In the comfort of my easy chair, planning a dayhike of Mineral Peak in Mineral King seemed like an easy warm-up hike. Since I've looked up at, down at, and across at Mineral Peak it's really obvious to me what the mountain looks like and where it is located. For whatever reason, it wasn't going to happen this trip.

My alarm clock sounded at two-thirty in the morning. My gear was already in the car, so without too much delay I was on the road for the first time this year to the Sierra and the crazy road that leads to Mineral King. As I entered the town of Three Rivers I slowed to observe the high running river in the dim morning light. As I passed the local Chevron gas station I heard a strange noise - that's when I noticed a deer bolting out from behind the pumps taking chase after my car. How weird is that, a deer actually running at my car from behind? Anyhow, I sped up and last I saw of the deer he (she?) was running down the middle of the road at break-neck speed. Hmm, bad karma I thought.

So after the miserable trip up the windy road to Mineral King, it strikes me that no one is around - no one. Since the car eating Marmots are most abundant in spring, I checked out the parking area near the trailhead looking for any of the little rascals. I figured if I saw just one, I'd park a mile down the road near the ranger station for safe keeping of my car. But alas, not one Marmot around, so I just parked near the trailhead.

My lone Xterra at the trailhead

After a final check to make sure I had the right gear, I put my pack on and started hiking. While the lower regions of the mountains were clear of snow, everything above nine thousand feet still has a lot of snow.  I had packed my crampons and ice axe knowing that my slog on this day would be akin to walking straight up a 5,000 foot snow stair case enroute to my intended destination.

The first mile or so of the trail was dry, but as I reached the creek crossing to head up the valley much snow was prevalent. I donned my crampons and just headed straight up the valley.

Creek crossing - from no snow to snow

As I trudged along I half expected to see other people since the road to Mineral King just opened this past weekend, but as it turned out I had the entire place to myself. After gaining some elevation I kept thinking I should stop and look at my map to make sure I pick the correct spot to make a turn to the south to get into the cirque that'll get me to Mineral Peak. Well, I put my map in my pack and it was just too much hassle to stop and get the thing out so I continued on, using my memory of the map instead.

Time to turn south for the cirque?

I did notice that crossing over Monarch Creek was a bit of a challenge, falling though a weak snow bridge into the water would ruin my day.  But I found a nice spot and noted it for my return.  As I headed further up I saw a few old tracks from others but eventually the snow was clear of any tracks at all. 

My tracks in the distance (R) and foreground (L)

About half way up the cirque I stopped to mix some sport drink mix into my water bottle. As I ripped the top of the package off to open it the paper flew off in the breeze, carrying the little scrap of paper about one-hundred feet below me. I hate seeing any litter in the mountains, so my first thought was to retrieve that piece of paper but to save energy I made a different choice. Hmm, more bad karma perhaps.

The top of the cirque awaits me

Walking up massive fields of snow in crampons reminds me of being on a stair master. Only thing is, who is crazy enough to stay on a stair master for four hours in a row? I kept telling myself I had ample time, so I just paced myself knowing there was no hurry. Eventually I made it to the top of the ridgeline, expecting all I would need to do is traverse the ridge a short distance to acquire the base of Mineral Peak. Boy, was I ever wrong.

What the ? Who moved Mineral Peak?

Yup, to my dismay Mineral Peak was quite a ways away. I had come up the wrong cirque; my apathy for not stopping to check the map was now giving me back a consequence. Well phooey I thought. I'll top out on the peaklet I'm on and reassess the situation.

My tracks coming up the ridgeline; Monarch Lake is below to the right.

As I traversed the ridgeline I was careful to stay clear of the corniced east edge; while both sides of the ridge were steep, the east side would be quite the ride down.  Pretty quick I arrived at the top of an 11,000 foot peaklet/ridge top.

Looking down onto my route from about 11,000'

As I further assessed the situation I found that Mineral Peak was still doable, but it would require traversing the ridge top about ninety degrees around to the south. I stared at it for quite a while before coming to the conclusion that I just didn't have it in me. Either that bad karma had caught up with me or my old bones just couldn't muster the energy for all of that climbing on this day. Either way, I was satisfied with the days climb and decided to just call it a day.

Some of the ridgeline that leads around to Mineral Peak

I picked a slightly different route to head down - mostly straight down just to save time. If nothing else was accomplished my legs got one heck of a good workout.

The "bee line" straight down and then a left back down the valley

So I made good time heading out and as is usually the case I kept thinking maybe I should have made a go of the ridge traverse to Mineral Peak. Soon I was removing my crampons and putting my ice axe back on my pack for the walk down the dry trail to the car. As the trail drops down to the trail head and parking lot, there is a period of about fifteen minutes that the parking lot can be seen. The first thing I noticed is that only my car was in the lot - not another soul went hiking out of the same trailhead. The next thing I observed were three or four Marmots trolling my car. Oh great, those darned things will chew the wires I thought and I'll be stuck with a $500 towing bill. As I get to my car, I popped the hood to make sure everything is okay and next thing you know a big fat red haired Marmot is looking back at me. It had enjoyed eating the insulation under the hood for lunch! Good thing I got back when I did, what would have been next on the menu?

Danged Marmots and their high fiber diets!

To top it off, the fat juicy cheeseburger from Silver City that I had contemplated all day was not to be either, the place was closed when I got there. Did I mention bad karma?

The red line on the map below is my ascent route - notice my error in missing the correct cirque for Mineral Peak. Also notice how nice the contour lines appear on the map as compared to my photo of the same ridgeline.