TR Pine Creek, Honeymoon Lake, Granite Park, Pine Creek Pass 6/3-6/7

[kpeter]

Beautiful to see an old familiar haunt at a different time of year than I am used to seeing it. Still quite a bit of snow. And what a lovely furry companion!

[Harlen]

Congratulations-- Great place, great trip!

What a fine looking dog you have; with a name like "Jasmine-Rose," does she get teased a lot by other dogs? Do you have a nice nickname for her when you need to call her quickly?

Thanks for the view into a favorite place, but I shuddered when you mentioned mosquitos at Honeymoon Lake, we remember them as very thick and fierce there.

[Love the Sierra]

@Harlen We call her Jas for short but I do mostly call her Jasmine Rose because the name is so pretty.
There was never a more improperly named dog! She is the sweetest, cuddliest girl I have ever known. However, she is also the fiercest hunter I ever owned, and I have had hunting Sams my whole life. She gets sprayed by skunks at least every couple of weeks and STILL GOES IN FOR THE KILL!! She loves the smell and, after I bather her, she will find the site of battle and roll in it! She is the stinkiest dog ever and only immediately after shedding does she lose her skunk smell.

[Harlen]

Love the Sierra, we are having a bit of fun around here at your dog's expense:

"Jasmine-Rooooo-ose," "Jasmine-Roooo-ose!" "Where ARE YOU Jasmine-Rose?! " ....... "Oh JASMINE, get off of that Skunk!!"

Nevertheless, she sounds like a great dog, and if she smells bad in the tent, she sure looks nice.

[Love the Sierra]

@Harlen That is pretty funny because her entire puppy-hood, I had so many “OMG Where is Jasmine?” Times with her! More than I could count. Several times, she was under our bed, just because she likes it there , not because she was scared of anything. …But she would not respond when called and I nearly died the first time.
Another time, she had been out, hunting of course, at night. She was barking and then all went totally silent. I have good fencing that goes 2’ underground and 6’ high to keep coyotes and rattlers out so I feel pretty safe letting them out at night. Additionally, we live on a very steep hill, so that on the yard side, the fence is 6’, on the other side, the fence is about 8’.
However, the sudden silence scared, me. I got up and went out and called and called. NOTHING. I became frantic searching the entire yard, (about 1/4 acre) Then I heard the tiniest whimper. I nearly died, again. I ran over to the sound and saw eyes glowing in the headlamp. OMG!!
Long story short, she had gone over the 6’ fence and, thank heavens, a cherimoya tree broke her fall. She was tangled in the branches. Needless to say, now we have raised the fences to 8’. She also catches all kinds of rodents and lizards and birds when they are still flying about 6’ in the air. SIGH, yes she is a good dog, but I will never really be able to trust her off leash on the trail. She gets so insanely focused on her pray that she cannot even hear me.
On the other hand, she is a good trail dog and loves the adventure. In the winter, she is a good, strong puller when mushing. That is important for me since I am now down to a one dog mushing team, sadly.

[Harlen]

Love the Sierra wrote:

We had wondered about this flat plateau from below. It was quite something

.

I too have seen and wondered about that plateau. I reckon it leads up to the mountain 4 Gables, which looks interesting on a map-- looks like it might be hard to locate the summit easily. Nice photos you took of the peaks above Granite Park and PC Pass. French Canyon may be one of our destinations this summer or fall.

Regarding your dog stories, I bet many of us can relate to the lost dog ones. Terrifying experience, and it doesn't really matter whether the dog was just sleeping under the deck, or running down the highway. So the daintily named Jasmine Rose is not only a skunk fighter, but a puller too?
I've tried that a bit too, and I remember it was hard not to run down the dog on the downhills. Thanks again for this nice TR posting, Ian.

[giantbrookie]

Beautiful report to a classic area. In most years one wouldn't think of doing this trip June 3-7! We've had such light winters the last two years. Best wishes to your daughter in her PhD work. I am sure this trip was a welcome breath of fresh air for her. I know well the pressures of academia from both sides (ie as a grad student and as an academician) and I am a great believer in the value of the reboot we get from getting up to the High Sierra (just returned from 4 days of stress relief myself in the E Sierra a smidge further south).

[Silky Smooth]

Looks like you had a fun trip, i really enjoyed your photo of royce and feather peaks. Jasmine Rose looks like a sweet heart, Banjo would love to meet her. Thanks for sharing your trip with us.