As I said in my previous post, this summer has been a bit different from the patterns Jessica and I have established over the past 15+ years. In the past, Septembers were for working — the first real push of the school year after getting through the introductory first week or two.
But, in the Registrar’s Office, September is just another month on the calendar. (To be fair, every few weeks here have their various tasks which make them busier or less so, but, by and large, the work just kinda keeps flowing.)
For the 10 years we’ve been in Santa Cruz, Jessica called late August and early September her “second summer” — the time when she would slowly get ready for the school year while also taking some time to do fun things on her own while I was busy at school.
Well, this year, largely staying home with me through July and August, Jessica was working a fair bit for most of the summer. But, her “second summer” was just as much summer for me as any other time, so I arranged a mix of “working from elsewhere” and spending my few banked vacation days, and we went out to Mammoth Lakes, on the east side of the Sierra Nevada, to spend a couple of weeks hiking and backpacking.
We drove out late on the Wednesday after Labor Day, stopping at one of my favorite spots in Yosemite, Olmsted Point. Usually, I’ve been there before during the daytime. But, this time, it was about 10pm, and the stars. were. amazing. I always rave about the beautiful stars at night when we’re backpacking, but Jessica never sees them. She takes out her contacts in the tent and doesn’t bring her glasses, so that, by the time it’s dark, she can’t see much. She was completely blown away by the view of the Milky Way that we had that night. It was a pretty sweet start to our trip. (No pictures, because the phone doesn’t do great with the night sky.)
Thursday and Friday were spent working from elsewhere, in this case the little ski condo we’d rented. (One of the great things about Mammoth is that there are a ton of relatively reasonable rentals available in the summer, and even more in September than there are in July, when we’ve been there before.) Well, Jess mostly worked on puzzles, but I worked those days. After work each day, we went for a late-afternoon hike. Thursday’s was fun because we were joined by Gina and Jason, friends from Santa Cruz who are also fans of the eastern Sierra. They showed us Convict Lake, a classic local spot we’d never visited before. Then, after work on Friday, we went up to the Mammoth Lakes Basin and hiked past several of the lakes there and watched the red hills glow as the sun started to set.
After spending those couple of days adjusting to our new altitude (Mammoth Lakes is about 8,000 ft above sea level), we set off on our first backpacking adventure, a five day loop from North Lake over Piute Pass, down to the South Fork of the San Joaquin River, and then back over Lamarck Col. It’s a loop I’ve looked at for years and we just never quite got around to doing. It was worth the wait.
Before I get into details of the trip, let me just explain the first half of the title of this post. In the past, Jessica and I have pretty much always done our backpacking trips in July, the month we both have had off. And we’ve been to the Sierra in the winter, sometimes in the snow, other times not, but never backpacking…because that just sounds cold and unpleasant. Whenever we’re there, it’s always an amazing time. And I love love love the experience of being so far out in the wilderness that you need to bring your house with you. There’s nothing else quite like it.
But this year, our first chance to go to the Sierra in September, was next level.
Usually, those July trips involve stunning landscapes and long, gorgeous days. But they come with a few downsides.
- It can be quite hot in July. That is a little unpleasant, but for Jessica, it can be seriously problematic. I don’t get the physiology, but for some reason, her face gets incredibly, uncomfortably warm in hot, sunny weather. So, sometimes, those hot days can be a real problem for her.
- July isn’t only our most “free” month. It’s everyone’s. So the trails are often quite busy. It’s never a real problem — there’s lots of backcountry out there — but since the John Muir Trail is sort of the “spine” of the trail system in the Sierra, a large chunk of the nice backpacking loops use it for a day or two and those days can feel a little like we’re dodging traffic.
- So. Many. Mosquitoes. Since backpacking depends on being near water, most evenings in July involve some time spent hiding from mosquitoes. And dousing myself in a thick layer of chemicals. And wearing more clothes than I ought to for the weather. And still getting several itchy bites. On one trip (an amazing one!) we even got run off the trail by mosquitoes at midday: we tried to take a side trail up to visit some lakes and ended up being swarmed so badly that we climbed a steep exposed bit of lovely, smooth Sierra granite to escape them.
So, why is September backpacking the best? Because all three of those issues are resolved. It’s cooler, but not too cold. There are far fewer people out on the trails, though definitely not zero. And, most of all, there were absolutely no mosquitoes. Not one. No need for repellant. No long sleeves. And no hiding in the tent around sunset. And there were beautiful sunsets we got to watch. September backpacking is the best. I look forward to more in years to come.
OK. Enough speaking in generalities. I know y’all came here for pretty pictures of mountains…
Day One: After driving from Mammoth down to North Lake, above Bishop, CA, we started our uphill slog. The first 3 hours or so were spent trucking uphill to Piute Pass. It was a steady, reasonably steep climb — about 2,000 feet of elevation gain over 5 miles — through a valley with crumbly peaks on both sides, one grey, one red. We stopped by a couple of nice little lakes on the way up, eventually reaching the pass and a view down into an incredibly barren landscape on the other side. (In fact, one of the lakes we almost went to over there is name Desolation Lake.)
Eventually, we skirted over towards the side of the valley to the south of us, and ended up at Upper Golden Trout Lake, where….
Wait. Where? No, Upper Golden Trout Lake is not in the Golden Trout Wilderness. That’s another 80 miles south of where we were. Clearly, the lack of creativity in naming in the mountains is out of control. How many Emerald Lakes have I hiked to? And last time Jessica and I went backpacking, we started at Pine Creek, but on this trip, we did a day hike up Big Pine Creek (see below), about 20 miles away from there. Seriously, people, we need to start a campaign to come up with better wilderness naming ideas.
OK. Sorry for the rant. Back to our story…
Our campsite on a small hill was shared with a major marmot village, one very large member of which came out to watch us regularly. We enjoyed a gorgeous sunset and our first backpacking meal in several years.
If you don’t know, our backpacking meals are self-prepared. We bought a dehydrator years ago, and we use it to cook our own simple meals and then dehydrate them down to something that can fit in a quart-sized freezer bag. We then just add boiling water, stir, keep it warm for about 5 to 10 minutes, and eat right out of the bag. The trash is just the now-empty zip-lock bag, and the only “dirty dishes” are one spoon each, which are simply licked clean. Zero dishes. Zero mess. Delicious warm dinners.
I woke up the next morning incredibly happy. First of all, because I was out backpacking in a beautiful place with my favorite person. But, also because I woke up not ridiculously achy! I was worried that backpacking might be beyond my abilities. It was not. I know Jessica and I have done a lot of hut-to-hut trekking the last few years (see all my previous blogs), but those have all been with smaller, lighter packs — not carrying a tent, sleeping bag, etc. It turns out that the extra dozen pounds didn’t kill me. Yay!
Day Two: Down, down, down. From the lake we followed Piute Canyon (and Piute Creek) down nearly 3000 feet to the South Fork of the San Joaquin River, onto the John Muir Trail, and into Kings Canyon National Park. It was another beautiful day, first descending a broad valley, then a narrow twisty canyon with some classic Sierra granite domes. The only things that made this day less than absolutely spectacular was that our last backpacking trip (four years ago) had covered the twisty canyon part already, so, while it was beautiful, there was a 5 mile stretch we had seen pretty recently. Regardless, still an excellent day, ending at a comfy wooded campsite by the riverside.
(Another quick note on why September backpacking is the best: river and stream crossings are soooooo easy!)
Day Three: We started off our hike to the sound of a helicopter buzzing overhead.
Incongruent, I know, but we actually had expected it. You see, after having planned this hike months earlier, and gotten permits a few weeks ago, Jessica finally decided to look into reading about the trail the day before we left Mammoth. She was a little upset when she did. She seemed surprised that I hadn’t mentioned that the bridge over the San Joaquin River had been destroyed. And not just recently. A year ago, in August 2023. It looked like this…
Of course, I told Jessica that I had figured that out because my Outdoor Active app had refused to calculate a route that followed the John Muir Trail across the river there. But, no worries, I had read someone’s trip report that said there was an easy crossing about half a mile past the bridge. Jessica cited half a dozen websites back at me that said we had to avoid that area. But, eventually, she came upon some reports that said, first of all, that a new bridge was close to being finished, and secondly, that there was a temporary, sketchy, wire bridge that the construction workers were using that hikers could cross. We were saved! (Because, the alternative route many JMT hikers were taking was to hike exactly the opposite of the loop we were doing to avoid the close bridge. Whoops.)
Finally, on day two, we encountered some other folks who said the new bridge had just opened and that the construction crew was packing up and being flown out today. So, helicopters were expected. And we saw them pass overhead a few times picking up supplies and we thanked the two members of the construction crew who were by the bridge packing up the last bits.
Whereas day two had been almost entirely downhill, day three was almost entirely uphill. It began with a steep climb up past a waterfall into Evolution Valley, skirted the edge of gorgeous meadows there for several miles, and then ended with another thousand foot gain out the far end of the valley up into Evolution Basin. I had heard about Evolution Valley for years, but never hiked through there. It was pretty spectacular.
We ended our day by going a mile or so out of our way, heading south to the first lake in the basin, Evolution Lake. It was a busy spot to camp (probably five or six other tents there), but absolutely glorious and with plenty of space to spread out.
Day Four: The last two days of this hike took me back in time a bit too. Whereas day two was a repeat of part of a trip from four years ago, days four and five were a carbon copy of the end of a trip I had made in 2007. But that time I had been backpacking without Jessica, so this was all new to her…and seventeen years is plenty of time for me to forget the details of what everything looked like exactly, so it was still plenty exciting.
And day four was an absolutely amazing adventure. We didn’t cover that much ground — only 4 miles — and only around 1000 feet of elevation gain, but the landscape and the route-finding made up for it.
Route-finding?
Yes. From Evolution Lake, we rounded Mount Mendel and headed into Darwin Canyon. This area definitely has a “trail” but it’s not a maintained trail and as the canyon gets to be just a solid mess of rockslide and lakes part way up, the navigation gets trickier and trickier. Fortunately, the steep canyon walls and obvious chain of lakes made staying headed in the right direction fairly easy, but picking our way through the boulders was tricky at times and we went well astray more than once.
As you can see from the map, Jessica and I found a tiny little spot to camp between the third and fourth lakes in Darwin Canyon and spent the afternoon lazing by the lake, reading, and chatting with the handful of other adventurers passing by. The fourth lake, in particular, was gorgeous. Our campsite had a great view over it, and just around the back of the rock we were nestled against, we could see out over the first three lakes and the drop off to Evolution Valley. Overall, from breakfast looking out at Evolution Valley to sunset over the chain of lakes in Darwin Canyon, it was a fantastically beautiful day.
Day Five: If day four was an adventure, this one was a high adventure. I say high primarily because the first part of the day included a climb up to Lamarck Col, a pass right around 13,000 feet above sea level. But, it was also a high adventure because the climb up to the col was even more trail-less than the hike into Darwin Canyon. Actually, trail-less isn’t quite right. It was more trail-full. In other words, every direction we went — picking our way among the boulders on the sandy hillside — looked like someone had been there recently. So, everything was a trail. And nothing.
Regardless, it took us nearly two hours to climb up to the top. It was grueling, but fun, with some great rock-scrambling and stunning views back down Darwin Canyon.
Once we reached the top, we had a view out into absolutely desolate nothingness, with a glimpse of the Owens Valley and the White Mountains dozens of miles away in the distance.
(For those of you who don’t know the geography, the Sierra Nevada slopes up gently from California’s Central Valley on the west side of the mountains and then drops sharply from the highest peaks on the east side [14,000 feet] down to the Owens Valley [4,000 feet] and then back up into the White Mountains across the valley.)
From the top of Lamarck Col, the rest of the day was a long downhill slog to get out. About 6 miles and a drop of nearly 4,000 feet back to the car. It started with a scramble down loose rocks and over a snowfield. This turned into a trek across sand and gravel, and eventually, as we got further down, we joined a clearer and clearer trail.
The views varied from eerily empty dry plains to steep mountainsides and lush valleys, but by the end, we were just ready to be done. It happens every time. Backpacking is the best, but it’s always nice to be done, to sit on a cushioned seat, turn on the air conditioning, and buy a bag of Doritos…
After that trip, we spent the next few days holed up in our little condo. I caught up on work, while Jess caught up on her puzzle (and a bit of work, but she was doing a pretty good job of actually being on vacation). Unlike the other “work-from-Mammoth” days, these did not end with evening hikes. They ended with evenings of sitting on our butts and going to sleep early as we recovered from 5 days of solid hiking.
The only other thing we did during those two days was to prepare to go on our next backpacking trip. And that’s where the second part of the title of this post comes in…
The weather report for the coming week just kept getting worse. We were planning to do another 5 day trip starting on Saturday, but the weather showed potential snow Sunday night, and rain/snow Monday and Tuesday. One shuttle company even refused to schedule a pick up for us at the end of our hike because they weren’t sure the roads would be safe. Eventually, we decided we had to abandon the idea of backpacking. So, while our first backpacking trip was amazing, our lack of preparedness to camp in the snow (we have a pretty lightweight tent) made the vagaries of September weather in the mountains a serious impediment. Alas, no time is perfect.
So…we switched plans. Saturday and Sunday we did two epic day hikes, and the rest of the time we were supposed to be backpacking we mixed morning hikes with afternoon work (so I could save a bit of my vacation time).
On Saturday, we did a 14.5 mile loop with 3,400 feet of elevation gain, climbing up to the Mammoth Crest Trail and circling back through the Mammoth Lakes Basin. From the crest there are epic views out over the Ritter Range and the Silver Range, both areas Jessica and I have been backpacking in before, so it was fun to relive those memories from a birds eye view. Not to mention that walking through and looking out on the volcanic work of that area is quite cool too.
Then on Sunday, we drove an hour south to Big Pine and did a 13 mile hike (with 3,200 feet of elevation gain) up the North Fork of Big Pine Creek to the creatively named First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Black Lakes. (One of these things is not like the others. Hmmm…) We had neither the time nor oomph to make it to Sixth and Seventh Lakes. Alas. The hike started up through some steep woods and then emerged into a wonderland of lakes and rocks with the prominent Temple Crag jutting out and some distant views of the Palisades where there’s still a tiny bit of glacier left. (We even ran into a team working with an artist, bringing down wax castings of the glacier to preserve the shape in glass. Pretty cool. And sad.) The first half of the hike was fine, but the lakes area was incredible. Highly recommended for a long day hike or a short overnight trip.
So, even though we didn’t get to go backpacking, we did still get some serious mileage and got to see some amazing places.
And we decided we were probably right not to go. Monday was so cold and windy that we didn’t go hiking at all, and when we did go out on Tuesday, there was snow and ice at the shady start of our trail and on the mountains above us. We took the Rush Creek Trail (off the June Lake Loop) up to Gem Lake. It was pretty, but it was a little sad to discover that both the lakes we saw were dammed. We also ran into some backpackers coming down from the mountains. They had been right in the area where Jessica and I had been planning to camp and reported a lot of snow and relatively difficult conditions. So, again, a good choice, but a sad one, not to go backpacking.
Our last morning hike we just did a little loop around several of the lakes in Mammoth: McLeod, Horseshoe, and Mamie. Nothing special, but it was nice to get out and stretch our legs one last time.
The weather on the day we left also showed some possible snow at high elevations, so we got on the road fairly early headed home. We got over Tioga Pass (the eastern entrance to Yosemite) without any issue and stopped at Tenaya Lake (originally Pyweack as I learned from an article I used to make my students read about indigenous genocide in Yosemite) for lunch. It started to rain on us a bit there, and when we got back on the road, we were glad to be moving as we did encounter a bit of snow and were happy not to be caught on the wrong side of the mountains.
We got home Thursday night, exhausted, worked Friday, and then I stupidly turned right around and went to a concert in San Francisco Saturday night. Had to top off a great trip with one more highlight! I saw Peter Hook and the Light. Hook was the bass player for Joy Division and New Order, and he was performing a bunch of their old material (and one Monaco song I heard in there, a band he formed in the early 2000s).
Here’s one classic for y’all: https://youtu.be/PNv9Wh-GBE0 (still can’t get videos to embed. why?!?!)
He’s clearly an aging rocker, and not as good a singer as the original folks who led those bands, but it was still a ton of fun.
And then I was exhausted.
More adventures to come at some future date…
I know the area well from years ago – nice to see it again.