TR: Sabrina Basin Aug 5-9 2023

[kpeter]

Introduction

This marked my seventh trip to Sabrina Basin, and the first for my friend who is one of a number of people I have introduced to this region. Reservations are very tight and I originally planned to take my daughter and her boyfriend, but she had to cancel and so my friend became the beneficiary.

Sabrina Basin, as many on this forum know, is one of the best "bang for the buck" destinations in the Sierra. The trailhead is reasonable at 9075, the road is paved to the trailhead, the first eye-popper is Blue Lake at only 3 miles in and 10,400, so a manageable 1300 climb. No wonder it is very popular with both dayhikers and backpackers.

But the real charm of the basin are the many lovely streams, falls, and lakes to explore that are a little further in. On this trip, we did just about everything there was to do below about 11k. On earlier trips I have explore Sunset Lake, Echo Lake, Blue Heaven, Bottleneck etc. but those were all above snowline on this trip, given our exceptional winter.

We began the trip with a drive from the Bay Area, thankfully able to cross Yosemite without reservations once again, and paused to hike Lembert Dome to get our high altitude blood pumping a bit. We moteled in Bishop and got an early start from Sabrina Lake after breakfast at Schats.

Day 1

Carrying five days of food and with sea level lungs, we were grateful to stop at Blue Lake, set up camp, and then depart for a day hike to Donkey and back.

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The reports of the mosquitoes were depressing, and since they apparently were worse at higher elevations we were doubly encouraged to stop early. It proved to be a good decision--our normal skeeter precautions made our camp at Blue Lake livable, and during the day on dayhikes they were seldom more than a nuisance. We had our first basecamp set up by lunch time, on a lovely bluff above the lake which caught some breezes but afforded views.

In half a dozen trips to Sabrina Basin I have somehow always bypassed Donkey Lake. It did not look that remarkable to me when looking down at it from my various trips to Baboon. But we decided to take our first dayhike to see it. I found the trail getting there and the lake itself lovely.

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The stream crossing was near cascades and the stream sheeting across a wide granite slab. Flowers were out and we saw the first of many, many hummingbird moths--I had never seen one before and we saw dozens on this trip.

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Day 2

We did two dayhikes this day out of our Blue Lake camp. The first was to explore Baboon Lakes. On my last trip there my brother and I could not safely get across the outlet which confined us to a narrow corner of that lake basin. I wanted to try again.

The use trail up to Baboon Lakes is no longer marked--even the old post (without a sign) has now been removed. It intersects with the Donkey Lake trail just a couple of hundred yards past the main Dingleberry trail intersection, and is elaborately ducked. The trail itself is much easier to follow now than when I first came across it 30 years ago--steady use has made it more obvious. Signs of old cut logs and some rockwork are still visible from better days when the Forest Service maintained the trail. Towards the top the trail can be tricky to follow. It crossed a large snowfield and the temptation is to go up the snowfield when in fact the trail finds a sneaky way up through the granite ledges immediately across. And even closer to the top there is a temptation to maintain elevation and contour at 11k, but the trail actually goes about 200' higher above the lake before dropping in at the NW inlet. There were many ducks directing people the wrong way to places where climbing was required, but the trail is quite easy if you can follow it.

We did find our way to the NW corner of the biggest of the lakes via the trail, then crossed the outlet on a log raft that was partially floating. We had fun exploring the north side of all the Baboon lakes, finding the micro-routes around the cliffs, but did not go further as snow covered the south shores and the approaches up to Sunset.

I still think of Baboon Lakes as some of my favorites, for scenic beauty as well as the fun of exploring the network of interconnecting waters.

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After returning to basecamp that afternoon and resting a bit, we took a late afternoon stroll over to see Emerald Lakes, via the main trail.

Emerald Lakes were another part of Sabrina Basin that I had viewed once and generally bypassed after. They are greener and more forested than most of the other lakes, with less granite, but I found them more charming this trip than my memories had indicated. The use trail takes off a couple of hundred yards after the stream crossing and the first pond/lake, but it is not marked. There is a "no fires" sign a little ways along the trail. Having taken our glimpse of the Emeralds, we returned to basecamp for the night. The flowers were excellent around the Emeralds.

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[kpeter]

Day 3
On this day we moved camp over to Dingleberry, another very popular basecamping spot. I would like to have gone further and higher, but our experiences and all the reports indicated that the mosquitoes were voracious at dawn and dusk at the 11k destination lakes, and a bit better lower down. We set up camp and were ready for a dayhike before lunch.

Our first destination was Midnight Lake, another lake that I had often neglected. The crossing above Dingleberry--very wide--was now safe. The water was quite cold but some of the stones were now above water. I waded and popped up on the dry stones to warm up. Others ploughed through the water all the way across, others used the stones even if some were partially submerged.

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Midnight Lake proved to be much prettier than I had remembered. I think the volume of snow around it and the large iceberg floating in it provided visual relief from all the grey talus that on other trips washed out its colors.

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I did not want to do Moonlight and Hungry Packer on this day--saving them for the next. So we proceeded from Midnight back to the intersection, went towards Topsy Turvy, and then exited the trail and picked our way down to the Topsy Turvy outlet, covered in boulders. There is a way to cross the outlet through the boulder field given that the water rushes underneath the boulders for the most part. It is a bit tricky to find a way through the willows and boulders, but I had done it once before, and we managed this time.

We had thought to go down the Pee Wee lake trail, but after some exploration we decided that the old trail dead ended in cliffs before reaching Pee Wee, if it it still existed at all. So instead I remembered a route from the forests behind Pee Wee Lake north up to the top of the granite mound (elevation 10930) that overlooks Topsy Turvy, Emerald, and Dingleberry lakes. This provides one of the most beautiful viewpoints in the basin, 360 degrees. It was a bit of a puzzle finding the slot that allowed us to ascend, and there is no good place to descend to the west until you walk the top of the granite considerably north, but we pulled it off safely and thoroughly enjoyed being on top.

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After admiring the unceasingly magnificent views in all directions and heading north on the granite, we descended west to catch the main trail coming into Dingleberry. A long, somewhat challenging, and wonderful day.

Day 4

Today was to be the piece de resistance--my favorite spots including Moonlight Falls, Moonlight Lake, and Hungry Packer Lake. And my friend was suitably impressed with all those places. We headed up the main trail and were stunned by the beauty of Moonlight Falls, that appears far across the valley after the trail turns south after Topsy Turvy. We did what everyone does--headed cross country to the base of the falls to enjoy them, and we just sat and contemplated the falling water for half an hour.

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We made our way up to Moonlight Lake, which has one of the biggest moraines (on its southern side) that I have ever seen. The water of Moonlight has that distinctive glacial coloration. Moonlight is a more open lake than Hungry Packer. A different kind of beauty--grand and sweeping.

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From Moonlight we backtracked to Sailor Lake, also set in a splendid location with Picture Peak ever present in the background. Rounding the northern edge of Sailor we once again picked up the main Hungry Packer trail and headed toward the big lake.

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When approaching Hungry Packer there are two trails to choose from. There is the old trail that crosses east across the outlet stream near Sailor Lake and takes you across granite slabs all the way to the lake on the eastern side of the outlet. And there is a newer use trail that stays on the western side of the outlet all the way to the lake. In my opinion, coming into the lake on the old trail gives you access to a better view. Hungry Packer is a difficult lake to get around given the cliffs that surround it, and the grassy area where the eastern (old) trail deposits you gives a better view of the falls and cliffs than the western (newer) trail. You can usually find places to cross back and forth near the lake by wading the stream, regardless of which way you come.

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Suitably impressed with the grandeur of Hungry Packer, we took the trail back to base camp, enjoying the riot of colors that appeared along the trail.

Day 5 Out and Home

The day out is always difficult, with the best experiences behind and the drudgery of a long drive ahead. Even so, we enjoyed getting one last early morning look at Blue Lake on the way out.

But our trip to the trailhead turned out to be more eventful than it should have. About a mile from the Sabrina Lake trailhead, the outlet stream from George Lake crosses the trail. We waded it on the way in. When we reached it on the way out we encountered a group of backpackers on the way in. Some of them had successfully crossed, and some were preparing to cross. They were trying to arrange some jagged and flimsy branches so that they could cross without getting their feet wet.

We waded across, but as we were putting on our shoes one of their number fell while crossing. He fell over the downhill side and went butt-first into a hole in the stream, and became wedged between rocks and branches with the ice cold water rushing over his torso. He could not extract himself. Fortunately two members of his party got to him relatively quickly, but even so it took strength and perseverance to pull him out. My friend waded into the stream in his hiking boots to help, I offered first aid. In the end he was lucky--he seemed to have no serious injuries, although he was bleeding from multiple scrapes. It was a sobering experience and reinforced my lifelong preference for wading whenever there is a choice.

Then back to the car, the drive, and home, with my head filled with images of Sabrina.

[Flamingo]

Thanks for another great TR @kpeter -- looks like heaven

[michaelzim]

Ken...The photos were worth the wait! The place looks like a veritable garden, with that first pic of the flowers competing for a 'best place' in any native plant landscape one could hope to design...and the waterfall, just gorgeous.
Glad the mosquitoes did not sound too awful and thanks for the tip about possibly avoiding higher elevations for base camps. Will see in a week if that holds out of Pine Creek and Humphrey's basin, etc.
Thanks for the TR!
M.

[giantbrookie]

What a great report of a classic area that never gets old. The George L outlet crossing story is one that is a real "Only in 2023" sort of story. Imagine that crossing being that wet in early August! A photo that really captures how unusual this summer is for me is your gorgeous photo of Hungry Packer Lake and Picture Peak. Whereas this is one of the most popular views in all of the High Sierra (can recall this gracing a Sunset Magazine cover in the late 1960s), I've never seen this view with that amazing cascade. I've seen water in that cascade on my various visits and in photos from others, but not the big waterfall in your photo.

[LMBSGV]

As usual, a great report. In my two previous trips to Sabrina Basin I haven’t don’t that much wandering around due to, in one instance being with my then 6 year old son and the other being in October during a drought year. The details about routes and locations are illuminating. I hope to use them for a future trip next year or the year after.

[wildhiker]

This is a very good trip report with great photos. Thanks for posting.
Phil

[kpeter]

Many thanks for your kind comments! Now I need to squeeze in a Labor Day trip for my final trip of the season. Probably in Emigrant due to time limitations for me. Hopefully the mosquitoes will have thinned out by then. But Sabrina has been one of my consistent favorites, and it never ever gets old.

[windknot]

Thanks for the great photos and report! You did this classic area justice.

[Love the Sierra]

Just stunning! That clear water makes me eager to get there