R03 TR: Big Pine lakes loop - 6/2 to 6/3 2018

[overheadx2]

Seeing a post last week about Big Pine brought back some fond memories and I decided to revisit the area after 20 years. I was hoping the lack of crowds mentioned in the post would continue for another week. Headed up Friday afternoon and picked up a permit for Saturday pretty easily. We then got a very nice walk-in spot at Upper sage Flats Campground and did some luxurious cowboy camping next to the river (fascinating that you must camp 100 feet from water in the back country, but campsites at sage flats are literally 30 feet from the river).



Got breakfast a the country Kitchen (very good food) sat morning and then headed up to look around the lakes basin. We ended up fishing most of the way to 3rd lake and then backtracking to 2nd lake where we set up camp at a beautiful spot overlooking the lake on the west end (unfortunately not very photo friendly for temple crag). There were a few folks camped at 1st and second lake, but plenty of room to find a secluded spot.





Sunday, we hiked up to the glacier trail and hiked up to the meadow at about 11k. Here are a few pics of the glacier trail and the meadow at 11k, as well as a pic of the Lakes basin.




As you can see from the photo looking north, very little snow at all in the northern 2/3rds of the basin.



We then backtracked to our packs and continuing on to fish 4th, 5th, and black lakes. Surprisingly no snow at all until 4th and 5th lakes where there were only a few small patches. We didn't see anyone after 2nd lake the rest of the day until we rejoined the trail below 1st lake on the way out
Photo of 5th lake and Jigsaw pass



We had a lunch and after having napped and fished for a few hours at Black Lake we decided to head for the barn and made it back to the car by 5. back in the OC by 11.
Photo of the trail looking into the south fork canyon.

[cloudlesssky]

Nice pics. Thanks for the report.

[Tonydavid]

Thanks for the report...so little snow!