Why do we always return to Mineral King? Because....THIS:

The mission for this particular trip was to finish our previous goal: Summit Sawtooth Peak. Yes, we went over the pass (11,730 ft) on our last trip, but we had yet to make it all the way to the peak (12,343 ft). Since we were only weeks away from attempting a Mt Whitney summit, this trip was a defining moment (in my head). 

We headed up to Mineral King Friday after work, planning our usual (car camping) overnight at Cold Springs. This is one of the few places you can car camp and feel like you're not on top of your neighbors. The camping is first come first serve, and only costs $12. Not many people are willing to drive the 25 mile winding one lane half paved road to get there (we've timed it many times, even if you know the road well, it takes an hour and half). We weren't doing any backpacking so we didn't need to pick up a permit (day hikes do not require permits). 

We woke up casually (probably around 6am), and headed out. The trail is steep at first, then splits with the Timber Gap trail (we've done that one plenty of times, love it!). The next 3 miles (or so) are a gentle climb and we were able to get up fairly fast. Looking up before you head into the Monarch Lake area, you can see Sawtooth peeking out:

The trail passes through a forest-like area before you head into the rocky Monarch Lakes area. You can see the trail ahead of us, and how gentle the climb is. Note the little point that is Sawtooth in the upper right:

As always, the deer around here show no fear of humans:

Once you pass by the Beautiful Monarch Lakes, you immediately start to make your way up the sandy slog of Sawtooth toward the pass. I tried to capture how steep it is:

Looking down:

As we climbed higher (stoping every 3 minutes to catch our breathe and give our legs a rest), Upper Monarch Lake becomes visible. This is a great lake to take a swim in btw. 

As we got higher and higher, I couldn't help photograph this mountain peak to the left a million times. The beauty of this place really is incredible (It also gives a feel for the steepness of the mountains around here).

 This is the view looking over to the peak from the Pass:

It's about a mile or so rock scramble from here to there...and we were goin' for it. We had been warned by others and even the rangers that there isn't a clearly marked path, but that it was "easier" than the part from Monarch Lake to the Pass...
This was about halfway to the point...see if you can spot Sam:

Not too long after I took this photo, I sat down for a break. I suddenly felt like I needed to lay down and go to sleep. Oh no...that's not good. The altitude was hitting me hard, and since we were having a hard time following the trail (basically just climbing rocks and aiming for that big pointy thing), we opted to abort the mission. One problem: there is no "trail" to turn around on and head back. Me, being a genius and clearly an outdoor expert (HAH!), said "hey look, lets follow those footsteps, straight down to the lakes..."

 Big Mistake. We resorted to sliding down on our butts, with the occasional slides not knowing when/how they would end, nearly falling off several cliffs, and both thinking "This is how we die....I've always wondered how I would go..." Tears were shed (my tears, Sam is a robot), prayers were said, and we just kept going, keeping those lakes in view. We had lost all direction/trail/common sense. For some reason we just kept going down. Looking back up I tried to take one photo of where we had slid down on our butts:

It looks like a cliff, because it is...and several times we would hit loose sand covering a rock and just keep sliding. We were SO dumb. What seemed like hours passed as we continued down. I'm sure it was closer to one hour in real time...

Spoiler alert: we obviously made it down because I am writing this blog. I wanted to HUG AND KISS Monarch Lake when we reached it..is it possible to hug and kiss water? 

There was another group of day hikers at the lake swimming, and we ran over to the lake and dipped our water bottles in and chugged water...there was also some shedding of clothes as we jumped in for a swim. They were looking at us like aliens. I'm sure I was crying (yeah, I do that a lot).  We finally spoke, and all we said was something to the effect of "That's not the way you're supposed to get down that mountain, and we almost just died," half laughing, half crying. They couldn't tell if we were joking or not. Their biggest concern was us drinking the water straight from the lake. We had to sit there and mentally recover for an hour or so before we could make it all the way back to the car. 

As we headed down, I kept looking back at Sawtooth, seeing where we had come from, and trying to decide if we were friends or not. 

We learned our lesson, Sawtooth, you win. I will never try to stand on top of your stupid pointy peak at 12,434 ft in the air and see 360 degrees all around me ever again....or will I?

"Nice try, rookie," laughs Sawtooth as he shrinks in the background.  

Ok Snow, you were not in the forecast for this trip, so please don't surprise us! We came back to Mineral King this weekend to do the trip we set out for a few weeks back (but snow happened).

This trip was a planned 30 something mile loop in Mineral King: Over Timber Gap to Pinto Lake, Over Black Rock Pass to Little Five Lakes, and through Lost Canyon to the Top of Sawtooth Pass and out.

We drove from Los Angeles to the ranger station for our permit, and were on the trail by 1pm.
We stopped for lunch at a place we affectionately named "Marmot Rock," because it was covered in Marmot poop (those responsible were present, but we did not share our lunch with them).

Look at the view of Mineral King Valley already!

The climb out of Mineral King toward Timber Gap is quick and steep (1,600ft of elevation gain in about 2 miles).

But when you turn around and look back, its totally worth it!

Once over Timber gap, we had to go down nearly 2,300 feet through the buggiest (but prettiest) marshy field of wildflowers where water was still running off from the now that year. I snagged a few photos of the interesting flowers, but we were being assaulted by swarms of mozzies and had to keep going fast.  

Crossing Cliff creek was relatively easy because of some rock damns. I'm not sure why my backpack looks so big in this picture. 

There's a nice camp spot right after you cross Cliff Creek, complete with some loitering deer:

...but we were headed to Pinto Lake: 2.9 miles to go and 1,700 feet to climb. 

We didn't take any photos of Pinto Lake or the area where we camped for the night. The sun was going down and we had to make dinner quick. We had lingered a little too long at Cliff creek earlier, and that last 1,700 foot climb was harder than we expected. And this is where the fun part of the story comes in...

We had this genius idea of bringing chicken sausages to eat for dinner. They're small, and you can roast them on a fire on a stick. (Side Note: We found out later there are NO FIRES allowed at Pinto Lake--we claim ignorance b/c there was an existing fire ring and it was below the elevation that fires are normally allowed. They just don't allow it here b/c its a heavy use area). So we thought we were so clever, bringing this little treat with us (as the rest of the meals would be dehydrated meals and bars). They were frozen when we left the house and put them in the ice chest for the drive. We put them in our backpack at the last minute next to a cold water bottle. I think we were thinking it would take a few hours for them to defrost, and it would coincide with the time we would be roasting them. Well, we're dumb...and they were not even really cold by the time it was dinner. For some reason, we roasted them up and ate them anyway (funky smell and all). Sam quit a few bites earlier than I...and off to bed we went, with our tummies angry at our choice. About an hour later, I had to come out of the tent....I'll spare you details (Side Note: In the pitch black of the night in the middle of the wilderness, a deer walking by 5 feet from you while you're trying to do your business is horrifying). 

The night crawled by. I definitely felt like I had a fever. Add that to the other symptoms and it seemed to equal food poisoning. Sam said he felt his heart racing fast, but he ended falling asleep with little problems. We joke that he could eat a bomb and probably be ok. I'm the sensitive stomached one. The morning wasn't happy to see me either. I tried to eat some oatmeal...it didn't want to stay in me (Note: 2 years later I still WONT eat oatmeal on the trail). We tried to decide if I was well enough to push through or if we should turn around. Well, we're dumb. So we kept going. I really wanted to see what lay ahead of me, and on the other side of Black Rock Pass.

Pinto Lake area wasn't much to look at unless you turned around and watched it shrink behind you...

And pretty soon we were headed up....Oh... THERE'S Pinto Lake....They should call it Pinto Pond.

Looking forward to Black Rock Pass:

We always seem to make friends on the trail...this guy didn't care one bit how much we hollered at him, he did not budge. He must have found a good stash of berries or something he was munchin' on. 

Crossing a stream on the way up to Black Rock Pass. 

You can't even see tiny Pinto Pond anymore...

I felt terrible, and basically only ate a small bite of a cliff bar whenever we stopped for a brief minute. I'm not even sure if I consumed the whole bar by the end of the day. I forced myself to drink water, but nothing was really wanting to stay in me. We pushed on, still thinking I would get over it, that it would run it's course in my body and I would eventually be fine. I really wanted to peek over the other side and see the lakes I had heard so much about. And....I did!

And then I...well, you don't want to know. We decided the smartest thing to do at this point was to turn around and get as far as possible. If I can't keep food down, then going even farther into the wilderness and away from help wasn't the smartest thing to do. And down we went. Down, down, down...All the way to Cliff Creek, where we hung out with some mozzies for the night and had to climb up, up, up 2,300 feet through the marshy field of wildflowers, over Timer Gap, and out to the car. 

So here's what we learned: don't bring perishables backpacking, it goes bad and gives Katy food poisoning. The End. 

UPDATE (6/4/2013): I did NOT have food poisoning. I had altitude sickness. This has been an ongoing battle. I'll continue to talk about it as I go on future trips, what helps, what doesn't, as the battle continues.