That's What She Said: Sierra High Route (part 3 of 3)

Another beautiful morning in the Sierras! We slept without the tent fly whenever possible so we could see the sky and our surroundings at night:

John leading the way up our next off-trail section, past the waterfall that tumbled toward Lake Merriam:

Dueling cameras (John's head net reminds me that the mosquitoes were still around):

The other half of the dueling cameras, with a much better background:

Continuing our morning climb toward Feather Pass:

Slab walking toward the pass, with a nice view of the "feather" portion of the ridge:

Enjoying sunshine and easy walking amid the rocks:

John started down sun-cupped snow slope on the other side, and it appears like he's saying "who's with me?"

Cathy found an excellent ledge for donning micro-spikes. Hi Robyn!

My vantage point from further down. The upper ledges look... interesting... but I don't recall having any difficulty finding a way through them (I'm sure John had something to do with that). Cathy is making progress on the snow and Robyn might be taking a picture of me:

A high pond with unmelted ice floating on it:

John scouting for ways down toward the Bear Lakes. Based on the maps I was pretty sure we were going to like these lakes, and that instinct was correct. Such a pretty area.

Another look back toward Feather Pass, as we cross the tundra on the way to Bearpaw Lake:

We had time for an afternoon exploration hike! The other option was to keep going on the SHR route, but our pace was easily on track (for once!) and the side hike options looked interesting. It didn't take much to convince everyone to set up camp early.

My favorite camping surface is flat granite, and John doesn't seem to mind collecting large rocks to weigh down the tent corners in lieu of stakes:

We aimed south over a small ridge toward Vee Lake. A line of colorful flowers greeted us:

As soon as we glimpsed the next lakes, this was now officially a good idea. We even saw an eagle soaring overhead as we strolled down the hill!

Yay for walking with friends and without big packs for a couple hours!

There are so many places to go up here. We're getting a wonderful taste by following the High Route, and then we keep seeing other directions we could head another time.

We came back over the ridge in a different spot, finding a bit of snow and a nice view of our campsite WAY down there... happily there are multiple ways to get (most) places in these mountains and we had no issue finding a route back to our home for the night.

Day 7 haiku:

Feather Pass slab walk

Amazing hike to Vee Lake

John showed us the way!

Breakfast in our kitchen, where Robyn shared her morning sweet treat - chocolate teddy bears that fit right in with the Bear Lakes theme:

Another lovely day, another short-ish hike through the wilderness. Starting with a little climb above Ursa Lake:

Gorgeous and quiet Black Bear Lake - and that's possibly another glimpse at the Feather Pass ridge on the horizon (it's rather distinctive):

A grouse that almost disappears in the similar-colored rocks:

Clambering down to White Bear Lake, with our next pass at the snow line:

The other side of White Bear Pass was our main challenge for the day. It involved a lot of willows, which we haven't had to deal with often (besides the willow "birth canal" in our very first SHR off-trail experience). This was not nearly as awful, just a slow, steep descent with John finding options that might be less bad compared to other options.

Looking back at the pass from the bottom, it's a lot more intimidating:

It seemed fitting to get a picture of our tent (next to Brown Bear Lake) with the pass behind it:

Another short backpacking day and another afternoon to roam around, yay! I had a quest to complete our track around Lake Italy. Last year we were stymied by a giant snowfield on the south side of that lake, so we went around to the east instead and skipped a piece of the High Route. I'm never one to leave a gap unclosed, so off we went, crossing the outlet of Lake Italy:

And... there's still a snowfield on the south side of the lake! Dang it, we were planning to exit the route that way. Last year was a big snow year and this year was not - but apparently that doesn't mean zero snow. Something to ponder for the following day. At least I got a photo this time:

Hiking toward Toe Lake where we camped last year, with the "X" rock jumble on the opposite shore:

We met up with our 2023 selves at our previous campsite (section 3 complete!), had a snack, and then started back toward camp.

Another ninja grouse:

We looked over across the lake and saw a couple of backpackers heading toward the snowfield. Then we saw them walking in the water next to it - hey maybe that could work! We were rather transfixed staring at their slow progress, while John decided to hustle around the end of the lake to try to intercept them at the outlet.

Rachel and Steve were hanging out having a bite to eat when we reached them, having successfully accomplished the "under the snow" wading maneuver. We were excited to hear all about it and they were happy to provide details. OK, maybe we will get out of the mountains on time for Cathy's flight in a couple days.

They were heading downstream but curious about what we were doing so we told them a bit about our SHR trip of 2024. We invited them to camp near us at Brown Bear and they seemed to like the idea. A bit of company for once, excellent! We all enjoyed sharing tales and plans, and they recommended the book that I'm reading now (Kim Stanley Robinson's "The High Sierra - A Love Story").

Gorgeous sunset photo, I believe at the outlet of Teddy Bear Lake:

Day 8 haiku:

Love the Bear Basin

White Bear - precipitous drop!

Did it - not sure how?

Good morning, teddy bear! We will be sad to leave the Bear Lakes today, thanks for being so awesome.

Group photo with our new mountain friends before we parted ways - thanks for the fun chats and the Lake Italy recon, Rachel and Steve!

One last look back at White Bear Pass:

And a zoomed-in photo for good measure:

Pika droppings under a rock - those adorable creatures are here, just not very obvious about it!

Starting the day with a walk by Teddy Bear Lake:

Back to Lake Italy with pant legs rolled up and an idea of how this might work and fingers crossed!

John climbed on the snowbank to take a picture of the "baby crevasse"

The water was chilly but not as ridiculous as some mountain streams, and the lake was indeed shallow in this spot, yay!

Rock hopping to skirt the edge of the biggest snow block:

That first snowfield was the biggest obstacle, because it extended some distance up the side of the hill. There was one more snowfield blocking the "trail" around the lake, so John went to check it out and Cathy followed in that direction while Robyn and I waited for a verdict:

John called back that the rest of us would likely want to go up and over instead, and I always listen when John suggests not following him. His report was that there was a tricky move amid the boulders and ice sheet. No problem for Mr. Mountain Goat. The rest of us would have been up to our waists in water while wading (with packs over our heads).

So we were glad to take the higher route option, even though we messed it up (missed some cairns) and ended up spending more time on that than we should have. The "fun" thing about orienteering and off-trail route finding is that there are always opportunities to do better!

Climbing up from the lake, with the long first snowfield behind us:

Cathy, Robyn, and I got scattered trying to figure out the traverse without getting cliffed out. Eventually Robyn made it to the lake, I got there next, and John went up to help Cathy with one more snow crossing so we could reconvene:

John is probably reenacting the lake/boulder move as our morning entertainment:

Yay for navigating past Lake Italy!

We didn't do as well finding the route by Jumble Lake this year. The trail was harder to follow uphill compared to going down, and we spent time in giant boulders as John hopped around and tried to find the way:

We got back to the path finally and trekked through a bunch of rocks above the aptly-named Jumble:

Hmm, why is the sky darker in that direction? We had had amazing weather for so many days, just one more pass to cross, hopefully before getting wet:

It was good motivation to hoof it up to Italy Pass, where Cathy surveyed the area we were aiming for that afternoon:

Jackets on!

We thankfully beat the rain down to Granite Park. Before getting into too many trees (and the mosquitoes that come with them), we pitched our tents for our final night in the mountains. Good timing getting out of the Lake Italy basin:

Black clouds blew across the sky in various directions but we didn't get hit with any storms or much rain. John hiked up a little hill for a view of another lake higher than we could see from camp: