mystery of Burro Lake

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Re: mystery of Burro Lake

Post by giantbrookie »

rlown wrote:Thanks for the post GB. so 9" stunted brookies.. good pan fodder i guess.. What about Virginia and the lakes to the North on the way in?
Can't say I've fished too much in the Virginia chain. My bro hit Frog Lakes and caught a bunch of smallish brookies there on the way out to the Virginia Lakes trailhead after Excelsior. My wife and I camped at Summit in June 1994 on our way back out from an interesting big brookie lake in the interior of the Park. Although we found the setting on the crest of the range nice (quite a novelty to camp on the crest while at a lake) we caught only smallish brookies. In Blue I've only caught fish to about 9", but the fish are not skinny and I'll bet the fish get bigger there.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: mystery of Burro Lake

Post by SSSdave »

Excuse me if anyone had trouble accessing the links in my above post. Seems I didn't take care of changing all .JPG files to small capital .jpg extensions that some UNIX servers would barf on. They all ought to display now on all browsers.

Image

I'm guessing giantbrookie's backdoor saddle route is the above that I named Burro Col as the only other reasonable spot would be the big talus slide above the lake that has an ugly steep section on both the topo and Google 3D image:

Image

The col requires a modest 700 feet to top, has a short 40 to 80 foot section that topo measures over 80% grade ( about 40 degrees) and appears to be loose metamorphic scree. Unlike granite scree, metamorphic scree tends to often be more apt to slide and dangerous, especially the steeper. Thus without input from others, I would not have bothered to try that route and instead done the much more vertical from Lundy. Normally the strategy is to ginergerly climb such scree away from the center of its slide paths where it is against bedrock. Of course from year to year if such slides have been active, conditions may get worse or better.

There are two main impediments to reaching Burro Lake from Lundy Falls where just above its creek confluences with Mill Creek. As shown in the image in my previous post, there is considerable green (likely mainly willow-alder brush) on that route along the creek itself. My map link above shows the direct creek route to be over 75% grade steep for about 200 feet at "Grab Bush Ravine" while a subtle terrace at 9040 feet on the rib just east is only that steep for about 40 feet. Thus I would choose this latter approach than the direct creek.

The second impediment is more serious. Above this lower section 1200 feet above the canyon bottom at 9400 feet is what I've dubbed Burro Hole. The map shows talus and scree burrying the creek there. Following the creek (purple line) shows 600 willowy brushy moderately steep feet then 200 feet of quite steep 70% to 80% grade, and finally at what I call the Burro Creek Headwall, 200 feet of genuine 80% to 100% grade slope that is likely mostly bedrock. However by going right in the creek, one might be able to grab onto the brush for safety. Such slopes are regularly climbed by savvy climbers, but carrying a backpack makes steeps much more scary as they tend to pull one backward away from rock and weight shifts are tricky to contain. Above the headwall, the gradient changes to gradual for several hundred yards through a narrows. However as giantbrookie noted it is unpleasant talus as the slope west above is very steep. Finally one arrives at what I show due to its map shape as Hotdog Lake (gcj above pic of "small lake downstream). There is another smaller roundish lake a bit further I show as Meatball Lake.

Instead of following the ugly steep creek, the more reasonable route I worked on (pink line) is via what I show in the pic in my above post as Burro Gully. That route near the bottom has one quite steep 70% grade section for about 40 to 80 feet of vertical at most within a steep 600 foot section before relaxing. Despite a lower gradients beyond the bottom, the gully is choked with talus and scree due to steeps on either side of it. Would expect it to be much like climbing through similar rock areas about Convict Creek canyon.

Image

Note I have a spreadsheet chart one can download on the following link that assists measurement of slope steepness on USGS topographic map:

http://www.davidsenesac.com/Information ... ation.html
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Re: mystery of Burro Lake

Post by Rockstar fisherman »

Wow, we've gotton a lot more info this time around than when I originally asked about this lake that beckons me to visit it. I feel the same way, for some reason this place keeps telling me to "Come here!"

Don't know if this will help with all the great info in this thread but here's my thread from last year, it was also kinda my introduction to this forum as well.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3418" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mike
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Re: mystery of Burro Lake

Post by rlown »

Thanks Rockstar.. missed the earlier post. Still looks like a nice lake to go to, and maybe lots of lil' protein in the water to enjoy with the scenery.. I'm still thinking if i did it, it'd be from the North, despite the skree/talus slope.. almost looks like a rock glacier from that approach, but i'm not a geologist.
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Re: mystery of Burro Lake

Post by SSSdave »

Rockstar, all my searching outside hst never got a hit on your earlier post either for some reason. Search engines are odd like that sometimes so ought not be too trusted.

If one is just going to Burro Lake, then there is not all that much difference in total vertical to climb whether coming in from Virginia Lakes or Lundy. From Lundy the climb from 8200 to 10550 is all up or 2350 feet then all down. From Virginia one starts at 9850 via a longer more gradual mostly trail hike, climbing up to 11250 or 1400 feet but then on the way out must climb up another 700 feet from the lake for a trip total of 2100 feet. So the difference might be which route has less painful steeps? Giantbrookie has made a case for the VL route. In my situation, I have other photo reasons besides the Burro basin to go up from VL towards Virginia Pass in the late July through mid August period so now that the Burro Col route sounds more doable will opt for that.

At this point I'm even more interested in going up there than when I started this thread so have decided to put it near the top of my list for next year. To take care of both my targets, I will need at least 3 days and if I haven't any domestic issues limiting that would rather do it as a more releaxed 4-day trip with 2 in that basin in order to take care of what-ifs like weather. If any others on this board with solid offtrail skills have an interest in joining me (independently with their own travel, permit ,etc) I'm open to a sharing the effort.
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Re: mystery of Burro Lake

Post by Rockstar fisherman »

Well you titled this topic perfectly, the mystery of Burro Lake. I've only been able to google one image of the lake which I saved and found out pretty much everything else that you did about the place. It sure looks beautiful and like it has some awesome camping there as well. Oneday I'll have to try this place out. More for the conqueor than the fishing from what it sounds, but I'll still fish it.

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Re: mystery of Burro Lake

Post by SSSdave »

This last while I worked on one of my basin maps discussed on the following thread that includes the Burro Lake Basin.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4708

I cropped out a 2424 x 1824 pixel section of the full 3200 x 4000 pixel map so any of you interested in the basin can freely download and print it out if desired. With the print scaling set for 210 pixels per inch, the map will provide 1050 pixels per mile over a map distance of 5.0 inches. Note the full map has a key mentioned in the above thread but that is not part of this crop area and includes the upper Virginia Creek headwaters basin and the Green Creek headwaters. The map crop jpg is 1.9mb at this link:

http://www.davidsenesac.com/_a-z_evad/burro_lake1.jpg
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Re: mystery of Burro Lake

Post by doughunt »

Mysterious is a good description of Burro. In the early 70's my folks, Lee and Beth Hunt, owned Lundy Lake Resort on the east shore of the lake and on the site of the town of Lundy which supported the operation of the Mae Lundy mine in the 1880s. There's a lot to explore in this magical canyon. Having moved from Anaheim California this high country was all new to us and we were anxious to do some hiking. Maybe it was the extreme challenge of the trek that incited the locals to give up this secret treasure to the 'flat landers'. My brother Steve and I packed our gear and started up the boulder field just east of Burro's outlet at Mill Creek. The effort was well worth it. I had never been in such a serene place. I was so impressed with the experience that I wrote down this song as soon as we returned. The following expresses my feeling of this mystical place:

Sierra Song

High in the mountain where the country lies still
you only talk to the wind
Black fingers reaching up into the sky,
make bed on a sleepy knoll

Sometimes I'm crying, sometimes I'm dancing
sometimes I shout and no one hears
Morning skips along a sparkling stream
with night fall the image fails

Flowers grow wild in patches of blue,
dwarf pine gnarled and old
You haunt me and you love me
and you leave me alone...

Sometimes I'm crying, sometimes I'm dancing
sometimes I shout and no one hears
Sometimes I feel like I'm lost in a song
with only one place to go

--Doug Hunt
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Re: mystery of Burro Lake

Post by balzaccom »

Never been there, but there is a use trail off the Virginia Lakes Pass trail, just before you get to the pass, as I recall. Looks perfectly hikable from there, but we were headed over to Soldier and Return lake....
Check our our website: http://www.backpackthesierra.com/
Or just read a good mystery novel set in the Sierra; https://www.amazon.com/Danger-Falling-R ... 0984884963
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Re: mystery of Burro Lake

Post by broggerp »

Been there three times.
Agree with giantbrookie's first post on this thread: Go to the top of the trail out of Virginia Lakes trail (past Frog Lakes) and turn south -- it's a short walk to the rim. Circle toward the west until the loose orange stuff to the northwest, then down into the bowl lying behind the lake. From there it's boulder-hopping to the shore. I exited the lake with the outflow, rode the loose stuff down, then a routine descent until a real struggle finding a way through the quakies along the Lundy Creek trail. (Spending some extra time heading east while going down one may be able to avoid this last bit -- but I've yet to succeed at that.)
First time I went, we tried climbing the boulder field to the east of the lake, rather than the loose stuff on the outflow side. Either way up is a heartbreaking pain -- the Virginia Lakes approach is far superior. (Of course, exiting via Lundy Canyon usually requires a separate drop-off or pick-up trip.)
The lake itself is a gem, and for me warranted repeat visits.
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