Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 12:46 pm
GB, what trip rated as the best ever?
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You can probably guess this one: It would be Dumbbell Lakes in late July 1993. At the time my wife and I considered starting a family and she asked me if there was any place that was so outrageously inacessible that I had never seriously planned to visit it (you need to keep in mind this was the year after we had done Edyth, too). Her rationale was that we should go there on a trip and then get down to starting a family. I replied that in high school a friend and I, looking over topo maps (would have been 1976), had referred to the Dumbbells as the "helicopter lakes" owing to their inacessibility. Accordingly, we headed for the Dumbbells. Day 1 took us to Dusy 11393 (no brainer for fishing nuts). Day 2 suffered a delay as I inadvertantly launched my rod tip into the depths of icy 11393 (tip section ejected itself AND snapped the line doing it). It took a serious dredging operation with multiple lures for me to snag the lead line guide and rescue my fishing for the trip. We headed over Knapsack Pass and then made a studpendous mist-drenched slot canyon descent to Deer Meadow (included one hairy crossing of a side stream above a waterfall, at the head of the slot canyon section--runoff was very high that weekend and we were perpetually drenched from multiple stream crossings). Because of the delay we did not reach Amphitheater Lake as planned that day. On day 3 we nearly gave up. Barrett Creek was an extremely wet crossing and Palisade Creek was not even close to wadable--it had fatally high flow. Just before giving up we found a giant magic log that gave us access to the other side. We then thrashed through the deadfall steeplechase along lower Cataract Creek, then had to make three more very wet stream crossings before reaching Amphitheather. Gazing up at the pass it looked like we were sunk again--the pass was guarded by multiple cornices--even the "alternate" northern class 3 bypass. Having come so far we decided to look at the cornices up close and personal before giving up. It turned out we were able to find a crack between the rock and the left hand side of a minor northern cornice. We were able to jam wiggle this crack, the most physically difficult single move I've ever done with a full pack. After that we were home free. The next day we explored the basin and climbed Observation Peak when the fishing was so good we got bored. On day 5 we decided to add an extra layover day because we enjoyed lounging around in the basin so much (consequences later). On day 6 we explored that wonderful frog-filled lake west of Observation, then returned, pulled up camp and moved to Amphitheater. Enough of the cornice had melted so the wiggle crack was much easier (walk through). We had motel reservations in Bishop the next day, so the extra layover day set up our greatest "dismount" ever. Amphitheater to South Lake in one shot via Knapsack Pass. I remember jogging the last 1.3 mi to Parchers Camp to get the car (left my pack and wife waiting at the trailhead). As a result of that trip, having kids kept get putting off; it wasn't until 2002 that we had our first one.maverick wrote:GB, what trip rated as the best ever?