R04 TR: Bear Creek and Pinnacles Creek 6-21-21 to 6-29-21

[robertseeburger]

Well, I have been to Bear Creek drainage about five or six times over the last 50 years, but it is always good for a return.
But I have drawn up many a proposed itinerary for E and W Pinnacles Creek but something else always took the priority.
And..there are a lot of lakes in Bear Creek that I have never visited. So, with that in mind, a June trip was fashioned over the winter.

On the permit process, I was watching the east side ( Inyo) permit reservations in the February timeframe with horror. It seemed like all of them were gone within minutes. I decided to book from the John Muir wilderness Side and waited for the new recreation.gov process to open up, which it did in March.
My friend Gary and I looked at the snow reports and decided it was a 50% snow year for the middle of the Sierra and decided upon a date in mid June to book the reservation. I set the alarm so that I could be ready to book at 7AM on the opening day. I succeeded in booking the reservation.
The 2 months later...no one else had booked any additional slots for that day. I still dont quite understand why the east side trailheads are so much more popular than the west side. I actually also prefer the east side, due to a quicker altitude gain more than anything, but the west side approaches are fine.
There are still tons of slots available now for good trailheads out of the John Muir Wilderness. Moving on.

The start of the trip was Bear Diversion Dam. The first day consisted of two old farts, out of shape, with heavy packs, laboring up to Kip Camp.
I remember an exchange with Cgunderson a couple of years ago, saying stay overnight at the trailhead. And we didnt do this (again) because I wanted to spend Father's Day at home. We left at 6AM and made it to Bear Dam by 12 or so. And we made it to Kip Camp by 6.
Bear Creek water volume seemed way down for a June departure.

First lake to visit..Beartrap Lake..and Mount Abbot.

Next day was my 65th birthday.. what a way to becoming a senior citizen!

Next up for isolated lakes to visit was Coronet Lake.
And I have mentioned before...favorite Sierra mountain is Seven Gables.(tied with Milestone Mountain).this is a little bit different view.

And a view across Coronet to Feather Peak.

When we were at Coronet Lake, I noticed that there was a bump nearby that seemed like it might have a commanding view of the basin.
I like to climb a peak or two now and then, but had none planned this trip. So I talked to Gary and said, "I have a peak I want to climb".
He groaned. We decided to climb Peak 11831. We made it all the way to the top. ( 100 feet of class 1).
The view was good.
Toward Seven Gables.

And across Vee Lake toward the pass we would go over (Stough) and Gemini

Last just a view across Coronet.. a seldom visited Lake

Descending to Little Bear with view across to Feather

And I have made many a trip to Vee Lake, but the view of Seven Gables over Vee never gets old.

We saw an eagle several times at one of the arms of Vee Lake. Sometimes it seemed he circled us.

And a closeup of the eagle. My favorite pic of this post. (Gary took this one)

And a grouse seen a little earlier..

End of part1.. part 2 coming

[robertseeburger]

part 2

Next up on the seldom visited lakes..
Tooth Lake.

For some reason, there were tons of gnats at Tooth. Mosquitoes were normal June bad, but the gnats at Tooth were something weird.
You could hear the drone...

Waterfall and flowers..

And sometimes the priority is fishing, and sometimes..other activities.
Gary chose to fish, I chose evening cocktail hour.
Outlet of Vee Lake.

Just a fishing pic

The next day, we wanted to get to East Pinnacles Creek. I had studied all the passes in the region. I was most worried about snow on the north face.
I should not have worried. Based upon the lack of snow ( to me it is less than 50%..by far), we chose Stough Pass. Others seem to have chosen
Ruskie Pass ( and go around to Pinnacles), or Gemini Lake Pass. I am not sure exactly why, but chose Stough..the most direct.

A view toward the pass from below Vee.

A view ascending the north side of Stough..up thru a slot. Normal class 2 talus

Getting closer to the top of Stough

A view from the top of Stough..(Gabb Abbot Bear Cr Spire)

And a view from Stough to Ritter and Banner..you can sure see them from a long way away.

A telephoto view of Ritter and Banner

And a view from Stough of Ruskie Pass to the east..just so you can see what it looks like. (easy)

End of part 2..part 3 coming

[robertseeburger]

Part 3
More on Stough Pass. I think the difficulty of Stough Pass is all about the snow on the north face. In a big snow year there is a cornice, which I have seen in other posts. Here is all that was there for us.. ( June low snow year.). Snow presented no difficulty whatsoever.

And a view south.. across East Pinnacles Creek from Stough

A lake that I have always wanted to visit.. just sort of called to me looking at TOPO maps over the years.. Aweetasal Lake.

Looking up to Stough Pass from the south side. Gary and I discussed..Did we use our hands for balance at all coming down?
Technically it is class 2, but neither of us could remember even using our hands. We probably did though. Slabs and easy talus.

We made it over to Jawbone Lake..looking across to the Pinnacles.

And a view across Jawbone to Mount Henry..the end of Leconte Divide. Mount Henry is most prominent from this trip.

Across Council Lake to the Pinnacles

And a view I have seen before in HST.. across Negit Lake to the Pinnacles.

Rounding the ridge from East Pinnacles Creek to West Pinnacles Creek, Mount Humphries and Pilot Knob come into view.

We made it into West Pinnacles Creek and camped at Spearpoint Lake.

We set about to visit many lakes in West Pinnacles Creek.
This is Big Chief Lake..

Above Big Chief is Old Squaw Lake..looking across to Pinnacles Ridge

end of part 3

[robertseeburger]

Part 4
Another view of Big Chief Lake.. I really liked West Pinnacles Creek drainage..more than E Pinnacles Creek.

Gary fishing.. the fly is almost bigger than the fish!

Now to round the corner and go from West Pinnacles Creek to Turret Lake.
A view across Piute Creek..looking at Pavilion Dome and Mount Henry.

We made it to Turret Lake. A very pleasant ( and seldom visited!) lake.

And a view of Turret Lake from the north..

The next challenge was to make it from Turret Lake back into the Bear Creek Basin.
We chose a path that ascended Turret Creek, achieving a plateau, and the descending to Three Island Lake.

Upper Turret Lake..with a view across to the Pinnacles

And toward Mount Ritter again.

The overall cross country here was not difficult. But there were lots of little ridges and gullies which made it slow. Some minor backtracking required, but uneventful.

Descending to Three island Lake

We made it to Three Island Lake. A beautiful setting. We camped in the same campsite I had camped before.

We did a day hike from Three Island over to Marie Lake.
A shot of Marie Lake and Mount Hooper. It is amazing what a difference the east side of Marie Lake is ( quiet, remote) vs the west side (JMT).

And a view across Marie to Seven Gables and Mount Abbot.

[robertseeburger]

part 5 (last) sorry if I am too wordy for some

We had perfect weather until the very end.. We got a thunderstorm the last day..
Just a little bit of a rainbow over Three Island Lake

And I am not a huge flower guy..but there were beautiful flowers in Bear Creek Canyon. I wish I had taken more.
I had a conversation with an HST member recently where I recommended Bear Dam trailhead vs. Bear Ridge..because hiking up Bear Creek is very pleasant. Just one flower shot..

And for those who have followed my posts over the years, you might be expecting some big fish pictures.

Well, this one is sort of symbolic of the fishing we found on this trip. (Lots of small and medium sized fish)

And a view with a background..

And a few brook trout too

Gary caught the biggest of the trip.. a 14 inch golden

And we had one fish dinner on the trip.. Here is a bunch of 9-10 inch goldens..

The feast (poached with herbs)

That is it! It was a fun trip for us. A combination of seeing some sights that we have grown to love over many years ( Bear Creek drainage),
and seeing some new sights ( Pinnacles/Turret).

I would like to credit a couple of posts that influenced the design of this trip. First and foremost..Oldranger and Markstor circle of gold 2015, which I read a couple of times. And also Giantbrookie's epic journey of 2015 as well where did some of the same route. And one by Wandering Daisy as well.
We wanted to extend the trip to go to Hooper Lakes over Crazy Pass ..following a report by Windknot, but alas, they will have to wait for another day.

Finally made it to these drainages..

[shawnterustic]

Wow - that view of Seven Gables (also one of my favorites!) from Coronet is absolutely sublime!!! What a great writeup and fantastic photos, to boot. I haven't been over that way since passing through briefly on the PCT, and I've been wanting to go back ever since and dig deep...this might just be the inspiration I needed!

[thegib]

Superb route! I did E and W Pinnacles creek a couple days behind you and took a pic of Big Chief lake from the same spot! It's a stunning view.

[giantbrookie]

What a great photo album of trailless locations in some of the finest territory in the High Sierra! I like the eagle photos, too, as well as the great zoom in to Mt Ritter. I'd really like to get to Coronet and Lower Turret and the W Pinnacles Creek photos bring back fond memories.

[Dwwd]

Bob, Well Done! However, I think you have under-stated the perseverance required from two "old farts" to hoist packs around E. and W. Pinnacles with all of the ridges-lets shown in Google Earth. It may look beguiling smooth in Google Earth due to the z-height compression, but in practice there is likely as much up/down over rocks on the Xcountry paths as there was in your talus shot of Sought pass. The orange plant photo is unique. What is it and how common is that plant?

[SSSdave]

Is BDD road about what it has always been? I cancelled a 10 day trip reservation for 3 of us into the south fork lakes after one person cancelled. Instead 2 of us old n slow will base camp 3 nights in Pioneer Basin while Bear Creek will need to wait and my Forester is glad.

RS >>>"The view was good. Toward Seven Gables."

I can see blue waters of L Lake in that shot. The route to Vee we've made the last 2 or 3 times climbed up those slabs frame mid lower left edge. Bro has fished Coronet but not one I've been to. So much just in that east fork basin to be distracted by during good normal years at peak greenery. For a photographer, these places are vast, one sees far more than can be captured, and a reason I return for unfinished business. Have base camped twice on the east side of Marie, some pretty turf lake edges, and indeed is lonely. Fishing was good too.