TR: Cottonwood Pass to Soldier Lake/Miter Basin with kids
Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 11:59 pm
We had a spectacular trip this weekend (6/30-7/3) over Cottonwood Pass with my 10 year old twins and a friend with his son. I think we timed it just right for minimal snow (except in Miter Basin) but without the skeeters being a problem. All the stream crossings are trivial and there's not much mud - no need for wet feet at all.
First night we camped at Chicken Spring Lake (~3.5 hours), feeling pretty exhausted by the altitude and the haul up Cottonwood Pass. There is just a tiny bit of snow right at the top to walk across, but well established bootprints to follow. There were a lot of skeeters circling us at the lake, and the clouds of them looked quite fearsome as dusk approached, but they didn't seem to be biting. We met a PCT hiker (Dutch) who had got that far (700 miles) in only 34 days! He was aiming to get to Reds Meadow in another 8 days.
Second day we continued to Lower Soldier Lake (~4 hours), where we camped near the bear box well above the meadow. That definitely helped in terms of reducing the number of skeeters, though they were starting to bite at dusk. The third day we did a day hike to Sky Blue Lake (~6 hours with a long break at the lake), which was still completely frozen except near the exit. However, the ice is definitely starting to break up. The basin was beautiful, with just enough snow to make it fun for the kids, without being tedious. The snow was also pretty solid, even on the way back down after lunch.
Then a fairly long haul back out today (though the promise of pizza in Lone Pine helped and we got to the car in under 5 hours). All in all it was a great trip for the kids, no big climbs and astonishingly few people (apart from the geology class coming out and a few day hikers below Cottonwood Pass, we only saw about 15 people in the whole 4 days). Definitely a lot better than our original plan of Yosemite - we came back over Tioga and its all snow and meltwater.
First night we camped at Chicken Spring Lake (~3.5 hours), feeling pretty exhausted by the altitude and the haul up Cottonwood Pass. There is just a tiny bit of snow right at the top to walk across, but well established bootprints to follow. There were a lot of skeeters circling us at the lake, and the clouds of them looked quite fearsome as dusk approached, but they didn't seem to be biting. We met a PCT hiker (Dutch) who had got that far (700 miles) in only 34 days! He was aiming to get to Reds Meadow in another 8 days.
Second day we continued to Lower Soldier Lake (~4 hours), where we camped near the bear box well above the meadow. That definitely helped in terms of reducing the number of skeeters, though they were starting to bite at dusk. The third day we did a day hike to Sky Blue Lake (~6 hours with a long break at the lake), which was still completely frozen except near the exit. However, the ice is definitely starting to break up. The basin was beautiful, with just enough snow to make it fun for the kids, without being tedious. The snow was also pretty solid, even on the way back down after lunch.
Then a fairly long haul back out today (though the promise of pizza in Lone Pine helped and we got to the car in under 5 hours). All in all it was a great trip for the kids, no big climbs and astonishingly few people (apart from the geology class coming out and a few day hikers below Cottonwood Pass, we only saw about 15 people in the whole 4 days). Definitely a lot better than our original plan of Yosemite - we came back over Tioga and its all snow and meltwater.