TR: Red Mountain Basin Aug 4-9 2019
Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2019 2:11 pm
Red Mountain Basin August 4-9, 2019
Purpose, Logistics, and Conditions of Trip
The Red Mountain, Bench Valley, and Blackcap Basin areas are all parts of the Sierra I had never visited, mostly because I have focused more on the east side approaches. After hearing much about these areas here on High Sierra Topix, and after receiving lots of excellent advice from members, I planned my trip and brought along a friend. This year we focused on the southern portion of Red Mountain Basin.
The permit process is primitive compared with the national parks or Inyo National Forest—via snail mail to the High Sierra Ranger Station in Prather. There was no issue obtaining a permit—in general we found this region far less traveled than other destinations and I imagine permits are pretty easy to obtain.
The day before we drove 3 hours to Prather and picked up the permit, then another 90 minutes on to Courtwright Reservoir, where we had reserved a camp at the Marmot Campground (online via PG&E.) After camping the night we drove the very short distance across the dam and on to the Maxon Trailhead, allowing us to get an early morning start for the first day of the hike. As others here have said, Courtwright Reservoir was quite beautiful. Some general remarks about hiking in this region, which struck me as quite different from my more frequent east side haunts. Most of the trails are very old and were engineered for and by horsepackers. For anyone used to modern trails it will be a shock. As with many horse trails, the preference is for direct routes rather than longer contouring routes, and switchbacks throughout the area are a rarity. The hikes to prime scenery are long—it was 11.5 miles to Fleming Lake, which was really only at the beginning of the most scenic areas. All that said, there is one huge advantage to this region over the national parks and east side—very few people. Other a couple of groups we met that were leaving, and one Outward Bound group we met, we had the region to ourselves. I have seldom experienced that degree of solitude in California.
Now some remarks about the appalling decay of infrastructure in the Sierra National Forest—utterly unlike what you will find in Inyo, for example. The Marmot Campground was chaotic, with most campsite numbers destroyed or missing and the campsite boundaries undefined. Large groups packed in with no seeming regulation, late night beer drinking parties blared music, etc. Its water tap was not functional, and the nearest garbage was down the road at the boat ramp. The outhouses lacked TP and smelled as if someone had poured gallons of pure ammonia over them. The day-use only area near the dam was packed with people camping, again with no enforcement or regulation. At the Maxon trailhead I opened the outhouse door to find that people has stacked their garbage inside 3-4 feet high and so thick that it would have been difficult to reach the toilet had I tried.
Trail maintenance in the wilderness was also very poor. Deadfall had been cut out but that was the entire extent of trail work. Near the trailhead there were a couple of useless “corduroy roads” in which the logs had half rotted, leaving holes and weak spots that threatened to fall through with each step. I saw almost no sign of erosion control or drainage rockwork on any of the trails that was less than 10-20 years old, resulting in many trails becoming rubble strewn stream beds or mucky messes. The trail that cuts over from the Hell for Sure Trail to Devils Punchbowl, for example, ran across a marsh with as many as five parallel tracks, several of them cut a couple of feet deep.
Day One
The Maxon Trailhead (about 8100) is served by a single lane paved road and parking lot. From Maxon we hiked north along the east side of Courtwright Reservoir, following an Off Road Vehicle track for a short ways before the trail takes a curve NE. The first leg of the journey is over a pass out of the Courtwright drainage that takes you up 800 feet to about 8900 and then back down to a ford over Post Corral Creek at 8200. In other words, you gain and lose almost all of that elevation uselessly, and the hike itself was not particularly interesting—with almost no views outside the lodgepole forest. Many people stop at the Post Corral crossing—many good campsights there near granite on the SW side—we went on but did stop there on the way out.
The ford was easily cross-able with stepping stones, and right across the ford is an intersection, and here we began a loop. We headed east up the trail to Fleming Lake. From the ford to Fleming Lake there are not many good water sources, so take plenty along. There are a couple of ponds just out of sight and off trail once you cross the saddle at around 9400, but the intermittent streams are indeed intermittent. The climb from the ford up the hill was tough—our first encounter with the steepness of the area trails. It was also psychologically tough since at first there were few scenic rewards to spur us on. Finally, after about 1000 feet of climbing, the trail switch-backed a bit and got a few open views and we were refreshed. Once we reached something that resembled a pass the trail leveled out for a mile or so through forest before starting a final 300 foot climb to Fleming Lake. We staggered in after 9 hours of hiking over 11.5 miles and set up camp at the obvious site at the outlet. We knew that just a little further up the hill was Rae Lake, reportedly quite pretty, but we were just too exhausted to continue. I had been prepared for a utilitarian and ugly camp by that point, but Fleming struck me as much nicer than that. It had some granite and some verdant meadows surrounding it, and our camp was on a kind of divide between the lake and a pretty stream just downhill. After miles and miles of lodgepole forest, this was pretty, green, with the sound of the creek just below. Across the lake we saw some people riding horses, who disappeared and turned out to be the last people we saw for some time.
Day Two
This day we moved camp from Fleming up the hill to Disappointment Lake. It was an increasingly pleasant hike, with views opening up and the terrain becoming increasingly dominated by granite rather than lodgepole. Disappointment Lake (10342), as others have remarked, was not at all a disappointment. We found it lovely, with a great combination of granite, forest, and meadow abutting it and many excellent campsites. It also is in a great location from which to launch dayhikes throughout the basin.
We set up on the north side, then launched an afternoon dayhike to Blackrock Lake, ascending point 10552 along the way for the views and enjoying the streams, ponds, and meadows in between. Blackrock was lovely, with massive cliffs and huge talus blocks near its outlet. We returned to camp and enjoyed a sunset from the eastern end of the lake, looking due west.
Purpose, Logistics, and Conditions of Trip
The Red Mountain, Bench Valley, and Blackcap Basin areas are all parts of the Sierra I had never visited, mostly because I have focused more on the east side approaches. After hearing much about these areas here on High Sierra Topix, and after receiving lots of excellent advice from members, I planned my trip and brought along a friend. This year we focused on the southern portion of Red Mountain Basin.
The permit process is primitive compared with the national parks or Inyo National Forest—via snail mail to the High Sierra Ranger Station in Prather. There was no issue obtaining a permit—in general we found this region far less traveled than other destinations and I imagine permits are pretty easy to obtain.
The day before we drove 3 hours to Prather and picked up the permit, then another 90 minutes on to Courtwright Reservoir, where we had reserved a camp at the Marmot Campground (online via PG&E.) After camping the night we drove the very short distance across the dam and on to the Maxon Trailhead, allowing us to get an early morning start for the first day of the hike. As others here have said, Courtwright Reservoir was quite beautiful. Some general remarks about hiking in this region, which struck me as quite different from my more frequent east side haunts. Most of the trails are very old and were engineered for and by horsepackers. For anyone used to modern trails it will be a shock. As with many horse trails, the preference is for direct routes rather than longer contouring routes, and switchbacks throughout the area are a rarity. The hikes to prime scenery are long—it was 11.5 miles to Fleming Lake, which was really only at the beginning of the most scenic areas. All that said, there is one huge advantage to this region over the national parks and east side—very few people. Other a couple of groups we met that were leaving, and one Outward Bound group we met, we had the region to ourselves. I have seldom experienced that degree of solitude in California.
Now some remarks about the appalling decay of infrastructure in the Sierra National Forest—utterly unlike what you will find in Inyo, for example. The Marmot Campground was chaotic, with most campsite numbers destroyed or missing and the campsite boundaries undefined. Large groups packed in with no seeming regulation, late night beer drinking parties blared music, etc. Its water tap was not functional, and the nearest garbage was down the road at the boat ramp. The outhouses lacked TP and smelled as if someone had poured gallons of pure ammonia over them. The day-use only area near the dam was packed with people camping, again with no enforcement or regulation. At the Maxon trailhead I opened the outhouse door to find that people has stacked their garbage inside 3-4 feet high and so thick that it would have been difficult to reach the toilet had I tried.
Trail maintenance in the wilderness was also very poor. Deadfall had been cut out but that was the entire extent of trail work. Near the trailhead there were a couple of useless “corduroy roads” in which the logs had half rotted, leaving holes and weak spots that threatened to fall through with each step. I saw almost no sign of erosion control or drainage rockwork on any of the trails that was less than 10-20 years old, resulting in many trails becoming rubble strewn stream beds or mucky messes. The trail that cuts over from the Hell for Sure Trail to Devils Punchbowl, for example, ran across a marsh with as many as five parallel tracks, several of them cut a couple of feet deep.
Day One
The Maxon Trailhead (about 8100) is served by a single lane paved road and parking lot. From Maxon we hiked north along the east side of Courtwright Reservoir, following an Off Road Vehicle track for a short ways before the trail takes a curve NE. The first leg of the journey is over a pass out of the Courtwright drainage that takes you up 800 feet to about 8900 and then back down to a ford over Post Corral Creek at 8200. In other words, you gain and lose almost all of that elevation uselessly, and the hike itself was not particularly interesting—with almost no views outside the lodgepole forest. Many people stop at the Post Corral crossing—many good campsights there near granite on the SW side—we went on but did stop there on the way out.
The ford was easily cross-able with stepping stones, and right across the ford is an intersection, and here we began a loop. We headed east up the trail to Fleming Lake. From the ford to Fleming Lake there are not many good water sources, so take plenty along. There are a couple of ponds just out of sight and off trail once you cross the saddle at around 9400, but the intermittent streams are indeed intermittent. The climb from the ford up the hill was tough—our first encounter with the steepness of the area trails. It was also psychologically tough since at first there were few scenic rewards to spur us on. Finally, after about 1000 feet of climbing, the trail switch-backed a bit and got a few open views and we were refreshed. Once we reached something that resembled a pass the trail leveled out for a mile or so through forest before starting a final 300 foot climb to Fleming Lake. We staggered in after 9 hours of hiking over 11.5 miles and set up camp at the obvious site at the outlet. We knew that just a little further up the hill was Rae Lake, reportedly quite pretty, but we were just too exhausted to continue. I had been prepared for a utilitarian and ugly camp by that point, but Fleming struck me as much nicer than that. It had some granite and some verdant meadows surrounding it, and our camp was on a kind of divide between the lake and a pretty stream just downhill. After miles and miles of lodgepole forest, this was pretty, green, with the sound of the creek just below. Across the lake we saw some people riding horses, who disappeared and turned out to be the last people we saw for some time.
Day Two
This day we moved camp from Fleming up the hill to Disappointment Lake. It was an increasingly pleasant hike, with views opening up and the terrain becoming increasingly dominated by granite rather than lodgepole. Disappointment Lake (10342), as others have remarked, was not at all a disappointment. We found it lovely, with a great combination of granite, forest, and meadow abutting it and many excellent campsites. It also is in a great location from which to launch dayhikes throughout the basin.
We set up on the north side, then launched an afternoon dayhike to Blackrock Lake, ascending point 10552 along the way for the views and enjoying the streams, ponds, and meadows in between. Blackrock was lovely, with massive cliffs and huge talus blocks near its outlet. We returned to camp and enjoyed a sunset from the eastern end of the lake, looking due west.