High Sierra Topix

There are multiple trip reports and posts about backpacking with kids recently. I'd like to share some more ideas of short weekend trips with kids. Here are three backpacking trips near Bishop I did with my daughters last August:

Tyee Lakes with Laura and Mia (1-night);

McGee creek and Red Slate Mountain with Laura (2-night);

Chocolate lakes and Ruwau lake with Mia (1 night).

We actually also planned three longer trips for the whole family(with mom and our dog) at the beginning of the season, but two got canceled due to the smoke condition. Given their summer camp schedule I couldn't fit any long father-daughter trip in between so we just tried to get out whenever we could with whomever were available.

I'm quite terrible at memorizing details, but thankfully I took quite some pictures with time stamps and recorded all gps routes that would help here. Hopefully these pictures would give a good idea about the view along these routes.


1. Tyee Lake 11015 (the 4th lake) from Tyee Lakes Trailhead: 6.67mi round trip with 1917ft elevation gain.

This was a pleasant short trip with young kids (Laura just turned 8 in July and Mia was 6yo then). It's steep but short with several lakes along the trail to see. It took us about 3 hours to get to the 4th Tyee Lake in the morning. Girls carried some of their own gears. Mia got only the sleeping bag/pad and her snacks, while Laura had to carry most of her stuff except for the food and tent in my pack. They complained a couple of times at the beginning but forgot it soon after. It's not easy to start with a steep section in early morning but over years Laura learned to adjust her own pace, while Mia didn't care as long as there's snack.


The forecast said there might be a thunderstorm, so we walked pretty fast all the way up.






Along the trail, we saw some bolete and Mia got a giant one. We ate it over three meals.


It's quite cloudy and that's pretty nice for hiking with kids. No complaint about the heat.

We arrived at the 4th lake around noon, and it rained a little bit. There are pretty good campsites on the west side of the lake and even a beach area. We ate lunch and started to walk around, and even reached the topmost lake.


There were some day hikers and fishermen visiting the 4th lake. We tried our luck too and caught a pretty big one for dinner. With mushroom and noodle it's a great meal. Mia also brought her ponding net and did a survey of the tiny creatures in the lake. After dinner we retreated to our pyramid and played Uno. Thunderstorm came in the evening and kids' really excited. The unpredictable weather is a big plus in many of our past trips.

The next day was a sunny day. We woke up early and enjoyed the morning reflection. After that Laura fished a bit before joining Mia to play with some sticks. They played a game I couldn't understand but I had no complaint of having some time to myself. I walked around the lake and started to think about dinner. There probably would be more bolete on the way back after the rain, and we could get some for mom at home. We dried out our tent, and packed everything before 10:30 and headed down the trail. Within 2 hours, we got back to the trail head.




Besides the successful mushroom hunting, girls also picked some wax currants and gooseberries for home-made smoothie.


This was among the easiest trips I had with kids, but the view was still good and we had a great time. Tyee lakes are not popular destinations for overnight stay so we had the lake to ourselves and didn't have to worry about disturbing any neighbor. I thought about walking up to the top of Table mountain on the second day, but they were not interested in the idea. For backpacking with young kids, plan could change in every minute, which is part of the plan itself I guess.


To be continued...

2. Big McGee Lake and Red Slate Mountain from McGee Pass trailhead, 21.57mi, elevation gain/loss 5635ft

The second trip was a two-night trip with Laura. We planned to camp at Big McGee Lake and bag Red Slate Mountain on the second day. There was some smoke at lower elevation but it went smoothly.

On the first day Laura and I tried to start early, as the trailhead is in the dessert and there's not much shade for the first couple of miles. There were a couple of pack trains departing at the same time with us. I was hoping there would be some flat campsites left for us.


We crossed the creek somewhere between 2-3miles and saw another pack train. It's a busy day.


There were two steep sections along the trail, and I though they could be pretty tough for kids. We took three breaks to enjoy some snacks but Laura was doing better than I expected on switchbacks. We were really excited to see the colorful range, which is quite special in Sierra. I let Laura to navigate with Gaia app on my phone and she kept checking on different lakes and peaks nearby. It's a dry year and most seasonal ponds on the map were dried out, but there's no lack of water as we hiked along McGee creek.


Around 2pm we arrived at the meadow and outlet of Big McGee. There are not many flat sites on the north side and they were taken by the pack trains. I was actually very glad they stopped at the north side, since our plan was to continue to the south side for solitude and better sites. It's another 0.5 mile and we had to climb up along the west side of Big McGee, but it's well worth it. By 3pm we pitched our tent, set up the hammock and enjoyed the view at the south shore. Laura brought a book to read in the hammock at the lake. A good thing about dry years, is that there's zero mosquito in early August.




I brought a Tenkara rod and some flies for fun, and Laura definitely got the bug. While I was sitting high on the shoreline, she fished for an hour and caught a few brookies. They were pretty small and she let them go. We've got plenty food for dinner and I saw some wild onion/chives near the meadow for tomorrow's dish. Since we planned to get up early next day and climb Red Slate Mountain, there's no late-night activity after dark. We both read our books and fell asleep sometime before 9pm.


The next morning we got up around 7am. I could see some smoke moving up from the valley but the high elevation seemed to be still clear. After a big breakfast with a great foggy view, we went back to McGee Pass trail and headed to the pass. Red and White Mountain dominants the view on the way up.

After Little McGee lake, the landscape is very unique, and someone placed a rainbow on the ground.

By 10am we passed a tarn and arrived at the bottom of McGee Pass. So far so good. It's my first coming up to McGee Pass so I had high expectation on the view on the other side. On our way up, we met another pack train. The packer said he's dropping supplies for some backpackers over the pass. This might be a good way to shorten our future trip if we would like to reach fish creek in one day with kids.



At the top of the pass, we departed from the trail for Red Slate Mountain. It's an interesting terrain with some scrambling that's pretty easy but fun. This is perfect for Laura. Red Slate is a great 13'er for kids as it's only less than a mile to the summit from the pass. We ran into a curious marmot on the way up.


There were a couple of turns/climbs that had some exposure but not dangerous, great for taking pictures.

We reached the summit around noon. Smoke was spreading at lower elevation but didn't bother us here. Laura was a bit exhausted but in very good spirit, especially when she found the register box and started working on it. We had some snacks, counted the lakes in each direction and planed our longer trip next year into Fish creek. The moment we left the peak, both of us started to dream for next one. I bet it's the same for most climbers.

Walking back to the Big McGee was not easy for Laura after the excitement at the summit, but in the end we just had to let gravity does its job at a more slowly pace. We took a break at Little McGee and Laura went fishing but didn't catch anything. There were wild onions along the trail and also some small bolete. Laura picked some for dinner.




After getting back to our camp, she went for fishing again with some success this time, while I cooked the dinner and enjoyed the sunset. It's Sunday night and I didn't see anyone else at the lake. "I want a tenkara rod for Christmas", that's what she told me back to the tent.



The hike out on the last day was full of joy and surprise. At the meadow we saw hundreds of frogs, tadpoles with hind legs, tadpoles with four legs, etc. I'm pretty sure this was the highlight and the most memorable place of the whole trip. Peakbagging means nothing to kids comparing to animals and bugs. By 3pm we got back to our car. It went really hot near the trailhead and we had to motivate ourselves a bit by thinking of ice creams in Bishop.


And there were more edible mushrooms.

That concludes the second trip. After this one I felt pretty confident to take Laura to cover a bit more mileage and diverse terrain, and the next question was would Mia follow us?


To be continued...

3. Chocolate lakes->Chocolate Peak->Ruwau lake from Bishop Pass trailhead, 7.4mi, 1856ft elevation gain/loss

This is the last one. Mia and I started from South Lake and went clockwise around Chocolate peak. We camped at uppermost Chocolate lake for the night, and went over the saddle between Chocolate lake and Ruwau lake, with a very short side trip visiting Chocolate peak. I did this loop with Laura in 2018 and was pretty sure it's a great trip for backpacking with kids.

We started around 9am (pretty early for trips with young kids) at this popular trailhead, but Mia got upset stomach at the beginning. Well we just had to slow down and I knew we would make it anyway. It's a hot day and we tried to drink as much as possible along the hike. We saw a pica after leaving the Bishop Pass trail, and on my Gaia map I made a note of spotting a pica at exactly same location three years ago. Maybe the same one.

Around 10:30am we reached Bull lake and it got steeper starting from there. The trail was in good condition and Mia felt much better after a long break. Slowly we made it to the Chocolate lake around 12:30pm. I hung the hammock in a shade so that Mia could enjoy her sandwich and then take a nap in it.

In the afternoon she worked on her ponding project and even found a gartersnake hiding in a seasonal pond. This is the highest elevation I have ever seen a snake. The second is at Thousand Islands lake. Mia also caught a few brook trout with the tenkara rod Laura used earlier. It seems kids handle the tenkara more easily than the spinning rod. Anyway we had a pleasant afternoon at the lake.



The next morning Mia tried to fish in the lower lake and succeeded once. We packed everything and left around 10am. There's a small ridge one in between Chocolate lake and Ruwau lake. At the top of this small "pass" we decided to leave our backpacks there and pay a visit to Chocolate peak.

It's only around 300ft elevation gain to the top. The view is well worth it. Mia found a small register box, and was very pleased to write a few words she learned from kindergarten.

There was a small talus field down to Ruwau, which Mia liked the most.


Our plan was to have lunch at Ruwau before heading out. When we got there, Mia came up with a new lunch spot, the small "island" near the north side of the lake. To get there, you have to either swim or boat. I was prepared for this kind of request and pulled out our inflatable raft. We packed our stove, food and fishing rod and paddled there for lunch. This was the highlight of the day. BTW, fishing on this tiny island was actually very good.



After lunch we paddled back, dried out the raft for a while and marched back to the Bishop Pass trail.


That's the last father-daughter trip in August. Backpacking with kids is certainly not as intense as solo trips, but it can be quite fun and has been a rewarding experience for me. It's always nice to get outside with family. Hopefully these TRs could help with your trip planning.

Congratulations a run of great trips. Isn't it cool how little kids can find all kinds of creatures? I hope they also got to see some big mammals.
Cheers, Ian and Lizzie

Nice report and sounds like three great trips. Your girls are amazing hikers and mountaineers!
-Phil

Very impressive to get an 8 and 6 year old that far. It’s a great age to start. I think the trips my kids enjoyed the most were the ones to hot springs (we had trips to both Iva Bell and MTR). If you get over to Fish Creek then Iva Bell is a very worthwhile destination.

Well, if these weren't three of my favorite trip reports on this site to date! Thank you so much for sharing