trip report: Pioneer Basin

[KathyW]

You may have just posted a link to a photo posting site. Back then snownymph and a few others here posted on the old webshots.com.

So you climbed Crocker. Nice self portrait. Image 1 looking down from the north ridge onto Golden Lake which we visited in 2011 while camping at the little bench below. A delightful pristine place far from trails to basecamp at. On this latest trip was going to climb up to the ridge view for an image toward Red Slate but figured it will be better when I return while snow still decorates the landscape.

This evening just completed a spreadsheet for a leisurely 9-day base camping trip back to that area I'll paste a bit from below. Given an average winter, probably the same time as the board's Kern trip but way easier. Wildflowers ought to be peaking with turf greenest, and patches of snow still on the peaks. Then a couple weeks later may do Shepherd or Taboose when they are more likely to be peaking. But I have quite a queue of trip choices to consider. Found the perfect campspot to spend the layover days at. Actually day 7 is mostly in the basin too and will leave about 6pm after shade hits lake 2. Some impressive potential frames in that basin and a lot of interesting places to explore.

Day Destination Elev
TH Edison Reservoir ferry 7,640
1 Mono Creek 8,400
2 Lower Hopkins Lake 10,360
3 Fourth Recess Lake 10,160
4 Pioneer B Lake #4 10,870
5 layover 10,870
6 layover 10,870
7 Mono Creek 9,200
8 Mono Creek 8,180
9 Edison Reservoir ferry 7,640


Day up down dis
1 1,215 455 5.7
2 2,010 50 5.2
3 710 910 4.1
4 860 150 2.9
5 0 0 0.0
6 0 0 0.0
7 0 1,670 3.5
8 70 1,110 4.7
9 455 975 3.9
total 5,320 5,320 30.0

I actually didn't go to the summit of Crocker - I had only been backpacking a year or two when I did that Pioneer Basin trip; so just getting up to that ridge next to Crocker was enough excitement for me.

I like your trip plans, you're lucky to be able to do those long trips. Between work and my pets, I am typically stuck with just long weekends and an occasional slightly longer trip. Just a few more years and I'll have a lot more time on my hands, and I'm looking forward to that.

I'd like to go in at Edison to do Seven Gables and Gemini - that's next year for sure. If you're saying that peak flower time could be around the third week in July in that area, I probably should look at that time for of year for my trip starting at Edison next year.

If you were heading out now for a three day backpacking trip in the Sierra, where would you go? I'm asking because I'm trying to figure out where to go on Thursday this week. I have thought about going over Puite Pass again and into Desolation Lake. From there I could do the hike up to Four Gables, which should be easy even with a dusting of snow. I'm just not sure if that's what I want to do though.

[SSSdave]

From Bishop get a permit for Lower Horton Lake, then drive out on the Buttermilk Road. Also Buttermilks have fine creekside areas to disperse camp at within sagebrush during this time of year. Some nice aspen in the lower Horton canyon. Next morning you could climb class 2 slopes up to Basin Mtn or you could take the Hanging Valley trail up to the Mt Tom ridge. At this time of year the sun rises due east so warm rays hit 12806 early. I'm likely to be down in the Bishop area before next weekend to work aspen areas though all my work will be day trips.

[KathyW]

Horton Lakes and Basin Mtn are a good idea. I've been up there to do Mount Tom and then just up to the lake in the fall when the leaves were yellow and again in the spring when the lake was still frozen. I've never made it all the way up to Basin though; so that's a very good idea.

These are the trips I've narrowed down to, but I never seem to make up my mind until the last minute these days:

Piute Pass - Desolation Lake - Four Gables

Roads End to - Grouse Lake - Goat Mountain

Birch Lake Trail - Birch Lake - The Thumb

Horton Lakes Trail - Horton Lake - Basin Mtn

[cgundersen]

Hi Dave,
Based on this and several of your preceding TRs, you could probably make a pretty decent living serving as a tour guide. Or, on the lecture circuit. Hugely informative!
For me, perhaps the most noteworthy feature from your photos was the dearth of snow. I've typically been accustomed to having snow highlights on that splendid array of big peaks that are visible to the south of Pioneer, and, of course, in early season, it's loaded with flowers. If Mav had not settled on Wright Lakes for the HST meet-up, Pioneer would have been a great option, too!

I also liked your exchange with Kathy. Her stitched panorama shot from the northern ridge up toward Red & White and Red Slate gave a good feel for the sensational vistas and striking geology. Thanks for a great read!
Cameron

[SSSdave]

Thanks appreciated.

Well maybe not guiding but yeah given my huge photography body of work, as I near retirement age, may indeed get into lecturing as well as writing to complement exhibitions since I enjoy speaking to groups especially kids. Back as a young adult I always thought Galen Rowell's humble slide show events before he became famous were very welll received.

Also enjoy company and conversation of others fascinated by natural history. The majority of mountain enthusiastis tend to have rather limited knowledge of what they are looking at because they are content to enjoy their experiences in narrow familiar ways. Not only backpackers but also climbers and photographers. Typically most can only describe rocks up between granite, volcanic, sandstone, and metamorphic. Not that some like Muir have always been eager to know more and wonder. And even many of those who enjoy looking at plants, wildflowers, and trees can barely describe trees beyond, pine, fir, oak, brush, or willow, or flowers beyond a common name list countable on a single hand's fingers or anything about structure beyond, petals, stems, and leaves. Once a person learns more, a world opens up vast depth and awe.

I had a 9-day trip planned to base camp in Pioneer this late July when greenery and wildflower peak but my bro will be bound to business concerns so won't be able to break away for more than a few days. We were going to come in from Edison. Instead may either do another shorter solo trip up and over Mono Pass or something else. Have 3 weeks of PTO to fit in somehow and a long list of trips planned in nauseating detail.