R08/R02 TR: Virginia Pass, Peak, & Canyon, 9/27 - 10/3, 2022

[giantbrookie]

What a stellar fall trip, with all of the goodies: crisp clear air, fall colors, impressive rugged summits, sparkling sapphire lakes, wildlife, and some quality fish, to boot. I think that part of the Sierra is underrated. The Convict Canyon and Pine Creek area more attention for their rugged cliffs of richly colored metamorphic rock but the Virginia area has all that, too. In common with other areas like it in the High Sierra the varied colors of the bedrock enhance the fall colors in the vegetation too. It would be hard to imagine a more complete success for a fall trip. Thanks for the report, which hits the spot as I sit here desk bound (for 2nd consecutive weekend my failure to kick this virus out as led to cancellation of a trip).

[LMBSGV]

I really enjoyed reading this and the wonderful photos. It’s nice to know that the beaver dam is still there so many years later from when my wife and I hiked past Green Lake. Upper Virginia Canyon and Return Lake are both particular favorites so it was fascinating to see that area this time of year with the marvelous fall colors.

[Harlen]

Hey gazelle, "another great area" that I chased you through! This is the trip we did there in January... You were way up ahead, lucky for me, skis leave tracks to follow.... And you were nice enough to wait for me at the bottom of the hills.

I had written the lines above in earnest, as it was clear that our gazelle-- like her totem animal- is a speedster. Apparently, this is well known among her northern Sierra friends, such as the great VacaRuss (RIP). I just came across these lines of his from an old Mt Shasta post (gazelle had mentioned that she had an aggressive itinerary planned) VacaRuss:

More aggressive than usual? Kristine, you tear up the trail. I'm sure it would be a struggle for me to keep up with you. I would really love to summit Shasta in one day. That is quite an accomplishment.

So I feel vindicated, if Vaca too had trouble with a gazelle's pace.

[Harlen]

Wandering Daisy wrote:

Great trip. I was over in Emigrant the same time.... I did a loop: Green Lake-Summit Lake- Soldier Lake-Return Lake-Virgina Pass- then off-trail straight down the drainage from Virginia Pass back to Green Lake. Hardly saw anyone on that trip.

That climb of Virginia Peak looked really sketchy. Was the rock as brittle as it looked? I am not fond of climbing on that kind of rock; really prefer granite. You are braver than me.

Yes it was pretty sketchy. I replied more fully to your climbing question in the separate post I wrote about the climb of Virginia Peak-- I put it in the "Peak Bagging / Rock Climbing / Bouldering" section. Here it is: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=22649
Thx for the comments WD.

[Gogd]

.. is it sometimes good to have fewer fish, to increase the overall health of the population?

Unless on a major traffic trail, backcountry lakes won't miss the next generation of fry from the fish mama you ate for dinner. Consider Long Lake, above Bishop, gets the heck fished out of it, yet thar's always more fish from where those came from. That said, a good steward will avoid fishing inlets and sand bars, or even casting a silhouette over these areas during spawning season, so as to not disrupt that activity.

Ed

[Harlen]

Hey Gogd, I thought you were gonna weigh in on choss climbing, which you probably excelled at, since you once implied that you too lacked the genes for proper risk aversion. High risk = high reward though, right? I am still getting High off that V.Peak climb... and it beats drugs.

Re. the fish knowledge, thanks for passing that on. After I read your comments I sought out some more knowledge on spawning, and learned this:

Golden trout reach sexual maturity in 3-4 years and spawn in late spring or early summer when water temperatures range from 10-15°C. Spawning peaks in the afternoon when water temperatures reach their daily maximum. Females dig wide shallow redds among small gravel particles and lay 300-2,300 eggs. The eggs hatch in approximately 20 days at 14°C. Emergent fry remain in the substrate for 2-3 weeks before rising into the main water column.*

* UC Davis - Cntr. for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture.

So thanks for the input Ed, I will try to keep out of spawning grounds. All the best, Ian.

[Gogd]

Hmm, my souces had a different spawning period for Golden trout.

• Brook trout spawn in early September (through October in lower elevations). Spawning area are inlet streams to lakes.
• Golden trout spawn in August - September. Spawning area are gravel beds found in inlet streams and lake shallows fed by inlet streams.
• Rainbow trout spawn in around April. Spawning area are gravel beds found in inlet streams and lake shallows fed by inlet streams.
• Lahontan & Piute Cutthroat trout spawn June - July, depending on water temperature. They spawn in gravel media of lake and river tributaries.
• Brown trout spawn late, from September into the first part of snow season, in gravel beds of rivers and larger streams.

Perhaps the fish experts can settle this one?

I think the takeaway is fish are spawning somewhere throughout the normal camping seasons, so one needs to know what fish are in the vicinity of the venue of one's trip, their spawning season, and know that congregations of fish chasing each other and flitting about are probably in spawn mode.

-----------------------------
Choss - Ok I'll take the bait!
I think there are lucky choss climbers, more so than experts of the medium. Which causes one the most acute sense of their mortality, simultaneous hand and foothold failings in a choss breakout, or knowing the last ten anchors you placed are bomber as a jam nut in a pile of loose cobbles? I LOATHE choss; do you know anyone who thinks otherwise and is still alive? Do not confuse my lack of fear, however, with lack of common sense! I prefer being in the company of those more closely resembling my visage, where you can typically find us hanging out in formation under pin setting machines in bowling alleys, than take my chances cowering in the vertical lanes choss tumbles down, inevitably scoring a 6/10 split spare, beaning both me and my second.

Ed

[giantbrookie]

Hmm, my souces had a different spawning period for Golden trout.

• Brook trout spawn in early September (through October in lower elevations). Spawning area are inlet streams to lakes.
• Golden trout spawn in August - September. Spawning area are gravel beds found in inlet streams and lake shallows fed by inlet streams.
• Rainbow trout spawn in around April. Spawning area are gravel beds found in inlet streams and lake shallows fed by inlet streams.
• Lahontan & Piute Cutthroat trout spawn June - July, depending on water temperature. They spawn in gravel media of lake and river tributaries.
• Brown trout spawn late, from September into the first part of snow season, in gravel beds of rivers and larger streams.

For the Sierra backcountry lakes here's my experience in terms of observing spawning fish or what I've read (see cutthroat)
Brookies. Depending on the year and the elevation of the lake: late September to late October. This is based on maturity of the eggs in females that I've caught, cleaned, and eaten. This year the brookies seem to be running late. The ones I caught in late September at that Yosemite place were well short (ie eggs still small) and I figured they wouldn't get there until mid October if not later.

Goldens. Right after lake thaws. This will vary by the season and elevation. Typically this will be in June for most lakes, but after light winters this may happen in late May. For the highest elevation lakes after the very heaviest of winters this might get pushed to mid-late July.

Rainbows. Same as goldens which is not surprising considering how closely related they are (goldens are subspecies of rainbow)

Lahontan Cutthroat. I've never fished for them early season but these are supposed to be 'spring' spawners so should spawn after the lake thaws. So this should be like rainbows. The caveat is that in the Sierra there is most cutty lakes are relatively low elevation (<9k ft) so one expects spawning in late May to mid June in most cases. That having been said I caught some last year in August that had mature and not shriveled eggs. Confused cutties, perhaps?

Browns. Fall spawners with a spawning season similar to brookies. Browns can seem hard to find in Sierra lakes until fall when they are much more visible and active (at least in terms of hitting whatever offering fishing folks fling at them).

Mackinaw. I have no idea. If it goes by the schedule of its relative (brookie) it would be fall. It's not likely one would ever see these in spawn mode in a Sierran backcountry lake because they're only found in two of them and they tend to hang out very deep in those two lakes.