Better late than never right? This is first installment for a 16 day trip that involved 3 backpacks in the California Sierras in July 2012.
All the signs were there that pointed to the Sierras as the place to be for early season 2012 due to historically low snow levels. Fool me once in 2010 when I attempted to organize a similar trip during a late snow year. I would not make this mistake again and this year was all about redemption!
I’ve hiked at elevation before and knew flying from Seattle meant we needed to car camp at a higher elevation the night before to acclimatize. I also planned a very modest itinerary for the first two days.
I found the road up to Onion Valley to be very unique. It gains over 5000 feet of elevation and as you drive into the mountains you strain your eyes to see where the road is going, you can’t figure out how it could possibly keep going in this direction.
It was clear to us that the high elevation hiking combined with a 4 day pack was going to be a challenge.
I had felt fine until we hit Gilbert Lake where we stopped for some photos and then it hit me. All of a sudden I was weak and felt like I was going to toss my trail mix.
After a breather I hoisted the pack again and we made our way up a side trail to Matlock Lake, the one lake I had been looking forward to the most on this whole backpack. When I finally stumbled into camp feeling like I had been out partying all night I dropped my pack into the dirt and promptly fell on it. I tried several times to get up and at least set up my camp, but it was a good 2-3 hours before I could even muster up the energy to do it.
I had hoped to wander up above to Bench lake and visit a tarn below University Peak but I didn’t fell like pushing it, I had three more days to go! So Tisha went exploring on her own and I enjoyed the solitude of this gorgeous lake. While other lakes in the Sierras are chock full of people, this one is a bit off the main trail so we had this one to ourselves.
The next day was to be another “easy” day.
We were to attain Kearsarge Pass (11,845) and drop to camp at the lakes below.
We huffed and puffed our way up, but I felt much better this day. Again Tisha would wander to some other lakes after we setup camp but I elected to rest again hoping to be fully recovered for our next day which was to be much harder. Hopefully she shares some pics because it looked really nice where she went.
There are two ways to complete the next part, a high and low route. We would take the low one right by Bullfrog Lake on the way there and the high route on our way out.
We would climb for what seemed like forever until we finally reached Glenn Pass at 11,978 ft.
We dropped to Rae Lakes and set up camp.
We debated at length as to what to do from here. Our original hope was to climb up to Dragon lake and travel cross country around Mt Gould (13,005) and loop back to the trailhead via Golden Trout Lakes. We decided to check out Dragon Lake pack free and that confirmed our suspicions. Dragging a full pack up that loose rock was going to be a huge undertaking and it would be easier to return the way we came. If it was the end of our trip, sure maybe we could have done it, but we had 2 more backpacks to think about.
The hike out the next day was a long, full day
We spent one more night car camping in Alabama Hills.
In the morning we would take it easy, wander around taking photos and then head up to Keough Hotsprings and get a shower, food and relax in the springs before embarking on our next backpack.
