Road to Sabrina / North Lake closed

[Teresa Gergen]

Landslides have closed the road above Aspendell as of this afternoon. They would not let me park anywhere along the road or walk in on the road tomorrow, despite having a permit. They said they expected it to take several days to reopen the road and that they might have to helicopter out the people stuck behind the slides.

[SSSdave]

On Google Earth I can see a use trail down in Aspendale that ascends from Cardinal Road up towards the NF of Bishop Creek cascades. It crosses a steep sagebrush slope and is quite visible. I would expect some in Aspendale would use that and may have been used by horses.

[dapperdave]

That makes me glad we bailed out of our planned trip on Friday having our rental car stuck behind a landslide would have been a nightmare given we have flights back to Europe next Friday.
We made it a mile past Piute pass and 2 heavy hail/rainstorms within an hour made the decision pretty simple, especially given the rivers running down the trail, the trail washout and the voracious mosquitoes in the rare times when it wasn't raining.
Dave

[Teresa Gergen]

They told me I couldn't park on Cardinal Rd and bushwhack.

I'd waited out 4 days of storms in Bishop. Glad I did. Also feel pretty bad for those who are stuck up there tonight and those who don't even know yet what they'll come out to between now and when they get the road open.

[austex]

I was up Coyote Flat Road the 12th and stayed overnight. It rained heavily for and hr or so and steadily for another 6. We decided to bail back down to the valley on the 13th. The road had a 3' deep by 2' gully down portions of the sandy road that was nearly impassible as it would cave in as we drove over it. Was a stressful journey down. There was some uphill traffic that well decided to turn around. There was a jeep up at Baker Creek that was probably still there for the w/e as we came down about 11 and there were no fresh tracks in front of us. It w/b a mess till the get equipment in there to move all of that on 168. Went back to Vegas via Westgard on the 17th and there was alot of dirt still across the road on the NV side of the Whites and Cal Trans activity cleaning it up.

[lauralai627]

I was up in Humphrey's Basin Thursday through Saturday in some crazy hail and thunderstorms. We were supposed to stay until Sunday but after having to hunker down in the tent for ~5-6 hours of storms every day, we decided to bail a day early - and thank goodness we did. Everything up in the Basin looked fine but coming down the pass the trail was completely flooded and lower down there were some huge slides that completely washed out the trail (and everything else in its wake, including huge trees and boulders). I didn't stop to take any photos because we were nervous about more slides but there were a lot of them and they were pretty big. Even if you could get to the trailhead, you may not want to go up, especially if there's more rain. We got off the trail around 8 pm and were relieved to find the road from North Lake still intact, but saw one big slide and a road closure in between the North Lake turn-off and Sabrina. We are so glad we got out when we did. Hope all the folks still up there are doing alright.

[SSSdave]

They told me I couldn't park on Cardinal Rd and bushwhack.

I'd waited out 4 days of storms in Bishop. Glad I did. Also feel pretty bad for those who are stuck up there tonight and those who don't even know yet what they'll come out to between now and when they get the road open.

http://www.highsierratopix.com/high-sie ... &cat=&mt=3

Teresa are you saying they told you there were no places to park on that road or that they did not want any more people up beyond the slide? One can absolutely park down at the junction with SR168 and from there, a walk up the road past the campgrounds is trivial. The trick is knowing where that trail is on GE as it won't otherwise be obvious and there is dangerous steep loose moraine otherwise. Although it is not hard to imagine someone behind a desk saying such, I doubt that is some actual lawful policy but just discouragement so their road repair isn't complicated by clueless bozos getting into trouble. And I would expect they may not be issuing new permits for North lake thus one would need a reserved permit to consider doing so. If I had a valid permit, I would park then go right up there on that use route, then up into the wilderness.

We are going to be up there in about a week and expect that road will be ok by then as the monsoon weather is set to back off for a few days by midweek. Otherwise would need to come in via Pine Creek. And we are obviously going to be in storm mode.

[maverick]

Inyo Co Sheriff's Dept:

At 2:41 PM, several large mudslides have closed SR-168 approximately 17 miles west of Bishop near the town of Aspendell. Reports of up to 50 people are stuck on the other side of the slides. CHP, Inyo County Sheriffs Department, and Caltrans are assessing the scene and are currently working on plans to evacuate the stranded campers. Currently Lake Sabrina, Sabrina Campground , North Lake, and North Lake Campgrounds are inaccessible due to the slide. Due to the size of the slide, SR-168 is closed indefinitely. The town of Aspendell is still accessible. Check the Caltrans website at http://www.dot.ca.gov/cgi-bin/roads.cgi or call (800) 427-7623 for road conditions. Updates will be posted when they come available.

[dgravlin]

Thanks for posting this information. I am taking a group into the Sabrina basin on Sunday, and then up and over Haeckel Col for a loop through Evolution, Darwin Bench, and back out through Lamarck of through the Bottleneck Drainage. That slide looks significant. Any info on when that road will be reopened, and on any other infrastructure damage in that area would be greatly appreciated.

[maverick]

Piute Pass also sustained some damage.
http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... 50#p138146

The rock slides on 168 is estimated to be 40' Deep and 100' long.