The slow thaw of the High Sierra following the record snowfall has limited options and complicated trip planning. For my family, the main concern is finding thawed lakes to fish as well as avoiding dangerous stream crossings. We had planned a hiking-fishing trip to serve as warmup for a 9-day backpacking trip that Dawn and I plan for later in July. I checked Sentinel Hub Playground regularly while in Newfoundland (June 11-24 including travel days) and upon return. We had originally planned to backpack to Warren Lake for a two-nighter (July 1-3), then get a room in Quincy and hike somewhere around Lakes Basin on July 4. Whereas Warren was thawed, the amount of snow to be hiked over would make for too strenuous a hike for Judy and Dawn who had not yet hiked in 2023. I changed the game plan to an entirely hotel-stay-based trip with two nights in Carson City and one night in Quincy. We chose lodgings with kitchen facilities because we planned to cook up fish for at least the first two nights (Carson City) with the possibility of having to cook on the third night if restaurants closed by the time we arrived. The potential advantage of the revised plan was being able to visit a larger range of destinations. Owing to the difficulty administering medication to our cat, Lily, Lee took one for the team and stayed home to make sure Lily received proper care (ie couldn't leave this to a friend).
Day 1, Saturday, July 1. Round Lake
We left sometime after 7 am on Saturday and made several stops en route to the Big Meadows trailhead, north of Luther Pass, so we did not arrive until sometime around 11 am. We found a parking space in the trailhead parking lot in contrast to 2020 (July 2) when we had to park along 89. As we hiked up the first upgrade I noticed how much easier it felt than my weighted 1.5 hour training walks (carry pack weighing 30-60 lbs) in the neighborhood on which I push a much faster uphill pace (and carry a lot more). I found I did not have to breathe very hard and I had to wait frequently for Judy and even Dawn to catch up. This shows the difference that training can make. We saw many hikers on the trail, including a good number of backpackers headed out. One of them carried fishing gear and told Judy that he had camped at Round Lake, fished it and seen no sign of fish life, meaning he had no strikes and did not see rises or cruisers or trailers.
As predicted, Big Meadow was a bit wet and the stream crossing left us with soaked boots. We hiked over a bit of snow to the junction with the trail to Dardanelles Lake and quite a bit of snow over the final approach. Judy and Dawn found the snow hiking tedious, so I realized I'd have to find an alternative for the planned 2nd day to Lower Velma (upper parts of the approach would have involved far more hiking over snow than the last bit to Round).
- Judy and Dawn found hiking in the snow over the last mile or so to Round Lake tedious.
After reaching Round Lake, Judy slipped on a rock while crossing the outlet stream, broke her walking stick, and backflopped in. I recalled that the crossing of Meeks Creek below Lake Genevieve can be pretty wet early season and it would certainly carry a lot more water than the Round Lake outlet. Given the length of the hike (over 6 miles to Stony Ridge), the likelihood of lots of snow on the trail above Crag Lake, and the strong flows in Meeks Creek, I figured I'd need to figure out a day 3 alternative. Shortly before arriving at the outlet stream ,we passed some folks camped on a nice high campsite, close to where we had camped on our 2020 backpacking trip. I heard one of them ask another "Would you like an IPA?" That completely derailed my train of thought from fishing to daydreams of enjoyment of craft beer.
- Round Lake in early season form.
- Another view of Round Lake
By about 1 pm or so we had set up for fishing. With the translucent green water of Round Lake one seldom sees cruising fish unless they are rather close, and with a steady breeze, the chop obscured potential rises. The stiff breeze kept us refreshed on what would have otherwise been a rather warm day and it kept the bugs at bay, too. One fellow was fishing from a nice slabby point about thirty yards to my right. He hadn't seen any sign of life nor had any success. I fished several nice dropoffs, but did not hook up until nearly 2 pm. The fish was a disappointment. It was a super skinny 13" cutthroat. I wondered if the fish were getting a bit stunted in the lake. Dawn caught a slender 13-incher, then Judy caught an 11-incher. I fished a good portion of the shoreline, whereas Dawn and Judy preferred to rest and not move much. They also had some issues with line tangles and snags and lost so much line that their casting distance was drastically reduced. I ended up catching a total of 10 cutthroat running 11-13", 6 of which were caught on my last 15 casts finishing at about 330 pm. Most fish were alarmingly slender. I really wonder if the population density of this lake is getting so high that the fish growth is stunted as in many brookie lakes (ie spawning is a bit too good), or whether the fish are a bit emaciated following an especially heavy winter. In 2020 I caught a lot of fish but they weren't this skinny and I have a hard time believing a lake's fish population can increase that quickly. Collectively, we kept 7 fish that I cleaned and wrapped in one of our "fish towels" to hike out for our dinner and part of the next.
Our hike out went fairly smoothly and we drove to Carson City where we figured we had to get some new line to respool Dawn's and Judy's reels before checking in to our suite. While shopping at Sportsman's Warehouse, I decided to get Dawn a new reel because she had been having problems with hers, plus we bought a ton of Kastmasters to restock. We had lost 11 of them to snags (5 for me and 3 each for Dawn and Judy) and our supply had still not been restocked from a severe 2022 season in which I think I lost about one lure per every two fish landed for the entire season. Upon checking in to our suite at My Place, on the north side of town, we found the accommodations spacious (including a bathroom much larger than our cramped ones at home) and clean, but were surprised to find no cooking or serving implements or utensils. This delayed our beer, and we headed out to Save Mart to get necessary "suite camping" gear. Once back and set up, Judy and I belatedly opened cans of Faction's superb HBC586 Pale Ale and I started prepping dinner. I did up the vegetable dish first because this was a two burner electric stove and the burners were closely enough spaced that I had to span them with the large frying pan we'd bought. I cooked up Brussel sprouts with garlic powder, black pepper, and salt. We found that serving this with a little topping of crushed potato chips really took it to another level. We could have probably contented ourselves with the Brussel sprouts alone, but I had to do the main course. The cutties, although skinny were orange-meated and tasty. These were seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then lightly floured before frying. All of them had the characteristic high fat content that makes cutties so good. We had brought leftover rice from home to microwave so we were set. It was, however, rather late (11 pm) by the time we finished dinner.
Day 2. Sunday July 2. Poore Lake.
Sunday morning, we realized they didn't have coffee filters with the coffee maker, so we went downstairs to get the free coffee in the lobby, then brought it back up to have with the leftover breakfast cake I had brought from home. After getting some gas, we headed off south on 395 to Leavitt Meadow to hike to the revised day 2 destination: Poore Lake. Driving south, I was impressed with the huge flows in the West Walker River.
- This is the view driving west on 108 from Sonora Junction on 7/2.
Upon arrival at the backpackers lot, I was surprised to find it completely full for the first time in my memory. I parked to the east along 108. I think the crowding here is likely a product of the limited number of options one has early this season. Even along this trail one would find few options, given that West Walker is not crossable, so I'd guess Roosevelt and Lane Lakes must have been jammed.
- The classic Leavitt Meadow view toward Tower Peak.
We can only speculate because we split off for Poore. You actually have to take another fork (one goes to Secret Lake, the other to Poore) not long after leaving the main trail, but I'm now 0 for 3 hitting the trail to Poore. It is abundantly true that if I used GPS and set a waypoint at the split all would be good, but I continue to do my navigation "old school" with my topo only. It is worth noting that the 2017 Tom Harrison Hoover Wilderness topo does not show a spur trail to Poore at all, but the 2001 Tom Harrison Emigrant Wilderness map shows the somewhat complex trail geometry fairly faithfully (but only the southern part of Poore lake is on this map). Note that there is a sign at the cutoff from the main trail (signed for Secret and Poore Lakes) but no sign at the cutoff for the Poore Lake trail.
The off trail descent (steep, loose, and locally class 2) to Poore was troubling for Judy who was a bit rusty in off trail scrambling and bruised from her fall the day before, so this descent took some time. I found the view of Poore Lake uniquely beautiful and different from most Sierra lakes. Part of this unique appearance is because of the milky blue green color of the lake, which, unlike Round (always murky), is probably a function of the runoff over volcanic rock that liberates a lot of fine sediment compared to what seems to be algae in suspension in Round. Last year Dawn and I found Poore clear and deep blue no doubt because it was effectively later in the year (earlier on the calendar) and the runoff had not been as extreme. The particular volcanic backdrop of Poore, with its softer altered rock instead of the more typically craggy-bumpy cliffs, also gives Poore a unique visual setting.
- Poore Lake is beautiful in a different way than other Sierra lakes.
On arrival I found that the "overflow" channel (not main outlet) had enough water in it to be discouraging for Judy, so I decided not to cross it to the preferred drop offs to the north. For the first hour (about 1-2 pm) we had little action. Judy and I each hooked and released a 9" brookie but otherwise the three of us had no strikes in a good 60 casts between us. I had been avoiding what looked like submerged floating plants, but Dawn, whose distance vision is better than mine recognized these as schools composed of enormous numbers of fish. These fish did in fact look like trout and many were of decent size (12" or larger). They paid no attention to our retrieves. Given the uncooperative nature of the fish in the lake, we decided to take the time to snack and relax. In the meantime, the mesmerizing schools of fish had vanished. Dawn was the first to start fishing again and her first cast followed by the usual deep retrieve of a 3/8 oz Kastmaster did in fact hook up. It had been so many casts since her last fish that Dawn doubted that it was really a fish. This turned out to be a meaty 14" brookie. Within less than a minute Judy hooked and landed another 14-incher. I then got into the act and caught a 13-incher. We quit fishing about 330 pm, by which time Dawn and I had caught 5 fish and Judy 2. Dawn took best fish honors with a 15-inch male. We kept 5 fish between us to wrap in a 2nd fish towel, some for dinner that night, and the remainder to be refrigerated to provide dinner after arrival back home.
- Dawn has her best fishing session since 2021 at Poore.
- Judy's 14 incher and Dawn's15" and 14" fish.
- The uncrossable West Walker River
Our evening back in civilization began a bit earlier, delayed only by a short trip to Save Mart to get coffee filters, more craft beer (hadn't brought all of the beer I had planned to), and a pudding cake for the next breakfast (my own leftover breakfast cake had been consumed). Back in the kitchen we cooked up only one of the five brookies (we had Dawn's 15-incher) because with the huge portions of Brussel sprouts (added some wild sage to this batch), some leftover cutthroat from the night before, we would be plenty full. The fish were seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and wild onions, and not floured. I now had the straddle-the-burners heat distribution better wired and I used this knowledge to put a nice crisp on the skin of the brookie pieces. Partly because of this we considered this main course even tastier than the night before.
