We finally conquered Mt Brewer | Kings Canyon NP | Backpacking in the Sierra Nevada | East Lake

We finally conquered Mt Brewer | Kings Canyon NP | Backpacking in the Sierra Nevada | East Lake

It is August the 26th, 2024, and Elvis and Richard are off on their next High Sierra adventure. We’re back. Well, here we’re passing Pothole Lake. This is fun. Holy cow. See, you see the one with the old Look at the scenery. We’re also back to Kias Pass where we’re heading over to King’s Canyon and then into SEOA. Is this the yellow? This is our friend, the yellow legged frog that’s removing all the trout from the lakes. We now know who our enemy is. All right, let’s go. It’s uh it’s about 5:00. Long drive from the bay area to get here. But we’re at long last on the trail. Looking back to the trail head as we wind our way up the mountain. Is it nice to be back? Band for two years. Last year we went to the Himalayas. So Elvis and I didn’t do a big high Sierra trek. So, we need to get back into the zone. We don’t have north, right? Our guiding ports. We’re on our own. Our goal is to hike over Kasange Pass up to uh climb Mount Brewer, which we almost climbed last time. It’s quite warm here. I’m already sweating, but the sky is clear. There have been some having been some wild fl not wild flowers, wild fires on the western side of Seoia. I’m doing this with a 200 lb body. You’ve not put that much weight on, have you? Uh 156 plus 45. Yeah. £200. Enter usth into the John Mure wilderness. Look at the sun on the jagged spikes of the mountains above and the sound of the waterfall. Yep. We’re back in our favorite playground, Elvis. Yep. It’s uh the cathedral of our soul. Oh, that’s very poetic. I like that. Well, we’re heading uh steadily up towards Gilbert Lake. Not too far now as the sun starts to set on the uh on the peaks here. Go slow. Yep. Let’s stay on the trail. Take it easy. Oh, I see a lake over here. Oh, and a sign. It says no wood fires. This is a nice wood to burn. Burn the eye. Never mind. But over here is our lake, Gilbert Lake. I think we camped down here last time. Didn’t look familiar. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz uh the path looks like we go somewhere else. Yep. Good job. I’ve blown up my pad. Elvis is making progress on his nice little tent spot here and a and a relatively flat slab for preparing meals. Although tonight we’re just having sandwiches and oranges that we brought with us. Good morning, Elvis. Good morning, Richard. What a beautiful view to wake up to. Sat here by Gilbert Lake. It was cold last night. Look at the frost on our gear here. Yeah. By the time we went to sleep, it was 900 p.m. It was 39 already. So, yeah. Hey, Elvis, look at this. The water in my water bottle is frozen. It’s our first breakfast. Oatmeal and pecans and cranberries. We found that a packet of oatmeal just doesn’t doesn’t do it. We uh we eat it and then about an hour and a half later we’re we’re hungry again. But adding the cranberries and the pecans gives it staying power. What’s the rumbling? Uh rockfall, I think. Fortunately, we’re not where the rockfall is. So Elvis, what’s our what’s our plan for today? Today Today we will climb over the Kaj Pass. Uhhuh. And uh we’ll come back down. So probably about around the same elevation. Oh, so it’ll be the same elevation as here. I think it will be about the same. Yeah. So that’s about 10,000 ft. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we came probably a little bit past somewhere beyond there. Yeah. All right. Great. Are we going to fish in Ball Lake? We should. Yes. It’s a good place to stop and have a have a have a rest. Yeah. Ready to go? Yeah. And it’s uh we’re 10 minutes early cuz it’s not 9:30 yet. Our goals for this adventure is unfinished business. Unfinished business with Mount Brewer. Two years ago, we tried to climb it from the from the western side, the northwest, and didn’t quite make it to the top due to weather and time and everything. This time we’re approach it from East Lake which is a more popular sort of contemporary route. The Gilbert Lake look after us well again. Must be what 6 years since we’ve done this trail before. Wow. When we did Kage to Bishop I think it was. The higher up we get the trees get smaller. The trail has been busy and a lot of people we know why. Right. So why is that? Cuz there’s a resupply station there, right? Yes. Yeah. So everyone getting the supply and getting out. Lot of JMTers. Wow. And the PC gears too. We met some of them as well. Yes. See across to the White Mountains, Owens Valley. So, Elvis, are you starting to get into the zone? Slowly, slowly. Slowly. Yeah. Yep. I have the benefit of having done two other backpacking trips in the last month. So, I found my legs. I’m somewhat acclimatized, but I’m still rushing around like a headless chicken. Hopefully. I think it’s because uh we didn’t stay up there long enough. Probably. Yes. By the time I was starting to acclimatize, it was time to come home. Yeah. There’s the pass in front of us. Beautiful blue sky as well. No smoke or clouds. Well, here we’re passing Pthole Lake, the last lake. before the summit. Hey Elvis, I think we’re on the last zag. It’s now a straight run to the top. This is where we’ve come. And here we’re here. We’re almost at the top. That’s Brewer. That’s what we’re climbing in. The one in the middle. That’s what we’re climbing in two days time. The one with the snow on it. Yeah. Are you sure? Yeah. Are you sure? The mountain to the north is North Guard and the mountain to the south is South Guard. And that’s and that’s the ridge we’re going up. You see in the front scared all the other hikers away. Let’s head over to Bullfrog. Now it’s downhill all the way for today. I have to say Brewer looks very intimidating from this angle. Wow. This is only a hike with a view. Gorgeous view hiking down this trail. Absolutely gorgeous. Ray legakes. Little frog over there. All these layer upon layer of mountain peaks. Uh I think it’s still straight. So, let’s see what it says here. More formidable now as we get lower down. Impressive range of mountains. Hello. What you doing here? Beautiful spot. There is our destination or bit beyond it. Bullfrog Lake, nice and peaceful. So, we’ve had some fishing down by the lake. Got lots of little brookie trout. And we’re now enveloped in alpen glow all around us. There’s this orange glow as the sun is setting. And we’re going to sit here and enjoy our margaritas as the sun shines through the trees across Bullfrog Lake and to our campsite. It’s time to get up and get going. Good morning, Elvis. Good morning. You going to show us? That is our goal. Looks very imposing from here. Yep. He’s teasing us right now. Yep. Day after tomorrow. Not any longer. All right. Time for some breakfast and something hot to drink. I think we’re going to have uh granola this morning. So, it’s our third morning. We’re camped above uh a little ways from Bullfrog Lake where we did some fishing last night in this we camped in this nice little meadow. And you can see behind us we have this wonderful view of Mount Brewer. And I think our first inkling that our original plan might not be doable was when we we came up here and we we saw across there and saw wow that’s a big mountain. Anyway, our original plan was to hike up here, go down to East Lake, which is at the foot of of Brewer, uh, and then dayhike Brewer, back to East Lake, and then, uh, spend the rest of our 10 days off into the upper Karn Valley. But then when we sat down with a map last night, what were your your thoughts on that? I think it’s mostly inspired by uh Yong’s email and took him 15 hours from East Lakes uh to the top of uh Brewer uh summit and come back 15 hours and he’s a much better backpacker than he’s a good hiker. It’s so so basically we cut the the distance in half and then we hike up to certain point. Fortunately, there’s a town kind of halfway up the mountain. Mhm. Um small lake. We Well, we need to use two extra day to do uh uh uh to cut it by half. So, uh, we need to focus on that for this trip rather than trying to kill two birds with one stone and probably killing ourselves in the the result. Two birds. Yeah. Our goal will be achieved no matter what. So, with our revised plan, Elvis, what is our goal for today? Go to the east east lake. Right. So, right. So down through this this this valley down to Videt meadow and then we take a left turn up up up to about 6.6 mile is on the GPS plan and I think we lose a bit of elevation before we gain we check I think we are getting into the zone. I think you’re right. Yeah, I feel good this morning. That’s always the case in the morning. Wait till 3:00. Lake we found close to Bullfrog. And we’re now heading cross country over this way where we’ll eventually hit the JMT again. Our expert navigator is trailblazing through the jungle. So having now hit the trail the JMT until we turn off on the east lake uh reflection lake turn off through the meadows here. This could be part of valley up with the river. Hope there’s somewhere to cross it. With all this easy hiking, it’s important to make sure we don’t uh whiz right past our turnoff. Well, I don’t think we’re in much danger of that right now. You can see Brewer just beefing up there. Me, it just gets more and more spectacular. The aspen here is already turning. Wow. Can you go down and get some water for us for the afternoon? Yep. And we are at the mis. Here is the signpost. East lake, three miles. Made it to the river. Yep. suddenly burnt some adrenaline. We We were just talking about how it would be nice to go stick our feet in the river, not knowing that we would need to actually cross the river whilst we were sticking our feet in the river. So, one stone kill two birds now. Yes. As long as Except it’s not as pleasurable somehow. No. Uh 2.3 mi. Okay. About 1,400 ft. Uh-huh. All right. We have not been in this. We’ve not been up here before. No. Kindly built us a bridge. Isn’t that impressive? I mean, all there is up here is East Lake and Lake Reflection. It’s quite new, too. Yes. Someone’s done a lot of work building this trail. Thank you, A lot of water still coming down the down trees that are locking the path. Oh yeah, that’s Yeah, there’s more to come. So, we’re about uh half a mile from East Lake according to our navigator. It’s just been a slow, steady slog up the up the valley. I switch backs. We met a ranger when we were down at the at the creek and she was coming up here. I wasn’t sure whether she was like on business or just for recreation. It seemed like almost like a mixture of both. She was going up uh through uh uh Reflection Lake and out the top of the valley. So, she’s going to reflection. Yes, that’s what she said. I should have asked her about if there’s a new path or phantom path. There’s a impressive river flowing out of out of this lake all the way down the the valley. I see a lake through the trees. We found a nice campsite with a fireplace. Good place to pitch the tent and a granite countertop. What more could we ask for? Yep. Elvis early doesn’t like making fires. My wonderful granite countertop here. We’ve just had popcorn and then tonight we’re going to have chicken pasta. Pesto chicken pasta. Pesto and the onions and the chicken. Freeze-dried chicken there. And here is the pasta. Here we are with our finally fireplace and we have dessert tonight. Yep. Here’s where we had our nice fire last night. We’re getting all packed up for climbing up to the little tarn halfway up Mount Brewer. And as a result, to make things easier, we’ve left everything we don’t need in the bear box here, which was fortunately have at this campsite. And then we take everything we need for a high camp up to the little town. And then from there we’ll we’ll do a day pack up to Brewer itself. How you doing this morning, Elvis? You ready for our big uh expedition? Yes. I love this campsite. This uh a perfect launch pure. Yeah. I can draw a parallel to our uh uh Mount Everest track. It’s like our ni ba. Oh, right. Yes. because it’s uh well equipped. Yeah. So does that mean then Namj the little town is uh gorak sheep something like that. It probably won’t Yeah. There won’t be many amenities up there at the little town. I hope it’s not too windy up there. Richard is cooking the Oh yes pancake with bacon. Bacon. Look at this setup here. It’s a perfect setup for a kitchen. So, Elvis, we have a really big hike today. Tell us how far are we going? Big hike. Yes. 2 miles. All right. But it’s not an easy two miles cross country. So, our rule of thumb is 0.5 miles uh per hour. Yeah. Sometimes it could get worse. depends on the terrain. Right. So, right. And we’re our goal is to basically hit the easy half of the mountain today. Ready to hopefully, if everything goes well, summit tomorrow. Unfortunately, we got off a good time. 9:30 our usual time. 10:45. Oh, I got too much fun here. Step one will be how are we figuring out how we cross the river? what we need to cross. I think this is an easier one. Well, Richard’s had a little mishap. I managed to slip and fall in. So, we’re having to kind of rethink our strategy a bit for today. So, after Richard’s escapade with the logs and fallen in the river, decided we would delay our attempt on brewer brewer day and kind of have a rest day and fish and and plunge in the in the lake and then we’ll uh start activities again tomorrow. How’s it going, Elvis? It’s a good fishing lake. Good. What have we done today, Ellis? Oh, we caught some fish and uh had the fish dinner. Oh, well, not dinner, fish lunch. Oh, that was wonderful, wasn’t it? We caught uh well, four brook trouts. Yeah, decent size, too. I I don’t know how how long is it? Maybe 11 12 in. 11 in. Yeah. And uh we should cook it really well. So, thank you. We went for a plunge in the lake. Oh, yes. Yeah, that was refreshing. Look at that scenery. Um, yeah, the the campsite is perfect. It’s a really nice place and the views here are just just incredible of the King’s Kern Divide at the back and then you’ve got Brewer at the side and uh Erikson crags. This this really is a super superb place to hang out and not appreciated when we originally planned the trip. What a gem. I’m I’m going to rank this above Peter Pandy for sure. Mhm. Yeah. And we got quite a long list of good good lakes these these days. For dinner, we had curry and homemade bread. Oh yeah. You have to try. Look at that. It’s really good. It’s another beautiful morning here at Camp East Lake. The lake looks absolutely gorgeous. We’ve got blue sky. Here’s Here’s the water man. Good morning, Elvis. How are you? Going to get some more water. Done a fabulous job. Here’s our fireplace. And breakfast is on its way. hash browns along with some strong coffee. So, we’re getting all packed up. We’ve uh we’re taking just what we need. Everything else is in the in the bear box. I have this kind of deja vu feeling right now. Hopefully, we’ll have a better outcome than yesterday. Okay. Oops. Second attempt. I promise I won’t fall in the river this time. So, just a reminder, we’re heading across the logs here. And if we survive that uh along the lake and up Creek uh up to the little town with no name. Yeah. Amazingly, everything dried up. Yes. Even even my boots dried up. So, amazing. Uh how about inside? Yeah. Yeah, they’re great. And look at the lake now. It’s just gorgeous. This is what we have to cross to grief yesterday in there. Okay. Now, yeah. Little bit of a almost slip at the end. What a view. All this grass and logs. There’s lots of habitat. Yeah, it’s a Yeah, it’s a happy place for for the fish and for the fisherman. Elvis has spotted the first duck. Well done. Some evidence of people have been through here. Oh, there’s another duck here. Oh, yeah. Good. If we don’t have the GPS uh telling us which way to come out, there’s no way we will figure this out because there’s two big raft in between. It’s very hard to ride them over here. Yeah. And these just are not on the map at all. Yeah. So, follow the river, but not too close to the river. Yeah. And this must be some huge wind coming through here because that’s the only way I can explain all these down trees. Yeah. None of this show in the map. So, Uhhuh. This is a nice path. I cannot expect anything nicer than this. No, at least the first.5 miles. Enjoy whilst it lasts about nice path. Oh man, this is nightmare. All these bushes around us. This is bushwacking at its best or worse. Did I just said that we had a nice path? Yeah. Let me go a little bit further. Okay. There is our goal. Wow. Majestic views. Two step forward. One step back. Wow. That’s some vista. Maybe it was an avalanche. Just let go of a balloon and you wonder wherever it ends up. This is where it ends up. come right from the valley down at the bottom the lake. And here we’re going to stop by this creek. It’s not even on the map. And uh have lunch and a little rest. We’re about halfway according to expert route finder. Really nice nicely laid out path here just for us to follow. GPS. They didn’t go through this way. So, okay. Well, let’s follow them. We run into a bit of a wall here to say the least. Let’s double back. Okay. Now, it probably enough. Yes. Yes. Done it. Whoa. Whoa. Wait. Wait. Come. Come out. Come. That’s a fine mess you got me into. This is what we’re working on. But just to show how far we’ve come. Look at that. There’s East Lake down in the bottom. Impressive skyline. We must have come through there from Bullfrog Lake down the valley. It’s only on the lake. We’re going to camp by the little town. You just got to get across the the creek and over to it. This is a classic example. You’re right next to something, but you couldn’t quite get there. Yeah. And this one doesn’t show it in the map. No. I mean, the creek doesn’t even exist. We’ve made it. And there is our friend challenge for tomorrow. Well, we found a sheltered little spot for our tent. Every direction. The craggy granite peaks. This lake is very dark and foroding. It’s like a lake is dead. Completely dead. So, as we watch the sun go down over Mount Brewer, we’re making our final preparations. We’re going to leave our tent and a lot of our gear here. So, all we’ll be taking is two lightly healed backpacks, essentials like first aid kit and and the food we’ve got ready to take with us. Tomorrow is the big day. It is 4 minutes to 6 on summit day. The sun is just starting to rise and uh we got up at 5 this morning to get ready. We’ve uh paired our equipment down to various minimums. We’ve had breakfast of oatmeal bar cuz we are actually short of few breakfasts and I think uh we’re ready to go. What are your thoughts? Go all the way to the top and come back safely. Okay, our adventure begins. 6:00. Right on. Right. Right on schedule. We save a lot of time and we don’t have to pack up the tent through our campsite. We have to go through this tiny little crawl space. There we go. And get there is our quarry. Our goal. The sun rises from the east. And now we’re going to line this wall. Right. Where is it? Yes. Get off my warm layer now. Okay. This is really encouraging, Alice, cuz from down the bottom, this piece looked horrible, but now we’re close up, I can foresee a way skirting around that. So, the map. So, that is dead clip. So, at least the start today has been uh really good in some ways easier than yesterday. I’m sure it will get all those volunteers. Yeah, sure it’ll get tougher when we get further up, but we think this must be someone’s GPX line going up the mountain here. We reassuring feeling to see the peak getting closer and closer. Yeah, as it gets closer actually looks a bit more doable. We’re all on the right path cuz Elvis has just spotted a big duck here as we suddenly get bathed in sunlight. This is fun. Never would have thought we would have got to this point in less than an hour. You can see our lake. Oh, there’s the little lake. You can see the big one above. To get close to this lump here from there, I got to figure out the way up. We get to see Southgard for the first time. There’s a breaking transmission cuz we we just climbed up this this massive pile of boulders to get up to the ridge. And now you can see all the mountains of the Sierras unfold before us. You having fun? So far so good. Yeah, this is a fantastic experience. until I scare myself shitless at the top and then I might change my mind. Yeah. The trick is never look down. Yeah. And don’t worry about what happens in 2 hours which is when you’re coming down. So has pointed out a wall there which this ridge of boulders kind of goes up to. I don’t think there’s any easier path now. So, the only way to go up is way to go up and scoot around to the top. And we’re hoping that along the side of that wall there’s a pathway up. We’ll see. But for now, it’s just traversing the boulders to get to the that ridge. Climbing final steps. Never make it. A pair of shoes here. We made it. That’s the top. My god. We made it. Good job, Elvis. What a climb. There’s a lot of boulders. Oh god. Telling me. Gosh, I didn’t know there’s so many. Wow, Richard, we’re we’re on the top of the world. Come on. Don’t fail off the fall off the mountain. Good job, buddy. Good job. Yay! Woohoo! We made it. Oh, we made it. I can’t believe it. That was never going to happen. My goodness. Oh, you can see. Look at here. Look at here. Look at here. Look at that cliff. Whoa, that is scary, man. It scares the out of me. That is Mount Tindle. Well, that might be Mount Tindle. One of them. And over there, watch watch out your feet. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Find your foot. Yeah. Over there is Whitney. So, we’ve climbed Mount Brewer exactly 160 years since the Mr. Brewer himself and Charlie Hoffman made it up here expecting this to be the last range of mountains and was astonished to see there was a ton more. And not only that, with their equipment, they quickly recognized that the uh the sloped mountain over there, Whitney, was higher than anything in the United States at that time, higher than any peak in Colorado, higher than anything else in the Sierras. And they named it after their leader, Josiah Whitney, in 1864, 160 years ago. probably not changed much. There is a bigger lump there, but I think that’s good enough for me. I’m quite happy to have made it to here. And I think that was the same for our our friends. Somewhere over there will be Mount Silon. I think it’s that one way in the distance with the sharp edge on the right hand side. And let’s see if we can do a a Yong style. We did it. Yay. We did it. Yay. We did it. We got lost Elvis. Sorry about that. Yay. We did it. Oh, come back again. There he is again. Yay. We did it. And now I’m going to sit down before I fall off the mountain. 11:40. That’s the time. Yep. 20 minutes before our goal of having made it to the top. But we have to thank our friend Yongen Kim for his for his guidance and for his GPX file cuz without that I don’t think we candidly would have made it to the top. After further um looking at the scenery we now believe that this is Southgard Lake, not Brewer. I think Brewer is kind of around the corner which uh is out of view. I think Brewer must be one of the best view uh viewing points of the entire Sierras. Russell Bryce, the famous Everest mountaineer and uh expedition organizer. Yeah, when you get to the top, you’re barely halfway. So, we’re barely halfway, Elvis. We got a lot more to do to get back down again. And uh sadly, I’m going to have to go offline again cuz there’s no way I can hold camera and climb down this thing. We’ve been trying very hard not to think about how to go down. Now, we have to We have to face it. Yeah. Which one is Whitney again? Is it that one? cuz I don’t feel like you see the one with the the slope and then the drop. Oh yeah, that’s the characteristic Whitney. I don’t see many mountains higher than us any peak that high higher than us. That one over there is that pointy one. What is that one? I think that’s Mount Tindle. I’m not 100% sure, but and Williamson is the one next to you. That one. That one there. Even farther. I can see it’s taller than Yeah, those fire is awful. Yeah. You see how the smoke is blowing this way now? My goodness. Yeah, that’s too bad. I think those are the Koa over there. All those jaggedy mountains. Yeah, we even get some hail stom. Not like at the top. Yeah, it was flurries of hail. Yeah. Yeah. I think we’re doing quite well so far. Coming down seems a little bit easier than uh going up. No, we are not out of the wood yet. Oh, no. We have not out of the stones yet. Then we get into the woods, the broken woods. Tomorrow will be the woods. Oh, man. Fallen wood. I just can’t get over how majestic this is. You got mountain range after mountain range. Next time we climb down. Oh, straight up as we march downwards. We’ve got a long way to go still. Long, long way. But we’re filled with joy and pride of our achievement. Looking to see which mountain we’re going to climb next. Hey, Elvis. Yeah. You see that big lump up there? We climbed that this morning and we’ve just climbed back down again. This one? Oh, no. That’s the bigger lump. I’m talking about this lump here. This is the uh upgrade from ducks. as we stagger down the last leg of our epic climb. It’s taken us about 10 hours to do 4 miles, but more than 3,000 ft and uh all cross country. We made it just about. Oh, and our tent is still there. Oh, it’s 5:55 p.m. 12 hours since we left this morning. Now, we had whole bunch of rests and other things on the way, but So, it’s the morning after our big climbing adventure and we’re here at the little town staring at this mountain and saying, “Did we really climb that? How on earth did we climb that? Good morning, Elvis. Good morning. He’s being very diligent with the water as always. Got some coffee on the on the go. But that is just absolutely amazing. It’s almost like a dream now. We went uh up this bit here and then over the top here and then we had to climb right up that that big face there, that square shoulder and then over that little lump and then over the next shoulder and then all the way along that that ridge and then we actually climbed the mountain from the other side where we were faced with this wall which you saw in the footage yesterday and had to find in the path up that wall that got up to just before the summit triangle. You can see a little rock sticking up. Maybe you can see that. And then from there it was a rock scramble up to the summit. A couple of hours just to trot down the mountain to back to East Lake. Uh I’m embarrassed to say it took us 5 hour and a half. Oh to come up here in only 2 miles. Yes. Remember all the broken trees? Yeah, it’s really hard to find the path. 4 hours going down. Yeah, I hope. Yeah. Yeah, that’s kind of if we didn’t get lost. Realistic expectation. Hey, Richard, can we see that person there? So, after having seen nobody for 3 days, this guy pops out of nowhere, arriving here at almost 10:00. So, we’re we’re debating whether he’s going to make it to the top or not. Oh, he’s backtracking now. This has been an perfect location for us to set our expedition for the summit. Quite a nice little place. This t has been good to us. It has. Yeah, it’s a happy time. View of the lake. Our destination. Coming to the end of the upright forest and the beginning of Elvis calls the evil forest is this is all part of a avalanche from two years ago cuz you can see some of the trees are all blown in this direction and others that are snap clean off. They’re snapped clean off about 7t high that must have been the snow level. Different type of challenge. We’ve got these these benches. Here’s one. There were two above and we’ve got to figure out how we get from this bench to this bench and then from this bench further down. That’s what Elvis has been trying to check out. Over there tantalizingly close to our destination, but it’s probably another hour and a half to get there. See here how everything is sliced off about 10 ft and we’ve hit another mini bench. There’s probably a way down there. Following the wall and avoiding all this mess. Margarita, we got back. Yeah. Yes. Woohoo. In East Lake. Look at the scenery. Look at I need this is the product of our afternoon fishing. Yay. Starter for today. So, we spent uh all this week in the in the wilderness not meeting anybody until yesterday when we we met a fellow not only a fellow hiker but a fellow uh brewer ascendee. So, you like to introduce yourself? Hi, I am Hakan. Yeah, I thought I was uh all by myself here and then I met these two uh lovely folks uh upon brewer. Um and it turns out uh um they had tried brewer also and uh I tried it as well and it was through the same route uh sufflakes. That’s right. And both were not successful. Uh and um and then here we meet uh yesterday and we both did it. So we had ranch. We had ranch, right? We had a lot of fun comparing notes on on the hike and uh yeah, but when you did swing legs, you did it from roads end. I did. Not from swing leg swing legs. I tried to do it as a day hike and I realized how insane it was. So, it was not surprising that I did not do it. But today is our rest day. What do we have planned for today? We’re going up to the refraction. Uh-huh. And about 2 miles. So, what kind of day do you think it will be? I don’t know. I was trying to tempt him to say it would be an easy day, but any day now has been anything but. Depends on the terrain. I don’t know. What about the weather? There’s a lot of clouds. Oh, no. Today is a little bit chilly for some reason. Yeah. But do you think it’s going to rain? No. It’s all right. Well, hopefully he’s right. Uh but we shall see. Okay, so we’re going to go around East Lake and up to Lake Reflection. It is a great lake to set up. Yeah. Yeah. And just incredible scenery wrapped around it. conquered peak sat up there majestically. I think we were at the top of that yesterday is quite something to be proud of. Onward. You know this this leg hopping for some reason is harder than it looks on the map. anything reflection. Look at that. View all around right the way through and over to what we could see on the other side. Incredible. So this is the King’s Karn Divide and Little Joe Pass is somewhere up one of those up one of those ridges. I think it’s probably that main ridge going up. One last look at the lake. Lake reflection. No reflection because of the wind, but still an amazing amazing uh view. Elvis, what’s the fishing report for this lake? Horrible. I caught one. And I caught one that got away before I got my hands on it. But it’s fun. Yeah, we’ve had a good time here and had lunch. Now we’re going to head back to East Lake. Hidden home back to We made it back. Terrific. That’s been a fun day hike up to Reflection Lake. I mean, it’s most impressive basin. And we’re back just in time now for putting the bread on for dinner and uh chilling out for the evening. Good morning, Ellis. Morning. What a wonderful vista. So Elvis, we come to the end of our stay here at East Lake. Finally. Yes. It’s been uh we’ve been here best part of a week. It’s been fantastic. Yeah, it’s challenging, but uh very rewarding experience. Yeah. So, what are your thoughts? I think it’s hard, but it’s worthwhile. Uh once in a lifetime. This is by far the most difficult mountains we have climbed so far. Right there it is staring up up there. Mount Brewer. All its majesty. Really right in the heart of the Sierras. Right in the right in the middle. And this is a class three. Yeah. Come on. This is not Yeah, we’ve done we’ve done amazingly well to climb a class 3 mountain. And our trip up to Lake Reflection yesterday. Tremendous experience, too. It’s so sort of ruggedy mountain beauty up there. But this lake is fun. And this is this lake if is quiet is every very much reflection. It is. Yes. Yes. I mean this could be called lake reflection. Yeah. And we’ve had a fantastic time uh fishing here and and we put our seven fish. Yeah. Yeah. Not to And then then the plunge. Oh, yes. That was very refreshing. One final thought here. East Lake is a poor name for a lake of this caliber. Caliber. That’s a good word. Yes. Yes. With with Brewer looking down on it and all these other great mountains. Just to call it East Lake. And there isn’t even a a West Lake. So, we challenge whoever out there has the inspiration. Please come up with a better name. So, it’s time for us to get on the trail and uh head back up to Kas where we’re going to camp at Kasange Lakes tonight and then over the pass tomorrow. Perfect time of year to come end of August, early September cuz you get the You get the benefits of summer, but then you get the first tinges of fall. Sorry. That’s the canyon we’re going to climb up when we get to the bottom. And you can hear Bub’s Creek down in the bottom. It’s across the river. Now it becomes a bit more. Was it 2,850 ft? So it’s good to get to this part early. So the sun is gentler, the airs are cooler, and we are stronger. Yeah. But all this is going to flip after the lunch. Yes. Look how far we’ve come. That’s the valley we hiked up to get to. Can now see Bullfrog Lake? I don’t think I think that’s the mother. He’s steamed though. Yeah. It’s not the same one. I don’t think it’s not a big No. And some of them are not. He’s thin though. Well, that was a rare fun experience coming proximity to a a black bear, California black bear roaming around at Bullfrog Lake. And Elvis has now seen a bear in the wild. Scold. And here we’re at the K pinnacles. Yay. It’s Kasange Lake. The first one camping this get popular. Our spot right here. I was nice 10 years ago. Good hike, son. It is our last day. We’re at Kasange Lakes, our old camp. Good morning, Elvis. Good morning, Richard. How are you this morning? I feel great. Good. It was a wild night last night. The wind kept thrashing the tent and uh this is although it was a great camp last time we were here. It’s it’s very dusty and dirty and we were on a bit of a slope so a lot of thrashing going outside the tent and a lot of thrashing going inside the tent. But we’ve had a great trip. Think of all the adventures at East Lake and Mount Brewer and Lake Reflection. It’s been a fun time. Here comes the sun. Ah, some warmth. Yeah. Yes. Some warmth. This has been a cold place. Okay, Elvis. What about Isn’t this a fantastic view here? Yeah. 8 years. You say I think it’s 8 years ago. Yeah, we were here. The mountains haven’t changed much. But anything else changed? Well, regrettably, it’s more crowded here. Last time we were here, we are probably the uh the only party uh about the same time of the same of, you know, eight years ago, right? Yeah. I think people have found Kassage Lakes. Yeah. In that in that time on our way home. This part’s beautiful along here. And you can see the ground cover is all beginning to turn red because autumn is on its way. Say goodbye to Kassage Lakes and Pinnacles as we head upwards towards the pass. Well, there we have it. Really? It is. Yeah. Now, we’re nearly there. Let’s keep We’re not looking at the real brewer. rather than the fake bro which is this one over here which I got confused with. So that’s north guard then to the right and south guard different perspective or angle even pass to the onion valley trail head back Oh.

Richard and Elvis return to a mountain they almost climbed two years ago as part of the “Following the Footsteps” historical documentary they made about early explorers of the Sierra Nevada. William Brewer and his team, as the climax of Whitney survey of California from 1860-1864, climbed this peak, and from it discovered the highest mountain in the lower 48 states, naming it after the Whitney Survey organizer Josiah Whitney. In making the documentary two years ago, we were beaten back by time and weather, but this time are determined to complete unfinished business with this iconic Sierra mountain.