BILL AND JEANNE'S EXCELLENT CAMPING

ADVENTURE WITH DAN AND KERRY

1-5 SEPT, 2005

(click the thumbnail images for a larger 640x480 view)

On Sept 1, 2005 Jeanne and I drove from Bonita up to Sequoia National Forest about 50 miles north of Kernville/Lake Isabella (about 350 miles total).  Our destination was the Golden Trout Pack Station (www.goldentroutpacktrains.com)which turned out to be a very remote spot off a good dirt road, at about 7000' altitude and in the spectacular giant sequoia forests.

Our purpose was to head into the Golden Trout Wilderness via pack train for  three nights of wilderness camping by the Kern River at a spot called "Hole in the Ground".  This spot is about 12 miles from the pack station and at a spot rarely used by other campers/fishermen due to its rather inaccessible location.  The trip had all been arranged by our good pal, Kerry, who did the same trip last year. Kerry and Dan have done many backpacking/fishing trips to this area over the years.  In fact, they were introduced to this southern Kern River during a memorable backpacking trip made by Kerry, Dan and Bill back in 1982.  However, we have put on a few years since then and now riding horses and letting the mules carry all our gear has become an attractive option to backpacking. 

Kerry was waiting for us when we arrived and we were soon squared away for the evening in a rustic cabin  and looking forward to a steak dinner and morning breakfast at the station. 

After breakfast on Sept 2 the packers were ready to load our stuff on our 3 mules.    Each mule can carry about 150 pounds and our stuff was light weight but bulky due to our nice sleeping pads, folding chairs and other such luxury (relative to backpacking)  items. Our wrangler, the owner's daughter, selected trail horses for Kerry, Bill and Jeanne.  Dan does not like the horse ride so he hiked in and met us at the campsite. (He did indulge in the luxury of having his gear packed in/out  by mule)

We were soon mounted up with Kerry on his old pal, Buck, with Jeanne on Penny and Bill on Black Beauty. All three were great mounts for beginners (especially Bill for his first ever ride of any distance).  Our main criteria was NO TROTTING!.  (sore butts).  Unfortunately, our wrangler told us that on the return trip after dropping us off both Penny and Black Beauty pooped out and she had a hard time getting them back to the station.  

The ride in took about 4.5 hours without any real problems.  (well, Penny and Black Beauty did object to continuing in after they thought we should have stayed near Willow Camp).  The last 0.5 miles to camp included a very steep descent (about 800' vertical) down to the river and we wisely left 3 of the horses behind while Bill, Jeanne, wrangler, 3 mules and one horse walked down.  Kerry rode because of his arthritis problems.

Anyway, we were soon squared away at a great campsite and ready to kick back, do some fishing and hiking for the next few days.

  Kerry and Dan are fly fishermen and provided us with fish dinner for two nights although the fishing was not as good as previous years (maybe other people have discovered this remote spot!).

  I (Bill) did a day hike about 3 miles up the river on Sunday for some photos and to see what it looks like.  I saw only one other campsite on this, a Labor Day weekend!

Our brief visit was soon over and the wrangler and her younger sister arrived on Mon a bit early to pack us up for the return trip.  On this trip Kerry was again on Buck, Bill on Kenny and Jeanne on Bailey.  We decided that Kenny is not for future trips because he seems to have only 3 speeds: stop, snail pace walk or trot!  We did ride the horses up that steep ascent and I was amazed that could even do it! In fact, I felt so sorry for poor old Kenny that I dismounted and tried to lead him up the hill.  However, he was soon trying to push me up and then tried to pass me. I decided that since he was in such a hurry that I would just ride up after all.

After another 4.5 hour ride our trip was over and time to return to civilization.  We were quite ignorant of all the recent tragedy and emotion due to the hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans.

 This was a great trip and we are looking forward to a repeat next year.  By the way, for the record here are the costs for the pack station:
each animal is $85 per day; the wrangler with horse is $155 per day; the overnight cabins were $50 per night and meals were $12.5 each.