Trip Advice

[giantbrookie]

Regarding Saddlebag camping, several maps show the outline of the Monroe Natural area in which camping is prohibited: this includes Conness Lakes, Alpine, Green Treble, Spuller, Bighorn, Fantail etc.. The lakes north of Saddlebag are open to camping except Wasco. Beautiful scenery and reasonable fishing prospects (ie high probability of catching--this means the fish aren't too big, though) in lakes such as Steelhead, Z, and Hummingbird.

For general debut backpack choices there are many. Here are a few suggestions, roughly from N to S. All of these destinations should be accessible as of now (ie no issues with snow blocking key access).

1. West Flank Desolation Wilderness out of Wrights Lake. Twin Lakes area. 3 miles of mellow hiking to a base camp with lots of dayhike options. Reliable fishing (plenty of brookies to 11") in Twin Lakes with somewhat more exploratory fishing available in some neighboring lakes.

2. Green Lake (ca 3 mi) East L. (ca 4 mi) West L (ca 4.5-5 mi), Green Creek drainage, east side S of Bridgeport. Beautiful scenery and good fishing. Less crowded than premier east side drainages to south. East is probably the prettiest of these destinations and West is the most secluded, but is sort of off by itself. East and Green are most centrally located for dayhikes. East has the most reliable fishing with an odd combination of quantity (ease of catching) but with some impressive top end sizes (over 14") for brookies and rainbows.

3. Virginia Lakes. Very flexible with hiking distances starting under 1 mi (Blue Lake) a few in the 1 mi or change range (Cooney, Frog Lakes) and plenty of dayhike options from an easily established base. Fine east side rugged scenery with added color (similar to Green Creek area) from metamorphic rocks. Reliable quantity (smallish brookies to 10") fishing from many lakes.

4. Saddlebag area (see above)

5. Mammoth Lakes area. Somewhat like Virginia Lakes for chain of lakes starting with Arrowhead along trail up to Duck Pass. The fishing isn't quite as reliable but the fish are bigger and there are far more crowds than Green or Virginia. Still, one can find elbow room by hanging out on side of lakes opposite the trail.

6. Little Lakes Valley. Probably the premier "first backpack" destination in the Sierra. I took my wife there for her first trip in 1986 and she's been hooked on the Sierra ever since (although it was fishing out of Bright Dot Lake in Convict Cyn the next year that really did it). Utterly stunning scenery and easy hiking from a trailhead at over 10000 foot elevation. Although justifiably popular and crowded, there are hideaways if one locates a camp away from a trail in various cul-de-sacs, and across lakes from the trail.

West flank, south.

7. Ansel Adams Wilderness, Granite Creek drainage. Lots of options but the area with the most tightly clustered destinations would be out of the Walton and Fernandez trailheads near Clover Meadow. Vandeburg, Lillian Lake and many other options are easy pickings with the closest lake being a bit beyond 3 mi from the car. Plenty of dayhike options, reliable fishing and almost too many lakes to choose from. Good views of the Ritter Range and higher peaks to E and SE.


8. Dinkey Lakes Wilderness. Dinkey Lakes trailhead. Classic easy access location. Surprisingly few folks considering how easy the hikes are. 3 mi and something like only 500' of gain to First Dinkey which can provide reliable small brookie fishing (to 11"). From an easily hiked-to base there are several short dayhike options although not nearly as many as in the Granite Creek area above.

9. Upper Twin Lake area, Kaiser Wilderness. Another favorite for first time backpackers and justifiably so. 3 mi and under 1k gain from Sample Meadow (Potter Pass is a bit longer). Fairly reliable fishing for medium sized brookies and rainbows with several short dayhike options.