across our route, a couple of which were filled with slow flowing creeks.  The view from our camp at Division Lake that night was very lovely.

Finger Peak from the shore of Division Lake

It was a very nice day, and you can see more pictures at Flickr.

Piute Creek to Merriam Lake

The next day we headed to Merriam Lake.  This involves an easy hike down Piute Canyon to Hutchinson Meadow, an easy hike up French Canyon, and then a strenuous hike out of French Canyon to the meadows below Merriam Lake.  From there, you meander through meadows and up some benches to the lake itself.

View Piute Creek to Merriam Lake in a larger map

The day wasn't uneventful, however.  We got out of camp around 8:00 (our normal starting time the whole trip).  As we crossed French Creek in Piute Canyon, Libby slipped into the stream and banged up her shin and knee pretty badly.  The pain would linger all trip, but was fortunately didn't impact her ability to hike!

Dad and I had been up this trail together before, but the only part that was really familiar to me was the changing view of Pilot Knob and the meadow in French Canyon where we had lunch.

 

I didn't remember the hike from the above meadow to Merriam Lake being such a grunt.  It's a very steep and sandy knapsack trail to the left of the outlet stream with only very small switchbacks. You basically go straight up the hill.  Thankfully, that's a fairly short stretch, and then it becomes much more mellow.

That night we camped along the shore of Merriam on a rocky area above some pretty beaches.  It was a good opportunity to bathe, and I took the chance to go fishing.  The fishing wasn't great, but I caught two for dinner.  After eating, we enjoyed watching the sunset and alpenglow in the east on Mt. Humphreys across the lake.

 

More pictures at the usual place.