Lost in Grand Splendor: Backpacking Marble Mountain Wilderness With Friends, Day 3

Rainy Valley, Viewed from the Marble Rim

 

Date: August 5, 2023

Place: Marble Mountain Wilderness, Yreka, California

Coordinates:  41.551258, -123.177149    

Length: estimated 10 miles

Level: strenuous

Link to Day 2 Blogpost

The morning of our third backpacking trip in the Marble Mountain Wilderness was quiet and beautiful. I woke up before sunrise and crept out of the tent, leaving my chika to sleep in a bit longer. The people we met at the trailhead two days ago had warned us that wildlife, deer specifically, roam through the campground and mess with people's gear, chewing on clothing and such, but I haven't heard anything throughout the night and no animal was in sight when I got out. I made my way quietly to the lake to wash. The sunlight had just touched the western ridge above the lake. 

Sky High Lake

I walked back to our campsite and stood for a while on the large sitting rock where we had our dinner last night. Everything was very still and no sound came out of either tent. In fact, no human sound came from anywhere in the Sky High Lakes area. I knew there were quite a few campers there that night, I guess they were all sleeping still. 

Our campsite

I decided to walk around the area and explore a bit on my own. I went up higher above the lake and watched the line of sunlight slowly making its way down the slope. 

Sky High Lake

The area where we camped was still deep in the morning shadow but the sun has already lit up Marble Mountain. It looked goprgeous and inviting. Today we would get very close to it. 

Marble Mountain

I wandered around the Sky High Lakes area, looking primarily for wildlife, which I've been told were roaming the place in multitudes, but I didn't see any. The only animal larger than a crow that I've seen was a border collie which burst out of a nearby stand of trees  and run towards me barking loudly. I retreated carefully and moved in a different direction. 

From further away I could appreciate the calm and shelter of the campsite we found. I loved the aspen stand juxtaposed wit the dark conifers and the mountain backdrop. when I approached our campsite I saw that my chika was already outside the tend. She scolded me for leaving without telling her where to. Our friends were still inside their tent but I heard them moving inside. A few minutes later, they too got out of their tent. 

We had our breakfast and I went again to the lake with my friend's daughter to refill the bottles and to take morning photos of the gorgeous reflection on the mirror like lake surface. 

It was also light enough to take proper photos of the newts in the water. They are funny little creatures. i stood there for a long while, watching them swimming around. Occasionally one of them would rise up to the surface and take a gulp of air, showing off its orange belly. 

Rough-skinned Newt

We had big plans for today. We wanted to explore Marble Valley and Little Marble Valley, and to a loop hike on the Marble Rim and back via Big Elk Lake . Because we were staying in the same place tonight too, we would go light, taking supplies only for the day's hike. My navigator was at half charge and I decided to turn it on for today's hike. The first recorded stretch is of our hike up to the PCT/Rim trail junction, about 4 miles long. 

We started down the trail to Canyon Creek. This would be the exact same trail we'd take tomorrow to exit the Marble Mountain Wilderness. Today however, we would shift directions to go up Marble Valley. Ahead of us loomed Marble Mountain, now basking fully in sunlight. This was promising to be a wonderful day. 

Marble Mountain

The meadow we were walking through was alight with bloom. Many of the wildflowers there I was seeing for the first time on this trip. 

One of these species surprisingly, was the fireweed, a very common occurrence on many of my hikes. I found it interesting to not have seen it on this trip until this morning. 

Lupines I have seen earlier, but in much fewer numbers than I anticipated. In similar areas in the Sierra Nevada range, lupines of numerous species dominate the understory vegetation. Even in the Sky High Lakes basin lupines were only few. 

And then there were plants I didn't recognize at all. This one in the photo below was only budding at the time, and I believe it belongs to the composite family. It was so beautiful in its budding stage that I stopped everyone's march to point it out to them. 

I started in the lead again this morning, and I was keeping good pace, but on one of the incidents in which I stopped to take some photos the rest of our party passed me and went ahead. They waited for me at the point where the trail was about to descend into a different basin and a smaller meadow, and pointed out the view for me to appreciate.  

Trail

The view was indeed nice, although obstructed but a few inconsiderate trees. At least for now we were going downhill and I was able to set a nice, brisk pace. I knew this wouldn't last though, and I hoped that the good night's sleep meant that my leg pain would hold off for a while. 

There were some interesting botanical sights along the way that were not flowers or flower-related. Strange looking leaf fringes caught my eye. Their color was intense pink and their texture velvety. I believe these were galls - a growth induced by insects. I don't know which insect thought. 

Galls

For the most part, our trail followed the line of the forest. At times, it dipped deeper into the meadow, cutting through waist-high vegetation. Thankfully, none of the plants were thorny, or otherwise irritating. 

Trail

On these meadow trail stretches I had the opportunity to take some nice wildflower close-ups, even for very familiar and commonly seen plants. 

Angelica

We came upon a small creek on the way. Not needing to fill our bottles yet, we crossed it without stopping. Without stopping to fill up water that is, because I did stop for the bog orchids that bloomed in the mud by the creek. 

Pst the creek we started going uphill. It wasn't very steep though, and my leg was behaving itself, so we kept a nice pace even on the way up. At some point we paused and looked at a pond scum -covered little pond below us. I was glad we weren't in any need of water then. 

Muck Pond

We kept going uphill until we reached the top of the ridge that separated the lakes basin with Marble Valley. From the top of that ridge Marble Mountain looked closer and much bigger. We also had a great view of that huge marble layer that extended below the peak, the layer that gave the mountain its name and its splendor. 

We dropped into the valley and started looking for the Little Marble Valley trail junction. The junction wasn't labeled though, and we passed it and reached the junction with the Canyon Trail where we had to stop and figure out where we were and how come we missed the trail junction. 

My friend went ahead a bit to scout, and I wend back t where the junction was supposed to be according to our map and my navigator. The girls remained at the Canyon Trail junction and snacked. 

Mountain Monardella, Monardella odoratissima

Eventually we figured out that the trail to Little Marble Valley was right where it was supposed to be, but the powers at be decided to axe this trail. The sign was removed and the trail was allowed to get overgrown. A faint foot path was barely recognizable there, and we decided to not follow it but to go directly to Marble Valley itself. 

The way to Marble Valley was on a mildly ascending trail, through a forest that thinned away the higher we got. 

Marble Valley Trail

The constant chatting in our group subsided. We were walking briskly, anticipating that any moment the trees would part to reveal the most beautiful mountain valley in the world, or at least in California. The author of the book that I had about the Marble Mountain Wilderness was a Yreka resident of some years now, and a ranger of the Klamath National Forest. In his book he described Marble Valley as the most beautiful place he and his wife had ever seen, claiming it was more awe striking than Yosemite Valley. With these superlatives I couldn't think of missing seeing it, and together with my friend we planned our trip to include going through Marble Valley. 

Fleabane, Erigeron sp. 

Well, Marble Valley is indeed very beautiful, and I was duly impressed. But in comparison to Yosemite, well, I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion on landscape beauty, even when taking into account how overrun with tourist is Yosemite. And after going on a number of High Sierra backpacking trips, I'd say that although Marble Valley is very beautiful, it is not really in the same league with some of those alpine valleys. 

A cabin in Marble Valley

Marble Valley had its allure to visitors a long while now. Old cabins used t service the old time visitors. The easy way up from the trailhead is on a horseback. Horses and mules still go regularly up and down Canyon Trail during summer. We didn't see any equine visitors while when we were there but we did see a buck roaming the area not too far from the old cabin. We watched the buck for a few minutes until he moved out of our sight, walking slowly south. 

Deer

The mountain ridge doesn't loom very high over the valley floor so the area didn't have much of a 'valley' feel to it. We reached the PCT and decided to go north on it for a little bit, do see if we can get a different, perhaps a more revealing point of view on Marble Valley. 

Marble Valley

We didn't see much that was different though, only more wildflowers, which I was glad to see. We did run into more PCT backpackers and occasionally got into small chats with them. Many of them were through hikers, but some where there only for short trips like us. 

The trail started rising toward Marble Mountain, and all the time deep in the forest. On another hike we might have continued to summit the mountain, but that wasn't our plan for today. 

Caliufornia Cornlily, Veratrum californica

We walked up a bit longer and the forest thickened more. Looking ahead we didn't see where the view int the valley would open up. We decided to turn around and return to ur original plan - to go to the Marble Rim. 

Pacific Crest Trail 

A narrow creek crossed the PCT on the south side of Marble Valley. It was time for us to fill our water bottles, a process which took time time. I took that time  between filtering to check out the nearby flora. 

Wiggins' Lily, Lilium Pardalinum ssp. wigginsii

My chika found a patch of white lilies and turned my attention to them. They looked like little stars on the ground, certainly fitting their name - bride's bonnet. 

Bride's Bonnet, Clintonia uniflora

Just as we got moving again we saw a buck looking at us. I think this was the same buck that we've seen earlier in Marble Valley. We stared each other down for a bit, then we moved on south on the PCT, leaving the buck behind. 

Buck

The trail sloped uphill now, leading us out of Marble Valley. Shortly into the ascent we found ourselves walking along a wall of marble - the very marble that the mountain and the wilderness were named after. 

Marble Wall along the PCT

Marble is a hard metamorphic rock, used by humans since ancient times for sculpting. I couldn't help myself and touched the rocks and my trip mates followed suit. The marble was cool to touch and its texture was grainy, nothing like the smoothness of the polished sculptures. It was gorgeous to look at and I could clearly see why would an artist choose this rock to create three dimensional images. 

Marble

Many plants grew in the cracks of the marble layer, even in the small ones. We were there at the right time to see them all at peak bloom, and it was magnificent. 

I saw another patch of ground level white flowers. Some were the bride's bonnet lilies but many of them were anemones. This particular wildflower was a lifer for me. 

Windflower, Anemone deltoidea 

The trail continued steadily uphill. I was glad to see all f the wildflowers around not only because they were so gorgeous but also because they gave me the perfect excuse to slow down my pace. My left hip was already giving me trouble. 

Scarlet Gilia, Ipomopsis aggregata

The junction with the Marble Rim trail wasn't too far now, and the slope became milder. The day was getting warmer, but not too hot yet. 

PCT

We ascended above the marble layer and the earth changed from rocks to soil. The vegetation became much thicker and for a short stretch we had to push our way through a thigh-high thicket. Despite the PCT being kind of a hikers freeway, the at part of the trail was sometimes hard to see for all of the vegetation. 

Great Red Paintbrush, Castilleja miniata

It was in that trail segment that I saw the tall, blue candles of larkspur blossom. It also the only place where I've seen them on this trip. Despite wanting to push on, I had to stop and snap some photos of these lovely flowers. 

Glaucus Larkspur, Delphinium glaucum

From a higher point on the trail we had a nice view point on Little Marble Valley - the valley we didn't go into from below because the trail was cancelled. Like the big Marble Valley, Little Marble Valley looked beautiful, but it didn't entice us to leave the PCT to go down and explore it more on this trip. 

Little Marble Valley

We left Little Marble Valley behind us and continued ascending. The thicket subsided, revealing the dry trail below our feet. 

Horse Mint, Agastache urticifolia

A fast running caterpillar was crossing the trail. It was climbing over a pile of dung which blocked its way. From the point of view of the caterpillar I guess it didn't see that it could go around it. It was moving as fast as I've ever seen a caterpillar move. Perhaps the fly was giving it advice. 

At last we reached the Rim Trail junction. It was an excellent place to stop for a lunch break and relax before moving on to the Marble Rim. 

PCT/Rim Trail Junction

Our plan was to go west along the Marble Rim and drop into the valley south of the rim to Big Elk Lake. According to the map the trail was expected to drop west of the rim, then curve south and back east around a pyramid shaped peak and down to Big Elk Lake. From there the map shhowed a trail back up to the PCT. 

Our hike from the trail junction until my GPS run out of battery.

The first part of the Rim Trail was a mild ascend through a forested area. There were a few logs on the ground, blocking the trail, but they were small and few, and very easy to walk around or hop over.  

Marble Rim Trail

When we left the first stand of trees we saw that we were right an the saddle before the trail delved below the lip of the rim to the south. From that saddle we did have a nice view north to Marble Mountain and that massive layer of marble that we walked through earlier that morning.

Marble Mountain

We continued on westward. We were on the rim crest at first, having for a little while the view to the northeast, but soon the rim rose above us on the north, cutting our view in that direction.,

Marble Rim Trail

Not having the grand view on the north I diverted my attention to closer sights. There were plenty of wildflowers blooming along the Marble Rim Trail. Not all of them I identified.

Not wanting to slow our pace I took most of the photos while on the move. There was a lot of photo selection to be done at home afterwords. Photographing on the go meant I also didn't take a close look at the details of the plant, which made it harder to identify some of them from the photos later.

Sulphur Buckwheat, Eriogonum umbellatum

The Marble Rim was coming into view now. It looked like saw teeth jutting to the sky. Where the rocks were exposed from the vegetation there were bits of marble exposed. We were going into the marble layer again.

Marble Rim

Between the marble rocks bloomed patches of lovely wildflowers. Many of these flower species I've seen on the previous couple of days, but that didn't stop me from stopping for them again. 

Oregon Checkermallow, Sidalcea oregana

Plants are fascinating, and not only because of their beautiful flowers. An unusual stem swelling caught my eyes and I paused to take a closer look. Perhaps that was a gall too. 

The trail stretched just below the rim on its south, more gentle side. The view of the deep gorges and the rugged mountains to the southwest was absolutely magnificent. The sky was very pretty to: there were little white and fluffy clouds floating there gently. Ignoring the very undesert-like ground, the sky looked like it was taken from a Geoegia O'keefe painting. 

View southeast from the Marble Rim Trail

The trail was sloping up again. The clouds above gave us an occasional welcomed relief from the day's heat but we were much more pleased to stop for a short break in the shade of a small stand of trees that the trail run through. 

Marble Rim Trail

On the other side of the trees we the view opened up completely to the west. The outline of the rim continued all the way to a chain of three small peaks, the nearest of them was the one we were supposed to go down and around on our way to Big Elk Lake. What we also saw was the devastation left after a forest fire had burned this area some years ago. 

Far below us to the west we glimpsed Big Elk Lake. The lake looked small, actually, and quite murky. We planned on filling up on our water there before ascending back to the PCT. As it happened, we never got anywhere near that lake. 

Big Elk Lake

The marble rocks that littered the slope by the trail congealed into slabs, and the slabs merged into the large marble rim that we were walking on. Still, much of the marble was covered with eroded soil and vegetation. 

Closer to the lip of the rim my trip mates passed me and went ahead while I linger behind to take photos of on hyperactive butterfly.

i reached the lip of the rim after everyone else, and for a long while I stood there, gaping. Here at least, the guide book author did not exaggerate - the view was breathtaking. Literally. The green and lush Rainy Valley lay right below us on the north side of the Marble Rim, and the height difference was making my head spin, and I'm not prone to fear of heights. I felt like spreading my wings and flying over the valley. When I recovered from my initial wow I started snapping pictures. I chose the nicest broad view as a header for this post. 

Rainy Valley, Viewed from the Marble Rim

The view of the rim itself from the lip was also spectacular. The thick marble layer that made the rim continued directly below the peak of Marble Mountain, looking like a massive wall. 

View Northeast from the Marble Rim

We spend a long while enjoying the view and taking photos of each other with that magnificent backdrop. Eventually we had to get moving. The trail stretched along the lip of the rim and disappeared into the trees on the west. We couldn't see any other trail splitting off or this trail changing direction. 

View west along the Marble Rim

My friend reached out to me and pointed to the horizon on the southeast. A prominent snow-capped double peak rose over the mountainous horizon. We were wondering which mountain was that. The only one we could come up with was Mount Shasta - all the area's mountains had already shed their whites and changed to their summer colors. Mount Shasta was also in the direction we were looking at. The shape looked odd, though. But then again, I've never seen Mount Shasta from this point of view before. Either way, I couldn't think of any other mountain that would fit the bill. 

The stand of trees was, apparently, all that had remained from a completely forested mountain slope. When the exited the living trees we found ourselves in an open grassland which was a cemetery to a multitude of charred, standing dead trees. Many of the dead trees were also fallen, and we started having to circumvent logs that were blocking our way. 

Marble Rim Trail

Looking south into the valley and the mountains beyond we saw that the burnt forest extended far. This wasn't a small fire that burned through.  

The vegetation thickened and in some places it became a struggle to push through the thigh-high thicket. At some point my chika requested a break and we stoped in the middle of the overgrown trail to catch our breath and to have some water. After that we reached the saddle that split off the rim,  started our descent on the other side, and almost immediately things took a turn to the worse. 

It was clear that no trail maintenance was taking place on this part pf the trail. Hasn't yet, anyway. There were many more fallen logs that blocked the trail, and many of them were very thick. We slowed down considerably to either climb over the logs or figure a way around them. Soon it became difficult to follow the actual trail for all of the circumventions. 

Above and behind us we could see the continuation of the rim, stretching off to the northwest. It looked drier on this side, and without any visible marble. 

We looked for the trail junction that would take us around the buttress and down to Big Elk Lake, but we couldn't see any clear path going off in that direction. We kept going down until, sometimes after my navigator indicated that we've passed this junction, the navigator run out of battery. We depended now on our maps and senses alone for pathfinding. As for our senses, it didn't help that we knew which direction we needed to go to, because the off-trail terrain was impassable. Even the trail was difficult to walk and in numerous places we suspected we were on the actual trail at all. As for the map, my friend and I were at odds as the the interpretation of how the trail was supposed to go relative to that butte to our right. What we were in agreement over was that we were going now is that unless we figure out soon where we were going we could be heading out a long way on the wrong direction. 

My friend and her daughter decided to go scout ahead. They'd come back and call us if that ended up being the right way. My chika was pretty tired and welcomed the idea. We stayed in the shadow of a huge burnt tree and waited. At first we chatted, then played some word game. Then we started to get worried. Eventually, after about 45 minutes I started hollering my friend's name. After nearly an hour My friend's daughter returned. She announced all cheerful, that this trail we were on was the wrong and that we should go back whence we came. She said that they found a muddy pond and that her mother was busy treating that water and that she'd join us soon. 

When my friend returned we turned around and started backtracking. It was clear that we won't get to hike the planned loop via Big Elk Lake. My friend was convinced that the turn to the lake was up on the rim and that we had somehow missed it. I still think that the turn should have been below the rim's lip on the west and that we couldn't see it because it was overgrown and not maintained. It was pointless to continue debating that though, and this argument remained academic. 

I was in the lead again, and I think I walked as fast as I walked in a long while. I pushed all of my leg pains away from my mind and trodded along, first uphill toward the lip of the rim, then along the Marble Rim Trail, pausing only when a water break was requested from behind me. Also when I saw a bird playing injured to pull me away from its young. The bird, a Vesper's sparrow, had a very convincing act. It was pure act though, the sparrow flew just fine whenever I got too close. 

Vesper Sparrow

We had to renegotiate the same log blocks on the path. My friend looked for the trail junction she was sure we had missed but couldn't fond it. She came to the conclusion that the that trail was cancelled in the same manner that the Little Marble Valley Trail was. Perhaps she was right. 

We ascended the Marble Rim again, but this time we didn't linger to admire the grand view below the rim's lip. Our goal now was to return back to our camp site before nightfall. 

The Marble Rim

As fast as I walked, I did pay attention to the trail-side flora. I hardly stopped my pace though. Most of my photos from that part of the hike were taken on the move. 

Near the end of the trail we slowed down a bit. My hip was screaming hell and my chika asked for a break. My friend and her daughter, although still perky and vigorous, were ready too to get some rest. We were close to the PCT trail junction though so we decided to push to that point and stop there.  

View southeast from the Marble Rim Trail

At the PCT trail junction we did stop for a break to rest a bit. My chika was getting exhausted and I too, welcomed the rest. We sat for a little while and looked at the upcoming trail section. It was a part of the PCT we had not yet hiked. 

"More uphill," my chika said, then went silent. 

It was an uphill stretch, but not steep and not very long. In less than a mile we were at the Sky High Lakes trail junction. And on the way we saw this lovely doe eying us from behind the trees. 

Doe

The way downhill to the Sky High Lakes basin my legs just flew on their own. We marched downhill at top speed, trying to beat the setting sun. 

Sky High Lakes Trail

I watched, as we trotted down the trail, how the line of sunlight rises up the mountainside. When we finally had a view of the lakes they were already covered in shadow. 

Sky High Lakes

I caught the reflection of the sunset on the mirror surface of the Frying Pan Lake as we marched past it on our way to our camp site. 

Frying Pan Lake

It was nearly dark when we finally arrived our camp. We quickly got dinner going, refilled on water, and sat down to eat. We had a lovely and lively dinner discussion. My chika was very tired but was happy to play and chat with her friend. My friend and I kept going back and forth about our possibilities and what we should have done had we known this would be a no good trail. Either way, we were all happy to have gone to the Marble Rim. It was indeed a sight worth seeing, even if we got in a fix trying to extend it into a loop hike. 

I was the last one to get into the tent that night too. This was out last night of the trip. Tomorrow we would head back down and out of the wilderness. 

 

 

 

 Many thanks to members of the California Native Plants Society for their help in identifying plants! 

Link to Day 4 Blogpost