Sierra Point is a viewpoint on the eastern end of Yosemite Valley from which you can see four waterfalls: Yosemite Falls, Illilouette Falls, Vernal Falls, and Nevada Falls. This old…
The day after we climbed Mt Conness we wanted to do something a bit easier on the knees. At least I did - mine were still a bit sore from…
Mount Conness has been on the top of my 'mountain bucket list' for a while now. There is no particular reason this peak is on this list, other than that…
The sun was up and I poked my face out of my tent, still wrapped up in my warm sleeping bag like a burrito. My water bottle was frozen. Hm, that was a first for this trip.
Our original plan was to have an easy day down to Honeymoon or Upper Pine Lake where we would have a relaxing last night on the trail before exiting and driving home on Sunday. Instead, we decided to cover the final 10 miles (2 cross-country, 8 on trail) and almost 5000 feet of descent in one day. After a successful trip with every summit on the list bagged, I certainly didn’t feel like we were cheating or bailing on our plans by exiting a day earlier than planned. Anyways, I only had one packet of Starbucks Via coffee left and we’d polished off the end of my bourbon the night before. The real world has coffee and beer. I was ready for the real world.
After packing up we took off cross-country towards French Lake. It was a really pretty little area with nice meadows and some campsites tucked away along a lightly flowing creek. At French Lake we dropped our packs for a quick snack and some photos. There are some relaxing looking beaches along the shore of this lake, but they didn’t look too tempting on this cold and windy morning. It wasn’t warming up like the previous days. There was an autumn-like chill in the air.
It was really cold when we woke up at Steelhead Lake on the morning of day 7. We had this high and exposed lake to ourselves though, and that was worth the cold morning. Although we had passed several people around the lakes along the trail, a short distance of cross-country travel seemed to discourage anyone from reaching Steelhead Lake other than us.
While sucking down my next-to-last packet of Starbucks Via I wandered to the top of the hill behind our camp and found some other nice campsites, and although the views were better than from our measly little spot, the exposure to the wind kept me from wanting to move my stuff. The view across French Canyon to Feather, Royce, and Merriam Peaks was clear and impressive. It may have been a bit colder this morning, but the crisp clear sky was encouraging. Time to bag another peak!
We had vague descriptions about two class 2 routes up Four Gables from Steelhead Lake, and both started with us needing to get ourselves to the far end of the lake, so along the shore we went. There was a bit of rock hopping and lots of stopping for photos. It’s a beautiful deep blue lake. It would be even more amazing on a still day, but today the wind was kicking up some waves.
This was the day we very reluctantly left Bear Lakes Basin. But, if we wanted to complete our planned itinerary and peaks it meant packing up and continuing onward. Our…
The main goal of this entire trip was to visit Bear Lakes Basin and climb Seven Gables. It is an area neither of us had seen and we really wanted to enjoy it, so we had two full days planned: one for the peak and one to freely explore the area. On this day, we decided to wander the Basin and scout the route for Seven Gables which we would climb the following day.
Bear Lakes Basin is only accessible via cross-country travel. No maintained trails go into the area which means there are very few people and the area has not been impacted by heavy hiker and stock use. The cross-country travel in this area is quite easy and fun. It is peaceful, incredibly scenic, and a perfect example of everything I love about being in the Sierra.
We had entered the basin the prior day via Dancing Bear Pass and saw no one while working our way down to Big Bear Lake via Black Bear and Ursa Lakes. However, as we started off this morning it wasn’t long before we ran into a group of three guys camped by Little Bear Lake. After a nice friendly chat that was only cut short by the need to escape mosquitoes, we continued down towards Vee Lake.
The wind had gusted all night, and at some point I put in ear plugs so I could get some sleep. When it started getting light out I popped them…
The Sierra summer backpacking season is coming to a close which means I am home again and can focus on the thousands of photos taken, hundreds of miles hiked and…