Taboose to Dumbbell: Kings Canyon NP

[giantbrookie]

I was surprised when I first heard about Brown trout in Bench. I have a friend who caught a nice Brownie near 10,000 feet on the Eastern side of Kearsarge Pass, but this is the highest I've ever heard of Brownies in the Sierras.

There are actually a few more brown trout lakes in the High Sierra than one might think. There are only two in Seki (Bench and East Lake). There are several on the east side, though. There are some seldom caught ones in the lowest of the lakes above Onion Valley (sounds like your friend caught one of these). Matlock also once had browns, too, but I haven't heard anyone getting one in a long time (caught my first ever brown there in 1976). Sawmill Lake has some nice ones. Long Lake in the Bishop Creek drainage has a few. The biggest concentration of High Sierra brown trout lakes is around Rock Creek. The lowest five lakes or so out of Little Lakes Valley all have them: Long, Heart, Box, Marsh, Mack. The lowest two Hiltons have them (Hilton No. 2 and Davis). A bit further north, Spillway Lake and Upper McCabe Lake in Yosemite have them, as well as West and Green Lake out of the Green Creek drainage. That still isn't very many brown trout lakes, though.

[Buck Forester]

Thanks for the list, giantbrookie! Now that you mention it, I do recall catching some browns in Heart Lake in Little Lakes Valley. There are plenty of brown trout lakes in Desolation Wilderness, but it still surprises me to see them so high in some of the eastern Sierra lakes.

[peninsula]

penninsula, that is a - long-tailed weasel, mustela frenata. I've probably see an average of one every summer even though I don't look for them. One will most often see them in high country meadows. They are small and thin in order to fit into the same hole as their prey which can be mice, shrews, chipmunks, pikas and other really small mammals. Once saw an incredible chase right at South Tufa that lasted a couple minutes with the weasel chasing a chipmunk up down around over an area of tall tufas. Finally the weasel caught the munk right out in a flat open spot in front of me.

Pine martens are on the other hand are a lot more rare. In all my years, I've only seen one and that was a half mile out on the Agnew Meadows to Shadow Lake trail.

...David

Long-tailed weasel, good call David. I checked this species out via the internet, and it does indeed fit the description. That is a great story of having seen one capturing a chipmunk!

I once saw what I think might have been a Pine Marten near Rock Creek below Miter Basin. Very pretty and the right size. It was scampering away from my campsite several years ago upon returning from a fishing excursion.

My best story of seeing a predator in action was when a small bobcat came into a horse camp and trapped a ground squirrel under an upside down water bucket. I did not know what was going on as this scrawny cat was circling the bucket and several crows were raising a ruckus over her presence. Then she managed to snag the squirrel and disappeared into the brush. All of the sudden the crows were gone and everything was very quiet. If only I had had my camera!