High Sierra Topix

Hey, Dusy Basin is high on my list to visit next week... GIVE ME PHOTOS, OR GIVE ME DEATH! Did you take any? How was the fishing? Goldens? Big?

August 10, 2006. Nelson Lakes, Dinkey Lakes Wilderness dayhike (elev. ~9000 feet at lakes). Sunny and clear w/o any clouds, fairly consistent breeze, with highs that felt like high 60's or so. This area is very boggy and marshy even at this time of the year. In spite of the breeze there were still some mosquitoes, but hardly clouds or swarms. Occasionally they'd come more or less singly, and there were fairly long stretches of time when they weren't around at all. I'd call this "mild". Bug net was not used, although I employed my standard long sleeve shirt and long pants. I sustained something like 5 bites or so, partly because I didn't pay much attention to defense (kill total probably less than 20). MAR=2. Also a fair number of annoying flies, too, but fortunately not of the biting variety.

BF:

Fishing was great. We used 2# test, 2# FC leader (fly & bubble). Fish were small, 6-9 inches. Not certain if there were more goldens or brook, due to being ignorant. One lake in particular had the fiestiest fish. Took plenty of pics, will try to post soon.

I know the place gets a lot of traffic, but we ventured off a bit and had lots of solitude. Only waved to a couple other people, never got within earshot to talk.

Have a great trip, hope you are as fortunate as we were.

DJG wrote:BF:Fishing was great. We used 2# test, 2# FC leader (fly & bubble). Fish were small, 6-9 inches. Not certain if there were more goldens or brook, due to being ignorant. One lake in particular had the fiestiest fish. Took plenty of pics, will try to post soon.

You mention "middle ledges" of Dusy, I presume you didn't fish the uppermost lake(s). I seem to recall that all but the uppermost ones are brookie-dominated with small fish; the upper one does inded have good sized fish-- mainly rainbow-golden hybrids, but with comparatively pure rainbows and goldens there too. I suspect this is the lake Buck was thinking of when he asked about goldens and whether or not there were big fish.

In that case, to clarify, we did not fish any of the upper lakes. We fished only the lower set of lakes below Knapsack Pass at the bottom of Dusy Basin (except the last one at the box end of the basin). We camped at the bottom of the basin, in a ways off the trail, up above the bottom lakes.

Sorry if I didn't get it or am not getting it now. Hope this helps.

Dan

Just got back from a 4 days backpacking trip (8/10-8/13) from Tenaya Lake thru Sunrise Lakes and out to Cathedral Lakes, Yosemite NP.

Mosquitoes were not as bad (no swarming) as what the Ranger informed us when we picked up our permit. MAR = 3 out of 10. We were below 10K the entire time so that may have helped. I got ony about a dozen bites (they loved me) and only applied DEET moderately twice a day, once in the morning and once at night.

The gnats?? must have hatched while we were there. By the fourth day they were everywhere especially in the meadow areas. At least they don't bite so I would take them over the mosquitoes any day. The fishing were terrible both at Sunrise and Cathedral.

All in all a great trip with perfect weather (sunny and low wind) and tons of wild flowers in full bloom (lupines, owl clovers, lilies, few indian paint brush etc...). Really appreciate all the great reports here. It helped ease our fear a few days before our trip especially with our two sons ages four and six accompanied us.

Kim

Just got back from Big Pine Lake area to climb Cloudripper. With all the wildflowers still going on, except the lupine and shooting star, which are gone or beyond peak, I expected to have to deal with alot more mosquitos than I did. Even in the real wet areas of the trail, they were less than moderate. They were a little worse higher up near sixth and seventh lakes, but I never felt swarmed. Guess the worst is over for this season.

My wife and I just finished a 6 night, 7 day backpacking trip in Kings Canyon NP. While the mosquitos never swarmed while we were there, they were bad enough that we wore our mosquito nets most of the time. The mosquitos were everywhere: Flower Lake, Kearsarge Lake, Charlotte Lake, Rae Lakes, and Sixty Lake Basin. Whenever the wind picked up, they weren't around anymore and we could relax. However, when the wind stopped, they would come back. The worst mosquitos were at Flower Lake. That's where we got bitten the most. In the evenings when we got into our tent, we had to kill on average, a dozen mosquitos. We hated having to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom since whenever we opened our tent, another dozen mosquitos would come in. There were no mosquitos above the treeline so whenever we crossed the passes, Kearsarge and Glen, we didn't have to wear our nets. I don't like wearing deet so what I did was wear long pants and a long shirt. If you go now, just be sure to bring a net with you. The mosquitos are by no means as bad as they were a month ago. So if you cover yourself and eat when the wind is up, you'll have no problems.

In mid-August 2006 in the southern part of Mineral King (Hockett Meadow-Blossom Lakes-Ansel Lake), there were barely any mosquitoes.

On a 10 scale with 5 an average year, 10 the worst, 1 the least (like 1989 drought year) I peg this summer where I've been an 8. Mosquitoes are still pretty much a nuisance in places in normal years they'd long been gone from. However my destinations have generally been where wildflowers are in peak bloom, water if plentiful, and not those relatively mosquito free drier areas below those rising elevations.

Just completed backpack trips #4 to Shadow/Minaret Creeks and #5 to upper Rock Creek. Camping at areas all above 9.8k where a fair amount of melting snowfields were draining down from higher slopes with lots of wet meadows and streams. Below those elevations drier trail areas had few mosquitoes. But in wet marshy shadowed woods like along the Minaret Creek trail at 8.3k, there were many. At the camp elevations we needed to put on DEET about mid morning each day. Some areas as usual like those in the wind or far from vegetation had few squeeters while they were always ready to meet the visitors in mountain hemlock groves or meadows. Rock Creek wasn't as bad as Shadow so for most of the day I never applied any DEET, but they were always about annoyingly. By sundown which comes early in the deep north to south canyon of Rock Creek, they came out in modest numbers enough to make me sans DEET wear a headnet when sitting about in camp. Fortunately nightime temps dropped in the wee hours below freezing both nights which is a certain formula for clearing the air of the nightime menace. ...David