North Lake to Pine Creek via Humphrey's Basin

[nunez7897]

Hello everyone, looking to see if anyone has info on Pine Creek trail. I'm planning to start in North Lake, go up Piute pass, over Puppet Pass and explore all the lakes, then go over to Granite Park, and exit out of Pine Creek. Seeing that Pine Creek trail is in a north-facing slope, I'm concerned that there will be snow blocking the way out. I'm planning to go on Labor Day weekend. Any info would be greatly appreciated with a trip report and beautiful pictures. Thanks everyone!

[c9h13no3]

I'd be more worried about crossing Pine Creek than snow. But I wouldn't be that worried about any of it on Labor Day if you've got any sort of mountain experience.

[khamike]

Looking at the sentinel satellite pics (here) it doesn't look too bad. And most of that will be gone in a few weeks.

[nunez7897]

Thanks to the both of you. Just underestimating how long the snow will linger but I can see from the satellite imagery that it's (probably) already passable

[nunez7897]

Ok so my trip was successful in the way that we made it through our intended path, but we had to cut it short due to the storm that arrived the night of Sept 1-2, but here is a little summary of how it went:

Wednesday August 30th:
Dropped off my 4Runner at Pine Creek trailhead and drove back to North lake campground where my buddy and I stayed the night in the roof top tent of his Tacoma.

Thursday August 31st:
Moved the car to the trailhead parking and started walking around 8:30 am. Our destination for the day was Muriel Lake, at which we arrived around 1:30 PM. The whole way there was gusty but with clear skies. Pretty windy at the lake. We took the one spot with some wind protection from the south/southwest, which worked pretty well. Our tents did not cave in from the wind but still got kind of shaken when a gust would flow overhead. Basically napped and explored and my buddy tried to fish but to no avail. Got to see a hare and an ermine (I think). We hardly slept. Basically 2 hour nap, wake up for an hour, rinse and repeat all night.

Up towards Piute Pass

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Muriel Lake evening

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Last day's sunrays on Mt Humphrey's peeking over the knoll next to Muriel Lake

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Friday Sept 1st:
Packed up, had breakfast, and started walking around 8:30 am again. Basically just walked the path of least resistance (and incline) from Muriel Lake across Humphrey's Basin towards Puppet Pass. We descended near the outlet of Lake Muriel, skirting the swampier areas and just enjoying the rock hopping across all the streams. Passed Lower Desolation Lake and stopped by the outlet of Desolation Lake for a snack. We got stared at by the locals (the marmots), either looking for an opportunity to pounce or making sure we left the area. Walked up the knoll after crossing the outlet and devised a plan to make it up Puppet Pass. We basically zigzagged up from Wedge Lake to the ridge right above, hoping we could circumvent the cirque on the other side, but to our dismay we had to lose some precious altitude to make it back up the nice ramp up to Puppet Pass. Puppet Pass is INCREDIBLE when you first get there. Had lunch around 1pm with the bitchin' view. Definitely steeper in person than what pictures make it out to be. We couldn't really find an easy way to make it to the wall that everyone talks about so we just found a way above the wall and descended below it. It appeared too sketchy for a direct frontal attack towards that wall. We wanted to make it to Star Lake, seeing that the wind was coming from the west and we felt like there might be some cover there. Walked above Puppet lake trying not to lose too much elevation, and to our dismay, there wasn't a shred of good protection at Star Lake, so we just picked a subpar spot for the night. Time of arrival around 4pm. The wind sort of calmed down by the time we went to sleep but we were buffeted all night from all directions. My tent would constantly cave in towards my face but I receded deeper into my sleeping back and learned to ignore it. Around midnight we start hearing hail, didn't make much of it since it was on and off. Same thing as previous night except the sleeping sections were shorter. Sleep for an hour, awake for an hour, rinse and repeat.

Sunrise at Muriel Lake with the moon in the sky

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Very Middle-Earth-esque with the Glacier Divide as a backdrop

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Aptly named Desolation Lake with the imposing Mt Humphrey's

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View from Puppet Pass at high noon

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Walking above Puppet Lake

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Our hostile home for the night

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Saturday Sept 2nd:
Woke up around 5am with more constant hail. Water intrusion was definitely a thing at this point, from my rainfly being buffeted all night and coming off from one of the corners near where I lay my head. Also, somehow my sleeping bag had been dripped on near my feet. My buddy and I decided to just pack up everything and get out. We were planning to keep backpacking at least for another day and stay at Upper Pine Lake, but seeing that the storm wasn't letting up and a lot of of our stuff was wet, we opted to make it all the way to the car from there. I didn't have a cover for my pack so I asked my buddy to just drape my rainfly over my pack the best he could. He had a poncho for his. Started walking around 7am and descended to L lake and had a snack. We basically cross country walked from L Lake down into the upper end of French Canyon and up towards Pine Creek Pass trail. We met the main trail probably a 1/4 mile below the pass proper. Everything was so lush and verdant in the canyon; very dreamy. Made it up and over the pass to Upper Pine Creek lake where we had lunch. Made it back to the car around 2:30 pm, with our knees beat up to hell after the long, brutal, unending descent. Changed our clothes and drove back to North lake to retrieve my buddy's truck. Had an awesome burger in Bishop and drove home that same day seeing that all hotels were booked. Made it back home to the San Fernando Valley around 10pm.

Towards L Lake

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Pilot Knob from the upper reaches of French Canyon

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Lower Pine Creek Lake

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Hope y'all enjoy my first trip report, even though I've been lurking for years.

[wsp_scott]

Too bad about the weather, still looks like a good trip.

thanks for the report/photos

[windknot]

Thanks for coming back and adding in your trip report! Glad you had a good trip despite the weather. That's an awesome photo over L Lake with the dark storm clouds moving in.

[Gogd]

Nice trip, on a good route. And much easier coming out at Pine Creek than the other way around.
Ed

[kpeter]

Congrats on the trip. I particularly liked the image of Mt Humphrey's over Muriel at sunset.

I got rained out of my trip too due to the same storm, and similarly did a long hike out. That whole plateau from French Lake over to Alsace is a most unusual place--so many shallow lakes in such a compressed area. I echo what Gogd said about exiting rather than entering at Pine Creek. I hate that trail when going up until it gets past the Brownstone mine and loses the cobble. Much better going down, though I have not had to hike it in the rain, which might make it worse.

In any case, thanks for coming out of lurker status and posting a report! We all live for them--the source of much vicarious enjoyment!

[rayfound]

Thank you for sharing. My favorite place in all the world is that area.