TR - 4th recess - July 25, 2013
Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 11:42 pm
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.
We were able to get a permit and were soon heading up to Mono pass.
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,
so the next day we moved up to a small lake east of the Pioneer Basin lakes and were completely alone.
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.
Turned out that there was a decent trail up and out of Golden lake,
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.
On the way out, we were pelted by a hail storm
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
We were able to get a permit and were soon heading up to Mono pass.
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,
so the next day we moved up to a small lake east of the Pioneer Basin lakes and were completely alone.
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.
Turned out that there was a decent trail up and out of Golden lake,
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.
On the way out, we were pelted by a hail storm
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