Snow Nymph wrote:I have never hiked up Pine Creek RE, and never had the desire to.
I suspect the water bar issue might bother you, too. My wife and I did Pine Creek twice in '92--once for the Royces and once for Bear Basin, after which, my wife, who at 5'1" is nine inches shorter than me, vowed never to go out of the trailhead again. I mean she literally had to use her hands to surmount quite a few of the water bars. One acquaintance of mine who was a superb death marcher (once as a part of his job he used to do regular round trip day hikes to Shepherd Pass), lost all chances of backpacking with us (he had asked me couple of times) when he said his favorite trailhead was Pine Creek. When my wife heard that, she said anybody who liked that trail so much would be too crazy and hard core for us (and, mind you, this is the same woman who lugged a full pack from Amphitheater Lake to South Lake in one day).
Yes, I think the Piute Pass approach is a fine alternative. Piute is a low elevation gain pass. There are plenty of excellent lakes just off that route that offer stellar fishing, too, so I would pick that route in a heartbeat over Pine Creek to get to the Pinnacles area.
Speaking of fishing, Sierra South gives the impression all of the lakes in the Pinnacles area are serious duds (have fish, but really small). I have a suspicion, however, that there are some lakes in that region not mentioned in Sierra South that might be worth a snoop.