Mount Bago, Mount Gould

Labor Day 1990

By: Jerry & Nancy Keating, Walt Whisman

Three days of virtually cloudless skies and two evenings of balmy temperatures favored 13 persons (six of them SPSers) who participated in a scheduled Labor Day weekend backpack over Kearsarge Pass into Kings Canyon National Park.

Camp for the first night was at Charlotte Lake and for the second at the lowest of the Kearsarge Lakes. Only a one-night stay is allowed at either location, thus causing the relatively short move. Both sites had metal storage containers to protect food against bears.

Four persons climbed Mt. Bago (11,868') Sunday morning, while six others hiked to Glen Pass to gaze northward into the Rae Lakes Basin.

On Monday, the party divided into two groups with the first including five persons who climbed Mt. Could (13,005') from Kearsarge Pass. Thanks to How Bailey and Luella Fickle for remaining at the pass until the summit party was safely off the rocky area on top.

Although this area of the national park is heavily visited, the Kearsarge Pinnacles, Bullfrog and other adjacent lakes, and the nearby high peaks of the Kings-Kern Divide make it well worth seeing again.