High Sierra Topix

Starting to go through my little backlog of overdue TRs...

This summer 2022 trip was with my childhood friend, visiting from the old continent. It was also my longest yet: I had done mostly 3-night trips since my introduction to backpacking in 2020. This time, we planned for 6 nights, and ended up needing 5.

On the first day, we started from North Lake and quickly reached Piute Pass. From there, we explored Muriel and Goethe Lakes (I had been toying with the idea of doing a shorter trip via Alpine Col). We then strolled around the gorgeous, wide-open landscape of Humphreys Basin. We stopped short of Golden Trout Lakes, as our destination for the day was Desolation. We set up camp and tried to get some sleep in the breezy, just below freezing night.

The next morning, I went up the ridge east of Desolation to take a peek at Humphreys Lakes. We then got our packs, made a quick stop at Tomahawk and Mesa Lakes, and then headed up to Puppet Pass. Feeling a little too relaxed after an easy ascent, we forgot to consult my notes on the pass. Sure enough, we completely screwed up the descent. We ended up very slowly traversing a slope of large talus to get back on the class 2 route. Here my friend's climbing skills turned out very handy: he would find a route to the next boulder, I would pass him the backpacks, and follow suit. With a sigh of relief, we finished the off-trail section by joining the trail at L Lake, passing Moon and Elba, then down into beautiful French Canyon, to our next stop at Hutchinson Meadow. The green, wooded, creekside camp felt like an oasis after the day's adventures.

Day 3 saw us slog down and up the PCT, following the San Joaquin and then Evolution Creek to McClure Meadow, where we found a friendly ranger and a good night's sleep.

Day 4: A low mileage day up a more beautiful stretch of the JMT, to camp at Evolution Lake.

Night 4: Around sunset, we heard (but didn't see) two coyotes howling at each other from atop two ridges on opposite sides of the lake. In the middle of the night, I got up to "mark the territory", and could see the Milky Way in more detail than ever. I woke up my friend and we stayed up a few minutes. As soon as we had made it back into our sleeping bags, we heard what again sounded like two coyotes howling. This time, they were right outside our tents. I waited in silence until I was more tired than afraid, and went back to sleep.

Day 5: In the morning we examined the coyotes' tracks, and concluded that they had seen the light from our headlamps and decided to check out our camp. Nothing was out of place, except now my friend, having watched too many westerns, was tempted to hike straight out and not spend another night in the wilderness. After talking him back to reality, we did a brief hike to Muir Pass and back (puzzling a few through-hikers who weren't familiar with daypacks). By the time we made it back to Evolution Lake, my buddy was dealing with the combination of the coyote scare, the elevation, and the intense mid-day sun. We took a break in the little shelter that we could find, and once he felt good enough, we broke camp and headed to our final camp: Darwin Bench. Another cold night awaited us, but having packed for an extra night, we doubled our dinner rations. By then, my friend had come to recognize the merits of hiking during the cool hours, so we set our alarms for a very early start.

Day 6: We boulder-hopped around the lakes in Darwin Canyon, up the sandy slope to Lamarck Col, where I abandoned my plan to summit Mt. Lamarck (my friend wasn't up for more adventure, and I didn't care enough to go by myself). After an uneventful descent, with a quick stop at gorgeous Lamarck Lakes, we were back at our car, and quickly reached a consensus on our remaining goals: veggie burgers and hot springs.

Looks like you had a good time. Nice report with plenty of great photos.
Thanks for posting.

Bardo!!! Keep these trip reports coming-- what a pleasure to read and view. Those are such wide open vistas you've captured all around; I really like that wide angle style.

You have a very clean and direct style of combining your text and photos, which I can learn from. Where I tend to belabour the photos with long captions, you describe your trip very clearly in the report, and then include long runs of pure photos. It is comparatively seamless and really nice to look through.

When do we get to see the rest of these fine trips of yours? Thanks a lot, Ian.

Thank you both! I really enjoy the storytelling (and captions) in your and others' reports. The minimalist style of mine is more a matter of laziness than an artistic choice. I plan to post a handful more trips in the next few weeks.