Little Kern River - a photo on Flickriver

Little Kern River

            Something about this small river in the Sequoia National Forest attracted my dad's attention in the mid-1950s. Maybe it was the seclusion, the beauty, the grandeur of the distant Coyote Peaks, the fishing, and the good campsites in the woods. He took numerous groups of young people here for several years until about 1962. He even wrote a ballad about the Little Kern that he would sing and yodel to with his guitar; it was actually pretty good! I had been too young to go on those early trips. For a decade after that, Dad branched out to explore all the other rivers in the Sierra Nevada range. I went on a fair number of those exploratory trips in my teen years. Dad eventually reached every fork of every Sierra river—96 in all.

In July 2000, after dealing with my older sister's sudden decline from cancer and all the emotional turmoil of visits to her in New York and preparation of memorial services after her passing, I needed to escape and clear my head. I invited a couple of long-time hiking buddies to join me retracing my dad's footsteps to this river that had inspired Dad so much. From the trail head near Quaking Aspen (which is closer to the river than in Dad's day, about a 7 mile hike), we passed landmarks I had heard about in his ballad: Trouble Creek, Skillet Meadow, Clicks Creek, Mountaineer Creek, and then the Little Kern. Though by 2000 I had camped in much grander Sierra country before and since, I would have to agree it was a pleasant place to bring a group for a Sierra experience in the tall timber.

Way back in Sequoia Forest,
Just listen and you will learn
Of a river that runs from snow-covered mountains
By the name of the Little Kern.

No roads go near it;
You have to hike two days;
Over mountain snowbanks and down through the valleys
It’s a mighty, mighty, mighty long ways.

But when the moonlight shines the brightest
A million stars you can discern
For it’s just like when God made it
On the banks of the Little Kern....

I want to lie in my sack in the evening
And watch that campfire burn;
While I listen to the music of the river's roar
On the banks of the Little Kern.
   

Taken on: July 2, 2007

Tags:

california

sierranevada

river

littlekernriver

sequoianationalforest

psa104

35mm « less

Sets appears in: • Sierra Backcountry

Groups appears in: • High Sierra • Backpacking the West more » • Backpacking and Hiking pictures • Back Country « less

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