High Sierra Topix

From topic: How is water holding up?

Given the dry Winter, be great to get back country assessments on how water sources are holding up. Some of you may recall that our plan was to go in over Piute, down to the Honeymoon Lakes turnoff, then up past the Lakes, continuing as high as possible along the west face of Glacier Divide, then heading west-to-east over Lamarck Col and back to North Lake.

My concern is water up there. Obviously I don't expect anyone to have beta on this route but just general assessments on water anywhere helps one anticipate.

Thanks, gb

Just got back from a 5 day 4 night trip (7/19 - 7/23, and yes Mav, I will have a TR shortly )that covered the first part of your trip Moke and theres still water in that area. That said, things were drier than I expected (even with the dry year), but we never had an issue getting water. Bishop and Piute Creeks are fine, but tributary flows are getting pretty low. We camped at the outlet of Lower Deso the last night and it is flowing, but not much. The lake (Lower Deso) was noticeably lower than my previous visit. The smaller little tribs around Lower Deso are all dry, All of the lakes are low for July, but some water was moving out of those we saw. Plenty of water in Honeymoon Creek from the Lower lake. Same thing at the big lake to the west, flow at the outlet was low, but it was flowing. Thats as far as we ventured, before heading back. If going soon it should be no issue, but it will be dry in late Aug and Sept. That is unless the T Storms continue like the did the last two days. Got pounded on 7/22 for about 4 hours. Refreshed the whole basin!!!!

Troutdog59 wrote:
(7/19 - 7/23, and yes Mav, I will have a TR shortly )

Did not doubt for a second that you would.
Thanks for the feedback, it will be quite dry in the Sierra this coming month
especially if the monsoonal flow doesn't get active again, and backpackers/hikers
should plan there routes accordingly.

Since this year is already a dry year and add to this the lack of any significant storms
we can expect August-September to be very to extremely dry.
It would be extremely helpful if members chimed in on reliable streams, creeks, or
springs along there routes.
Also reporting any sections that may have very long distances between any reliable
water sources and very dry/dangerous.
This information will be helpful in route planning, and may save a life.
Just list the locations, water sources and the dates. Thank You

In the Emigrant Wilderness a week ago, very few streams were running. The only sources you can count on up there are the lakes.

MK,
As you no doubt can tell, the one place there will be no water (other than what you bring) is the traverse from Ramona over to Lake 10907 (I think that's the right one). I'm guessing it'll be hot and dry out there! Anyway, there may still be water in the little pond up at ~11,200 ft, but if not, the lake is your next source. I'm pretty certain that you can get down the ravine at the northeast end of 10907, but my wife and I continued to traverse all the way around to the gentle terrain at the east end of 10907. In our experience the other traverses on the south side of Glacier Divide were easier, but in this dry year, it would be prudent to carry water. And, I'll be curious what you think of the bizarre structure on a southerly trending ridge on the southwest reach of Glacier Divide...........Hope you have a great trip!
cg

MK wrote:
continuing as high as possible along the west face of Glacier Divide

Will this be via Lobe Pass?
Water should not be an issue MK since there are a couple of lakes up there that will not
effected by even in an extended drought (Lake 11236 and 11092).
The main drainage from Lake 11236 will be flowing, water in the Lake 11092 area
will not be an issue, nor the the cluster of lakes southeast of there.

Mav:

I'm basically following cgundersen's route from a few years ago. He has a trip report posted Sun July 16, 2008 PiutePass-Glacier Divide. But we'll head out via Lamarck.

Just got back from a trip out of the Cascade Valley area by the Silver Divide. The outlet out of Olive Lake was dried up, and it's not even August yet. Plenty of other creeks in the area were dry as well so best to carry a little extra and stay within reach of a lake.

A report on water sources. We backpacked 9 days July 21>29 from TA Edison reservoir thru Graveyard Lakes over Silver Fox pass into a loop of the big lakes of the Minnow Creek headwaters. I always wore blue jeans, a zippered front nylon shell and no undershirt, and hat with large neck and ear drape. With huge 65 pound carrying weights and big packs, we stop alot and are never in a hurry. Bro carried a water filter.

No water from TH until 3.2 mile point up 1300 feet where Cold Creek is crossed. As usual vigorous small stream that will last all summer even in this drought. Meadow heavily grazed in late season by cattle with dried pies all over from 2011. Meadow has tons of brook trout throughout shallow stream. Most pan sized though a few larger ones 10>12 inches in each pool. Lots of aggressive house flies just as likely to land on you as a turd. Main reason we brought the filter was this section of our route we would be getting water from on days 1 and 8.

Lower Graveyard Lake 1a stream still trickling out of lake down into meadow below but probably will be intermittent by late August. SFiltered 1a lake water where we camped. Stream flowing down through talus from lake 2a above that continues flowing through sequence of lakes 6a 5a 4a 3a. Drank water straight from remote lakes 4a 5a. Would have filtered water from beautitul lake 2a or 3a as is heavily visited and camped at and some horses could visit via use trail.

Day 2 and 7 we camped at a meadow pond above Graveyard Lake 2b (large upper lake). Stream was no longer flowing into or out of 2b from lakes 3b 4b and probably dried up at end of June. We drank directly from a pond that had no stream into but was clear and clean. It is well above the obvious use trail to Silver Fox Pass.

Day 3 drank directly from stream flowing into East Maryland Lake even though use trail passes across it. Small stream from that lake down to outlet pond of Peter Pande ought to last all summer. Of course vigorous outlet stream from Peter Pande Lake will remain so all summer though would filter water if taken directly from that lake as it is horse accessed. Instead we continued to directly drink from stream coming down from East Maryland Lake. At Olive Lake water supply was unfiltered from small inlet streams coming in from west or south sides of lake that ought to last all summer. Would have filtered water directly from lake as is horse accessed.

On Anne Lake plateau, we either pumped water from Anne outlet stream or drank directly from main inlet stream entering from southeast slopes against Graveyard Peak. Minor snow fields still down to near lake level.

As usual now a week later, I did not get giardia. So bring filter for horse accessed areas above trailhead, then use common sense when drinking unfiltered water in areas beyond. Although the Minnow headwater lakes are accessible by horses, they are not visited often possible because the large trout resident a couple decades ago are uncommon these days. We caught fish to 13 inches and saw a few over 15 in some places, however the majority of trout were less than 10 inches in all these lakes. As a photographer, I fished much less than my bro Joe, but still caught dozens, most of which were tossed back. We purposely carried fewer packaged FD meals than needed because we were confident we would have several fat fish and rice feasts which indeed we did on 4 days. There are even a lot of trout in the Graveyard Lakes, mostly brook, though they almost all are pan sized.