*Who has that book on the history of Sierra place names, balzacom?
This trip began at the urging of our longtime friend and backpacking partner Carleton, who had just returned from an abandoned trip that began in the rest of the Virginia land-- up Virginia Creek, to reach Virginia Lakes. They had the luck to see a big old momma Black Bear ambling along the high ridge above the lakes, but one partner took ill, so they had to cut their trip short.
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Carleton missed seeing Summit Lake, and completing the scenic circle from Virginia to Green Creek. He hit us up, proposing a trip back there, and of course we were keen to go. My idea was to extend the circle to include Virginia Canyon, and possibly do some climbing, however, that put us into YNP, and out of dog-friendly territory. [I now know that some will miss seeing our furry friends, and others will be pleased not to have dogs mar the trip, but let's just leave it at that.]
Carleton is up on the fall color websites, and learned that Sagehen Summit, southeast from Mono Lake, was nearing its peak colors before most other areas, so we went there first.
The route we settled on began at Green Creek TH, passed by beautiful Green Lake; on over V. Pass; down to V. Canyon, to camp right under V. Peak. Then we would circle back around to Green Creek via Summit Lake Pass, and down the East Fork, past Hoover Lakes and the giant East Lake. We had 7 days, and the total trail miles to complete this circle are very low (about 15 miles), so we thought about covering more ground, either by heading across the valley to visit McCabe Lakes, or just by day hiking along the way. We chose the latter, saving McCabe Lakes for another day. Our photos, and the captions can tell the rest of the stories:
