High Sierra Topix

Our trip (planned with earlier guidance from some of you fine folks) begin inauspiciously. The sky was so smoky we could not see across Courtright. It made for an ominous start. However, the smoke diminished as we hiked up and basically was a nonissue for the rest of the trip. I continue to feel a huge amount of gratitude that we got so lucky on that front (not to mention our timing with respect to the broader closure that coincided with our trip's end, but I'll get to that later). Our first day took us up to a fairly nondescript pond near Rae Lake but the terrain greatly improved on day 2 when we made it over Hell for Sure. At least from the west side, the pass is quite enjoyable but I love the severity of the name all the same. Hell For Sure Lake and the entire basin were great.
We didn't know what to expect from Goddard Cyn but were pleasantly surprised as there were several waterfalls (described elsewhere as pig chutes, a term I have not heard before but am now anxious to use myself). We saw one other group in Goddard. Two guys were enjoying some snacks by the creek; they were planning to head over to Ionian Basin but also seemed to be having second thoughts (I wonder if they made it...). From there we made our way on day 3 over to Evolution Valley. Neither of us had been but I am already excited to return with my family.
The mission in our first trip through the Valley was to loop around the Hermit (at right in above picture). After a lunch filled with ants, we started up that drainage. The hike up to McGee Lakes was great once we got above the thickly wooded lower bits and were able to enjoy the views.
The McGee Lakes themselves were super. We passed a pleasant night there. A question for the fisherpeople: what were the nets doing in the lakes? My guess is that they are used to survey fish populations (as described here), but we wondered about this.
The next morning we hiked up to the saddle and headed back to the JMT. The views from the top of Sapphire Lake were impressive. I especially liked being able to see the riverbed "underneath" the lake.
From there, we followed the JMT down to Muir Trail Ranch to pick up more food. We probably could have done the whole trip without resupply, but my hiking partner had put together an elaborate menu of backcountry food options (I was tasked with carrying a bag of condiments that probably weighted 3 lbs) and I was more than happy to stop given that it meant I got to eat so well. Plus, I was hoping to spend an afternoon drinking beer at MTR. Now, that didn't happen; learning MTR doesn't sell beer was a real gut punch, but I did really enjoy my time in those hot springs! We also met a distinguished gentleman (if you're out there, hi Doug!) who had spent 5 nights at MTR. His life involved long days in the springs and feast-like meals consisting of the leavings of other backpackers. This amused me greatly.

From MTR, our route led up to Piute Pass. TBC...

Lovely report.

My god, it is nice to see blue skies in your photos!

We left MTR in the afternoon and made it up to a campsite near a small waterfall; an excellent spot for dinner.
The following day was long; we made it up to Lower Lamarck Lake which was a well-deserved treat as we were quite tired by this point. As an aside, I found the region's names based on 19th century scientists to be great fun; in particular, the brief resurgence in neo-Lamarckianism had me excited to see his name so frequently.
It was quite a slog up to the Lamarck Col the following morning. Near the top we met a guy out for a day of peak bagging. The descent was confused but fine (the descent was described to us as "it's like someone vomited up use trails" and that seems about right) until we got down to the chain of lakes. From above, those lakes are something else.
After scrambling over boulders all morning, we had lunch at the last lake and then descended to what I think is properly Darwin Bench. Given what I've read about that region, I left curious about what it may have looked like in a non-drought year.
While headed down to Evo Valley, we saw our friend from MTR again. Now, I would have made a substantial wager that he would have taken a fairly laissez-faire attitude towards paperwork. I had in fact commented on this to my hiking companion. Thus I was surprised to learn that he had been stopped by the ranger at the cabin and yet his permits were all sorted out.

We spent a night in Evolution Valley and then headed back up Goddard. Here's another pig chute!
We set up camp in Goddard right past the turnoff to HFS pass and then set out for Martha Lake.
Those small clouds in the above photo are the sum total of clouds we saw over the entire 10 days. Given that we had seen basically no one in our two trips through Goddard and that Martha Lake was off the main trail through the canyon, this seemed fairly remote. We were thus shocked to see a group of about a dozen come walking up. It turned out to be an outfitted trip that was headed to the top of Mt Goddard before returning to Courtright via Blackcap. It seemed quite an expedition; they had beers in bear cans 6-8 we learned. I hope all went well.

The next morning we walked up HFS from the east side. Even from the east, the name still makes me grin. The basin on the west side of the pass still looked inviting.
We stopped at Rae Lake proper for lunch. As mentioned, we ate like Greek gods on the trip but this one meal was a debacle. The menu involved soba noodles which was probably a bad idea in and of itself but then we put the noodles into the water before it was hot. The resulting "food" was a a highly viscous gloop that had us laughing for a solid hour. Even looking at the picture now I'm simultaneously chuckling and nauseous.
Our last night we spent by the creek in Corral Post Meadows. I'm pretty sure the creek had been flowing on our way in, but by this point it had dried up to just sporadic pools. One question that we had after exploring the campsite involved trees with oddly disturbed growth patterns. This isn't the best picture, but I think it captures it:
What's going on with these trees? When I lived in CO, I'd see trees growing in all kinds of funny ways due to avalanche damage but this was not that. This tree grew up for a spell and then basically took a right turn into a "bowing" shape. Very strange.

We made it back to the car fairly early the following morning. Unbeknownst to us, I think this was the day the closure was announced. As with the smoke, I feel grateful that we were able to enjoy this spectacular bit of the Sierras before the closure. I'm also thankful to this community for providing helpful guidance beforehand. In total I think it was something like 120 miles (map here) over 10 days. My academic year starts tomorrow and I'm already planning on spending a few hours daydreaming about this trip during the year's faculty meetings....

balzaccom wrote: ↑Sun Sep 19, 2021 6:29 am Lovely report.

My god, it is nice to see blue skies in your photos!

Thank you!
And, after seeing the extremely smoky skies at Courtright on day 1, it was nice to see them IRL as well.

Given what I've read about that region, I left curious about what it may have looked like in a non-drought year.

We were there about 2ish weeks prior to you. It was green and full of lupine. For a drought year, we were thrilled with all the green we saw… and there were even a few skeeters still.

McGee lakes are scheduled for fish removal due to the endangered frog. If you see nets, they are trying to remove all fish. Too bad because when I was there about five years ago the fishing was good.

Nice photos and report for an ambitious trip. Thanks for posting.