In Red Rock Basin, Lake 9840+ (just south of the E in "FOREST" on the 7.5' map) and the biggest lake east of Point 10124 are both going to have water. Most of the smaller tarns in the basin will be, not necessarily dry, but stagnant and unappetizing. Lake 10187 in Reddys Hole is extremely shallow, to the point that we had trouble getting water when we camped there.RoguePhotonic wrote:I'll have to give some thought to when I get to Red Rock Basin. Basically I have Florence Lake listed just in case I have to walk the whole 14 mile road from VVR. It's very likely though that I can get a ride some or most of the way. If I can do this then I will hike in as far as I can the first day. Hopefully to Thompson Lake. My hope was that one of those little tarn lakes would have some water still and maybe one will. If not where I go will depend on how I feel. That section is going to be brutal! 16 days of food and enough fuel to last a month and a half since I cannot get any at Parchers. I'll probably dump all the food I possibly can and eat like a slave.
I'm sure you will see me kicking back around VVR on July 18th. Just look for the olive green Hexamid in the camping area!
Thompson Lake is just off a 4WD route (the Dusy-Ershim road, which splits John Muir from Dinkey Lakes), so it gets the off-roading crowd. Not that pretty anyway, IMO. Lost Lake is much nicer if you're going to be up that way. Then again, the Thompson Pass trail is so poorly (or un-) maintained that it's not that much more effort to head off-trail to Mt. Shinn Lake.
If you don't have the juice to do a full day's hiking from Florence Lake, there are really nice campsites on the slabs east of Boulder Creek at around 7600-7800'. That's assuming Boulder Creek has water (I've never seen it dry, but who knows this year). Pretty area, good views, and solitude just a short hike from Florence.