North Lake Loop options

[BardoPond]

My friend and I have a permit for Piute Pass (returning via Lamarck Col) for next week. We're shooting for 5-6 days. I'm looking at possible side trips and modifications to the standard loop via Piute Canyon and Evolution Valley. We will likely camp near Desolation Lake on day 1.

Some options I'm considering:
1. Day hike around Humphrey's Basin, then head back to Piute Canyon trail to continue the loop. We could include the Cony Lake trail to avoid retracing our steps.
2. Go over Puppet Pass, then down French Canyon to re-join the loop at Hutchinson Meadow.
3. Skip Evolution Valley: Puppet Pass, French Canyon, head back east via Piute Canyon, then Alpine Col.

I'd like to get a good mix of lakes, time spent above tree line, and pretty canyons. We don't fish. We're planning for an average of 10 miles/day with packs, plus a few miles of day hiking.

Some degree of solitude is preferred. We're heading out after July 4th for that reason, although I guess we'll still have to deal with PCT traffic.

How does the scenery in French Canyon compare with the stretch of Piute Canyon between the pass and Hutchinson? If we do the x-country route, we will also skip Golden Trout and Packsaddle. We could still visit Muriel and Goethe as a quick day hike from Piute Pass.

Is Evolution Valley worth doing the whole loop (vs cutting through Alpine)?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[Carne_DelMuerto]

Have you been to Darwin Bench before? If not, I'd consider keeping that as part of the loop. It's amazing.

Edit: Nevermind, I misread your post and thought you were considering not exiting Lamarck Col. Alpine Col is a talus slog, FYI.

[BardoPond]

Yes, the Alpine Col option is the least likely, but I put it in there in case we decide against too much "canyon time". In any case Darwin Bench is a must.

The main question right now is between options 1 and 2.

[wildhiker]

...Alpine Col is a talus slog, FYI.

And the talus rocks on the northwest side are the size of cars. This is the worst "class 2" pass I've ever done and I'm not ever going to repeat it. I went south to north; going the other way might be a bit easier ascending the talus.

If you do pick Alpine Col, you can camp on Darwin Bench and take a day-hike over to Evolution Basin. It's definitely worth seeing, in spite of the JMT crowds.

-Phil

[Wandering Daisy]

I have done Alpine Col from Darwin Bench to Goethe Lake. Glad I was going down north side! It is slow and talus is BIG, but with good route finding it is OK. Although big talus it is stable. You need to jump from one big block to another. I had to do some scouting and dead ended a few times. I did it late season when there was no snow. Conditions can be dangerous if snow is melting and gaps in the talus hidden by snow. Talus continues as you go along the west side of upper Gothe lake- keep low near the shore when possible.

Other option is Snow Tongue Pass, which I did not like. The talus on the north side of Snow Tongue is loose but smaller.

If you are in French Canyon a side trip to Merriam Lake is well worth an overnight there. This is a much easier option if you think you have "too much canyon time". In fact there are tons of side trips in Humphreys Basin that take you up into the higher country: Honeymoon Lake, Ramona Lake, Packsaddle Lake, the ring of lakes SE of Humphreys Pk, Marmot Lake being the southern one. Darwin Bench is better saved for another trip

[windknot]

I'd recommend option #2 over option #1. You'll already be at Desolation Lake, so it's pretty straight forward to continue over Puppet Pass, then loop down through French Canyon to meet back up with Piute Canyon. I think the scenery in French Canyon is worth the detour, especially because you'll already see a lot of Humphreys Basin on your way in. The lower part of Piute Canyon below Humphreys Basin looks a lot like the lower part of French Canyon below the Puppet bench. The views are better up high than down below.

If you want to minimize your time down in the canyons, you could do something like this:

D1/Over Piute Pass to Desolation
D2/Day hike over Puppet Pass into French Canyon
D3/Across Humphreys Basin to Honeymoon Lakes and around to Ramona, then contour SW around to unnamed lake 10907
D4/Cross the Glacier Divide over pass at 11720+ (easy), down to Lake 11236, and traverse SE/E above Evolution Valley to Lake 11092
D5/Traverse SE to Darwin Bench, then up to Darwin Canyon
D/Out over Lamarck Col

I did this loop over 8 days in 2012, but we fish so without fishing you could easily do it in 5-6 days (days 3-5 above could be shortened to two days depending on how fast you travel). Lots of beautiful lakes, amazing scenery, and you'll avoid the JMT crowds entirely. It is a lot of offtrail hiking, but nothing very difficult with the exception of the traverse from Ramona SW to Lake 10907 which is steep unless you pick the right route. It was well-ducked ten years ago.

[BardoPond]

windknot, those are intriguing routes. I've added them to my map.

We're leaning towards option 2, but we'll likely make some last minute changes once we're there.