1 October 2024
Pearl Lake to Wanda Lake
(11 miles, +3,100/-2,300 feet).

Today was one of the most scenic days of hiking that I have ever done. It reminded me a lot of the best days on the Sierra High Route. In total, I think we saw 21 lakes, all but one of which were off trail! I would not only recommend this route to others, but I would also love to do it again some time.

That said, it was also an EXHAUSTING day. We pretty much hiked sun up to sun down, and the last two hours of the day were tedious talus. If it had not been so beautiful, I might have felt a bit annoyed towards the end.

We started the morning with a climb up from Pearl Lake to Division Lake.

We then headed for a saddle at 11,000 feet before descending to Bighorn Lake.

From there we contoured around to Ambition Lake.

We then passed the lake on its eastern shore to find a route up to Valor Lake.

It was pretty mellow (no, I really mean it!) getting from Valor Lake up to Valor Pass. Easy flat slabs, all class 1 or 2 climbing. By 9:30am we were at the top.

We snacked and rested at the pass and then it was time to head down. It looks a lot less mellow on the north side of this pass, but fortunately we found a way down that was almost completely class 2.

We encountered some talus around Martha Lake, but it was low angled and so not too tiring. We had to climb a bit to get around some cliffs on the eastern shore, but then it was possible to drop down to the lake where there was a nice use trail.

From Martha Lake we headed north to Lake 11184. We intended to follow a route described by RJ Secor in The Hight Sierra that would take us on benches below Peaks 12271 and 12434 to contour around to Davis Lake.

The first bench we climbed to was at about 11500 feet. We passed seven lakes on this bench. They were SO beautiful! It was definitely a highlight of the day to walk along up this remote chain.

Then we had to drop down to a lake at 11300 feet where we planned to have lunch. The drop was pretty steep and might have been more difficult if the creek down the ravine had water in it.

Unfortunately, there was no shade and no water at the lake!

We then had to go up and down a few ridges that separated other lakes.

I originally did not know about this route along the benches and thought we would have to descend the South Fork San Joaquin River from Martha Lake. But that would have been a much longer trip.

We turned northeast to follow another bench at 11,300 feet towards Davis Lake.

The terrain got pretty complex around the next lake. We stayed high above it but it probably would have been better to circle it lower down.

And then we started to get our first view of the vast ridge above Davis Lake.

At this point I got very upset. I originally thought we could approach Davis Lake directly and follow its shore. But there are vertical cliffs on is southwestern shore. So instead we had to descend North Goddard Creek for a while before climbing to yet another saddle to drop down to the northwestern shore. It worked out, but I was worried it would delay us past dark.

And then, finally, we reached it!

We were running behind schedule. I was still worried about climbing talus and then looking for a campsite in the dark.

But the lake was too delicious to rush. Chia and I took a dip, and Ultra took a brief nap.

We all recharged and then started our circumnavigation of the lake.

The talus started in earnest at the isthmus and continued more or less all the way up to Davis Lake Pass.

From the last lake it was steep and rocky but not exposed up to the pass. I routed us too far to the south, but I realized my mistake in time to keep us from doing any unnecessary elevation gain. By quarter to six we made it to the top.

Fortunately, the terrain mellowed on the east side of the pass. Flat granite slabs led us most of the way down to Wanda Lake where we found campsites near the John Muir Trail.

The wind slowed to a calm and it was quite warm for October. I was worried the site would be too exposed, but it was perfect. And what a view! Like camping on the moon….