by richapple » Thu Oct 01, 2009 9:20 am
Exyosar - Thanks for the info, which serves more to prod me into a quick update of this thread (and another thanks to bill-e-g) that we had a great trip. I hope to get some photos/film clips somewhere and will update later with that, but to just quickly describe this wonderful trip we formulated and had spectacular weather for throughout:
camps:
Crown Lake
Upper Piute Creek (just down a freckle from the trail that heads up the canyon towards Burro Pass/Matterhorn
Bottom of easy part of Slide Canyon just before the Piute plummets down past where you'd turn to go up Crazy Mule Gulch, etc. (2 night camp with Day Hike to investigate direct route to Doe Lake and up the inlet to Doe, returned via Camp Creek.)
Doe Lake (with great day hike up to Tallulah Lake)
Sister Lake (2 night camp with Day Hike to Surprise Lake, returning close to Smedberg and up Sister outlet/Smedberg inlet)
Rogers Lake
Benson Lake
Arndt Lake (2 night camp with "day off" type day hike just up beautiful creek that runs close at one point to trail going up to Rock Island Pass - further hiking could have got us to Rock Island via roundabout swing from the north, but we took it easy and just enjoyed that creek area and made it back to Arndt for more time off)
Peeler Lake
mentions:
Swam in every lake except Doe, as well as the Piute pools at that camp. Sweet. Refreshing. Clean!
Went two 72 hour periods during trip seeing ZERO humans. Julie ("trail wife") saw one bear when I was standing right there in the Rancheria Creek making a little video of what may have been a small stick rather than a small fish. Pity I didn't hear her and turn to photograph/film the bear.
On our way in someone at Barney Lake said to watch for an otter (river otter) that was hanging out at the outlet of Crown. Still not sure if the North American River Otter would ever be up there - but suspecting that "watch for an otter" in the High Sierras just might be the backpacking equivalent of "snipe hunting" (kids trick other kids into walking around some woods carrying a stick and a brown paper bag calling out "Here snipe, here snipe!").
Heard from some of the very few people we ever saw on the trail that Benson Lake was the "Riviera of the Sierras". And it was way different. Down to somewhere in the mid 7000 ft elevation, and a huge beach, a very tropical Aspen type area, it was somewhat of a San Tropez of the Sierras! And the lake is big enough that I think with enough wind one could bring a board and surf!
We, not really being avid and skilled cross-country-ers, found what we planned and did to be pretty reasonable. And what a payoff! I have never backpacked that many days and found so little trash to pick up and pack out. The net total on that kind of got skewed, though, since Julie found a horrible mess of the stupid freeze/dried bullshit backpacking food packaging under some rock at Arndt and cleaning that up was A) gross, B) a huge hassle, and C) quite a bit to pack out - but at least near the end of our trip. It's sad that such despicable idiots do get "out there" and would do such a thing.
Peeler Lake sure was a delightful surprise for a last camp. Worth it to get to the east side. It and Benson were the only lakes where there was anyone else camped, and in both cases neither party would even know the other was there.
Sister has a nice little rock pile to the south where we camped out of view. A trail crew member or two (one we saw, the other only footprints) from Smedberg did stroll along in the distance there.
Geesh - sorry to babble on and on so. It was a great trip! And hopefully I'll get some images out there somewhere to share soon.
Thanks for pre-trip info, and as for the latest post about hiking all the way down the Piute and coming out near Benson. Rad! (A friend here in Santa Cruz also had advice that he had gone from our camp down the Piute up and out Crazy Mule Gorge to get to Rock Island Lake and then the trail to the pass. Just looking at that Crazy Mule Gorge from various angles, we've renamed it to "Crazy Dave Gorge".)
Oh, and did I not mention the slide? Toss another "rad" in for that! Holy Cow! Impressive from all angles - and yes we hiked over its south/east side where it had tumbled up the other side if the canyon. Pretty much a trail right along the edge. I guess it happened in 1739 or 1740 it's thought, and my guess is it made a lot of racket!
Rich