October backpack 10-15-21 to 10-16-21 and abort

[robertseeburger]

Well, I haven't done much in last month in the Sierra. But for each of the last five years, I have had at least one successful October Sierra backpack.
October isn't for everyone. In addition to the colder temperatures, the nights are so much longer.
But I have usually found a way to get out there. Being retired, I am flexible on dates. I monitor the weather closely and look for an opening.
Usually there is at least one period, after a storm has hit, for a last attempt at summer, and the weather can be quite nice.
This year...not so. There were storms from the beginning of the month and no openings presented themselves. Finally, it seemed like there was the opening I anticipated, starting on 10/15 and going on for a week, before a larger storm hit. At the same time, there was a storm that appeared to be north of most of the Sierra and it would miss us. As there was risk, my friend Gary and I hatched a plan to visit three different lakes, spanning, north of Yosemite, the Yosemite area, and then one near Bishop over a week. Each time we would re check weather.
As you can tell by the title, we did not complete the trip.

But we did get our first leg in, so here goes. This will be a short TR

Destination...a popular lake north of Yosemite and south of Tahoe near the PCT.

We made it up to trailhead on 10/15 and the weather, as expected, was beautiful.
A view north shortly after starting the hike.

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And the view as we got closer to destination. Cold crisp air..no smoke! We could have been hiking in shorts.

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There were still some remnants of the last storm. This had cleared out most of the hikers. One of the benefits of hiking in October.

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The lake was set against a western oriented ridge. We got there at around 4PM and the sun had already set. It got cold quickly.

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The next morning it was also clear. No clouds which was good. We set about to do some fishing.

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The drought had obviously impacted the size of the lake. The level is way down from where it had been previously.

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A view across the lake..

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I went to fish.. and this is what I found. In 50 years of fishing, this has never happened to me.
I NEVER carry a duplicate reel or a duplicate rod. Well almost never. I had decided that I was going to replace the reel because it had been worn out
in other areas. And in this case, I had a second reel me. Kind of a good karma thing to have a second reel available the only time one breaks.

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It didnt do me much good though. The biggest fish I caught was a 7 incher.
Gary on the other hand did much better.
Here is his best a 16 1/2 inch cutthroat.

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Some trout slowly swimming in the lake.

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OK, it was a beautiful day of fishing. We saw a couple of deer hunters in the area.
We left with the sun shining on Saturday , the next day 10/16. We planned to drive to the next trailhead. And then hike up to lake number 2 and spend a layover day there. All was good. It was 7:00 Saturday evening by the time we got a cell signal to check the weather.
( Yes we could have checked the weather with our Garmin/Inreach devices, but we knew we were going to drive, so we didnt..just decided to get from our cell phones.) This is what we saw.

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I have been looking at weather.gov for years now as a technique to monitor the weather for backpacking trips.
I have never seen 85mph as potential wind speed. We knew that the weather was changing and that is why we hatched the original plan to hit 3 separate lakes with three separate entries over one week instead of a longer trip. I was actually hoping to get into Kings Canyon from Florence Lake but abandoned that thought because the weather seemed to be changing so fast.

So there we were driving to the campsite when this report came up. I read it to Gary who was driving, kind of stunned. We both agreed. Abort.
No sense torturing ourselves. And as we discussed it, we also discussed risk. Usually when looking at weather it is just thinking about weather it interrupts enjoyment. We both agreed this was going to be too cold, too windy..and perhaps even dangerous to be there.
We pulled into the campsite, and instead of getting ready for the next couple of days of backpacking, pulled out a bottle of wine, and started
discussing various options for backpacking in the sierras ( and the winds) ....for 2022.

[c9h13no3]

Get it while it's good, get out when it ain't. Well played sir .

[balzaccom]

I agree. And you got two good days. Nice work.

[giantbrookie]

Gorgeous weather for the days your were out but I agree that is the one of the scariest weather reports I've ever seen. I would have certainly aborted if I saw that. With the apparently really big storm coming in now, it may in fact be time to start High Sierra daydreaming about 2022.

[Harlen]

I would have done the same had I seen that report-- wind is the worst! However, we had just reached the "Crown Lake of my dreams " on 10/17, and I had just struck out trying to fish it at 7: Dark- 30. We were keen to eat big Brookies, and to feed up the hungry dogs. It snowed like heck on and off all night, with crazy, freight-train wind sounds high above us... scary enough, but then it dawned a bluebird day-- not a cloud left above us, though there were wild, purplish cloud masses and lenticular (windy looking) clouds to the northeast-- right about where you and your friend were. So you can luck out, we enjoyed our white new world.

[Dwwd]

Good decision to abort. In addition to the potential hazardous exposure at high elevations as noted above, one also must consider feet of snow does make it hard to hike outward. And/or the car at the trailhead might be in a snow drift. But at least there was a couple of beautiful days with clear weather, awesome views.

[dave54]

I think most of us here are well past the point in our lives where we have the need to "tough it out" just to prove how badass we are.
Like everyone else, I have the gear to handle the weather, but why continue?
If it is no longer fun, then abort.