Backpacking in Sequoia National Park - Day 4 (Bearpaw Meadow to Redwood Meadow and back)

The fourth day of trip (third day of actual backpacking) began much like the day before. We woke up, ate breakfast, filled our hydration bladders, and then packed our bags with snacks and necessities for a day hike. We made sure of course that everything scented was locked up in the bear box before setting out, and we even attempted hand washing some of the clothes we brought so we could wear something clean-ish on the hike back to civilization the following day. There were definitely more clouds in the sky than there had been the first couple of days, but we didn't really think anything of it.

We knew from the map that we had that getting down to Redwood, a 4.6 mile hike, would be much easier than coming back to Bearpaw. The first two miles of the trail was a fairly steep descent towards what I thought at the time was Lone Pine Creek. Turns out that once Lone Pine and Hamilton creeks merge, it is considered Middle Fork Kaweah River, so pardon the erroneous naming of the river in the videos. The beginning of the trail was mostly just switchbacking through the woods, so we didn't stop too much to take photos or anything and kept a fairly quick pace. We did pause for a quick moment when we came to Little Bearpaw Meadow to look for wildlife.

We actually didn't see any, however, which surprised us a little since we had seen so much on trip without even trying. Shortly after we moved on from the meadow, there was a small clearing in the trees along the ridge that allowed us an overlook of the Sierras to our east. Taking in those majesties never got old.

As we continued down to the Middle Fork Kaweah River, there were some large boulders strewn about throughout the forest. It really reminded me of the forest at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, except with large boulders in the place of Middle Earth ruins.

When we finally reached the river, we found it a little tricky to ford. I unfortunately got water in one of my shoes as I crossed, but the real excitement came on the return trip.

After fording the river, we saw a backpacker campsite by the bank of the river before the trail ascended up briefly before following the river south. This was probably the nicest part of the day's hike from a difficulty perspective. The path was mostly level and easy to walk. Occasionally, the woods would clear enough to catch a glimpse of the river below.

After about a mile, we came to Eagle Scout Creek. For some reason at the time, I was thinking it was the last creek we'd cross before coming to Redwood Meadow, so I thought we had come farther than we actually had.

We sat for a few minutes after crossing the creek, but none of us felt too tired since the hike today had been mainly downhill.

So we continued on and after a quarter mile or so, we came to Granite Creek. This creek had a nice bridge built across it, which is what I was expecting over the last creek, so it was then I realized I had miscalculated which creek we were crossing a quarter mile ago.

There were a couple of Sequoias visible from the bridge, but not really enough to be considered a grove. You can see them in the below directly above Alex in the background.

We were debating on which creek to use to refill our hydration bladders on the way back (since there was no water source in Redwood Meadow). We had originally thought Granite Creek, but Eagle Scout Creek looked like it would be easier access. We had made such good time getting down here, however, that all of our water supplies were still doing well.

As we continued along the Redwood Meadow Trail, we came to a couple of overlooks that gave us some cool perspectives. The first was that we caught a glimpse of the Bearpaw High Sierra camp way up on the ridge above the Middle Fork Kaweah River.

The next one was catching a glimpse of Moro Rock way off in the distance. For both of these sightings, it showed us how far we had come. Seeing the High Sierra Camp showed us how far we had come today, and seeing Moro Rock showed us how far we had come since beginning this adventure.

The mile and a half from the bridge across Granite Creek went really fast in my opinion. As we descended away from the overlooks, it wasn't long before we found ourselves staring up at towering Sequoias.

While this grove of Sequoias was not nearly as impressive at the Giant Forest Grove in the main part of the park, we literally had it all to ourselves.

Except for insects, we didn't see another living creature the entire time we were there. It was nice to have a grove of these majestic trees to ourselves and not have to share them with any tourists.

The meadow itself was beautiful and serine and was full of lush grass and wildflowers.

As we looked around, we saw a building of some kind and went over to investigate. It was pretty dilapidated, but it turned out to be a pit toilet. It was definitely not a facility that I would be putting to use (although Nate did).

Since many of these trees have been alive for over a millennium, they have had to survive countless fires and natural disasters. Many of have even been hollowed out partially by flames, which allows explorers like us to go inside the trees.

After we had gotten our fill of big tree photos, we settled down at a campsite that was there to have our lunch. There were a lot of bugs in the grove unfortunately, so we had the annoyance of constantly having to swat them away. The bug spray kept them from biting, but definitely not from hovering.

After eating, we tried to get a closer look at the meadow. You couldn't actually go into it because there was a little fence around it, but we could get to the edge of it.

Nearby, there was a fallen tree with its massive root system exposed. I'm not sure if it was a Sequoia or a large sugar pine, but it was big none the less.

As we headed out of the grove, we were kind of dreading the last two miles of the hike after we would cross Middle Fork Kaweah River, but we tried to enjoy the journey in the mean time.

We were all doing pretty well on water, so we decided to not refill our bladders until we forded Middle Fork Kaweah River. So when we hit Granite Creek again, we just passed through.

Nate was having a surge of determination and energy most of the way back, so we didn't take much in the way of breaks.

By the time we had made it back to the river, it had started legit raining. Fortunately, Nate and I had brought ponchos, and fortunately for Alex, I had brought two. Also fortunately, we had put them on before it started raining heavily.

As we started to cross the river, I was climbing over a fallen tree to get to a better fording spot when my sunscreen slipping from the pouch I had it in on my backpack. I watched helplessly as it floated away down the river. Then, I looked and saw Alex still behind me. I shouted, "Save the sunscreen!" He gripped the fallen log tightly, lowered himself down and waited as the bottle floated across the rapids in his direction. He would only have one shot at this. All eyes were on Alex. The sunscreen approached. Alex swooped. He got it! The sunscreen was saved!

After that little excitement, we refilled our hydration bladders, whilst getting rained on. Since we were standing in the river bed, there was no tree cover to slow down the rain. Thank goodness for the ponchos that kept most of our bodies and our packs dry.

Once we were all refilled, we started the final two miles of the hike which was mostly an uphill climb. The rain slowed down shortly after we entered the forest, however, and then died out completely before too long. Nate was on a mission to get back to Bearpaw and we hardly stopped at all for the whole two mile climb back to camp.

We made it back to the camp earlier than we had either of the previous days. It was before 4:00pm! It was super buggy at the campsite, however, so I hid in my tent to have a break from the buzzing and ended up falling asleep for a little bit. When I woke up, Alex and Nate had started a fire, but it was much trickier that day because of the wet wood from the rain.

Although we hadn't seen any of them our entire hike, the mule deer were out in force at Bearpaw that afternoon. We saw at least four if not five different deer come by.

It was really nice to have the extra time to chill after three grueling days of hiking. We knew we had 11.3 miles to trek back to Crescent Meadow in the morning, so we laid low for the afternoon and evening and had a glorious fire to keep us warm and dry out our wet shoes and clothes (and keep the bugs away).

I paid one more visit to the High Sierra Camp to grab some wine and beer for me and Alex, but this time we just stayed at our camp by the fire and enjoyed it.