Sequoia National Park - Franklin Pass / Timber Gap Loop

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Table of Contents

Background

Trail head to Franklin Lakes

Franklin Lakes to Forester Lake

Forester Lake to Lost Canyon

Lost Canyon to Big Five Lakes

Big Five Lakes to Little Five Lakes

Little Five Lakes back to trail head

Background

Kekoa and I did this loop through the Sequoia National Park from June 27 - July 2nd. This was another great trip we found in the Sierra North: Backcountry Trips in Californias Sierra Nevada book. We originally planned to do this loop in 8 days/7 nights and ended up doing it in 6 days/5 nights. We planned for a few rest days/side trips that we just didn't end up feeling like doing, and the mosquitoes were quite relentless.

Our route took us from the trail head to Franklin Lakes, up and over Franklin Pass, then by Forester Lake, Little Claire Lake, Lost Canyon, to Big Five Lakes. Then from Big Five Lakes to Little Five Lakes, up and over Black Rock pass, to Pinto Lake, across Timber Creek, over Timber Gap and ending at the Sawtooth-Monarch trail head. The highlights of this trip for me were probably Big Five Lakes, it was incredibly beautiful there with the exposed cliffs right next to the lakes. Also, the views on top of Black Rock pass were spectacular.

Note to anyone considering this trip - do consider doing this in August, there'll probably be less mosquitoes, less snow on the passes to deal with and also do bring some tarp to wrap your car. Apparently the marmots love to eat the cars in the parking lot (during marmot season at least).

If you liked this trip report, you can also see the rest of our trip reports here.

Trail head to Franklin Lakes

Our day first began by driving up this 26 mile switchback road that took around an hour and 15 mins. It seems pretty crazy to me that they maintain most of this road just for the park, and a small community that lives maybe 20 miles up the road. By mile 20 I was quite antsy and eager to get out of the car. We then headed off to the ranger station to pick up our permit. They didn't have much to warn us about beside the marmots that might eat our car. At the parking lot we did see lots of folks had tarp or chicken wire around their car, I guess next time I should think about making a makeshift tarp wrappy thing for my car.

Finally we started hiking. Our starting pack weights were pretty heavy, at probably ~32 lbs for me and ~42 lbs for Kekoa. The hike up to Franklin lakes was quite pretty. We first walked right by this river and grassy field/meadows. We could see all the surrounding peaks, little did I know that we had to cross one of these the next day. It was pretty uneventful till we got to Franklin Lakes, there's a lack of viable campsites there. Thank goodness it wasn't too crowded, minus the family with three kids who made a lot of noise. The tough part was that the lake is situated on a cliff, so getting water meant scrambling all the way down and up.

Attempt to patch Camelbak with duct tape

Sunset at Franklin Lakes

Unfortunately on our second trip down for water, I slipped and landed right on my butt. It hurt like hell, and I sat there screaming "MY ASS HURTS LIKE HELL" for a while. There was a guy there who just looked really embarrassed to be there at that moment. The other bad part was that I also ripped my camelbak from the fall, and duct tape does NOT work on repairing Camelbak bladders. Turns out I also ripped a few small holes in my pants and had a few bloody spots on my butt. Great start to the trip!

Another mishap was that we also forgot the pad that we needed to clean the water filter. Fortunately we discovered that a Velcro pad would also work, and we proceeded to cut a pad of Velcro off this case we had. What an interesting start to the first day.

That night we were both plagued by altitude sickness of sorts. We started the day at sea level, started our hike around 7500 ft, and hiked up to ~10300 ft. I had a really bad headache the whole night, and could NOT sleep. Kekoa was also developing a cough. Lesson here I guess is to be a bit smarter about acclimation the next time.

Franklin Lakes to Forester Lake

Unbeknownst to me, since I didn't study the map that well, today involved climbing an 11800 ft pass and getting to a campsite at 10300 ft again. The west side of Franklin pass was pretty brutal, it was akin to climbing this rock wall in front of us that seemed to never end. The highlight of the ascent was that you got to see all 5 of the Franklin Lakes, they were quite pretty dotted along the mountain side. There was a bit of snow near the top, and the trail to cross to the east side was nowhere to be seen.

Franklin Pass Panorama. The top is steeper than it looks, we had to cross the snow on the top and also to the right (east) side of the pass.

The view on the top was quite pretty, we could see lots of mountain ridges and even Mt. Whitney. After stopping at the top to take pictures, we scrambled over some rocks on the northern edge of the pass only to be greeted once again with like, snow. Snow just covering the trail. After walking around these snow fields for a bit and kind of guessing where the trail *should* end up, we finally found it and continued the switchback-y descent.

The descent was uneventful, but we kept on looking back at the pass, going "holy shit, we came down THAT?!". After getting to Forester Lake, there was a slight drizzle and we could hear thunder storms in the distance, but thankfully they passed us without actually storming on us. Later that day, a couple also came upon Forester Lake to camp. They were telling stories about how they planned on doing Sawtooth pass, but it wasn't passable due to how much snow was still up there. The guy of the couple proceeded to scare the shit out of me about Black Rock pass, which we had to cross later to get home. He was saying how it had the worst trail conditions they'd ever seen, how it was full of loose scree, and how they decided to go 20 more miles instead of going back over Black Rock pass. After still being scared of Franklin pass earlier today (I thought it was too hard core for me), I seriously considered turning around and going home.

Later, another group of six showed up at Forester Lake, and they too planned on doing Sawtooth pass and ended up going the long way. I also asked them about Black Rock pass, and they had a somewhat more optimistic view. They said it would probably be easier going up than coming down, a sentiment I now agree with. And they said as long as we gave ourself lots of time it should be OK.

There was quite a bit of mosquitoes at the Forester Lake, and the coolest part was that lots of trout were jumping up to eat the mosquitoes. I'd never seen so many trout jumping out of the water at the same time. It was a nice sight.

I was still plagued by altitude sickness this night, with both insomnia and bad headaches. Thank goodness I packed ibuprofen.

Milky Way Over Forester Lake

Forester Lake to Lost Canyon

Cool sign in Bear Box @ Lost Canyon

The day started out with us hiking from Forester Lake, up a ridge, then down to Little Claire Lake. Turns out we made the right decision camping at Forester Lake, as it was much prettier and the campsites were much nicer there. Shortly after leaving Little Claire Lake, it started raining and there was thunder around us.

We hiked most of the day in light drizzle and at a few times the rain was coming down a bit hard. Kekoa and I got a bit worried because there was lots of thunder around and we were afraid of getting struck. Thank goodness we never saw lightning, but at times we heard the thunder echoing all around us... It was almost like being in a expensive movie theatre, only in real life... Fortunately our pack covers held up, and the stuff in our packs stayed nice and dry.

The river crossings today were quite annoying, since it was raining and cold, and then rain caused the river levels to rise so we had to take off our shoes twice in the stupid rain, and cross these rivers, all the while being bitten by mosquitoes.

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully, we got to Lost Canyon and found a nice cool sign in the bear box.

Lost Canyon might be one of my favorite campsites, it was very quiet and peaceful as we were right by the gently flowing Lost Canyon Creek.

Lost Canyon to Big Five Lakes

Us being stupid dorky for the camera @ Big Five Lakes

Cool sign in Bear Box @ Big Five Lakes

The morning started out pretty shitty. We woke up early, hoping to get an early start. The moment we decided to get out of our tent it started raining. When it finally stopped, we got out and ate breakfast. Of course then it started to rain again, so we packed up our packs in the tent, and then the rain stopped. And then we got out of the tent to pack the tent up, only to have it start raining again. $%*#$&*(#$

We soon got on the trail. We anticipated to be an easy day, since it was only about 4 miles to the lake we planned to camp at (Big Five Lakes, lake 10192). We climbed up this ridge, and then proceeded to walk to another ridge that overlooked the lowest of the Big Five Lakes. It was incredibly beautiful. We then dropped down into the basin where the lower Big Five Lake was, and we found another cool sign in the bear box.

After this, apparently the intelligent trail routers decided that we'd have to climb all the way up another ridge to get to the next Big Five Lake. I was quite frustrated at this point, as I was tired, and anticipated today to be a rest day. And the stupid trail ended up being 2.9 miles with 1500 ft of climb. UGH. I guess if I was smarter I could have looked at the map closer... After lots of moaning and getting discouraged (I even joked about moving to SF and becoming a city girl), we finally made it to other Big Five Lakes. The lake we stayed at (10192) had a campsite with a nice fire ring already there. Since the mosquitoes were relentless, and we were allowed to have fires, I begged Kekoa to make a fire.

Kekoa turned out to be the hero of the day, my spirits were lifted as soon as the fire started and all the mosquitoes went away. It was also quite warm next to the fire! This was probably one of my favorite nights of the trip. I'm guessing the whisky we brought for the trip and drank tonight also helped.

Sunset Over Middle Big Five Lakes

Big Five Lakes to Little Five Lakes

Kekoa's mosquito abused back

Kaweah Peaks Over Little Five Lakes

The day started out at 3 am with Kekoa moaning and sounding quite sick. At first I was really worried that he had food poisoning because he said his stomach was cramping every few minutes. Thank goodness it just ended up being indigestion and a bit of gas. (We might stay away from Backpacker's Pantry Katmandu Curry from now on, although it IS yummy.)

Today we got really sick of the mosquitoes and whipped out the DEET. We'd been using Lemon Eucalyptus to this point, and it works fairly well, but DEET is just the toxic-scare-the-shit-out-of-mosquitoes goodness.

At least today turned out to be a real rest day, with around 3 miles and only ~500 ft or so of climb. We rolled into camp quite early at a bit past noon. Disappointingly, Little Five Lakes is not nearly as pretty as Big Five Lakes. The main lake was a bit swampy, and the area around the lake was quite muddy. We still managed to have a nice time trying to find the two birds that Kekoa really wants to learn the names of. I rested a lot and did some reading.

Little Five Lakes back to trail head

Today ended up being... quite epic (I loathe the word epic, but it applies here, IMHO). Our original plan was to cross Black Rock pass (which still scared the shit out of me), and get to Timber Creek and camp there - a respectable 9 mile day with 1200ft of climb and 4500 ft of descent. We left camp early, eating breakfast while mosquitoes were eating us. At this point, we were quite fed up with these bugs. They had gotten increasingly worse as our trip progressed. We also wanted to leave early as 9 miles is a fairly long day, esp. with snow-covered trail on the way to the pass.

The climb up to Black Rock pass ended up being quite interesting... It was totally a "make up your own trail" thing - esp for the last 800 ft, the trail was almost entirely hidden in snow. We basically scrambled around rocks and tried to walk around most of the snow and head in the general correct direction of the pass. Anyhow, after around 1.5 hrs of scrambling, we finally got to the last bit of trail by the top. It wasn't covered in snow, so that helped us find it. From there, we climbed to the top of the pass.

The top of Black Rock pass was probably one of my favorite views of the whole trip. You could see so many mountain ridges, and the Kaweah Peaks Ridge was impressive.

Black Rock Pass Panorama

The descent was extremely exposed and consisted of long switchbacks. Although we could see the three lakes at the head of Cliff Creek (Columbine Lake/Cyclamen Lake/Spring Lake) flowing into one another and ending in casades and falls at Cliff Creek Canyon. According to the internet these are classic paternoster lakes, where one lake flows into the next like a chain of beads. They were a nice sight while navigating the switchbacks. I wish we had a picture of the lakes actually, but it was quite treacherous and I don't think I would have wanted Kekoa to dig out his camera on the steep, exposed switchbacks.

Cute cute marmot

After a bit more descending we finally got to Pinto Lake. It really should be renamed Pinto Pond. We couldn't even seen the lake once we were level with it, as it was hiding in thick willows. We stopped at Pinto Lake to eat lunch, and decided the campsites here were pretty blah and also the mosquitoes were just relentless, even tho we put on DEET in the morning. So onward we went to Timber Creek.

The descent to Timber Creek first consisted of this crushed rock that was extremely hard on the feet, and it then turned into big rock steps. After this we descended into a meadow of deadly mosquitoes that were in good enough shape to land on you while you were walking and suck your blood. Kekoa and I were in a really bad mood at this point because of this, and it seemed to make the hike to Timber Creek drag on and on. We even started talking about hiking all the way out to the car at this point (another 6-ish miles and a lot of climb).

When we got to Timber Creek's campsites, Kekoa and I were just beaten by the mosquitoes. The campsites at Timber Creek weren't exactly inviting either, as the area was really dark and humid. Kekoa looked and me and said "Do you want to camp here? Keep in mind I AM REALLY SICK OF MOSQUITOES." So we uhh, wussy-ly decide that we were too good for mosquitoes and signed ourself up for another 5 hours of walking (we'd already hiked around 7 hours at this point). Writing this, I'm still not sure WTF we were thinking.

The crossing of Timber Creek was the hardest we'd done - the stream was the widest of those we crossed, with a flow fast enough that I almost lost my balance. After crossing, we pumped some water for the hike out (and got attacked by mosquitoes). One of the most awkward moments of the trip happened right after this. After pumping water, and still being extremely pissed about getting bitten and feeling itchy as hell, we ran into 3 guys hiking out to Pinto Lake. We chatted a bit, and we told them we were hiking out today because we were really really sick of the mosquitoes. We could tell by their tone of voice that they thought we were crazy, because the trail head was quite far away, and it was past 3:30 pm at this point. Plus, they were probably thinking, what the heck are you doing outdoors if you can't deal with a few bugs!? I maintain, they just didn't know how bad it was yet :) It was just.... awkward.

We started climbing up Timber Gap (~2400 ft of climb over 3.5 miles) and proceeded to run into 3-4 more groups of people all heading to Pinto Lake. The climb up Timber Gap was quite pretty. There were lots of trees around, and we were hiking next to the Timber Gap Creek. Sadly, I wish we hiked this more slowly to enjoy the views more. Timber Gap itself was also really pretty. The trees were tall and impressive, and there were lots of clearings, and it was generally serene. Too bad there was no water nearby. If Kekoa and I had enough water, I think we would have considered camping at the Gap.

We basically hauled butt down the descent, where we also saw some mule eared deer, who were just running up and down the slopes like it was flat ground (jealous...). Once again, the descent was actually extremely pretty, we were descending through this grassy field where you could see all the mountains and trees. The trees also turned this orange nice color while the sun was setting. I really do wish we did have more time to enjoy the last part of the hike.

We descended back to the trail head and finally made it to the car. We were both pretty footsore at this point, after hiking ~16 miles, with ~6500' descent and ~3600' of climb, all in about 12 hours.

Overall it was a fun trip, although the climbing was a big excessive.

The End. :)

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