First off huge thank you to everyone who keeps this place up and running! The 2021 mosquito report as well as many old threads I searched through made this trip as easy as it was awesome!
My girlfriend and I are rapidly falling in love with backpacking and after tackling Waimanu valley in Hawaii and then Sykes hot springs in Big Sur we headed out for our 3rd adventure and 1st time to the Sierra!
Left Berkeley around 8am, picked up our permit in Pinecrest and got underway from Crabtree trailhead around noon.
Was expecting the abrupt arrival at elevation to be a a killer but it seemed our young non-nicotine-addicted lungs were up to the challenge. We made decent time as we fell into a rhythm of hiking about 2.5 miles between each new lake and stopping at each for a few pictures and to filter water to refill our 4L capacity.
The last ~400ft climb from Piute lake to Gem lake was a push but we made it and were rewarded with golden cliffs rising above us to the north and a beautiful (very mosquitoe free) lake all to ourselves.
Did not have any set rout planned. Flipped a coin between turning off south to go check out Big Lake or keeping our hard earned elevation and working out a north easterly loop to see Leopold Lake which someone on here had said deserved exploration and we settled on this rout.
The last mile from Toejam lake to Leopold was our first taste of xc and we both loved the that new challenge. However due to some blisters and the invariably slowdown of xc travel it was near sunset as we set up camp on what seemed to be the edge of the world!
After Leopold we where eager to find more camps that combined both the convenience of a nearby water source as well as a beautiful view and found this spot above one of chewing gum lake’s smaller satellites.
You see, we do know who you are, fellow Mountain School alumni.