I agree with Maverick, and I think that Little 5 is a much better LO choice than BFL. There is a ranger sation there and you might find the ranger some good company. Also, I implore you to take some really light weight fishing gear with lures. Do it as a favor to yourself and for a friend - me. If you stay at Little 5 Ranger Station Lake, on your LO day you can hike (short hike) and fish Long Lake (104xx).
Lol I was just debating yesterday again on taking any fishing gear and still settled on none. My typical gear setup is about 11 ounces. When I go over the number of times I fished about 14. Times I ate fish - 3 and number of times I was able to cook fish over a fire at 1 out of 95 days. I do enjoy fishing and when I do eat them it's great but I don't think I will do enough of it to justify having that extra 11 ounces on me the whole way. I suppose I could do like one man suggested and just bring line and lures and use willow branches.
You think the Rangers will be out there that early? If so I will stop in and say hi for sure. My plan was to stay at the Long Lake as you say at 10,4xx. I figure it will be more remote and scenic.
2 days at Guitar Lake?
That is the plan if Traumahead comes with me. He has never been up Whitney so it would be base camp. Same deal with Wales Lake. I have stayed at Wallace Lake but never Wales so if I am solo I will spend two nights there while I summit Russell.
Both Sphinx Lakes and Big Brewer are off my planned route. Many of these places I plan to stay at mostly based off the once a week layover thing I do.
You shouldn't miss beautiful Woods Lakes Basin. Fish the small lake on the trail. Even if you don't fish it's a great place. The basin is a great place for a LO too.
That's a bit out of the way. I am going to bail off of the JMT shortly after the Woods Creek crossing and begin up into the area East of Window Peak. I then plan to cross White Fork Saddle and then White Fork Pass in a bit of a sight seeing meander. This will be my worst section in terms of resupply carrying the heaviest pack so adding any more days isn't a good option. I did plan on going to Woods Lake Basin in 2009 but that trip was too hard on me and I canceled many things along the way.
July 21. I'm going to PM you about this one.
I know Maverick has been to this lake which seems to be the most remote and seldom used area I will visit on this entire hike. Probably only a handful of people have ever even seen these lakes. The only real question is he crossed a class 3 pass further to the West. I plan to take the small saddle directly below Observation Peak to it's West. Considering Last year I went from Marion Lake to Amphitheater Lake I should be able to make it there also in a good time frame.
Striped Mountain Lakes are very close to Bench Lakes. Bench L is an obvious LO spot beacuse of the famous view.
Although slightly out of the way those lakes look like they are worth a visit but probably not on this trip since I have never been to Bench Lake.
I was completely unimpressed by Ladder. Perhaps if you camp a little East of the East side of the lake you could have a great view.
I'll explore around it some but my main goal for spending time here is to climb the Citadel.
McClure Meadow is famously secenic and there is a RS there too. For a LO there is a really cool little lake, basically N of there for a day hike. Nice views during your hike too.
I don't know if I would want to spend two days at McClure because of how many people tend to be in that valley. After hiking through it in 2009 and 2010 I was going to try and explore some more areas. I was thinking of after leaving Mcgee Lakes to climb up to the lakes just NE of Emerald Peak and then drop down their outlet to Evolution Valley below McClure Meadow. Has anyone been up to those lakes? This is certainly an area I could see becoming lazy though when you have the option to just drop down hill from Mcgee Lakes and down the valley or fight your way up and over a small pass to some random lakes.
There is my favorite view in the entire Sierra at the base of Grinnell Meadow with the Lake (not visable of course) and an incredible escarpment in the background. I would go there over any of the recesses.
I'm not sure where that meadow is. Is that below Laurel Lake? Here?:
On my return trip to VVR I plan to go over Pace Col to Grinnel Lake and then back down to Mono Creek. It will be late season so I wont have the nice green I had there in 2010 but I will get to see it for sure.
Aug 25-26. Apollo, Cirque and Orchid are great places go. I wouldn't miss them.
Hmm looks like a hell of a climb up to them. Any special way to go? I'll try to find some photos also. This is an area I am certainly flexible to go more places since I will only be carrying one week of food and I can pick up more at VVR.
The whole area around Rodgers is probably the biggest guess of them all. Mainly I planned on trying to cross there so I could drop into the upper Lyell Fork and then go for an ascent of Mt. Lyell. But the question is also can Mt. Lyell be climbed from the saddle directly E of it's summit? I know you can climb up high there on your way to Lyell Col but can you actually get up and over? I was planning to cross East of it's summit then move around it's face to the NE to take the classic approach up it's North Western ridge.
Removing the idea of a summit it also seems worth wild maybe to go from Twin Island Lakes over Clinch Pass to the Marie Lakes then go over Rodgers Pass to Sluggo Pass. From there take Russell Pass down into Lyell Canyon.
I am planning on sending a resupply to VVR for that whole section but I could limit weight by picking up a couple extra days of food from Reds Meadow while I pass through if I change the route up. I'm certainly going to give it some more thought.
I have seen the ridge I want to cross from Little Lakes Valley and I think it can be done from that side but I have never seen the Western side. Worst case would be to go around by Mono Pass if it cannot be done.
So much to think about when I thought I was all done!