Crossing Supercreeks at Kings Canyon 
(Cordada Rapel) 
We know for sure that Kings Canyon is the place to go if we want to find a wilderness permit at the last moment. Not being as famous as Yosemite and Sequoia makes this wonderful park crowd-free. Also, the road 180 incorporates a new piece of highway every year, so that the original 5 hours and a half that used to take us to get there have been converted in 4 hours and a half. We leave on Friday at 7pm and arrive there around midnight because of the traffic jam getting out of the Valley, specially near San Jose and after Gilroy in Pacheco Pass. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible avoid these traffic jams unless we leave very early on Saturday. The campgrounds in the Cedar Grove area are almost empty aso we can choose where to camp. Saturday morning the wilderness permit station at Roads End starts offering permits at 7am. There are only 2 people in front of us to get the permit and it's already 9am. That is great! 
We have read everywhere that there is a lot of snow up in the high Sierra and the weather has been terribly good for the last week so there will be plenty of water on the creeks. Just in case, we have taken snowshoes, crampons and snow gear, but as soon as we see the mountains we realize that the snow is way higher than we expected. The weather for this weekend is also expected to be good so we leave most of our winter gear in the car. The backpack, though, is still pretty heavy: we carry the bear canister, tent, winter sleeping bag and more winter clothes than we should carry. 
Our chosen trailhead is Lewis Trail, just before Cedar Grove. The idea is to hike to Frypan Meadow, set camp there, and hike Mt. Harrington the next morning (11009ft, 3355mt.). 
The beginning of the trail in pretty steep. We hike around 5 miles and almost 2000ft of altitude in about 2-3 hours and we stop to rest. I am exhausted and need a long rest to continue. We have passed to creeks that have way to much water, so we hike up the creek until we find a bit tree that we can walk on to cross safe.

 After walking a little while more, though, the Lewis creek crossing becomes an impossible mission. The water is too fast and there is too much. The tree to cross is too thin and is wet and sleepery. We don't feel confortable crossing with our big backpacks. We hike up along the right side of the creek, trying to find a better place to cross, but after one hour of bushwhaking we realize that we are not going to find the crossing spot and we are becoming too tired. So we decide to search for a nice place to pass the night in a saddle at 7800 feet. It takes us one hour more to get there, but there aren't any other spots free of bush and flat where we can set our overnight camp. When we set camp we have run out of water, so we still have to walk to the creek (down 15 minutes more) to get some dirty water and potabilize it. 
The evening is warm and we still have many hours of light, we can practice ioga and climb some boulders around and hear the birds and the animals that suround us. It is really a wonderful summer day. We couldn't have choosen a better weekend. 
The next morning we hike up the ridge until there is too much snow to continue. The snow starts at around 8000 ft and it is still hard enough so that we can walk easily on top without problems. We arrive just over the psicological line of 3000mt (9862ft) and decide to hike down. 
To be our first mountaneering weekend of the summer we are quite happy. 
The sour muscles will last this time 4 days, but it has been worth it.