Richard

In the northeast corner of Fresno County, California is Lake Thomas A. Edison, about 7 miles long and a mile or so across. Near the southeast corner of Lake Edison the John Muir Trail intersects the Bear Ridge Trail.

Looking south from the intersection you see the upper Bear Creek drainage in a glacier-carved valley. Life has been slow to move back into this area and in many places the creeks run for considerable distances over bare rock. In the rear of the view is Seven Gables crest and summit. It is over 12,000 ft in elevation, with the peak at 13,000. The rocks there were once at the bottom of a valley with unknown peaks rising still higher above. What remains is a horseshoe shaped ridge.

Access to the top is very difficult and often done in the winter when skiing and snow bridges make travel easier. Still, in the summer time it is there ... calling ... calling ...

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Kim

Great view Richard.
Interesting location. Were you hiking or near the road on a road trip? What was the elevation where you took the picture? Looks like a nice area to get lost in.

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Richard

The nearest road is about 6 miles behind me at the Lake Edison dam. The elevation where I'm standing in that photo is about 8,000 ft. I continued forward from that point, down into Bear Creek on what turned out to be a beautiful 20+ mile day hike. Below is a picture of The Seven Gables (right rear) from Bear Creek. More pictures of the hike can be found here in slides 50_ though 65_.

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Kim

Thanks Richard;

It must have been a fabulous hike. Great shots, I'm going to check out the other pic's.

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Eric

OMG or Whatever!!!!!! I need to start watching your galleries more! You have an Absolute Eye for Beauty! Luv it !!

Richard

Here at the "double slide", the stream becomes a wide pool about a meter deep and 20 meters in diameter. Great swimming and very safe -- the outflow is a slow 2-meter wide channel with plenty of opportunities for exit for about 50 yards. Afterwards, rafters have put logs across with skull-and-crossbones signs because the pace picks up quite a bit ...



Here the stream is a meter wide and 2 meters deep, taking a sharp turn at my feet:

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Eric

Totally Awesome !! Looks like that might be clear, mountain water, too!! Up on Tallamena Skyline Drive, in SE Oklahoma, you can see to the bottom of 12' or more deep small mountain lakes but it's nothing like what I'm seeing here!!
I've done a lot of rock climbing & rapelling, that looks like a Super place for it! I'd lot rather be somewhere like that than even Disneyworld .

CookieCows

I love your pictures Richard... I sure miss living on the west coast! You take wonderful vacations!

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Richard

Thanks everyone! Here is a map of the area. The Bear Creek hike discussed here is in Red on the lower left. The two other hikes taken last year are also in Red. This year's hike was through Mono Creek, shown in Blue (sorry, no pictures). Next year I plan to take the route in Black, through the Silver Divide in mid July when most of the snow pack has melted.

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Eric

Sweet! Mono Creek & Silver Divide look like great hikes! Are ya gonna do pics on the Silver Creek hike?

Richard

Yes, I'll pack a new camera for that one!

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Eric

Sweet!! Ya got my total envy & eternal gratitude !! Can't wait to see the pics, looks like an Awesome trail!!

Richard

I have met a lot of people who hike the John Muir Trail from end-to-end, and at such a speed that they hardly have time to appreciate everything around them. It is much more interesting to explore a section of wilderness, crossing the John Muir trail perhaps to explore the treasures on either side.

Here's a picture tour from two hikers that circled The Seven Gables back in 2005. What a fabulous trip!

Pictures

Route Map

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Eric

All those lakes! How long a trail is that? What's the best time of the year for a hike like that (temp wise)? You're Totally right, hikes are full of great stuff to see, I Always go slow & check everything out. When I'm hiking, to bleep with time, I like looking for lichens & toadstools & lizards.... all kinds of great stuff, especially stuff I haven't seen before. Just being in a place like that's an adventure itself, like being on another planet almost!
Thanx for sharing the John Muir trail map & pics, awesome pics!!
I'm definitely going there some day , like soon as possible!!
That's a part of California I didn't even know existed.

BTW, finally had to give-up on figuring out "Hermitian Operator". Well, except the "Traveler" part of it. Tried reading the definition but ya can't even read that cause it's full of other things I can't figure out. You must've had a lot of math.

Richard

According to the web site, they covered about 40 miles in 6 days. A fairly leisurely pace -- even at high altitude. The temperatures in mid-June are fine but at those elevations its best to wait until mid-July for the majority of the snowpack to clear.

I'm making plans now for the hike next summer across the Silver Divide. If anyone wants to hike along your welcome. The basic plan is to stay nearby the day before, then head out from the McGee Creek trail early the next morning. It's 20+ mile day hike to the Lodge in Lake Edison. Plan on staying a few days at the lodge to visit with the John Muir Trail hikers and enjoy the area, then hike out again early one morning.

O.K., you know that addition (or multiplication) does the same thing in both directions. For example 5 + 3 is the same thing as 3 + 5. A Hermitian operator also has this property, but the "things" it is dealing with are not numbers, and what it does is not addition or multiplication. For example, suppose you have a function M that represents the operations of a motor and a function L that represents a mechanical system powered by the motor. There are different operations "o" that could represent the rate at which the motor interacts with the system. If the rate is the same in both directions; i.e., "M o L" does the same thing as "L o M" then it is Hermitian.

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Eric

Thanx ! That'll be a lot easier to figure out than what I found on the internet (the M o L thing). Ya know, you'd make a Great teacher. Oh, forgot, you Are a teacher. Saw ya in colored hair in "Post a pic of yourself" thread. That was great !! Be doing a lot of thinking about that hike, too. That place is just too Awesome!

Richard

Yes, and farther south is an area referred to as the "thousand lakes" region!

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Eric

I'll definitely have to check that out! Luv swimming & Luv Yakanoes!

cherokee_greg

great pictures I have seen allot of this country since I live in Fresno.

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Greg zone 9 Fresno,CA
http://gardenjot.com/garden/view/1980/Gregs-Banana-Farm

Richard

Here is a simulated view of The Seven Gables from an elevation of 22,000 feet, looking to the southeast. There is no vertical exageration in the image -- those cliffs really are that tall and steep. There is one artifact in the rendering -- a reddish stripe running diagonally in the upper-left area. This is the boundary of two satellite images used to compose the picture. Otherwise, its an amazing look into the Sierra backcountry.

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