Bear Lake and Humphreys Basins Advice

[mckee80]

Hi, I've been digging around the site and reading trip reports and decided on a trip for me and my buddy. I've been able to find most of the information I need, but I had a question and was looking for some advice.

We're permitted for Italy Pass (Pine Creek trailhead) on Sept 4th and we'll be out until Sept 11. We're driving up from Vegas on the 4th (after flying in that morning from Pittsburgh). Does anyone know if there are camping spots along Pine Creek before the first switchbacks? Ideally, we'd like to get a mile or two in without a ton of gain the first day, and it doesn't look like there is a campground near the trailhead. Our plan from there is to wander around Granite Park, Bear Lakes Basin, Merriam Lake (if we like the looks of Feather Pass), Royce Lakes, maybe the Puppet Lake area.

The other alternative is to get a walk up for North Lake and come up through Humphreys Basin. Is it worth trading a day or two in the Bear Lakes area for walking through Humphrey's Basin? We haven't been to any of the areas before. From reading trip reports, it all looks great.

Thanks,
Sean

[balzaccom]

Humphreys Basin is lovely and wonderful. And the trail up to the pass has numerous campsites among the lakes you see on the way up...

[looks easy from here]

I say this with the caveat that neither time I've been up that trail was I looking for a campsite along there, so I might have blazed past one, but i recall the first 3/4 of a mile being pretty brushy and unsuitable. And once beyond that you're pretty much cranking up the side of the canyon with very little water*, flat spots, or shade. The one exception is the "apex" (for lack of a better word) of the big switchback around 1.25 miles in and at 8250'. It's near a good sized stream, and I recall there being a turnout there that would suffice for 2 people to spend a night. Otherwise it doesn't get good until the trail levels off near Pine Creek around 3.5 miles and 9800'.

But honestly I'd just push up to Pine Lake. It's only 4 miles, and imo the trail gets a bad rap for difficulty. I took a type 1 diabetic 16 year old who lives at sea level up it for his very first backpacking trip.

*There's plenty of water to refill on the way up, just not usually convenient to camping near.

[Jmcnamara5]

Humphreys Basin is pretty awesome... and all the skeeters should be gone by Sept! The North Lake-Piute Pass trail is A LOT easier with a full pack than those pine creek switch backs in my opinion (And prettier too).... You could camp maybe a half mile into Pine Creek? Or next camping wouldn't be until the first lake area.

[hikerdude87]

For Pine Creek trail, there isn't a camping spot until after you pass the John Muir Wilderness sign (~3 miles). The trail before that is exposed and steep so finding a camping spot might be difficult. If you can make it up the Pine Creek Lake the first day then you find a lot of camping areas but you do gain a lot.

North Lake is a much more gentler trail compared to Pine Creek and a lot more areas to camp if you wanted to do a short hike and camp first day. I like the view from Piute Pass. It is just incredible once you make it to the top of the pass and hike towards the Humphrey's basin.

[giantbrookie]

Does anyone know if there are camping spots along Pine Creek before the first switchbacks? Ideally, we'd like to get a mile or two in without a ton of gain the first day, and it doesn't look like there is a campground near the trailhead. Our plan from there is to wander around Granite Park, Bear Lakes Basin, Merriam Lake (if we like the looks of Feather Pass), Royce Lakes, maybe the Puppet Lake area.

The other alternative is to get a walk up for North Lake and come up through Humphreys Basin. Is it worth trading a day or two in the Bear Lakes area for walking through Humphrey's Basin? We haven't been to any of the areas before. From reading trip reports, it all looks great.

Thanks,
Sean

There isn't much available along the trail short of the first lake out of Pine Creek. Much of the trail is narrow. Before it really starts climbing the trail sort of goes through a "tunnel" in the brush. Then when it starts climbing and switchbacking the trail is narrow enough that I recall being stuck behind a slow person on descent once who didn't "pull over" and there was not enough room for me to jet around him (and in the lower section being stuck behind a pack train). As for Bear Basin days vs more Humphreys Basin days, this depends on your aims and specific itinerary. What is your planned route. My thinking is that to cram all of those destinations in is too much for a 8 day trip unless you are in to exceptionally high speed off trail travel (over rugged off trail terrain). Also, as you can tell by looking at maps, if Humphreys Basin is sort of the main objective, it is far easier to get directly in there from North Lake than from Pine Creek. Once there you can spend a lot of quality time in the basin proper, as well as the adjoining area such as French Canyon and the pockets on the north side of Glacier Divide. Such an operation wouldn't require as difficult cross country as trying to rope in Bear Basin-Italy Pass-Royces-Merriam etc. and the kickoff out of North Lake would be easier than kickoff out of Pine Creek. In addition, you can get to campsites readily very close in on the North Lake trail in contrast to Pine Creek where it's Pine Creek L or bust. That having been said, you have to plan a different itinerary with the walk up permit. Odds are you won't get it for the day you get to the ranger station. You will probably get it for the next day. On the other hand if you do get it for the same day it will be easier for you to get a mile or two up the trail to a reasonable place to camp on the North Lake trail. In addition, if you enter the next morning (next day permit) instead of afternoon/evening, you can still easily steam into choice camping destinations in Humphreys Basin on your first day of hiking.

[SSSdave]

People have always tossed down sleeping bags usually without tenting at that trailhead that also has a major horse packing station.

From the trailhead, the dusty horse trail goes through a dense lodgepole pine and willow forest with seeps before at about one mile, the wider flatter deteriorating PC Tungsten Mill mine road becomes the route. At about 2 miles +900 feet where that old road passes two forks of stream from the basin just east of the Brownstone Mine, one may tent less than ideally right atop the trail in a few places. Also one of the few places one will see the beautiful crimson monkeyflowers, mimulus cardinalis.

Generally, cross country travel in these areas is awkward to strenuous so one ought be conservative with practical mileage.

[looks easy from here]

The canyon floor leading to the Pine Creek Trailhead is almost entirely in the Inyo N.F., so you can camp pretty much anywhere off the road in the last couple miles of the drive in. Pine Creek Canyon is an increasingly popular and developed climbing area, so Mountain Project or Summitpost may have some specific suggestions.

[mckee80]

Thanks for the advice everyone! As usual, I started planning a trip and said "well, I'd like to see that area, maybe I can fit that in, too". I think I'll stick with the original plan for a 6 night lollipop out of Pine Creek. That should allow us to be pretty flexible and account for exploring around and underestimating the off trail travel. Trip report coming in a couple weeks!

[maiathebee]

I just did 5 nights there 8/19-8/24 on basically exactly your route. We hiked in North Lake over Piute and our campsites were: Hutchinson Meadow, Bearpaw Lake, Granite Park, Puppet Lake, Desolation Lake. We had planned to go over to Royce via Granite Park Pass (Croft Col) but the chute was filled with snow on the Granite Park side and the Royce side had several insurmountable snowfield / cliff obstacles. It would probably have been ok if we took Royce Pass from Honeymoon instead, but we instead hiked down to Honeymoon and up over Pine Creek Pass.

I'm trying to get a trip report written soon but I dont' think it will happen before your trip, since I'm leaving again on another trip on Friday. In short, Puppet was snow free and easy. The chute up from La Salle to the tarn on the way to Feather had a steep snowfield we had to navigate / climb / climb around. The north side of Feather had huge snowfields with thigh-deep suncup channels, but wasn't scary or dangerous at all. The route between Dancing Bear and Italy passes was MISERABLE. Huge unavoidable snowfields with low-angle crossing options that had scary high-angle runouts, plus multiple smaller snowfields between large talus fields. It took me 2 hours and I'm pretty fast generally. I would expect there to still be snow there when you do your trip.

I would try for the Piute Pass permit. You will easily find a walk-up campsite at one of the zillion campgrounds off 168 on the way up to North Lake and that will put you at about the same altitude for acclimation as hiking a few miles up Pine Creek.