TR - Young Lakes and Mt. Conness - 6/14-6/16
Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2013 6:29 pm
I'm almost embarassed to post this since it's such a short and common trip.
A friend had a permit for TM, and I had a jonesing for backpacking. We drove from the Bay Area to Hodgdon Meadow, had a beer in the dark, then crashed. Up Friday morn and off to TM. The scrum picking up permits were mostly heading southward or to Glen Aulin. We figured we'd have much company regardless.
We took the Dog Lake trail on our way out. I was pleasantly surprised by the scenery, especially at the crossing of Dingley Creek, where you get a view from Banner to Hoffman. Up toward camp, Mt. Conness lurked. We had a couple of bad swarms of itsy bitsy but nasty skeeters on the trail. Mostly we had a breeze stiff enough to keep them at bay. The swarms of tourists never materialized, either. We saw one tent at the lower lake, and shared upper Young Lake with two parties of two.
My partner carried a flask of Taliskers. Good man! We sipped as the sun set. The next morning we were up bright and early. Well, early. There is a use trail much of the way up, but there is an extended talus/scree slog that makes things a tad unpleasant. At least it was a scenic slog. The tricky part of the climb is a ridge with some full-retraction exposure on either side. Before that, there are structures from Professor Davidson's "occupation" of Mt. Conness. For history geeks, this is a fun read:
http://books.google.com/books?id=8wINAQ ... &q&f=false" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I didn't read this until after the trip. Instead, we heard about it from the ranger at the permit station. Good man! As my partner decided his family needed him more than they needed a life insurance payout, he stayed at the lower camp to marvel at the scenery while I climbed to the top. Normally the upper part of the climb is straightforward. This year, the shallow steps built by Davidson's team ended in a patch of steep snow near the top. Rather than risk the snow up, I did some class 3 to the left. On the way down, I risked the snow and slid a bit to a nice platform of a rock with no real exposure. On the way back we crossed the creek and went up to the bench behind the ridge to the north of the lake. It was a scenic diversion. We went to some notches in the ridge and found a couple of steep but manageable talus slopes. More Taliskers, a pleasant evening, and the next day we had an easy hike out and a tedious drive back to the surreal world.
A friend had a permit for TM, and I had a jonesing for backpacking. We drove from the Bay Area to Hodgdon Meadow, had a beer in the dark, then crashed. Up Friday morn and off to TM. The scrum picking up permits were mostly heading southward or to Glen Aulin. We figured we'd have much company regardless.
We took the Dog Lake trail on our way out. I was pleasantly surprised by the scenery, especially at the crossing of Dingley Creek, where you get a view from Banner to Hoffman. Up toward camp, Mt. Conness lurked. We had a couple of bad swarms of itsy bitsy but nasty skeeters on the trail. Mostly we had a breeze stiff enough to keep them at bay. The swarms of tourists never materialized, either. We saw one tent at the lower lake, and shared upper Young Lake with two parties of two.
My partner carried a flask of Taliskers. Good man! We sipped as the sun set. The next morning we were up bright and early. Well, early. There is a use trail much of the way up, but there is an extended talus/scree slog that makes things a tad unpleasant. At least it was a scenic slog. The tricky part of the climb is a ridge with some full-retraction exposure on either side. Before that, there are structures from Professor Davidson's "occupation" of Mt. Conness. For history geeks, this is a fun read:
http://books.google.com/books?id=8wINAQ ... &q&f=false" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I didn't read this until after the trip. Instead, we heard about it from the ranger at the permit station. Good man! As my partner decided his family needed him more than they needed a life insurance payout, he stayed at the lower camp to marvel at the scenery while I climbed to the top. Normally the upper part of the climb is straightforward. This year, the shallow steps built by Davidson's team ended in a patch of steep snow near the top. Rather than risk the snow up, I did some class 3 to the left. On the way down, I risked the snow and slid a bit to a nice platform of a rock with no real exposure. On the way back we crossed the creek and went up to the bench behind the ridge to the north of the lake. It was a scenic diversion. We went to some notches in the ridge and found a couple of steep but manageable talus slopes. More Taliskers, a pleasant evening, and the next day we had an easy hike out and a tedious drive back to the surreal world.