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We left on 10/10, the day before the predicted one day storm on Columbus Day. We hustled up from the Rancheria TH, but fell short of Woodchuck Lake by a few miles. A thirsty time searching for water along dry Woodchuck Cr. yielded a very small waterhole at a low point in the rocky creek bed, and we camped by it. The next day we left camp early, and were all set up when the windy flood of graupel and snowflakes came down.
It was a cold storm, but we were well prepared. The only hole in our preparation was that my wife Lizzie and friend Carleton chose to use their favorite, light footgear-- La Sportiva approach shoes, and they suffered a bit for it. Warm, dry camp shoes helped a lot, but after the second, heavier snowfall, they resorted to wearing the poor man's vapor barrier-- plastic bread bags over socks, tucked into gaitors. The Columbus Day storm was exactly the 1 day affair predicted by NOAA. We enjoyed the snowy scenery from the comfort of a basecamp, and did alright with the fish.
Three fish were thick, but our first 2 fish were of the big-headed, narrow bodied version-- they are the lower 2 in the photo above. I'm not sure if this is significant, but the larger fish were all caught very near the inlet to the lake.
We enjoyed fishing success at both Woodchuck and Halfmoon Lakes, and then made it to Portal Lake on day 4, where we stayed for 3 nights. From that nice basecamp, Carleton and I had thought to cross Finger notch, or head over to Blue Canyon via Mantle Pass, but instead we enjoyed two full days of wandering and fishing around Blackcap Basin. To see even more of it, we chose to exit via Blackcap Pass. It gave us tremendous views of the mountains to the east, but it proved a tricky crossing. The low point is the spot closest to BC Mtn., but being northwest facing, it was pretty treacherous with the new snow. We climbed up the slope to the north, which gave us a steep but dry southwest slope to descend. We made it to the deep woods of Guest Lake, where we caught another mass of fish. On our eighth day, we crossed the North Fork of the Kings River, then hiked over Scepter Pass, and made it to Crown Lake.
Regarding the KNP fire and smoke, we did see a slight smoky haze to the south from Crown Pass on 10/12. From then on, we had spectacularly clear skies up in Blackcap Basin till the snowstorm of 10/17, when we were back at Crown Lake. Not knowing the weather forecast, on 10/18 we decided to hike far, in order to position ourselves for an easy exit. So the day after the storm, we hiked 12 miles, over Crown Pass, and down to within 4 miles of the Woodchuck TH. In the snow-covered landscape, we got off-route from Crown Pass till we reached the trail that runs west from Woodchuck Lake. We opted to return that way, rather than heading back up to Rancheria TH due to the greater ease of this route. I was confident I could hitch a ride with hunters, or jog-hike the 5 miles back to our car at Rancheria. Again, we had good luck-- the storms held off, and the hunters came through with a ride.
