Trip Report Spire Lake 9/7 to 9/9/16 "Bad Karma Trip"
Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 8:57 am
I have always wanted to go to Spire Lake. But when doing trip planning, I have always chosen something else. The reason is...Spire Lake is both hard to get to but more importantly hard to combine with anything else for a trip. The combination of the two make it seldom visited.
I planned the following trip. Mosquito Flat/Peppermint Pass/Spire Lake/back to Peppermint Pass/Cox Col/Lake Italy/Gabbot Pass/ Mono Pass/Mosquito Flat.(7 days)
I did the following . Mosquito Flat/Peppermint Pass/Spire Lake/Morgan Pass/Mosquito Flat ( 3 days).
Here goes. Things started out well. A beautiful day. Never get tired of seeing Bear Creek Spire from Little Lakes Valley. Certainly a "top twenty most photographed Sierra shot". For some reason I really struggled to get up the pass. I started around noon after driving from the Bay Area and at 4:00 I was at Dade Lake. I was trying to decide whether I had enough energy to get over the pass. I finally decided to give it a shot.
A picture from the pass looking across Dade and Treasure Lakes. Note shadows getting low. And a shot of Spire Lake from Peppermint Pass I staggered to the lake, found a flat spot--no particularly good ones but one sufficed, sent a note to my wife from my Delorme device saying all ok, had a belt or two of backpacker margarita (tequila and powdered gatorade), and went to sleep. I am still not sure why I struggled so much with fatigue. Peppermint pass was a normal class 2 Sierra cross country pass. Some talus, sometimes tedious, but nothing unusual. Oh well. I was spent.
The first problem I had was my flashlight batteries were spent. I no longer carry spares as a weight reduction technique. Oh well, no big deal. I can survive
without a flashlight.
The second problem I had was I must have rolled over on my glasses and popped out a lens. I evidently broke the tiny screw that holds the lens to the frame.
I put on the one lens glasses and could see very well with the one lens and my usual 20x400 with the other eye. As I wandered around my campsite, I realized that I had absolutely no depth perception. As I thought about Peppermint Pass/Cox Col/Gabbot Pass, I thought it would be dangerous to do so like this.
So...thank god for fishing line!!. It took me about an hour to finally get the line hold the glasses in, but it worked! I wasn't sure it would hold though. That problem solved, I spent the day fishing. It was a beautiful day. I was somewhat surprised to see someone come up from Split Lake below. His name was Joe, from Bridgeport, brought his dog, and said this was his tenth trip to the lake. Wow. He snapped a picture of me with Bear Creek Spire in the background.
My how Bear Creek Spire looks different depending on the direction. Some fishing notes. Good fishery. Some decent fish (14 -15 inchers). I saw nothing really large. I saw nothing that I would categorize as a spawning area, so in a way this is like my post earlier this year from Funston Lake. I understand that there is no planting ( per Joe) so I don't know how this is a sustainable fishery, but it is. Given that it is hard to get to and more importantly hard to combine with other lakes for a longer trip, Spire lake will always be seldom visited.
A couple decent fish. That night I cooked dinner and then went to send a note to my wife, which is our agreement when I go solo. I found my Delorme dead.
I had no idea what happened. But I could not get it to power up. So, I thought about I had 5 days and three cross country passes to go and my wife would be concerned that I did not send a note and potentially even call the air force to look for me, and I had questionable glasses, and I decided to return early.
The best thing about the Delorme is the ability to communicate with safety personnel and loved ones. The worst thing is that I set expectation on status that I could not fulfill. Oh well. When I got home I successfully charged the Delorme so that wasn't the issue. I contacted Delorme customer service and after a few exchanges the most probable outcome was that I did not power it off properly and put it in my pack and it cycled trying to connect and ran down the battery.
I have successfully done this many times, but I admit is was possible that the night before I did not. Lesson learned.
So this is why I called it my "bad karma trip". Three things gone wrong in 24 hours.. ( headlamp, glasses,Delorme). I have had only one other bad karma trip in my life. That was an attempt to climb Split Mountain via Red Mountain Lake from the east. My car got stuck on the dirt road and that took hours to resolve,
and then I fell in the creek going up to Red Mountain Lake. I had run out of time to do what I wanted to do, and turned around. This was about 30 years ago.
In any event, I decided if I was going to go back, I would return a different way. I went down the creek from Spire Lake, passing Split and Bear Lakes. ( fish in each..plus one really nice camp site at Bear Lake). And then go up the old road to Morgan Pass. A view looking back toward Spire Lake and Bear Creek Spire
from the road. I came straight down the creek ( to the right in the picture) which turned out after talking with Joe not to be the easiest way. It easier to go more to the left in the trees. But straight down the creek was doable.
Lastly, I met some folks at Lower Morgan Lake I wanted to mention. 8 guys backpacking together. I talked a little to them talking about aches and pains and backpacking. It turns out that this group of 8 guys had been doing this for 50 years. One had died so now they were 7. And one of them had Alzheimers and the others were taking care of them. And the YOUNGEST one I was talking to was 79. They were happily fly fishing for 6-8 inch rainbows.
It made my troubles seem very small! This is what I want to be when I grow up!
That is it.
Now , tomorrow off for my last trip of the year. I am off to an 8 day trip in the Wind River Range. My first trip to the winds, going to Titcomb Basin and others.
I bought Wandering Daisy's book and hope I am prepared. It is a little late but off I go.
I planned the following trip. Mosquito Flat/Peppermint Pass/Spire Lake/back to Peppermint Pass/Cox Col/Lake Italy/Gabbot Pass/ Mono Pass/Mosquito Flat.(7 days)
I did the following . Mosquito Flat/Peppermint Pass/Spire Lake/Morgan Pass/Mosquito Flat ( 3 days).
Here goes. Things started out well. A beautiful day. Never get tired of seeing Bear Creek Spire from Little Lakes Valley. Certainly a "top twenty most photographed Sierra shot". For some reason I really struggled to get up the pass. I started around noon after driving from the Bay Area and at 4:00 I was at Dade Lake. I was trying to decide whether I had enough energy to get over the pass. I finally decided to give it a shot.
A picture from the pass looking across Dade and Treasure Lakes. Note shadows getting low. And a shot of Spire Lake from Peppermint Pass I staggered to the lake, found a flat spot--no particularly good ones but one sufficed, sent a note to my wife from my Delorme device saying all ok, had a belt or two of backpacker margarita (tequila and powdered gatorade), and went to sleep. I am still not sure why I struggled so much with fatigue. Peppermint pass was a normal class 2 Sierra cross country pass. Some talus, sometimes tedious, but nothing unusual. Oh well. I was spent.
The first problem I had was my flashlight batteries were spent. I no longer carry spares as a weight reduction technique. Oh well, no big deal. I can survive
without a flashlight.
The second problem I had was I must have rolled over on my glasses and popped out a lens. I evidently broke the tiny screw that holds the lens to the frame.
I put on the one lens glasses and could see very well with the one lens and my usual 20x400 with the other eye. As I wandered around my campsite, I realized that I had absolutely no depth perception. As I thought about Peppermint Pass/Cox Col/Gabbot Pass, I thought it would be dangerous to do so like this.
So...thank god for fishing line!!. It took me about an hour to finally get the line hold the glasses in, but it worked! I wasn't sure it would hold though. That problem solved, I spent the day fishing. It was a beautiful day. I was somewhat surprised to see someone come up from Split Lake below. His name was Joe, from Bridgeport, brought his dog, and said this was his tenth trip to the lake. Wow. He snapped a picture of me with Bear Creek Spire in the background.
My how Bear Creek Spire looks different depending on the direction. Some fishing notes. Good fishery. Some decent fish (14 -15 inchers). I saw nothing really large. I saw nothing that I would categorize as a spawning area, so in a way this is like my post earlier this year from Funston Lake. I understand that there is no planting ( per Joe) so I don't know how this is a sustainable fishery, but it is. Given that it is hard to get to and more importantly hard to combine with other lakes for a longer trip, Spire lake will always be seldom visited.
A couple decent fish. That night I cooked dinner and then went to send a note to my wife, which is our agreement when I go solo. I found my Delorme dead.
I had no idea what happened. But I could not get it to power up. So, I thought about I had 5 days and three cross country passes to go and my wife would be concerned that I did not send a note and potentially even call the air force to look for me, and I had questionable glasses, and I decided to return early.
The best thing about the Delorme is the ability to communicate with safety personnel and loved ones. The worst thing is that I set expectation on status that I could not fulfill. Oh well. When I got home I successfully charged the Delorme so that wasn't the issue. I contacted Delorme customer service and after a few exchanges the most probable outcome was that I did not power it off properly and put it in my pack and it cycled trying to connect and ran down the battery.
I have successfully done this many times, but I admit is was possible that the night before I did not. Lesson learned.
So this is why I called it my "bad karma trip". Three things gone wrong in 24 hours.. ( headlamp, glasses,Delorme). I have had only one other bad karma trip in my life. That was an attempt to climb Split Mountain via Red Mountain Lake from the east. My car got stuck on the dirt road and that took hours to resolve,
and then I fell in the creek going up to Red Mountain Lake. I had run out of time to do what I wanted to do, and turned around. This was about 30 years ago.
In any event, I decided if I was going to go back, I would return a different way. I went down the creek from Spire Lake, passing Split and Bear Lakes. ( fish in each..plus one really nice camp site at Bear Lake). And then go up the old road to Morgan Pass. A view looking back toward Spire Lake and Bear Creek Spire
from the road. I came straight down the creek ( to the right in the picture) which turned out after talking with Joe not to be the easiest way. It easier to go more to the left in the trees. But straight down the creek was doable.
Lastly, I met some folks at Lower Morgan Lake I wanted to mention. 8 guys backpacking together. I talked a little to them talking about aches and pains and backpacking. It turns out that this group of 8 guys had been doing this for 50 years. One had died so now they were 7. And one of them had Alzheimers and the others were taking care of them. And the YOUNGEST one I was talking to was 79. They were happily fly fishing for 6-8 inch rainbows.
It made my troubles seem very small! This is what I want to be when I grow up!
That is it.
Now , tomorrow off for my last trip of the year. I am off to an 8 day trip in the Wind River Range. My first trip to the winds, going to Titcomb Basin and others.
I bought Wandering Daisy's book and hope I am prepared. It is a little late but off I go.