Trip Advice - Rae Lakes Loop via Sixty Lakes and Rae Col

[lmartire]

Hey all,


This is my first time posting after a while lurking.

I am trying to plan out a 5-day 4-night (or perhaps 6-day 5-night) 87-km backpacking trip roughly following the Rae Lakes Loop (see my CalTopo route) around August.

The first day would be 10km because we would have to drive from far away; then 20km/day the next 3 days; then 16km the last day. Shorter days may be possible if we can spare another day or two.

The logic behind Sixty Lakes Col is to get a view of the Gardiner Basin; the route avoids continuing down the Gardiner Basin Trail to Charlotte Lake because of length and because of many people reporting annoying shrub that way.

The general route is based on ideas/feedback in this thread and this thread, and some other blogs outside of HST. The only cross-country part is the cut via Rae Col, which is based on this thread.

An important question I have is whether or not we should be expecting ice cover at that time of year (August). As described in this thread, grampy had to turn away from Rae Col because of ice. However, this thread shows pictures without snow (albeit from 2017). The answer to that question might condition whether or not we try to go that way.

Some branches of the route could be cut off to save some distance if we need to - Baxter Lake, Sixty Lakes Col, or at worst the entire Sixty Lakes area.

I know that, at the time of posting, Kanawyers is inaccessible. I am working on an alternate version of this trip coming from Onion Valley, and hoping the road to Kanawyers re-opens.

This is very much a rough draft still, so please do let me know what you think of this route - any advice would be very appreciated.


Kind regards, cheers!

[Wandering Daisy]

I am not sure what you are asking. Are you saying you want to peek into Gardiner Basin over Sixty Lakes Col but not go out down the drainage and over the pass to Charlotte Lake. Or do you want to drop into the lakes so are you worried about the Gardiner side of the pass? and then go back out the same way and on to the Rae Lakes Loop? IS that correct? It sounds like you should just go into Sixty Lakes Basin and give it a try, and if you cannot make it, you still have a nice day in Sixty Lakes Basin. If you can get over the col, I would highly recommend camping and day-hiking. There is an unnamed lake just below the large Gardiner Lake that has amazing reflections. Once down Sixty Lakes Col, go around the large upper lake on the left shore to the outlet. Lots of talus but just tedious. The other shore is nasty. Camping at this outlet is also quite nice.

I have been over the pass twice and never had any problems with snow or ice. I would be surprised if this winter ends up more than a bit above average, if that. And if you have trouble with Sixty Lakes Col because of snow, you would likely also have snow on Glen Pass. In that case you may want to carry traction (crampons or micro spikes) anyway.

[ohlol]

An important question I have is whether or not we should be expecting ice cover at that time of year (August). As described in this thread, grampy had to turn away from Rae Col because of ice. However, this thread shows pictures without snow (albeit from 2017). The answer to that question might condition whether or not we try to go that way.

welcome

a suggestion that is hopefully helpful, but highly dependent on finding appropriate beta:

if you're unsure of potential conditions, try to map the current trend of SWC to a past trip report. using https://cdec.water.ca.gov/snowapp/swcchart.action, find a similar prior year(s) and then dig around for trip reports for the same area in those years.

for example, right now a report from last year is likely not super helpful because of how much more snow there was last year:



since you mentioned, 2017...by adding 2016-2017 to the graph, we might (MIGHT) gain understanding why even though both years had significantly more snow, the reports seem to differ:



this method is probably not universally applicable, but I do find it really helpful.

that said, as is often repeated, winter is not over:

[grampy]

Imartire -

The thread describing the particulars of Rae Col (July 2017, posted by cgundersen) might have simply been written up on that date by him, using photos taken in a prior year. Thinking back to 2017, it seems almost certain that some snow remained on Rae Col at that point in time. Perhaps Cameron G. could answer this if he reads it ?

That being said, I think you will probably have no major issues with snow by this August, given current snow levels (even if we catch up to an “average” snowfall by April).

On my trip last year, I probably could have continued over Rae Col without any major incident, but I tend towards over-caution, due to an uncontrolled snow-sliding incident in my past … I ended up being okay and uninjured, but it wasn’t something I want to repeat.

[Wandering Daisy]

OK now I am really confused. You talk of Sixty Lakes Col (it is the one between 60 Lakes Basin and Gardiner Lakes). Then you refer to Rae Col. Where is that? The route into the northern Sixty Lakes has a different name according to our HST map.

[grampy]

Rae Col is on a route between the tarns located just below the north side of Glen Pass, and lake WL 3353 in the upper Sixty Lakes.

[lmartire]

First of all, thanks all for the very quick feedback and responses!

Wandering Daisy, I suppose my text alone is not enough to explain what I mean, I relied a lot on my CalTopo route. In words, what I am currently planning is the following clockwise loop: Kanawyers → Paradise Valley → Woods Creek → Woods Creek South Fork → Baxter Lake out and back → Rae Lakes → Upper Sixty Lakes Basin Trail → Basin Notch out and back → Sixty Lakes Col out and back → Rae Col → Glen Pass → Bubbs Creek → Kanawyers. With nights peppered along the way.

Sixty Lakes Col is indeed only to take a peek into Gardiner Basin. Reading reports, I have been discouraged to continue down the Gardiner Basin (and looping back to Charlotte Lake through Gardiner Pass) as some would do.

The CDEC Water Resources page is a great tool, thanks ohlol! What is the second tool you used to display the temperatures, though? It seems similar to some other forecast pages I use, but I cannot seem to find this specific one.

Thanks also grampy for additional feedback. I suppose it is possible that cgundersen took pictures from an earlier year (after all, 2014-2015 was a minimum in snow). In any case, some light traction gear will indeed be planned, but I am wondering how much we will have to rely on it (which might convince us to change plans).

Overall, aside from the case of ice on the passes and the mileage covered, would this route seem reasonable to you all? No major hindrance I might be overlooking by accident? I am still very open to all feedback and advice, especially from the ones of you who have done parts of this route.

[ohlol]

The CDEC Water Resources page is a great tool, thanks ohlol! What is the second tool you used to display the temperatures, though? It seems similar to some other forecast pages I use, but I cannot seem to find this specific one.

It's https://www.mountain-forecast.com/. Super useful!

[Wandering Daisy]

It is a matter of personal preference, but I would drop the Baxter Lake side trip and instead focus more on Sixty Lakes and Gardiner Basin. But I have never been to Baxter Lake, so cannot comment on its "worthiness" as a side trip.

I agree that the loop completely through Gardiner is not appropriate for your time allowed, but a full day-hike down to lakes below Sixty Lake Col is well worth the effort even if you prefer not to actually camp down there. Camping at Rae Lakes can be very crowded. Sixty Lakes offers some privacy. The trail going into Sixty Lakes at the junction before the main trail goes up to Glan Pass would be my preference to get into a camp at one of the larger lakes on the south side of Sixty Lakes Basin. This would be a great base camp for day-hikes to Gardiner and exploring more of Sixty Lakes. I am not fond of Basin Notch. May as well take the more scenic, albeit crowded, Rae Lakes Trail to the junction below Glenn Pass to get to Sixty Lakes. Although I have not done it, Dragon Lake may be a good little side-trip. Another side-trip that is worthwhile in place of Baxter Lake, is Kearsarge Lakes.

I do not see any "red flags" regarding your route. You have a lot of options and can easily drop a side trip if needed.

Personally, I would not agonize too much over August snow conditions. Take a look at those DWR graphs in June to see how the snowmelt is going. We are getting towards "normal" but how the season ends can vary significantly- late spring snows and late melt as in 2006 or a hot spring where it all melts early.

photo below shows Gardiner Peak taken at a small lake just below the large lake you see when looking over Sixty Lakes col.

[Gazelle]

I agree baxter lake is not that great, dragon lake is fantastic trail to it and staying on it is sometimes hard to find.