TR: Sixty Lake Basin etc 9/2-9/11

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mcgenes
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TR: Sixty Lake Basin etc 9/2-9/11

Post by mcgenes »

We had a permit for Sierra National Forest, until we didn't. Plan B was to head to Roads End and see what we could get for walk-up permits. Fortunately, this was on Wednesday, 9/1 and there were only three groups at the ranger station trying to get permits for 9/2 so all options were open. One of the three of us had not been to Rae Lakes, so we essentially did the Rae Lakes Loop, but spent 2 nights in Sixty Lake Basin and hiked up to Basin Col to look into Gardiner Basin. Very chill trip.

Day 1: Roads End to Charlotte Creek. Lots of people on the trail. No mosquitoes and bluebird skies.

Day 2: Charlotte Creek to Lake Reflection. Even with the low water level, I still had to wade Bubbs Creek at the East Lake junction. The rocks are just too far apart for my 5'5". It was warm, so the soak was refreshing. The trail was in good condition, even beyond East Lake. We looked for the Harrison Pass trail and saw it on the way out, but missed it on the way in.
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Day 3: Lake Reflection to Vidette Meadows. One of our crew had painful hips, so we took a short day. There was a good campsite across Bubb's Creek that would serve as a good launch pad for exploring the Vidette Creek drainage...hmmmm...

Day 4: to Charlotte Lake. Short mileage for buddy with hip pain. It was Labor Day and we were the only ones at the lake!
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Day 5: to Rae Lakes. We saw a bunch of JMT travelers on Glenn Pass as we approached - at least 15. They were in various states - some needing food because they didn't want to risk exiting for resupply, others in high spirits because they had met with trail magic (food givers). The Charlotte Ranger had a box of "gathered" (confiscated from the bear locker) food that she was offering to any who needed it. Having done the JMT in 2013, I felt for these folks who were trying to keep their trips going despite the forest closures.

Day 6: into Sixty Lake Basin. This was the best part of the trip. The trail went far into the basin. We camped at the U-shaped lake at about 10,700 NW of Fin dome. We took a day trip to look at Arrowhead Lake and Dollar Lakes from Basin Notch. I was amazingly easy walking to the notch, and there was a use trail headed down. Seemed like easy navigation and easy walking.

Days 7: Day hike up to Basin Col. We took the west side of the long skinny lake, up granite slabs mostly. There was only one sketchy part where we had to walk along a crevice with a sheer granite drop off into the lake. Found some slab highways near the top.
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Day 8: to JMT and on to Woods Creek. The cross country travel in Sixty Lake Basin headed north was straightforward and easy. The low water allowed us to take a more direct path in many places because small tarns were dry. We saw some cairns along the way, but we didn't really heed them. Once you start to follow the outlet, there were some places where we met with steep talus, but a look around revealed better paths and we ultimately ended up on a faintish trail for the last ~400 feet of descent. We met the JMT just north of a big meadow with a bridge. We camped at Wood's Creek junction that night with some JMTers. There was a HUGE thunder storm that we could hear for hours as it rolled north into the night. This would be the storm that ignited the KNP complex fires.

Day 9: Hiked down Woods Creek to Paradise Valley. The Lower Paradise Valley camping area was closed due to risk of deadfall, so we camped at the middle. Camped with about 10 folks headed in the opposite direction. The air on this day was heavenly - full of scents from the vegetation along the creek and the SF Kings River. We were fortunate to have no smoke the whole trip.
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Day 10: hiked back to Road's End. TONS of people day hiking to Mist Falls. I had several offers for my bug net because the gnats were so thick.
Marnie
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Re: TR: Sixty Lake Basin etc 9/2-9/11

Post by terraelise »

Lovely trip: I was supposed to be around there, entering from Inyo, but that was cancelled due to closure. I considered changing to road's end, guessing smoke wasn't too bad in there, but wasn't sure if Thursday would work out because I thought it would be super crowded being one of the few places open and away from smoke. Oh, well. Some other time. I tried again for this weekend, but the smoke from new fires is just too awful, so big fail for me getting into SEKI backcountry this month!
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Re: TR: Sixty Lake Basin etc 9/2-9/11

Post by Harlen »

Great trip, I'm especially impressed by your jaunt up to Lake Reflection on the way to Rae Lakes-- good call eh? What sort of wildlife did you guys see up East Creek? We've always had really good luck with creatures there. We love the photos, and wish they were larger. That photo of Lake Reflection is beautiful, and the Gardiner Basin is very nice too. Thanks for the rare TR, and congrats for making it out there.
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Re: TR: Sixty Lake Basin etc 9/2-9/11

Post by sekihiker »

Not many people throw in a side trip to Lake Reflection or manage to see into Gardiner Basin either. Sounds like a great time. Thanks for posting.
It sounds like walkup permits were truly walkup. I thought all permits had to be secured online.
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Re: TR: Sixty Lake Basin etc 9/2-9/11

Post by michaelzim »

sekihiker wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 8:41 pm It sounds like walkup permits were truly walkup. I thought all permits had to be secured online.
Walk-up permits were astoundingly "walk up" at Roads End - I was expecting a line forming hours before the permit issuance time of 1:30 pm for the 'following day', but on Tuesday 7th. Sept I showed up at 10:30 am and there were plenty of "W" permits for that day even! So I ended up hustling and going in a day early = Tuesday, instead of the expected next day.
Basically "day of W" permits seemed to be available for the whole period (even for the Rae Lakes Loop) before the two new fires have no doubt put the kibosh on desire to be in smoke city up there. The smoke started to show up on Saturday 11th. for the first time, but was not bad hiking out of Paradise Valley on Sunday 12th. The fires had not taken off yet as it was a few days later, earlier this week, that they mushroomed.

That storm on Thursday/Friday was something else = 15 hours of rain up at a no-name lake at 11,000 ft. in upper 60-Lakes Basin. Lots of thunder and lightning and sometimes torrential rain, but no hail.

Best ~ Michaelzim
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Re: TR: Sixty Lake Basin etc 9/2-9/11

Post by mcgenes »

Harlen wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:27 pm Great trip, I'm especially impressed by your jaunt up to Lake Reflection on the way to Rae Lakes-- good call eh? What sort of wildlife did you guys see up East Creek? We've always had really good luck with creatures there. We love the photos, and wish they were larger. That photo of Lake Reflection is beautiful, and the Gardiner Basin is very nice too. Thanks for the rare TR, and congrats for making it out there.
Rats! We didn't see any special critters, just the usual chipmunks and array of birds..Did see a bird of prey working the area though.
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Re: TR: Sixty Lake Basin etc 9/2-9/11

Post by mcgenes »

@Michaelzim...Did you notice a botanical scent in the air in Paradise Valley that was heavy near the water and meadows? I'm trying to figure out what it was...not floral, but very pleasant. Thought it might be willows. Any ideas?
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Re: TR: Sixty Lake Basin etc 9/2-9/11

Post by michaelzim »

mcgenes wrote: Fri Sep 17, 2021 5:19 pm Michaelzim...Did you notice a botanical scent in the air in Paradise Valley that was heavy near the water and meadows? I'm trying to figure out what it was...not floral, but very pleasant. Thought it might be willows. Any ideas?
Ummmmm...my sense of smell is almost non-existent but I did smell something akin to what you mention. I vaguely thought it was some sort of scent associated with the smoke as it was the first I had experienced. Indeed there was "something" in the air.

On the wildlife aspect, I did stumble onto a small flock of Bighorn Sheep (upper 60 Lakes Basin), with emphasis on big horns! Was only about 20 yards from them. The ram was a huge bunch of pure muscle as can be seen from the photo:

DSC02102 - A.jpg

Best ~ Michaelzim
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Re: TR: Sixty Lake Basin etc 9/2-9/11

Post by Harlen »

Glad you got up there Michael, and the Sheep! You are one lucky b_______!!* Compare with the photo I got of a Bighorn:


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For the visually challenged, I've added a helpful arrow to the animal. :nod:
*That's one of the Shona terms I've heard you use; I don't know the correct spelling.
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Re: TR: Sixty Lake Basin etc 9/2-9/11

Post by Enigmagic »

sekihiker wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 8:41 pm It sounds like walkup permits were truly walkup. I thought all permits had to be secured online.
SEKI has been doing regular walk ups this year, Yosemite is/was too (I've heard Yose has stopped at some point later in July?, I did see plenty of walk up permits issued in June over three different trips). I snagged the last permit for the day up Bubbs Creek... showed up at Roads End around 6:30am, just one hiker in line in front of me (heading up Copper Creek on the SHR), took a little while for the ranger to process permits but I was on the trail around 7:30. more permits were available for Woods Creek, and of course there was an essentially unlimited supply of Copper Creek permits.
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