Frémont's Approach
to Carson Pass
The trail appears on the earliest survey maps of the area. It has had undoubted use for hundreds of years, except for the upper half mile or so at Charity Valley where it is now diverted around private property. After visiting Yosemite with John Muir in 1870, Joseph LeConte traveled north through the Bridgeport Valley, and along the Indian route followed by Frémont into Antelope Valley. Arriving in Markleeville, he was taken up this very trail and into Hope Valley via a ranch at the hot springs owned by the brother of one of his traveling companions --one Hawkins (cf. nearby Hawkens Peak). This place later became called Grover's Hot Springs. Joseph LeConte, in A Journal of Ramblings Through the High Sierras of California, August 19th., 1870, wrote: The trail from this place (Grovers [then Hawkins] Hot Springs) into Hope Valley [via Charity Valley] is one of the steepest we have yet attempted. It is a zigzag, up an almost perpendicular cliff. In many places there can be no doubt that a false step would have been certainly fatal to man and horse. In the steepest parts we dismounted and led the horses a great portion of the way up. In many places here was no detectable trail at all. This is the meadow at Grover's Hot Springs. The trail leads straight back in the center and then goes up Charity Valley Creek to the left - all the way to the top! To the right is Hot Springs Creek, leading to Burnside Lake. The meadow was the campsite, in charge of Tom "Broken Hand" Fitzpatrick, of most of the men that were to build a road up through the snow for the horses and mules. Tabeau, and a few men as a horse guard, returned a few miles further back to a place below Markleeville, where substantial graze had been found the day before (below). In the background to the right is the East Fork of the Carson River. Markeeville Creek is to the left, and joins it here.  Here we pick up Frémont's narrative from February 4th, 1844 at Grover's Hotsprings: I went ahead early with two or three men, One of the men was Preuss, as he records this in his journal. One was Mélo, the Washo guide, and Carson was no doubt along. each with a led horse to break the road. We were obliged to abandon the hollow entirely, and work along the mountain-side, which was very steep, and the snow covered with an icy crust. We cut a footing as we advanced, and trampled a road through for the animals; but occasionally one plunged outside the trail, and slided along the field to the bottom, a hundred yards below. The "bench in the hollow" is Charity Valley itself, which is not much broader than the canyon. where, in summer, the stream passed over a small precipice. The "small precipice" is at the extreme lower end of
Charity Valley at N38° 40' 57" by W 119° 53'
42" and elevation 7759'. Here the canyon narrows at the
bottom, and the creek runs over a series of cascades. The
photo above, taken in September, shows little water in
Charity Valley Creek; however, in the spring months, this is
a torrent. (see aerial photo below) Here was a short distance of dividing ground between two ridges, and beyond an open basin, some ten miles across whoes bottom presented a field of snow. At the further or western side rose the middle crest of the mountain, a dark-looking ridge of volcanic rock. The view described above is from N38° 40' 23" by W 119° 54' 56" elevation 7901'. The "volcanic rock" is Elephant Back on the left in the photo. The view from here, which duplicates the view published by Dr. Vincent Gianella in 1959, is of Elephant Back 3.5 miles line of sight, Red Lake Peak 4.5 miles line of sight (right in photo), the ultimate campsite 2.5 miles line of sight, and of the approach to the Pass 3.5 miles line of sight (just left of center). The "open basin, some ten miles in extent" is Faith and Hope Valleys, surrounded by Markleeville, Elephant Back, Red Lake, Stevens, Freel, Picketts, and Hawkins Peaks of about 10,000 feet elevations.
Towards a pass which the guide [Mélo] indicated here, we attempted to force a road; but after a laborious plunging through two or three hundred yards, our best horses gave out, entirely refusing to make any further effort, and, for the time, we were brought to a stand. The guide informed us that we were entering the deep snow, and here began the difficulties of the mountain; and to him, and almost all, our enterprise looked hopeless. I returned a short distance back, to the break in the hollow, where I met Mr. Fitzpatrick.  At the foot of Charity Valley, just above the "precipice," camp was made, and that night they were visited by Indians.
 The guide Mélo deserted the following morning, but the approach to Carson Pass had been pointed out. From here on, the party was completely on their own.
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Other
than Frederick Dellenbaugh's proposed route from
Markleeville, through Pleasant Valley, and around
Markleeville Peak to Charity Valley 
This
approach to the Pass was pointed out by Frémont's
guide, a Washo Indian that they called Mélo. The
trail was an Indian trade route with connections as far west
as Georgetown on the North Fork of the American River. I
walked this route in September 2000 with the object of
verifying and locating the features described by
Frémont in the Report. On the walk I picked up
a fragment of an obsidian core-flake, which was the
raw material from which obsidian tools were fashioned. The
source was undoubtedly the Mono Basin.
An
email from a Long Camp visitor.
Two
Indians joined our party here; and one of them, an old
man, immediately began to harangue us, saying that
ourselves and animals would perish in the snow; and that
if we would go back, he would show us another and a
better way to cross the mountain. He spoke in a very loud
voice, and there was a singular repetition of phrases and
arrangement of words, which rendered his speech striking
and not unmusical.
But
I have gained an entirely new insight from hiking
the route, and considering the alternatives. I now
believe that the route taken, as pointed out by the
Indians, was probably the only route that
could have been successfully followed in the winter
with deep snow with 67 horses and mules.
animals
through the snow. The problem would have been the
same up through the canyon, of the West Fork of the
Carson, except that there are no
"mountain-sides"--the walls of the Carson Canyon
are vertical. This, and other wagon routes, were
passable in summer only! Until this era of modern
highways, the only traffic through the Carson
Canyon in winter was Snowshoe Thompson carrying the
mail to Genoa, Nevada on skis. However, had
Frémont followed up the East Fork of the
Carson he would have gotten into the Markleeville
area days sooner.
