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Hey
Once again asking this forum for advice regarding another trip (after I got smoked out in virginia canyon )
I'm considering going to baboon lakes out of Sabrina lake (instead of hungry packer and adjacent, since I'm afraid of how crowded it would be on a weekend), but I'm concerned about the state of the trail. If using GPS, do you think its possible to stay on the trail (if it even exists) all of the way up to the lakes? I'm worried about doing this as someone with no real XC experience. Similarly, how do you think the route is from baboon lakes up to sunset lake?
Thank you!
There isn't an official trail that goes all the way to Baboon Lakes, which are lovely. There is a trail leaving from the Blue Lake--Donkey Lake trail which is fairly easy to follow for the first half but is easy to lose toward the end. It actually goes above the elevation of 10976 and drops down to it at the NW inlet. It shows up on CalTopo Mapbuilder overlay layer. If you have a GPS with you and can watch the trail it should be easy. Otherwise it takes a little trail-finding skill. My tendency was to go too low at the end, not expecting it to drop down into the lake. I did it the first time 30 years ago with no GPS and lost the trail a couple of times but found my way back.
There is an alternate route which I have not done for a while. That is coming up a long and steep draw from the Donkey Lake side of the Baboon outlet stream. That is pure cross country, but other than being up a steep grassy draw, it was not difficult. Of course, that grassy draw might be choked with brush now--I haven't done it in a long time. I went over the "trail" just a few years ago.
May I add that if you camp at Baboon Lakes, it is not difficult to day hike up the inlet stream to get to Sunset Lake. The lake is stark, but the connecting stream was a joy when I did it. Of course, who knows how much water might be flowing now. Echo Lake from Moonlight is a similar trek.
Last edited by kpeter on Tue Jul 19, 2022 5:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
kpeter wrote: ↑Sun Jul 17, 2022 3:42 pm
There isn't an official trail that goes all the way to Baboon Lakes, which are lovely. There is a trail leaving from the Blue Lake--Donkey Lake trail which is fairly easy to follow for the first half but is easy to lose toward the end. It actually goes above the elevation of 10976 and drops down to it at the NW inlet. It shows up on CalTopo Mapbuilder overlay layer. If you have a GPS with you and can watch the trail it should be easy. Otherwise it takes a little trail-finding skill. My tendency was to go too low at the end, not expected it to drop down into the lake. I did it the first time 30 years ago with no GPS and lost the trail a couple of times but found my way back.
There is an alternate route which I have not done for a while. That is coming up a long and steep draw from the Donkey Lake side of the Baboon outlet stream. That is pure cross country, but other than being up a steep grassy draw, it was not difficult. Of course, that grassy draw might be choked with brush now--I haven't done it in a long time. I went over the "trail" just a few years ago.
May I add that if you camp at Baboon Lakes, it is not difficult to day hike up the inlet stream to get to Sunset Lake. The lake is stark, but the connecting stream was a joy when I did it. Of course, who knows how much water might be flowing now. Echo Lake from Moonlight is a similar trek.
Thanks for the great advice! How steep did you think the trail was? I went up to Merriam lake a month ago via the "Merriam Lake Route" and that would be too steep for me to climb with a pack.
I was just at Baboon Lakes at the beginning of June for a night, for a similar reason as yours, to get somewhere less crowded than Blue Lake and Hungry Packer Lake. The only issue I had with the trail was some snow near the top that will have long since melted. The trail as of this June, was in decent enough shape for me not to realize it wasn't just a regular slightly overgrown established/official trail. I did miss the turnoff next to Blue Lake and started to head towards Donkey Lake by accident, there's no sign. As long as you pay a bit attention to where you leave the Donkey Lake trail, you should be fine to get to Baboon Lakes.
https://caltopo.com/m/9EMHG This is the trail I used, the blue line is the trail as it appears on Caltopo's maps. The red line is my GPX from the hike, you can see where I missed the turn and just turned up hill to regain the trail.
There's a number of nice spots for a tent around the lakes. I found it to be just as nice as Hungry Packer lake, and nicer than Blue Lake.
AV051159.jpg
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Sally Forth, @MXOYEZ!
The access to Sunset Lake is not via an obvious access trail; you will be doing some exploring to reach it. But this is an excellent venue for first timers to do real XC hiking. The route from Baboon Lakes to Sunset Lake is only around a mile. It is virtually impossible to get lost, as long as you don't get the urge to ascend over any of the surrounding, high ridges lining your route. If you decide to bug out, just go down hill, all routes lead back to Baboon Lakes.
The route (so well described in the link that Balzacom provided) up the chute to Baboon Lakes from the Donkey Lake area is quite steep. I did do it with a pack and just went very slow--but I was much younger then. The use-trail showing on your GPS from the Blue Lake--Donkey Lake trail is more gradual.
I also agree with Gogd about the Sunset cross-x experience.
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