Bear lakes basin - Sep 29 - Oct 1

[giantbrookie]

Everyone has their own pace, but the first golden-bearing lake out of Cottonwood is about 5 mi and 1000' of gain from the car vs ~13 mi (for Lou Beverley that only has small fish anyway; considerably further for Bear Basin) and 4000+' gain from the Diversion Dam. No question Bear Basin is doable in 3 days, but most of the days would be spent hiking instead of fishing unless one is a much faster than average high country hiker. Remember too that the days are rather short this time of year.

Regarding what to use (if lure fishing), everyone has their own favorites, but my personal favorite lure for goldens is the 1/4 oz "Z-hooker" pattern Z-Ray. That is my designated golden lure, but I admit it may be difficult to find in Cali (I order it in bulk from the manufacturer). On the other hand, I've seen folks do very well with Mepps Aglia Longs and Panther Martins. Of course fly fishers have their own favorites for goldens as well.

[freestone]

If you live in Fresno, and can drive to the diversion dam, then Bear creek is a good choice. The problem with Cottonwood is precious time is wasted driving from Fresno to the Owen's Valley. Day one gets you to Kip Camp where the JMT meets the Bear Creek Diversion Dam trail. Day two, fish for goldens in the creek, or day hike to Seven Gables Lakes. Day 3, fish in the morning, then make your exit and be home for a late supper with your wife. Bear Creek above Kip camp is perfect this time of year and you will not be disappointed. BTW, I have never seen a bear in this area!

[Buck Forester]

Where you're driving from is a factor indeed. If you're in the Fresno area, it is a long haul to the east side just to start the day. If you're looking at the same general area, another option would be (from Kaiser Pass) to drive towards Florence Lake then turn off before you reach the dam and go through Jackass Meadow and drive near Hooper Diversion Dam (you need good clearance in the last mile or so of this road, if not you can still pull off the road and hike a little longer). There is a unmarked trail that heads up into Hooper Basin at the base of Mt. Hooper. It's probably around 6 miles or so, and fairly steep (but nothing bad) but there is a series of lakes with goldens in them and very few people head up there. Gordon Lake is the first lake you come to and I've caught some good sized goldens in there (fat and up to 14"), then next is Harvey Lake and then Hooper Lake. Hooper Lake has lots of smaller, easier to catch goldens. For a cross-country jaunt you can hit Chamberlain Lake, which from my experience has goldens up to 12" or so. I've gone solo in there many times, but then again I'm experienced. As long as you have a map and compass or GPS (and know how to use them) you should be okay. It's a beautiful basin too. Talk your wife into going with you!

Bear Lakes is doable, as has been said, but I was assuming you want to "camp" there too, not just visit via a dayhike from a camp down on the Bear River. That makes it more feasible, but then you're missing the best times to be there, sunrise and sunset. There are goldens in the Bear River, especially the upper reaches, and it's beautiful country and you can dayhike to Vee and Bear Lakes, or up to Marie Lake.

If you're on the eastside and have the drive time, Cottonwood Lakes is always sweet, as suggested. Lone Pine is way down there though. But you might be coming up from L.A. (not sure where you're coming from), and if so, that'd be a great choice. It wouldn't be feasible for me from the Sacramento area because it takes most of the day just to drive down there (7 hours), which takes a chunk of my weekend right there. But I still do it, it's so beautiful! Another option is popping over Piute Pass to Muriel Lake, which has lots of small goldens. Lost Lakes above it has some larger ones, from my experience anyway. Piute Pass is a pretty easy pass, relatively speaking, and Muriel Lake is only a mile or so beyond on fairly easy terrain (with incredible sunset views!)

I'm sure if I really put my thinking cap on I could come up with a lot more suggestions, but it's late and I gotta get to bed... just wanted to think about fishing before I nodded off! Thanks!

P.S. Here's the topozone link to Hooper Basin I was referring to:
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=37. ... ize=l&s=50

[cmon4day]

I just came down out of that basin 3 days ago. Beautiful spot. Came over Crazy Pass from Rose Lake. Crazy Lake looks barren. The creek in the meadow is loaded with fish. Harvey Lake where we camped has only one fish left. Didn't go to Gordon Lake, should have fish. The trail down is brutal, my knee still hurts.

Vic

[cmon4day]

On the way down we came across a hunters camp. They had shot a deer and gutted it right there. The animals had scatterred the deer parts and the area was littered with trash. I was bothered by it. Not so much the deer but the lack of respect for the Wilderness. We picked up the trash and packed it out.

Buck, If you think that trail is "not to bad", you are my hero. I thought that trail was brutal, 2500' in less than 2 miles. I went down, I can't imagine going up.

Vic

[tory8411]

You guys rock!
Thanks for all the help. I'm still itching to get to Bear Lakes Basin. I checked out Cottonwood and think I could get there from Fresno no problem, just have to leave a little earlier. I do think I've got my wife okay with me driving up late Thurs night to acclimate (that's at least a little helpful). If you don't mind one last assessment, let me give you as accurate a description as possible of my physical conditioning and let me know if you think BLB is a doable venture:
1. triained about six weeks, 3 days a week, stairs at Fresno State stadium, prep for South Lake to North Lake loop
2. completed SL to NL in 3 1/2 days, largely due to mosquitoes, at the end of July. Ended up doing 20 miles on 3rd day from outlet at Evolution Lake to past Hutchinson meadow. (that kicked my butt, just tried to get away from them buggers, didn't work)
3. Felt pretty good that whole trip except for that one day, but recovered well and was ready to go next morning.
4. Haven't been on an extended trip since, only a handful of day hikes, nothing more than 10 miles.
5. Otherwise haven't been training much.
6. Only a couple pounds heavier.
7. Pack weighs in at 33#, that's with food and water (5 1/2# is the tent which is a three-man, I don't have a solo tent yet)

I would love to take my wife and daughter, but, I have yet to find a pack large enought to carry all of the items needed to make my wife feel as though she hasn't left the house. It needs to be able to fit a few strangely shaped items too, i.e. mattress (not air, Sealy or the like), fairly long extension cord, plethora of oddly shaped brushes/pencils/and powders, large mirror, oh and a mini-fridge. I think I saw one that might do the job in Cabela's, but I think it was only good hooked up to a tow hitch. Maybe I can modify it!

In all seriousness, my goal is to get my wife into the outdoors as soon as possible with our little girl. We'll have to ease her into it, but i believe there is hope. If nothing else, my little girl and I will be all over the backcountry as soon as she's big enough.

Thanks again! You all never disappoint.
Tory

[hikerduane]

tory8411, aka Family Sherpa, sounds like you could come with me anytime. You are in great shape. Those mosquitos at Hutchinson Meadow are pretty notorious, to miss them, go late Sept. or later. Pooch and I had a terrific stay there about 4 years ago, his last trip I believe.

To "break" the wife in, take the family on weekend campground overnighters or dayhikes to get them used to a little dirt if you don't do that kind of thing already. If the wife doesn't like a little sweat and dirt at night, bring a solar shower to clean up at night, they work great or stay at campgrounds where there are showers and maybe flush toliets. Not all campgrounds are that nice, some are just a little too quaint or rustic may be the word. Bring some ice chests with all the goodies you might want to enjoy and some special items to make the trip more memorable. The idea is to get them over the idea they may have that it isn't much fun or interesting out there/here. Good luck.

[giantbrookie]

Goodness, I can't believe I didn't see that you were going from Fresno, in spite of the fact that I live here too. On the other hand, Cottonwood is probably in the 6 hour range driving (probably faster going around the horn to the south) and Bear Creek Diversion dam is about 2.5 to 3 hours of driving from Fresno so the driving deficit one way is say 3.5 hours and the hiking difference in time of Bear Basin vs Cottonwood is likely larger than that although if you're doing Bulldog Stadium to condition yourself your doing pretty well. During my peak death march years I once did stadium stairs regularly and it served me very well. I also agree that from Fresno the Gordon/Hooper, etc. basin is easier to reach than Bear Basin. I guess it depends on how exotic a playground you wish to hike to versus the fishing time/(hiking + driving) time ratio. Cottonwoods and Hooper offer the best ratio (Hoopers probably best overall from Fresno), but I think Bear Basin is the most magical of the three.

[Buck Forester]

Doh! That's one of my three most favoritest golden spots. Shhhhhhhh!!!!!

Hey, we're all like family... no one will say a word! What happens on High Sierra Topix stays on High Sierra Topix.

[tory8411]

Thanks again everyone. I am almost 100% certain I'm shooting for Bear Lakes Basin. I do think I'm going to stop just above Bear Meadow the first night though. Then get up early and hit the basin. Might be a wee bit cold up there.
Also, I am sharing my only secret spot as a small token of my appreciation. I know it isn't much, but it's all I can give now. As this is my first attempt at posting a picture, I hope it works. This is a very small lake, unnamed, just northeast along the ridgeline from Upper Geraldine Lake. It's not much of a pond, maybe 3 acres big is all. We caught many small fish out of Upper Geraldine and as it was getting late decided to try and find a small pond we saw on the map. Sure enough we found it. Normally you see a ton of little ones cruising the banks, but we didn't see any sign of life. No deterring us though, we launched our lines all the way to the middle (that's how small it was) a few minutes passed and then... WHAM! The largest high sierra lake trout I've ever caught. We ended up catching two each, all C&R. We didn't see any smaller fish at all. Just those four. But it made for great stories and excitement.

Thanks for all your help, I hope this worked.

http://www.photo.net/photos/Tank%20Sherman

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=36. ... &layer=DRG