It appears we're on a multi-year mission to explore the entire Sierra High Route, because for every section we complete, we come up with plans to see more. Always enjoyable, and maybe we're getting better at understanding what it's all about. SHR is moving up on our "quest list", for sure.
This summer we aimed for another middle section, starting near Bishop and ending near the Postpile (where we started 2 years ago). Lake Italy is perhaps the least accessible mid-spot, but there is access from the east via Italy Pass and it was the right trail distance for us. So we figured we could figure it out. Hopefully.
[Photo credits include Cathy Cox and John Beard]
Ready for another excellent adventure with friends!
We hiked in from Pine Creek trailhead, and getting the permit is a whole 'nother story. Briefly, all permits are obtained online now, no more sending in a form with the description of what you're planning to do (and then explaining to the ranger how you're doing the SHR and not taking normal trails like most everyone else). I didn't begin the process early enough, so I was stuck trying to make something work from a Mammoth trailhead (any trailhead!). Two weeks out, availability suddenly opened up for an Italy Pass permit, and we were back to my original plan. Next time I'll be better prepared more in advance.
Anyhoo, permit in pocket and vehicles staged, we started up the trail:
The scenery up the Pine Creek trail includes views of a large mining operation, not the normal stuff you might want to look at while hiking, but it certainly was something different:
Taking our time and getting used to the pack weight - it was a full afternoon of walking uphill:
Another curiosity along the way:
Love this photo Cathy took during one of our rest breaks:
Dueling cameras:
Climbing stairs up toward the rocks and waterfalls:
Into the wilderness!
We found a couple slightly-tricky creek crossings, mostly making us wonder what the Big Snow Year (last winter) might still have in store for us. More water in the creeks and across our path, for one thing.
The first high lake:
Our version of Abbey Road!
Mosquitos, oh you dang little bugs. As I understand it, August is typically low-bug month, but the late start to summer and all the standing water created a breeding fest for bloodsuckers. We had an introduction to the buggers at Yosemite and were reasonably prepared with head nets and long sleeves/pants. Still annoying.
A beautiful spot, but way too buggy for our liking, keep moving...
Working our way up toward "granite park" and a glimpse of the white stuff that had not yet melted out:
How ya doin', John?
So pretty! We climbed as high as we could for the afternoon, now looking for a reasonable camping spot:
It's flat, wide, near the creek, open to the breeze (helps blow the skeeters away, sometimes), and unoccupied. We'll take it! We considered ourselves super lucky with this find:
First night supper, where we start eating food so we all have less to lug around:
Day 1:
Climb above the mine
Ten challenges - accepted (little did we know!)
Mosquitos! At bay
(I don't even remember most of the "10 challenges" we counted that day, probably a few little creek crossings, a bit of a snowfield to traverse, and one big climb)
John snapped a photo of our lovely campsite the next morning:
Starting up the trail toward Italy Pass:
We had been wondering how difficult it might be to get over the pass, between the snow and the fact that the trail isn't highly traveled. That turned out to be one of the easier things we did that day. No problem.
Into the backcountry, yay!
It was an easy walk downhill, on and off patches of snow, until we reached a snow-covered traverse. John took the direct route, Cathy went up and around, and Robyn tried to traverse but ended up on her butt for a gentle downhill glissade. I paused to watch all of this, and eventually John came back for me. He kicked some better steps into the snow and I followed him across. Well that was interesting!
Back onto the rock fields that we're more familiar with. And admiring the large amount of snow/ice still remaining on the little lake:
We came around the corner to find Lake Italy spread out in front of us. It's long and narrow, in the shape of Italy, not surprisingly. The directions from Roper and Skurka said to go west along the south edge of the lake to join the SHR route on the other side of the outlet. We hopped boulders and walked across snow, thinking we were making progress.
And then... we found an obstacle that looked like quite a challenge. A large snowfield, steep enough that I wasn't too comfortable, with a drop-off at the bottom right above the lake. We debated until I finally decided "oh hell no". John heard that, and since we've done quite a few "interesting" adventures together, he knew it was time to try something else. I only wish one of us had taken a picture from up close.
We backed up, attempted to climb up and around, ran into another section of steep snow, and stopped to weigh our options.
Travel around the south/east edge of the lake was supposed to be way more difficult (probably when snowfields weren't part of the equation). Our map had a couple X's marked over there, like "this is not the way". It didn't look bad from a distance, which of course doesn't guarantee anything.
We decided to give it a shot. What we found was a bunch of loose rocks, such that most everything we touched would move a little. The actual climb/traverse was fine - no cliffs or exposure, no nav challenges. And the snowfields were helpful in this case. Every snowfield we crossed meant not having to deal with the moveable rocks. We just needed to be mindful of foot and hand placements when we weren't on the snow.
I've heard people say "snow can make things easier", and in my experience, more often snow adds to the challenge. In this case though, I agree!
It took some time and we knew we weren't going to reach our original objective over the next col. We could see a perfectly decent alternative at the eastern edge of the lake (way better than anywhere else we trod that afternoon). Happily we had plenty of daylight to reach it, and it didn't take long to call it "good enough!" - home sweet home.
Cathy took a beautiful picture at sunset. The snowfield with the drop-off at the edge of the lake is visible on the far side:
Day 2:
The pass was easy
Too much snow around the lake!
"X" path - sorta goes?
Up early the next morning, expecting a longer day to make up ground, and the beginning of a trend of "upside-down tent" to try to dry it out a bit before packing up:
Robyn demonstrating sunscreen application, because we won't be in this mountain shadow for long:
Yep, we have sunshine! Perusing the landscape toward the next pass, which turned out to be a simple climb:
The other side was another story. We can confirm that yes, north-facing slopes tend to keep the snow the longest (should not be a surprise to anyone). We picked our way down, thankful we had not attempted this late in the day before:
Getting lower, still walking on snow. Hard to say if the snow made this part harder or easier, maybe we'll return someday to see what's underneath:
Clearly it's a beautiful place! Here we are working our way through Roper's detailed description of where to go next, near Upper Mills Creek Lake. For every piece of the SHR we do, we are getting more confident in the route and our ability to follow it. Big fans so far.
The next descent was also covered in snow, and while we were trying to figure out the best way, I finally said to myself "screw it". I sat down, used my trekking poles as a brake, and slid down on my butt. Way faster and easier than walking, and more fun!
Robyn followed right behind, then Cathy got some help and encouragement from John to slide down in one of our butt tracks. Yay!
Now we're getting somewhere. We dropped down several more fields of snow and glissaded every chance we got. Awesome!
Lovely lake, working our way to the far end where we sat to eat lunch (and wait for John to hike back to the last snowfield to pick up the bottle that came out of his pack pocket):
Enjoying the views of lakes and granite all around:
Oh, and flowers! A sign that we were losing elevation and gaining vegetation:
The big drop down into the Second Recess gave us a bit of hassle. We didn't find the "light use trail" marked on our map until we were ~halfway down, so instead we bushwhacked through the underbrush for a while. At one point we were trying to drop down something steep, and someone asked which way I was thinking of going. To which I replied, "I'm going to go over there and get myself stuck in that tree", which I did. I'm sure it got me out of a challenging downclimb, but it took me a few minutes to extricate myself from the tree.
On the bright side, we had fantastic looks at the torrent of falling water and huge gray slabs:
Finally down in the recess and on a real trail. And apparently it had switched from sunshine to rain since the previous picture - very much an on-again, off-again sunny/rainy day:
It was an easy walk down to Mono Creek, while we wondered what we would find there. My intel said we could cross the creek on downed logs. We were sure hoping that was the case vs. needing to ford a river of snowmelt.
Initially we didn't see anything to help us across, then John spotted a little trail going to the left that led to a big tree that had fallen perfectly to form a bridge. OK, not a perfect bridge, at least for some of us. John walked all of our packs to the other side - thank you John!
We took turns straddling the log and slowly inching our way along it. The "shimmy method," as it were. Not something we have a lot of experience with, but better than any other option. John was still sawing nubs to make things easier as Robyn followed us across - thank you John!
Now that we had that behind us, it was time to focus on the next challenge - where to camp? The mosquitos were back in full force. Not a surprise, just not something we wanted to deal with all evening and next morning. It was getting toward the end of the day and then it started raining again. Yuck.
We decided to try the next big climb - 1000+ feet straight up the other side of the drainage. At least it was on a trail and hopefully it would get us out of mosquito hell. Everyone was game, we took it slowly and steadily, and we topped out with daylight remaining. Then we found another "good enough" campsite, still plagued by skeeters but at least not as badly. Phew, another day of challenges, another good set of problem solving. Time for bed.
Day 3:
Glissading is fun!
Shimmy across Mono Creek!
We climbed up the Wall!
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