High Sierra Topix

Early September last year, my wife and I went on a nine-day trip. Route: Lamarck Col, Darwin Bench, Evolution Basin, McGee Lakes, Davis Lakes, Wanda Pass, Ionian Basin, Black Giant Pass, Helen Lake, and back on the JMT to Lamarck Col.

Two years earlier, I accidentally left a small thermometer hanging on a tree, like a Christmas decoration, near McGee Lakes. The following year was a high-snow year. One objective of this trip was to try to retrieve the thermometer.

Climbing up to Lamarck Col, we met a ranger coming down.

Closer to the Col, I felt altitude sickness.

Daylight ran out before we got down to the lakes in Darwin Canyon.


We camped on the slope in a well-established spot. Water was barely accessible in a small creek deep under rocks.

Sunrise on Mt. Darwin and Mt. Mendel:
Darwin Bench:
Evolution Lake from Darwin Bench:
We met @jdongg before Evolution Lake.

Evolution Lake:
Sunset over Sapphire Lake outlet:
Sunset on Mt. Huxley and Mt Fiske over Sapphire Lake:

Sunrise over Sapphire Lake outlet:
Panorama of Evolution Basin from McGee Lakes Pass North. Part of Evolution Lake far left, part of Wanda Lake far right. Click on the photo, then click again and scroll left and right.
Panorama of McGee Lakes basin with The Hermit (view not from the pass; the pass is on the right):
At the inlet of the main lakes, we met a ranger resting in the shade, waiting for a second ranger to bring batteries for electrofishing. We talked about frogs and fish eradication. Chytrid fungus had appeared at Center Basin the year before. There were yellow-legged frogs at the San Francisco Zoo, but he didn’t know if they were on exhibit. These frogs make only very faint sounds.

One ranger, on his days off, hiked out to Bishop. The other ranger stayed in the mountains for over 50 days straight. On his days off, he hiked around. He had to plan to bring enough food upfront.

We found where I had camped two years earlier:
The thermometer had fallen on the ground:
The battery was dead, but the thermometer worked when we inserted a new battery at home.

On the bench south of the main lakes, it was hard to find a suitable campsite sheltered from the wind and free of rocks. We found a spot near a small hill that blocked the wind. That hill also blocked the sunshine in the morning.

Sunset:
Sunrise:
One of the small lakes had an underwater spring with bubbles.
Coming back to our tent after a morning walk:

See photos of Davis-McGee Pass.

Panorama of Davis Lakes basin:
Panorama of the lakes south of Davis Lakes, southeast of point “11462”. Parts of Davis Lakes are visible far left and far right:
Martha-Davis Pass:
Probably not very useful for me, as there is a way around Peak “12434” that is not much longer.

We had a hard time finding a smooth spot for our tent southeast of point 11462.

Davis Lake near Davis-McGee pass (the next day):
At the outlet of Lake “11196”, we were surprised by a large number of mosquitoes. We didn’t encounter mosquitoes in other parts of this trip.

At the southwest shore of Lake “11196”, there were many grasshoppers. They were jumping away with each step: “chk-chk-chk-chk-chk-chk”.

As we were traversing toward Wanda Pass north of point “12976”, among talus, we found a place where large rocks rested with flat horizontal surfaces. There was some water nearby from a snowfield above. We were running late, so we decided to cowboy camp on the rocks, since the weather and the forecast were good.

View of Wanda Lake:
Dawn, view toward Evolution Basin:
View toward Davis Lakes (hidden) and Mount McGee:

The next section of the traverse to Wanda Pass proved harder. We had to navigate a series of snowfields (still hard and slippery in the morning) and cliffs.

View from Wanda Pass: Lake “11592”, Charybdis, Three Sisters, and Scylla:
Chasm Lake:
Charybdis in background, part of Chasm Lake on the right:
Moss:



Looking back west:
Lake “11828” south of Black Giant Pass:
Lake “11939” north of Black Giant Pass. Muir Hut is visible:
We camped near Helen Lake.

View from Muir Pass: Wanda Lake, Davis Lake Pass, and Mt. McGee:
Sunset between Wanda Lake and Sapphire Lake. View toward Haeckel Col:
We leisurely went cross-country near Sapphire Lake and back to Darwin Bench.

Dusk at the lowest lake in Darwin Canyon:
We hiked out the next day.

Hello @tomba, thanks for sharing another great TR. Congratulations on the thermometer recovery... I applaud your dedication to Leave No Trace.

Awesome photos like usual. And solid litter retrieval

Hello Again Tomba,

With your leg in a cast you've become prolific! If you took up skiing more seriously you might break more bones, and write the Great American Novel. Your ankle breaking episode does have a silver lining-- at least for us--you really are cranking out some great trip reports Tomas. This last is a well written account of a great route, with fine photo doc.... I hope there are more of these trips awaiting your attention; what about all of the early trips, foreign travels... your readers await, and you can't walk anymore. I too tried breaking my leg in order to get some free time and more attention from my wife. It did work, but early retirement is less painful. Congratulations on creating and completing this challenging route.

I was going to post trip reports anyway.

I forgot to include a link to "a stick that looks like an animal" that we found on this trip, at the lakes south of Davis Lakes.