It must be my summer to visit Mineral King. Hard as I may try to break away from the place and the long twisting road to get there, I returned once again to visit the chief - White Chief Peak. Whoever heard of a "white chief" anyway? As it turns out, the name stems from a mining company that sought silver and gold from the valley below the peak which was popular in the 1800's. It is now mostly known as a caving destination. White Chief Peak is prominent from the valley floor, but unfortunately not much to write home about from any other viewing perspective. There is little if anything on the web of the peak itself, now I know why. There are grand views from the top though, or I presume since the day I went the sky was obscured with heavy smoke from a fire in the back country. Sigh.

My arrival time to Mineral King was later than usual. A serious car accident stopped traffic just south of Three Rivers for a while. When I arrived at the trail head parking area I was amazed to see so many cars, must be a popular month for Mineral King.

Parking at the Eagle Lake / White Chief Valley trailhead is at maximum capacity

Soon I was on my way, using a new CamelBak pack with a 100 ounce capacity water bladder. This would be the first time I've left my water filter at home and with the warm temps I was a little anxious that I'd run out of water. My first destination was Eagle Lake on the "loop" hike. The trail splits a couple of times en route and the first segment up the valley was quite nice. Soon however the trail became more of an uphill push and remained that way (as compared to using switch backs to gain elevation).

A shady part of the the trail en route to Eagle Lake

After a few trail junctions the trail pops out of the forest and the views open up quite a bit, except for all of the smoke in the sky (cough, wheeze). After gaining some more elevation I could see the head wall below Eagle Lake - and the apparently trail-less rubble pile of rocks that lead to the lake. I met a nice young couple on their way out at this point, they said only one other couple was at the lake and no one else.

Eagle Lake beyond the trees, the "trail" is to the upper right

So on I pushed over the rocks, I couldn't help but to notice Mineral Peak and Sawtooth Peak thru the smoky haze.

Sawtooth Peak and Mineral Peak

The entire area had an abundant amount of deer, but few other critters. The Marmots were few, perhaps they were all lounging after a season of car eating?

Being greeted to Eagle Lake

Sooner than I expected, I arrived at Eagle Lake. I had seen a couple of photo's on the web of Eagle Lake and it is much more beautiful in person (as is usually the case). The massive rock backdrop, the old glaciated snow on the pass, the big boulder protruding from the center of the water, and the forested west side of the lake all add up to a real gem.

My first view of Eagle Lake

Soon I heard some faint voices and then I noticed the people on the other side of the lake. I headed around the lake on the west side, using a trail that doesn't appear on my map (lucky me). I found a perfect spot to take a break and relax for a while. As I rested I could hear gusts of wind blow thru the pass above the lake and then a full thirty seconds later it would blow across suddenly with a force of at least 20 to 30 mph. Between these gusts there was no wind at all.

Even though I  did not get much sleep the night before, I became restless so I got back onto my feet and prepared to make the tour up and over the pass. I had observed a route that appeared to be the best to bypass the lower scree slog. My aim was to gain about half of the elevation from the right, traverse left, and then go up the gulley to the left of the ice. I am confident that I will not win this years route finders award as the first half of the climb encountered some class three climbing. It was fun, but took extra time.

Going up, then across to the pass on the left of the photo

This was to be the only little bit of "up climbing" the entire day. As I made the traverse left I encountered obstacles which required further climbing. I do not care for down climbing so I just continued up, into more obstacles, and so forth.

Starting to traverse left above Eagle Lake