High Adventure in the Sierras

[Kento]

SGVL, those photos are great! I haven't been over to the Bishop Pass/South Lake area yet. Reminds me a bit of the Rock Creek area, although a bit more rugged. Looks like a real fun place to hike and backpack. That always worries me a bit with lightning, especially if you are on top of a ridge for an extended amount of time with no real escape except down the scree slope. I was lucky enough that there wasn't a cloud in the sky when I hiked Kersearge.

Speaking of scree , as I was hiking out, I see this guy trudging up the slope from Kersearge Lakes, all the way up to the pass, never mind the trail just a couple hundred yards off to the side of where he was. Talking with him, he said it was a more direct route from the lakes. True but . To which he promptly ran down the scree slope to Big Pothole Lake after going back over the pass. Seemed like a broken ankle/leg just waiting to happen.

 

[San Gabriel Valley local]

Man, that's awesome...I did Bishop pass and Dusy basin and more when I was 12 years old...so, you just did an overnighter? Thinking of bringing my teenagers up there next year...

The original plan was to spend 2 nights in Mammoth at my friend's condo to acclimate, and 2 nights on the trail going deeper into Dusy Basin, but our signals got crossed and we ended up leaving a day later than I had originally planned, did some day hiking in Mammoth, and turned the backpacking part of the trip into an overnight (based in part on the weather pattern). This would be a great 2 or 3 night trip for teenagers...we saw a couple families on the trail and the kids seemed to be really enjoying themselves. Not too strenuous but not too easy either with the elevation.

 

[San Gabriel Valley local]

Speaking of scree , as I was hiking out, I see this guy trudging up the slope from Kersearge Lakes, all the way up to the pass, never mind the trail just a couple hundred yards off to the side of where he was. Talking with him, he said it was a more direct route from the lakes. True but . To which he promptly ran down the scree slope to Big Pothole Lake after going back over the pass. Seemed like a broken ankle/leg just waiting to happen.

Uh no thanks lol. The risk / reward doesn't seem at all worth it!

The Bishop Pass area also reminded me of Rock Creek / Mono Pass. So many other spots I want to explore up there.

 

[Bohter]

Just curious, is that area anywhere near the Dingleberry Basin?
Dingleberry Lake, Hungry Packer and Fishgut lakes?
Damn, that deer thing is gnarly.

It's in the same general vicinity, if you take the 168 from Bishop all the way to the end you'll hit at the Sabrina Lake trailhead from which you can access Dingleberry Lake, etc. If you take a left on South Lake Rd from the 168 that will take you to South Lake and the Bishop Pass trailhead.

That's what I thought, We did a 10 day mule pack-in trip up there, basically a lazy man's pack trip arranged by some friends of ours, we were living pretty large (big group) tents, cots, beer, lots of beer, 100 lbs. potatoes 50 lbs. bacon I don't know how many dozen eggs and tons of other foods (and yes... we packed out every single ounce of trash) We really had a blast although I got pretty tired of trout every day.

Was on a week long 50 miler in the 70s and came across a mule pack-in group of about 20 brothers from Oakland....big afros...car battery powered stereo system cranked to 11....clearly a ton of booze and weed. One of the strangest things I've ever seen. They were having a great time and invited us over for the evening festivities. Our scoutmaster made us hike two miles further just to assure we did not take these guys up on the invitation. Fun times in the Sierra.

 

[Kento]

Speaking of scree , as I was hiking out, I see this guy trudging up the slope from Kersearge Lakes, all the way up to the pass, never mind the trail just a couple hundred yards off to the side of where he was. Talking with him, he said it was a more direct route from the lakes. True but . To which he promptly ran down the scree slope to Big Pothole Lake after going back over the pass. Seemed like a broken ankle/leg just waiting to happen.

Uh no thanks lol. The risk / reward doesn't seem at all worth it!

The Bishop Pass area also reminded me of Rock Creek / Mono Pass. So many other spots I want to explore up there.

Seriously! The scree going up and down Mt. Starr was tame by comparison. Plus, the reward at the top was well worth it.

I thought very briefly about climbing to top of Mt. Gould above Kersearge Pass but research I did left me a bit on the fence (probably a lot easier to approach it from the NE). Had mentioned it to my wife who was equally non-committal. Then once that slope was in view, we laughed hard, saying screw that!

I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of the Sierras. It's incredible up there and just leaves me itching for more. Hell of a way to get/stay in shape. I don't know how people can average 20+ mile days on thru-hikes, especially with the elevation climbs. I guess you build up to it. I can also see why a lot of them limit themselves to one pass a day. Trans-Catalina Trail in June was a good taste of it, averaging roughly 10-11 mile days. I'm still haunted by the utter bitch Fenceline Road was. Especially after the side-trip to Starlight Beach, which was absolutely not worth the effort.

 

[_____]

Here's a backpack fishing trip from last year, planning to repeat similar route this year again and take 5-6 days so I can spend full days at a couple of spots instead of 3 nights and mostly on the go. The trip began at Horseshoe Meadows at the top right.
Right click view makes it better but not full rez, Tinypic downsizes it but the lines are visible.

 

[scooch]

Was up there last week. Rock Creek is always our first stop before heading farther up. Beautiful area. There was quite a bit of smoke from all the fires. We'll go back up in a couple months for the fall colors. If you've never been up there to see the fall colors I highly recommend it.