High Sierra Topix

Thanks for the camping information. As much as I would like some early AM photos, I think I will just day-hike and camp lower. I am taking a new trekking pole supported tent and would rather not make a production out of setting up since this is the first time I have used this tent.

Now if I can just find someone who has recently been over Crabtree Pass. The detour from Crabtree Lakes to Sky Blue Lake via the PCT takes more than a day, rather go over the pass.

Oh, just saw that someone posted Crabtree Pass information in the Fishing section. Does not look promising.

Wandering Daisy wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 8:05 am I am debating if I will camp in Williamson Bowl, or just day-hike from the lake on Shepherd Pass. What are the campsites like? Any suggestions on where is best?

The only time I visited (1996) we dayhiked from Shepherd Pass during a day when we were moving our camp from L11440 to somewhere around the Pothole below the pass on the E side. There were quite a few delays when thunderstorms came in and we had to hide under shelter (mostly because of really coarse and intense hail) but we were able to spend quite a bit of time in Williamson Bowl. If you are thinking of the lakes with interesting aquatic life we visited the upper of them which is rockbound and rather austere and then the lower pair (at 11120+) which have somewhat more accommodating surroundings. Nearly 20 years after I visited I learned that there is a hollow beneath an overhang "cavelike" near one of the lakes where some daring Japanese-American fishermen overnighted during their crazy sneak-out fishing trips from the Manzanar internment camp in WWII (see film Manzanar Fishing Club but specifics on this to not come from that source). Had I known about this, I would have wanted to camp at the lakes and look for the spot, rather than simply dayhike. Anyhow I didn't prospect for campsites but the lower pair of lakes has much better overall prospects than the upper one. I seem to recall a stonewalled flat spot or two at the upper one but these are pretty bare bones.

Regarding Crabtree Pass. We crossed it ( 7/6)on the same 1996 trip which was slotted early in July to get to the Williamson Bowl area before the closure of that era which began on 7/16. We encountered some moderately steep snow on the north side but nothing that made us wish for an ice axe. In contrast one of the steep slopes we crossed on the north side of Shepherd Pass later on 7/11 (day we visited Williamson Bowl) was somewhat borderline. Note that 1996 was a moderately heavy year (above average) for snowfall and snowpack.