Maverick's 2017 Annual HST Meet-up

[maverick]

Mav, you must be a mind reader. I've been planning a July '17 trip to climb Arrow Peak and Split Mountain, and the HST Meetup #4 is the perfect coincidence. I'll see you all there.

Cool.

[robertseeburger]

Interesting.. I am still learning how to navigate all of the different forums. Last July, I did a Taboose Pass/Bench Lake/Little Lakes Basin/Dumbbell Lakes/Amphitheater Lake/Mather Lake loop. (posted trip report). And I was planning a trip to go over Baxter Pass, Pinchot Pass Bench Lake and Window Peak Lake loop trip next summer at least as a possibility. I was looking for trip reports going over Explorer pass, and while I couldn't find any I read many interesting accounts (especially Rogue Photonic going over the passes east of Explorer.). I stumbled upon Maverick's meet up by searching Explorer Pass.

I managed to talk pretty extensively about this area with the ranger (Ranger Bob) at the Bench Lake Ranger station. He had been doing backcountry ranger stations for 40 years I think. And he knows the area very well. I was lucky to find him cleaning fish and with no other responsibilities when I met him.
We talked for over an hour on fishing and backcountry travel. I took note that he was about to go on his solo adventure for 10 days, and he was going to the lakes where the meet up is and he seemed truly excited about it. With all of his experience to be this excited about a place, it must be special.
I showed him a picture of a trout I had caught on the trip and he opened up and he told me his view of the "5 great lakes in Kings Canyon" to fish for large trout.
I had caught large trout in three of them, and have never visited the other two..on my list!

The lake where I caught this one is within "backpacking distance" of the lakes of your meet up... so the opportunity is there!

I would love to join the group. I met Roguephotonic and Alpine Mike near Split Mountain on my last summer trip. It would be great to meet others. The only problem is that I have a tendency to do the real planning 9 days in advance, not 9 months. Oh well. I jotted down the date for now.

[rlown]

And that's exactly how to show a trout's true length.. Good Job!

[robertseeburger]

Haha... I read the report of the large brookie in another post... It was humorous. I try to measure the big ones at least when I can.
With regard to that post, I met some deer hunters in Humphreys Basin a year ago October and they showed me some pictures of perhaps 10 very large brook trout they caught...NOT at Muriel Lake. Gotta get back there.

[rlown]

I know the lake of which you speak..

[maverick]

I would love to join the group. I met Roguephotonic and Alpine Mike near Split Mountain on my last summer trip. It would be great to meet others. The only problem is that I have a tendency to do the real planning 9 days in advance, not 9 months. Oh well. I jotted down the date for now.

Like giving folks the dates well in advance, so those who like planning all their trips during the winter or those who like reserving permits as soon as they become available can do so. Hope your scheduling works out and you will be able to attend Robert.

[Bluewater]

While looking through some photos from last summer I found this one from Arrow Pass. This was taken looking back down from about 1/4 of the way up the final boulder field. Looking forward to the meetup!

[ERIC]

Wow, beautiful.

[Dave_Ayers]

Very enticing! Got my permit, looking forward to it.

[Shhsgirl]

Well, I'm going to give this meet up a try. I think I will take Daisy's sage advice and try to hike to Window Lake from Woods Creek, go up the drainage there, and try to drop over into Arrow Lakes.