My brother Will, John Shillings and I took a trip around the North Lake - South Lake loop out of Bishop on 18-21 Jul '13. We had planned to come out on 22 Jul '13 so we missed most of the nasty weather that started the evening of 21 Jul '13 (except for a a brief bit of hail/rain near Saddlebag Lake on the way out). Skeeters were low to med depending on location (more on that later).
I hadn't been over Piute or Bishop Pass so I was really looking forward to the trip. My brother and John hadn't been on most of the trail, so they were really excited to see Evolution Valley.
The first day we picked up the permit and parked cars at the exit and entry trailheads. We were on the trail by 1030. The hike up Piute Pass was beautiful. It was my first overnighter for the year, so I was getting used to my pack weight (32 lbs - I packed way too much food).
- Looking back towards South Lake on climb to Piute Pass
We stopped at this inviting pond on the way to the summit and really wanted to jump in. The temps were relatively high and the cool water looked inviting, but we had many miles to go before nightfall.
- Nice pond with waterfall near Piute Pass
We ended up camping just west of the Pine Creek Pass junction in a large open area with many tent sites. A good thing as we could spread out and avoid each others snoring. The stretch of Piute Creek nearby was perfect for cooling off the feet, and Will caught a small Golden. The skeeters were relatively low at this spot.
- Piute Creek near Pine Creek Pass Jct
The next morning we hiked down to the PCT/JMT junction. The Piute Canyon is much more spectacular than I thought it would be. It would be worth the time just to hike along more slowly and enjoy that stretch more. There are incredible waterfalls.
- Piute Creek drainage
At the junction we headed south into Goddard Canyon. I like this section of the PCT/JMT that follows the San Joaquin River.
- San Jauquin River in Goddard Canyon
We climbed up into Evolution Valley, waded across the creek (no issues - it's low) and headed towards McClure Meadow. We stopped at a nice campsite just south of the ranger station, but the skeeters were heavy so we moved on to just north of Colby Meadow. After a little scouting we found a great campsite that was nearly skeeter free (and remained that way). We did all experience odd no-see-ums at night on our faces inside our different tents (kind of like a miniature skeeter landing on your skin but no bites). I suspect there was something in the water we used to clean up with.
- Colby Meadow - Evolution Valley
In the morning, we climbed up to Evolution and Wanda Lakes on the way to Muir Pass. The weather was near perfect and we ended up on Muir Pass with several other hikers and some real aggressive marmots. An ultra runner also stopped for a few minutes to talk. He was running the same loop in a day, or at least he planned to finish in a day. He didn't even have a headlamp - hope he made it.
- Evolution Lake
I saw this rock art along the trail towards Wanda Lake. I love this stuff!
- Happy Rock art
We hiked down the south side of Muir Pass into LeConte Canyon thanking those hearty soles who built the trail: its pretty rugged terrain. Eventually we stopped near a small lake about 4 mi south of the pass at about 10,500 ft. The campsite was awesome: small area surrounded by low pines near a creek. There were zero skeeters.
- South side of Muir Pass
In the morning we broke camp early and head into LeConte Canyon. One of Will's feet were hurting and he was interested in hiking out early if he could make it, so we decided to take it one section at a time and got underway. We hiked down through LeConte Canyon past Big Pete Meadow and the Ranger station and then turned to head up the climb towards Dusy Basin.
- Big Pete Meadow in LeConte Canyon
The climb up to Dusy Basin was a certainly "a dusy". But we came to lake 10742 and I was in awe. The Dusy Basin is beautiful. I guess I was expecting some alpine, boulder-strewn set of lakes with little vegetation. I was certainly wrong. I'll be going back there for a longer stay some time. In any case, we rested for a little while and then headed towards Bishop Pass. The clouds were starting to build and my brother was getting that "horse to water" feeling so we pressed on out to South Lake in an extended push. We caught a little rain/hail near Saddlebag lake but not much and it didn't slow us down.
In all it was a great trip. It was fun to hike with my brother and John. I'll be revisiting some of those areas in the future and I'm sure I'll have a pole next time.
As a side note: I was trying out a couple pieces of new gear that seemed to work well: an Enlightened Equipment Revelation X quilt (30 deg but that was even too hot for me); and a Zpacks cuben pack cover (more testing required, but boy is it light at 1.5 oz!)
