High Sierra Topix

Greetings All,

I've been lurking around here for several years and thought I'd reach out to the more knowledgeable for some ideas. We currently have a permit for a 5 day trip for four to Desolation Wilderness at the end of June and early July. It looks like the loop we planned (Echo to Aloha, over Dick's Pass to Dick's Lake, Lake Schmidell, Aloha, and out Echo) will be more of a winter expedition than our usual summer backpacking trip. I would be particularly concerned about Dick's Pass and the crossings of the Rubicon River. For this reason, we're looking at alternatives that better suit our skill set and experience.

I'd love any ideas for an alternative in the Sierras as much of the areas on our wish list are covered in 4+ feet of snow. We're comfortable with snow travel but would prefer to find some lakes that aren't frozen over that we could fish. We have a reasonable amount of experience backpacking and don't mind cross country travel or scrambles (level 3?) but none of us have much experience in the snow. Priorities for the trip would include seeing multiple lakes, meadows, High Sierra scenery, and fishing. We are coming from the Sacramento area and are willing to travel anywhere in the Sierras. I'm more than willing to try to secure a walk in permit the day before travel.

I've looked through the recent 2011 thread but struggled to come up with ideas. Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

Hi Sandman,

It's not that we don't have ideas, but given the snow load, it's just flat out dangerous. Even if roads open, there's that 10' wall of snow staring you in the face.
Yuba river area comes to mind. DON'T GO IN the river, though. Fishing is good after a lot of melt, or (I'll say it again) September.

Simply not, simply not a year to consider backcountry Sierra Nevada fishing in June. Will name one natural lake though could name more below 7k with good fishing but such lakes really don't need publicity. Vernon Lake out of Hetch Hetchy is 11 miles and 3000 feet of vertical thus a strenuous hike in one day. Lots of hungry bears too.

Better would be to drive SR108 over Sonora Pass, that ought be open soon, and car camp. Fish Twin Lakes, Convict Lake, and Lake Crowley. Camp at an INF or TNF campground or buy a Inyo National Forest map then disperse camp on the vast network of dirt roads.

David

Here are some examples of lakes that are thawed or will certainly be thawed by late June-early July:
Poore-Secret-Roosevelt-Lane, E of Sonora Pass. No stream crossings required to get there provided the big bridge at the trailhead is intact. These lakes are normally open by sometime in April or early May but this year probably didn't thaw out until the end of May. Nonetheless, I'd bet they're open now and they will certainly be accessible by late this month.

Northernmost Sierra, Lakes Basin and Jamison Creek. As of June 4 the lowest lake, Grass L. was thawed, Rock L. was thawed, Jamison L. was 50 percent frozen and I will assume on that basis that Wades Lake was still frozen. All should be thawed by late June. The one key stream crossing has a log bridge. Lots of other sloppy wetness as of June 4 will be much less messy by late this month.
The main lakes of Lakes Basin (N of Yuba River canyon), except for Gold L. were frozen as of June 4 but should be open by late June. Stream crossings are not an issue for most or all of the main lakes. I myself will be fishing some of these lakes early in July, I think.

Grouse Ridge area (N of I80). Most lakes in this area, and certainly the lower ones (such as the Lindsays, Island etc.) should be open by late June. Stream crossings are not an issue for this area.

NW Desolation and vicinity--anything out of Loon Lake is probably OK now and will certainly be by late this month. This means Spider, Winifred, Buck Island, Rockbound L. Stream crossing not an issue unless you try to get to the other side of some of these lakes.

NW Yosemite: Laurel Lake and Vernon Lake. They're fine now, but they require a bit of hiking to reach. Note that Kibbie L. is normally a fine destination in these conditions (right now) but the road is closed a long way from its end necessitating a very much longer hike than usual. Were it not for these road conditions I would have been tempted to go to Kibbie this week myself.

The bottom line is that the lower elevations, say below 7500' received less snow than some of the super heavy years, but the elevations above 10000' had one of the heaviest snowfalls on record, comparable to the epic 1969 and 1983 years.

To illustrate the fact that the snow accumulation at lower elevation spots was not super heavy, I note that I found Jamison Lake at 6260 elev 50 percent frozen as of June 4 this year, whereas on June 20 of 1998 it was total frozen over.

Bottom line is that heavy winters limit options the following summer, but they don't eliminate them.

I hiked into Rockbound Lake in NW Desolation last Week, 6/7-6/8. The trail was often a stream and there was a good amount of snow in spots. Also quite a few fallen or snow load bent trees across the trail. The gate to the campground was closed which added an extra .4 mi to the trailhead. The amount of water flowing out of Rockbound was very impressive. I had intended to go as far as Rubicon Reservoir but the Highland Lake outlet stream was flowing high and it was a little cold to wade. We fished a bit in Rockbound instead.

The snow is melting but there is still a fair amount of it up there. Another couple of weeks should make a big difference.The mosquitoes were not an issue during this trip but that will change soon.

SSSdave wrote:Simply not, simply not a year to consider backcountry Sierra Nevada fishing in June.

Well I guess that wasn't true in this case.

http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... =6&t=16008

Thanks for the photos and beta, @mschnaidt. I was up there over the weekend (6/10-11) and it rained HARD on Sunday. A bit of hail and lightning too. Apparently it snowed above 7K.

There was snow on the ground here in So Lake Tahoe Monday a.m.

FeetFirst wrote:Thanks for the photos and beta, @mschnaidt. I was up there over the weekend (6/10-11) and it rained HARD on Sunday. A bit of hail and lightning too. Apparently it snowed above 7K.

We had light rain with a fair amount of wind. Originally we had planned to spend two nights and were prepared for weather. I had brought a 8x11 silnylon tarp which kept us dry but being Deso we couldn't have a fire. Low 40's with wind and rain aren't my favorite conditions so we headed out early on Thursday afternoon. It sounds like we missed the heavy stuff.

Hail and thunder in Petaluma Monday. But now in the Sierra the melt will really be on with the predicted temps. Let's all be careful out there.. Turn around if you have to think more than 20 mins about the situation. I'd say 10 mins but everyone makes a choice.