R03/R01/R04 TR: Evolution Loop Via Lamarck Col 7/31-8/4 2016
Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2016 9:30 am
Wanted to lay down a brief trip report and thank this forum for its excellent advice and for the depth of info here that allowed me to be fully researched and as prepared as possible for a wonderful and challenging trip.
If anyone cares to check my post history, I originally asked about Lamarck Col and then both me and my hiking partner started to question ourselves. We were close to requesting new permits for a Piute Canyon out-and-back, but ultimately decided to do the loop. Spoiler: we lived.
We set out from North Lake on Sunday afternoon and made the short hike in to camp at Lower Lamarck Lake. There were clouds and thunder to the south but they never made it over the mountains to us. What a beautiful place to start the hike. I'd definitely recommend Lower Lamarck for an easy day hike for picnickers and fishermen. Trout were going insane in the morning. And it's only about 1.5mi from the trailhead. Lower Lamarck:
Day 2, first full day, the big day: We made it from Lower Lamarck to the Col in about 3 slow hours. I won't claim we were better acclimated than we were. We weren't sick, but we could feel the altitude and had to take it quite slow. We got lucky and picked the correct trail. I had several GPS tracks downloaded and I think the default trail route on CalTopo is the correct trail. The best advice I could give came from someone else's recent trip report: don't take the rightmost trail. For us this meant that after you cross the stream at Upper Lamarck (site of the much-discussed "Trail" sign), head uphill from the campsites for a few dozen yards and the path will fork pretty clearly. Stay left. Briefly descend and tend more to the left, and then the trail will start to tend right and back uphill, and you'll be at a hefty set of switchbacks soon after.
Some small snowfields in the bowl-below-the-bowl-below-the-col block the trail, but they're easily circumnavigated. The Col itself looks daunting but we were over it very quickly. There's some scary loose dirt above the snowfield, but after a few steps its large, stable talus and an easy ascent to the top.
Descent from the Col was not as bad as I expected (though I expected very bad). Very large talus towards the bottom was a pain. We tended right and made it to the canyon floor at a small grass beach at the head of the second lake. We continued along the lakes over a lot of large talus and finally made it to Darwin Bench. More or less sheltered campsites were plentiful and the bench was beautiful. We made camp and slept off the day's exertions so we could enjoy the beauty of the place better in the morning. Here's the bench the next morning. Totally outrageous beauty. (To those reading in preparation for the '17 season, I'm editing to add something I was totally remiss to leave out when I wrote this: I asked my "hiking partner" to marry me right at this spot on the morning of day 3. It was a yes.)
Day 3: Hiking down off the bench to the JMT was pretty easy. You're probably more likely to miss/lose the trail ascending from the JMT to the bench than descending. We hiked the JMT north for the rest of the day and enjoyed the shade and the level terrain. McClure Meadow is a showstopper:
JMT was busy with through hikers, but it wasn't crowded. At the creek crossing just before Goddard Canyon we took the through-the-meadow alternate route which was a nice opportunity to follow a trail through a meadow. Then some more switchbacks that we were happy to be going down, not up, and eventually we camped at Aspen Meadow. Here's a view down Goddard Canyon. Views like this kept coming even after it felt like we'd seen all we came to see.
Day 4: This was our longest day hiking back east through Piute Canyon. The western part of the trail was exposed and saw a substantial elevation gain. Water was less available than other parts of the hike, and we were lucky to have been warned at the JMT junction. Also the flies were quite bad. We lunched in Hutchinson Meadow and then continued on for several level but dry miles to Humphrey's Basin (hikers going either way, beware that there is no water between Hutchinson Meadow and the stream feeding the Golden Trout lakes in the Basin). What an eerily beautiful place to stop before descending back into the desert to the east. I can see why so many people come up here to explore the lakes. We camped about a mile short of the pass. Instead of another desolate Humphrey's Basin landscape, here's me in full repose at our campsite in the Basin.
Day 5: First and only rain of the trip came overnight and in the early morning. There were even a few minutes of hail. But the sun burned it off and pushed it west and it all contributed to the drama of being up in the Basin. We crested Piute Pass easily and then descending past more lovely lakes and many day hikers to North Lake.
A truly excellent trip through a singular part of the planet. We rushed a little bit, and after experiencing it the way I did, I think I'm gonna take up fishing so I can slow down and have a more interactive experience. I was glad to see that the trails were not crowded and that people appeared to be practicing decent campcraft and LNT. Can't wait to come back. And thanks again to this forum for the feedback and info.
If anyone cares to check my post history, I originally asked about Lamarck Col and then both me and my hiking partner started to question ourselves. We were close to requesting new permits for a Piute Canyon out-and-back, but ultimately decided to do the loop. Spoiler: we lived.
We set out from North Lake on Sunday afternoon and made the short hike in to camp at Lower Lamarck Lake. There were clouds and thunder to the south but they never made it over the mountains to us. What a beautiful place to start the hike. I'd definitely recommend Lower Lamarck for an easy day hike for picnickers and fishermen. Trout were going insane in the morning. And it's only about 1.5mi from the trailhead. Lower Lamarck:
Day 2, first full day, the big day: We made it from Lower Lamarck to the Col in about 3 slow hours. I won't claim we were better acclimated than we were. We weren't sick, but we could feel the altitude and had to take it quite slow. We got lucky and picked the correct trail. I had several GPS tracks downloaded and I think the default trail route on CalTopo is the correct trail. The best advice I could give came from someone else's recent trip report: don't take the rightmost trail. For us this meant that after you cross the stream at Upper Lamarck (site of the much-discussed "Trail" sign), head uphill from the campsites for a few dozen yards and the path will fork pretty clearly. Stay left. Briefly descend and tend more to the left, and then the trail will start to tend right and back uphill, and you'll be at a hefty set of switchbacks soon after.
Some small snowfields in the bowl-below-the-bowl-below-the-col block the trail, but they're easily circumnavigated. The Col itself looks daunting but we were over it very quickly. There's some scary loose dirt above the snowfield, but after a few steps its large, stable talus and an easy ascent to the top.
Descent from the Col was not as bad as I expected (though I expected very bad). Very large talus towards the bottom was a pain. We tended right and made it to the canyon floor at a small grass beach at the head of the second lake. We continued along the lakes over a lot of large talus and finally made it to Darwin Bench. More or less sheltered campsites were plentiful and the bench was beautiful. We made camp and slept off the day's exertions so we could enjoy the beauty of the place better in the morning. Here's the bench the next morning. Totally outrageous beauty. (To those reading in preparation for the '17 season, I'm editing to add something I was totally remiss to leave out when I wrote this: I asked my "hiking partner" to marry me right at this spot on the morning of day 3. It was a yes.)
Day 3: Hiking down off the bench to the JMT was pretty easy. You're probably more likely to miss/lose the trail ascending from the JMT to the bench than descending. We hiked the JMT north for the rest of the day and enjoyed the shade and the level terrain. McClure Meadow is a showstopper:
JMT was busy with through hikers, but it wasn't crowded. At the creek crossing just before Goddard Canyon we took the through-the-meadow alternate route which was a nice opportunity to follow a trail through a meadow. Then some more switchbacks that we were happy to be going down, not up, and eventually we camped at Aspen Meadow. Here's a view down Goddard Canyon. Views like this kept coming even after it felt like we'd seen all we came to see.
Day 4: This was our longest day hiking back east through Piute Canyon. The western part of the trail was exposed and saw a substantial elevation gain. Water was less available than other parts of the hike, and we were lucky to have been warned at the JMT junction. Also the flies were quite bad. We lunched in Hutchinson Meadow and then continued on for several level but dry miles to Humphrey's Basin (hikers going either way, beware that there is no water between Hutchinson Meadow and the stream feeding the Golden Trout lakes in the Basin). What an eerily beautiful place to stop before descending back into the desert to the east. I can see why so many people come up here to explore the lakes. We camped about a mile short of the pass. Instead of another desolate Humphrey's Basin landscape, here's me in full repose at our campsite in the Basin.
Day 5: First and only rain of the trip came overnight and in the early morning. There were even a few minutes of hail. But the sun burned it off and pushed it west and it all contributed to the drama of being up in the Basin. We crested Piute Pass easily and then descending past more lovely lakes and many day hikers to North Lake.
A truly excellent trip through a singular part of the planet. We rushed a little bit, and after experiencing it the way I did, I think I'm gonna take up fishing so I can slow down and have a more interactive experience. I was glad to see that the trails were not crowded and that people appeared to be practicing decent campcraft and LNT. Can't wait to come back. And thanks again to this forum for the feedback and info.
