Looking at the White Mountains above Bishop.
Skiing down to Hot Creek.
Nobody else to be seen for miles!
This 26 mile loop made a wonderful 3-day backpack trip in the Golden Trout Wilderness of the Southern Sierra. We hiked from the Jerkey Meadows Creek above Lloyd Meadow Creek to Little Kern River, up and over to Kern Flat, and down the Kern River to the Forks of the Kern.
The graphic above shows the Needles in the middle foreground with the Kern River in the gorge to the right, and the Little Kern Drainage in the middle. The blue line is our backpacking route, with Kern Flat being at the top right. The Forks of the Kern (the put-in for one of the most epic wilderness kayak/rafting runs in the US) is at the lower right of the loop.
Here's the GPX file of the trip.
The first day, we hiked 5 miles up to Jerkey Meadows and down to the Little Kern River. The granite bedrock gorge was filled with wonderful swimming pools and small waterfalls. It also happened to be one of the best fly fishing creeks I've ever been too. I bought a specific Little Kern Fly from Kern River Fly Fishing, and literally caught a beautiful Golden Trout on every cast.
There was no one around, and we set up camp on a secluded pool in comfy pristine sand! Since it was only 5 miles in and a relatively easy hike, we had time to swim, fish, and explore the area.
Because it was late in the season, the water level was low and fairly warm.
There was no need for backpacker food - we ate fresh fish for dinner!
Here's a photo of the Little Kern just below the trailhead.
And another picture taken near our campsite:
On the second day, we hiked up and over a pass on our way to the Kern River. We passed Flat Iron, several meadows and springs, and then made the long descent through the burnt-out Doe Meadow on our way to Kern Flat.
Wildlife tracks were everywhere - there certainly seems to be a healthy supply of bear, coyotes, and deer. The Kern River is absolutely beautiful in this area!
We hiked a little ways south along the river and found a nice campspot near some excellent fishing and swimming holes.
Once again, the fishing was world class with unique Golden-Rainbow hybrids...and they were big!!
We spent most of the 3rd day fishing and hiking all along the river - about a 12.5 mile hike. About 7 miles down, we reached the Forks of the Kern, where the Little Kern meets the North Fork. Here, we passed several day hikers and rafters getting ready for a super low flow 4-day trip down the Kern River to the Johnsondale bridge.
The remaining portion of our trip took us uphill from the Forks, and back to the trailhead. We cant wait to return and explore more of the area. Hiking/climbing down the Little Kern Drainage and kayaking these upper sections of the Kern River are now on our list of things to do!
This was a great day and a perfect place for a late season hike! Rock Creek Canyon, in the Eastern Sierra north of Bishop, is filled with superb hiking trails. On this particular trip, we hiked out of Mosquito Flat, above Rock Creek Lake, and on into the Little Lakes Valley. There are several other trails near Rock Creek Lake: Hilton Creek/Lakes, Tamarack Bench, Sand Canyon for mountain biking, and numerous backpacking options. We took the Morgan Pass Trail.
One of the the unique features of this area, is that the trailhead is at 10,300 feet! So, immediately you're immersed in the high alpine lake terrain.
After entering the John Muir Wilderness and a hike up the Crankcase Grade, we followed a creek filled with darting brook trout. The trail splits after a steep-but-quick climb; a deviation from the mellow pace. Backpackers often head Mono Pass, but we continued through the Little Lakes Valley.
We came upon Mack Lake, and then upon the ultra scenic Marsh Lake. Unfortunately we didn't have our fishing poles; it looked like some excellent brown trout habitat! I know the Big One is lurking in there.
The hike meandered along Ruby Creek and on up to Heart Lake and Box Lake.
As we were enjoying the beautiful Box Lake, the T-shirt weather started to turn a little chilly as clouds rapidly developed and hovered over the Sierra.
The happy forecast of sunny weather was starting to look a bit off - it was looking like a storm was brewing.
So we had to keep jammin' up to see Long Lake before the weather turned to nasty!
Well, right when we got there it started snowing! So i didn't get any pictures of Long Lake, 'cause we weren't hanging out too long. The trip back went quite a bit faster. With no jackets, wet snow, and a breeze coming off 13,000 peaks, we were motivated to move fast.
I guess it was another lesson learned: always be prepared in the High Sierra - at least have a jacket! Although, i think we've said that a million times before... its just more fun this way!
It just took hearing the forecast of 113 degree heat in the southern sierras, and we promptly planned a 4-day backpack trip in the high Eastern Sierra. We settled on a trip into the Mt Humphreys lake basin, with no real detailed plan. Mt Humphreys is just shy of 14,000 feet and can be accessed by Piute Pass out of the North Lake/Sabrina Lake area west of Bishop. Most of our hiking and camping was above 11,000 feet, yet it was still hot!
From North Lake trailhead, we hiked a scenic 6 miles and 2200 feet in elevation to the pass. After paralleling a lush and shady creek, the trail passed by a series of trout-filled lakes encompassed by the huge jagged peaks typical of the Eastern Sierra.
At Piute Pass, the views opened up dramatically as a giant plain of barren rocks, lakes and distant peaks came into view.
At this point i understood why one of the biggest lakes in the region was called Desolation Lake. This lake was our destination for the night.
After another couple miles of fairly easy hiking we charged cross-country to arrive at this huge lake. There was one serious bummer that we weren't completely prepared for: mosquitoes ! Even though the surroundings had so much barren rock, there was plenty of grassy marshy areas and small ponds for those nasty pests to breed. Our group, consisting of 4 tired hikers and 2 dogs, set up our tents at the back end of the lake with Mt Humphreys towering above.
After a morning swim the next day, we decided to hike up and over past Forsaken Lake to the lager of the Humphreys Lakes. There were almost no mosquitoes, and we found a great tent site nestled in the rocks just above the lake. We called it good and set up camp. We spent the rest of the day, July 4th, fishing, swimming, and hiking.
For our most dramatic viewpoint on the trip, we hiked straight up the steep shale to a ridge on Mt Humphreys. We had planned to hike the peak, but its Mordor-looking towers required some gnarly mountaineering skills. Our destination turned out to be a knife-edge ridge with some of the most dramatic scenery i have yet seen in the Sierras!
These mountains are basically gigantic spires and cliffs that drop straight down to the Owen's Valley floor. Its so steep that my fear of heights quickly kicked in, and i was basically crawling around on hands and feet to maximize all the views. Awesome! After the steep hike up, we jumped and skated down in about 2 minutes!
That evening Charly, our adventure buddy dog, got into a fight with the local scavenging marmot. He actually got his head wedged into some rocks while the marmot gnashed out at his face. He got cut up pretty bad.
The fishing was excellent early the next morning. One of the smaller lower lakes was filled with small but gorgeous Volcano Creek Goldens, while we caught larger Brookies in the Humphreys lakes. We then set out south to Muriel Lake. After finding some awesome camp sites at the outlet, we decided to day hike up to the Goethe Lakes. The storm clouds were building, but unfortunately never materialized above us. We were hoping to get some much-needed rain in the sierra.
Up a Goethe Lake it was fairly windy and stormy, but still the water looked like the purest blue...almost like Crater Lake in Oregon. Was formed from the Goethe Glacier, which still exists up on the flanks of Muriel Peak.
The hiking around the lake is basically giant boulder hopping. There's no trail and no place to camp, which made it seem even more pure and gorgeous!
At first we assumed there's no fish in the lake due to the lack of vegetation. But just when we were about to give up fishing there, a good sized rainbow grabbed the lure. It turned out to be a great day!
And topping it off, was watching a superb sierra sunset from our camp that evening.
The next morning we packed up and hiked the long way back down to the trailhead. During the hike, the thunderclouds were growing fast. About the time we reached our truck, that storm had started the Inyo Complex Fires that raged across the Eastern Sierra for a couple days.
(See my last post on that little adventure.)
Here's a GPX file of our route and a Google Earth shot of the trip:
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