R04 TR: 32 Lakes- Blackcap, Bench, Red Mountain Basins 8/3-8/9 2023

[CAMERONM]

August 3-9, 2023; 74 miles, 11,330 ft, 6 days.

Good weather and a favorable job situation allow me to take off for a 6-day hike to explore the lakes of Blackcap Basin, Bench Valley, and Red Mountain Basin, all lined up along the west side of Le Conte and White Divides. I set out with my usual lightweight summer kit of 11 lbs, along with an Ursack bag of food weighing 10 pounds, for a total start load of 21 lbs, which is very liberating! My planned trip is ambitious but scaled to be realistic with my increasingly slower pace. I did virtually no research beforehand; I was busy and trusted my contour-map study and am confident that I can always switch up if a particular pass or river is impassable.

Please click here to see my long MULTI-MEDIA Trip Report!
https://www.trailnamebackstroke.com/32- ... d-mountain
It features:

MANY LAKES (32 to be exact) (more or less)

MOSQUITO-Y MEADOWS

FASCINATING ROCKS

STARS

VERTIGINOUS PASSES

RANGERS IN ACTION

COPULATING MOTHS

A TREATISE ON POCKET GOPHERS

B-17 FLYING FORTRESSES

Don't miss out- check the link today!!!
https://www.trailnamebackstroke.com/32- ... d-mountain

[thegib]

Great stuff Cameron! I'm headed that way next week (and came through from Hummingbird lake to Half Moon and Scepter lake Aug 12 and it was probably your footprints I saw in that mess of a trail). Schoolmarm and above are on my list for this next trip.

[cgundersen]

Cameron: that was a huge changeup from your trip last year and striking for very different reasons. I'm uniformly impressed with the photos/videos you got with your iPhone. Did you ask anyone what was going on with that trail that was blasted across the granite bib. And I'm pretty certain your tentative ID of Cathedral lake was spot on, because of the distinctive appearance of Finger col from that side of the ridge. Mosquito pressure sounds ominous; then again, the water flows were semi-biblical! Thanks for the extended post! Cameron

[giantbrookie]

Nice trip. That's covering a lot of ground in 6 days. You pretty much hit all the lakes of those basins.

[freestone]

For some reason, the images on your blog site are blurry, but the film clips are not.

[windknot]

Wonderful photos and engaging narrative. Glad you had a good trip -- thanks for sharing!

[SSSdave]

Quite enjoyed your report that focused on numbers of ordinary subjects we all enjoy. Thanks for taking the time to create that report including descriptions. The short Vimeo videos work well. I have plenty like videos from most trips but never embed them on my own website reports because they do require a lot of bandwidth. Especially liked the 2 videos of all the frantic rainbow trout in that stream and the 2 mating sphinx moths. In past decades have been to most of those locations.

[michaelzim]

Wow, what a sojourn! You covered a lot of ground and have a super impressive low trail weight 'packing' situation. I have no idea how you can do that given the degree of inclement weather (and bugs) I have encountered on almost all my trips of late. (The Sierras seem to be getting wetter and more stormy in general?!).
Enjoyed your superb photos too in the long version...and from a cell phone! Incredible really as they match anything one could get with a very high quality 'camera' from what I can see. Excellent.
Soon when phones have automatic linkup to satellite GPS as a standard feature they are going to be a one size fits all electronic backpacking device. To which I may have to succumb. Sigh.
Thanks. M.

[CAMERONM]

@Cameron I have no idea why the destruction happened and there was no one to ask, but I assume it happened some time ago and might have been done by some overzealous ranger or authority without proper oversight.
@freestone Thanks for the head-up, but the images come up fine on all my devices. Squarespace serves up seven different sizes depending on what device it thinks it is talking to, so perhaps it is confused about your device or OS.
@michaelzim The 14 Pro RAW images out of the main lens are indeed incredible. The photos also benefit from absolutely perfect light. They are announcing a new iphone in a week and the rumor is an even larger sensor, so I will be first in line to get one. The iphone already has an "emergency" function- I have yet to read a review of real-world tests, but I think it talks to satellites and is a game changer for those without PLBs.