Weekend in Rock House Basin 5/14/18

[overheadx2]

Headed out for a quick weekend trip to the lower Sierra in search of a nice warm up trip. I got some intel from a few folks here and that turned out to be very helpful. Started the day with a very nice breakfast at Grumpy Bears Resort (they took a lot of liberties when they threw resort in there) with a number of PCTers. For any one headed in there, the only way to get in to the Basin is to walk quite a ways south from the bridge by the general store or drive around to Long Valley. Hiking from the landing strip is not an option since it is a private road. We opted to drive around. There are several ways to get in from long valley, the TH at long Valley, the iron bar closed off dirt road about 3 miles past the long Valley turn off or the one we opted for was to go another 2 miles to where the PCT intersects the road. Following the PCT gets you up into Basin and then some very easy XC travel gets you to the South Fork.

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The trail was very well established and a nice easy grade for about 5 miles to the river with a lot of reminders of the last fire that seemed to have burned every tree for miles.

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The south Fork had a pretty gentle flow with not much in the way of pools and only descent fishing. We spent most of the day napping and fishing about a mile of river. we caught one nice 13 to 14" Brown (sorry no pics) and a few smaller rainbows.

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As the afternoon progressed, there was some pretty good gusts of wind, so we decided to head back up toward the PCT to a nice protected campsite along side a creek we had seen on the way in.

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There were a few blooming flowers and several snakes and other reptiles (no Rattlers).

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Overall had a great hike and a beautiful area, but I cant wait for the spectular Sierra further north.

[gary c.]

Happy to hear that you had a nice hike. Not the high country but great for an early season trip.

[John Harper]

Yes, glad to read that you got into a few fish. Looks like the same terrain I was in down in Baja a few weeks ago. Good info about the landing strip road as an entry point.

John

[BillyBobBurro]

It is amazing that any fish survived the drought in that part of the South Fork. It stopped flowing at the Kennedy Meadows Bridge two years ago.

[gary c.]

It is amazing that any fish survived the drought in that part of the South Fork. It stopped flowing at the Kennedy Meadows Bridge two years ago.

The river dried up but the feeder creeks kept there flows. I'm sure that some fish came down from up high with the run off but I also know of a few creeks that were fishable straight through the drought.