High Sierra Topix

This past holiday weekend I headed up the Bear Creek Trail to Seven Gables Basin and Vee Lake area. I feel like my summer disapeared so it was great to get back out here. The area was amazing - since seeing the backside of it from the JMT years ago I've been dying to visit - only drawbacks were my time constraints, and the time I spent in traffic there and back took twice as long due to traffic accidents (ugh). All in all, great fishing and great views. Hiking back along the JMT and Bear Creek I fished as I hiked, and at one point smelled smoke. A little investigation showed someone hadn't doused their bonfire - ended up spending an hour dousing and watching it, my good dead for the day

Here are some pics:
http://www.naturefocused.com/archives/vee/vee.html

Beautiful area and great photos! We were at Bear Lakes Basin last year and spent a day going to each of the lakes. Good job putting that fire out!

Thanks snowy. I saw some of your pics on webshots before I left. Definitely got me excited about going.

Trailblazer, beautiful photos, looks like another very cool full moon trip. Must have been hard to head for home so quickly.

Quite fine set of images tb, thanks for sharing. One of my favorite basins in the range. Doesn't get any better. Pretty much am familiar with the general locations of all of your shots as well as your Vee camp shot. We camped along the rock wall in the first image of the set. ...David

Trailblazer,

Those shots are spectacular. What is your camera setup? They are truely awe inspiring! I'm going to be there next week. Your pictures have me anxious to get out there.
Was there fish at Vee Lake? and what type of fishing rig were you using on Bear Creek?

Our itinerary:
Leaving on the 17th out of Florence and making a loop trip. We are circumnavigating Seven Gables.
First night at the hot springs in Blaney Meadows
Second night at Merriam Lake
3rd & 4th night at Vee Lake
5th night at Sandpiper Lake
6th night Hooper Lake
Then down to Jackass Meadow and back to Florence Lake

It's my first time to this area. Thanks for any info from you or anyone else on this forum.

Vic

Trailblazer, I really enjoyed your night shots. They have an almost mystical quality to them. Makes me want to be there right now. What can kind of camera do you use?

Great shots, and I enjoyed quite a few of your TRs/albums on your site. But I've gotta ask: What's up with the shot of your foot at the bottom of the homepage?!?! Dude, NEVER put your foot in boiling water!! That's GOTTA hurt!

Enjoyed the photos I perused on your website! I have also stopped to put out someone's abandoned campfire. The amazing part was that the creek was not more than ten steps away. Then we got in a casual converstion with some folks at the trailhead and discovered they were the ones who had left a smouldering bed of ashes that was sending up a plume of smoke when we found it. I believe they did not understand what the problem was and I will not repeat what I said to them......
But back to the beauty.....I have been up Seven Gables from Sandpiper Lake and looked down into the basin below but the lakes were frozen and covered with snow. Perhaps I will get there some day.

Thank you everyone! That area was really, really amazing. I'd love to get back to explore some more. There were a lot of people up there though for it being off trail.

Doug395, definitely hard to head home so quickly.

SSSdave, I could see why this was one of your fav. basins. I was awestruck exploring this area.

Vic & rightstar, I've got a digital Rebel XT with some fancy lenses and a tripod to boot. Not too heavy :retard:

vic, I was using panther martin spinners. Fishing at vee lake was, well...you'll see

SteveB wrote:Great shots, and I enjoyed quite a few of your TRs/albums on your site. But I've gotta ask: What's up with the shot of your foot at the bottom of the homepage?!?! Dude, NEVER put your foot in boiling water!! That's GOTTA hurt!

I think its time to remove that - my feet haven't looked like that in 10 years.

huts, I've met people like that on the trail too. Quite disheartening.

Thanks again everyone.