3 June 2022
Pear Lake to Tablelands Pass then Kings-Kaweah Divide to Crescent Lake
(12 miles, +3,000/-2,800 feet).

Wow!

I mean, wow.

Today was one of those days that I have been looking forward to for a very long time. I always knew I would love doing cross-country through the Tablelands after the snow melts, but this is the first time I actually got to do it.

Wow.

As a teaser, Pear Lake was in perfect form this morning.

Yesterday I scraped my knee pretty badly, but it seems to be doing okay today.

After breakfast we packed up and headed over a saddle northwest of Pear Lake. It was much easier than it looked from afar.

After dropping from the saddle on the other side, we followed the Marble Fork upstream towards Table Meadows.

We took a break at a lake south of Table Meadows and then climbed above it on our way towards Tablelands Pass.

Out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw yet another marmot (they are everywhere up here!) but it was actually a huge rabbit!

At Tablelands Pass there is a big beautiful tarn.

And on the other side there is a view of Big Bird Peak and the lakes above Big Bird Lake.

We took a lunch break and then started following the Kings-Kaweah Divide.

ChiaGlyph seemed particularly jazzed when the Divide got steeper on the northern side. He would find high points to look down on the depths below. I never got quite as close to the edge, but the view was still amazing.

When we got to the saddle between South Fork and East Fork Sugarloaf Creek, we had to decide which drainage to head down. There were still some impressive snowfields in the East Fork that could make travel a bit sketchy, so we headed for the South Fork and Crescent Lake.

It was just a little tricky getting over to Crescent Lake. ChiaGlyph found a class 2 route, but I had to do one little class 3 move right at the end.

It’s a bit of climbing up and down to get along the rocks of the northern shore of Crescent Lake, but it’s worth it to get to some spots to camp on the west side. So nice!