R03/R01 TR: Lake Basins of the Kings, At Long Last 5/27 - 6/3 2012

[sekihiker]

What a great trip with great photos and words as well. Thanks for spending the time to share this. It's a strange year. We'd better get out as soon as possible before everything dries up.

[kylekuzma]

Fantastic report of an area i've been aiming to visit. Hopefully get to visit shortly. Thank you!

[LMBSGV]

Fascinating and lovely trip report. Lakes Basin is unique and quite special. It was marvelous to see it that time of year with still so little snow. Thanks for sharing!

[tweederjohnson]

Great report and beautiful pictures! Sad to not see Bearzy in this one -- will be hoping for a speedy recovery for him. And nice to see you give Vennacher a lift...always sad to see those peaks that are just a shade under a noteworthy height. I think Humphrey's will be reaching out to you soon

[TehipiteTom]

Incredible trip, great report. Thanks for posting this!

[Harlen]

Thanks to everyone for the very nice comments, I really appreciate them.

WD, thanks for the fishing advice. My fishing gear is one of the many items I culled from my pack when I lightened it for the short Dumbbell Lakes excursion. That, along with extra books, batteries, clothes, and all of the food, except what we would need. I am keen to try this system out again-- we wondered if there was a rule against it? Have others among you done this before?
And yes, I did take my Whippet for security on steep snow.

I only fished for food in the lakes at 11,120,' and just caught 6-8 inchers:

tweederjohnson writes:

Sad to not see Bearzy in this one -- will be hoping for a speedy recovery for him. And nice to see you give Vennacher a lift...always sad to see those peaks that are just a shade under a noteworthy height. I think Humphrey's will be reaching out to you soon

TJ, Bearzy is already healed up, and ready to go.

He'll be here in "Bear Basin" again before the end of the month... though I reckon it won't look like this.


Re. changing mountain heights in our favor; I have been up on Mt Humphreys a couple of times already, and I don't think it's small summit contains the sort of free building materials I would need.
We'll just have to wait for the mountain-building processes to do their thing.

[richlong8]

Very nice trip report! Thank you for putting so much time and effort into sharing your adventure.

[SSSdave]

Enjoyed your story and images, thank you. I see that same beautiful penstemon species along the lower Pine Creek trail areas. Share your enthusiasm for understanding natural history of what one sees as the more one understands, the more interesting it all is with every step. Impressed you went up Taboose twice on such a short time.

Like you, I've had an evolving plan for going over 6k+ Taboose for over a decade too and since I did its notorious twin Shepherd finally in 2019, am just waiting for a normal winter I expect is necessary for optimal aesthetics about the early August. But since will be lugging maybe 45% of my body weight, will take 2 nights before climbing over the pass on day 3. My first day starts late afternoon in less heat just going up 2.3 miles 1.6k. That will allow a second day long 3k effort to reach the 10.1k zone to camp at with the most impressive metamorphic canyon scenery I expect will look best early the next morning. And will leave just 1.3k to reach the pass by noon with lots of time to reach the mouth of the north Pinchot drainage along the PCT where I will camp on the sandy terminal moraine above where you shot the meadow stream.

On my return leg day 8 will camp near where the basin you caught those nice rainbows as it has excellent views north to Palisades and the peaks receive unblocked sunset light. Day 9 will be in your west of Taboose Pass zone where I see much to photo. But won't be visiting Lakes Basin but rather the colorful south of Pinchot Pass basin, Bench, and east of Arrow basin zones.

[oddtiger]

Great report! Your trip is always inspiring. Thank you for posting. Next year my dog will probably quit longer trips as he's aging (10) and I would love to get into national parks more.

[wildhiker]

Thanks for the inspiring photos of such a wild area. Unlike oddtiger, I don't have a dog, but I myself am aging! I doubt I could get into such remote areas as Lake Basin anymore, so I appreciate the photos of your adventure.
-Phil