TR - 4th recess - July 25, 2013

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overheadx2
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TR - 4th recess - July 25, 2013

Post by overheadx2 »

Some friends and I had planned on helping in the Larry search, but with cancelled we decided to get on the 405 and see if we could get a permit for Mono Pass and the 4th recess lake. We should have known the weekend would be interesting as the drive up started with this car pulling up beside us.

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We were able to get a permit and were soon heading up to Mono pass.
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Our initial plan was to head down to 3rd recess lake for a little more solitude, but as we started to talk with other hikers coming up as well as a packer, we found that a large group from mono lake had some how gotten a permit for 49 people down in 2nd recess with special fire permits. With so many folks at 2nd recess many hikers were pushing on to either 3rd or 4th recess in order to avoid the circus at 2nd recess. I was very disappointed to hear that there was a huge group in the area and we weren't advised of the excess permits when we received ours (it certainly would have changed my plans). The excess people made 4th recess a little crowded,
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so the next day we moved up to a small lake east of the Pioneer Basin lakes and were completely alone.
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Fishing at both 4th recess and Pioneer Basin was very active, but the size was lacking. The large lake just east of Pioneer had a very good bite with the fish being slightly bigger in the 8 to 12" range. Not what I was hoping for, but fun none the less. We then decided to do some XC exploration up to Golden lake before heading back over the pass on the fourth day.
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Turned out that there was a decent trail up and out of Golden lake,
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but with a lack of fish biting and many tadpoles in the outlet, we assumed our fishing day was done and decided to continue on to Ruby lake and have a nice easy day out the last day.
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On the way out, we were pelted by a hail storm
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and got stranded on the 395 for 2 hours while Caltrans cleaned up a flash flood. Over all we had a great trip, but some bigger fish are on the list for my next hike. Oh yeah, lots of smoke!! Phil
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jessegooddog
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Re: TR - 4th recess - July 25, 2013

Post by jessegooddog »

A special permit for 49 people in the wilderness?? Something is very very wrong here.
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maverick
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Re: TR - 4th recess - July 25, 2013

Post by maverick »

Thanks for the TR and pictures!
That is just way to many people, and in these conditions they should not be allowing fire
permits to anyone, period.
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Re: TR - 4th recess - July 25, 2013

Post by Carne_DelMuerto »

Wow, I thought it was packed in the 2nd Recess two weeks ago when our group of 8 ran into another group of 6-8 at Lower Mills Creek Lake. I think my head would have exploded if I saw a group of close to 50.

Thanks for the report.
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Re: TR - 4th recess - July 25, 2013

Post by caddis »

jessegooddog wrote:A special permit for 49 people in the wilderness?? Something is very very wrong here.
Unreal
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scrinch
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Re: TR - 4th recess - July 25, 2013

Post by scrinch »

That may be the Mono Native American clan who alternate Mono Pass and Paiute Pass on their annual trek over to the Mono HS area. We shared the Paiute trail with them about this time last year.

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