TR: Bear Lakes Basin Lollipop 7/26/22-7/29/22

[maxr22]

You might have seen my post about my planned Yosemite trip. Well my friend and I got smoked out due to the Oak fire. So I threw this trip together 4 hours after leaving Yosemite on Monday (couldn't let my PTO go to waste). Onto the TR.

https://caltopo.com/m/KAHDK

Trip direction: Pine Creek > Pine Creek Pass > Merriam Lake > Feather Pass > Vee Lake > Bear Lakes Basin > Granite Bear Pass > Pine Creek

Bugs: Only a nuisance at Pine Lake and Upper Pine Lake.

Starting with the trailhead: You actually have to walk THROUGH the pack station to get to it, took me about 30 minutes to figure this out. The climb out of Pine Creek trailhead is not friendly. Highly suggest that you start before 9am for the heat, and this is the least scenic part of the trip. Turn on the jets and get up high quick! Good news is there are some trickles/streams where you could refill your water on the initial climb. So you could lighten the load by only carrying a liter.

At the top of the climb you reach Pine Lake (pictured below).

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From here you hike up some mellow rolling trail until the junction with Pine Creek Pass and Honeymoon Lake. If you were to go the reverse direction you would want to go towards Honeymoon lake. Pine creek pass is a relatively gentle ascent compared to the initial one out of pine creek.

View from the other side of the pass.

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From here I went left off trail to camp at French lake. There is a few good campsites on the hill to the west of the lake with wind protection.

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View from campsite looking west.

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Next day I descended into french canyon to go to merriam lake. While in french canyon I looked back at where I came from. Wasn't a bad view at all.

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Merriam lake was quite beautiful. There was a youth group/outdoors group there as well. Usually I really don't like to be around people but I knew I would find solitude the next day. I brought my fly rod and we took some turns fishing the lake. I caught a decent sized golden trout (or is it a hybrid? Let me know!)

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From Merriam Lake I ascended to Feather Pass. Here is the skinny on it: Gradual ascent on smoothish granite, descending you have talus rocks to hop over. Not the most fun descent.

View on Feather pass looking towards Merriam Lake, then towards bear lakes basin.

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I tried going up Feather peak, but encountered some class 3 that I just wasn't comfortable doing on my own.

To get to Vee lake, I didn't want to go the usual route that you'll find online (walking through bear lakes area and approach from the north). So I walked over to Den lake in the exact route that is on the Caltopo. I really wish I had either camped at den lake, or on the north side of Vee lake. The views from those spots of the gables was way better.

View from Den lake looking toward Vee lake and 7 Gables.

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It is required when camping in the Vee lake area to wake up early before sunrise and watch the sun GLOW over the 7 Gables. I don't have any pictures, you'll just have to take my word for it.

That's it for photos.

From Vee lake I went over Granite Bear pass into granite park area. The pass is a sandy long slope on the west side, and a steep talus field on the other that is painful to navigate through. It was still holding snow down the middle of the east side as well.

Once you get back on trail from granite bear pass, I highly suggest camping in the granite park area. There are some spectacular campsites on trail directly south of the biggest Chalfant Lake, around these coordinates: 37.34143, -118.76008 with views of treasure benchmark, bearpaw, and mt. julius caesar.

From here its mostly downhill to honeymoon lake, and then back onto the trail you came from.

[cgundersen]

Hi Max,

In a couple weeks, I'm hoping to take a buddy from the East coast on a version of your trip and I cannot wait to get that perspective of Seven Gables and some of the other highlights of that route (like Merriam and Granite park). So, thanks for the heads up on the bugs and here's hoping fires do not preclude us from heading up there! Cameron

[Love the Sierra]

Great pictures! Thanks for posting!

[sekihiker]

That's rugged and beautiful country. Thanks for the report and photos.

[KathyW]

Very nice!