High Sierra Topix

Playing with Google Earth, I visited what has been a long mystery location on the topo map for me. Always wondered what that difficult to access metamorphic geology basin east of Excelsior Mountain where Burro Lake resides looked like and now in 3D like what I saw. I've been up in the Green Creek and Upper Virginia Creek areas several times over the past decades and have an attraction to the its colorful rock. I normally keep such places as this to myself like fishermen that have found an offtrail lake with big goldens. However given its challenges, it might serve some amusement here on this board.

Thus also brought up the more detailed Google satellite map of the same area to study it some more and with my topo figure out what might be the best strategy to reach it with a full backpack. I would imagine some climbers without much map sense have clawed there way up the outlet stream but that appears foolishly painful. Next I searched for "burro lake" AND lundy on the web and received little in useful hits. A peakbagger took a photo down on the lake from the Black Mountain area and some 20 something had to be rescued by a SAR team after thinking he could day hike from Lundy to Virginia canyons haha. And a botanist found some rare plant up in that zone.

So I'd bet no one on this board has been there nor know anyone that has even though it is a rather trivial distance as the chipmunk scampers from the roadend going up to Lundy Falls. Sort of like being down about the Merced River in Yosemite Valley looking up at Half Dome and saying the Diving Board bench is not far away. I'd expect some fishermen climbers have gone up there and reported they indeed only saw stunted big-headed brookies haha so that ended that. And peak baggers climbing to the top of Excelsior Mountain or Black Mountain have other obvious ways to reach those summits. So now that I've done a bit of 2009 web homework, I see a nice 3-day backpack there about early to mid August.

The trouble with Google Earth and satellite maps (for me) is there are quite a bit more such interesting places to visit than I imagined just a few years ago. At least back then many such places by topo alone were too much the mystery to know for sure.

David

a pretty lake, google wise; i haven't been there. if i thought there were big fish, i might try it. what route were you thinking about? might help some of us on how we look at this stuff and think, "hey, i wanna go there but how do i plan it?"

I admit, i'd probably go up the drainage and then go right, up the skree rather than the other side where the drainage is. But, i've been fooled by that choice before.

the other alternative would be from the north from the trail and skirt around to find a way down. sounds like a bad plan, though.

HI,
'Map sense'... ah, yes. There were many times I wished that I had some.. . (It probably would have helped prevent many of those long 'death marches' I did...)

One weekend, back in the days when "Google" was simply a very large number, I wanted to peak-bag something easy, prominent, and unpopular. (...and easily accessible from San Jose) Excelsior seemed perfect and I'd never been to that part of the Sierra before. Time to explore!

There are certainly easier ways to get to Excelsior, but, to me, starting from the end of Lundy Canyon road seemed more sporting. The climb up the outlet stream did prove to be difficult, but not as bad as I'd expected. I was more worried about the bush-whacking, but it turned out to be easy to navigate around the worse sections of brush.

The reward was well worth the effort! This is a very beautiful and isolated bit of High Sierra paradise. And I had it all to myself . I camped near Burro Lake and the next morning I climbed up the east face of Excelsior. From the summit, I hiked south, along the Sierra crest and, eventually, worked my way to Shamrock Lake. From there, I hiked down the Lundy Canyon trail back to my van.

Beautiful Pics and great info! Before someone else asks the obvious question, i will. Did you fish?

Thanks!
No, didn't fish on this trip. I guess someone else from the board will have to go up there and check that out...

Impressive gcj, thanks for the input. Indeed you have gone where few have ever gone.


(full image):
http://www.davidsenesac.com/Information ... _cr_g1.jpg

The Burro Basin customized USGS topo (816kb)
http://www.davidsenesac.com/Information ... sin_t2.jpg

Google Satellite maps:
http://www.davidsenesac.com/Information ... sin_s1.jpg
http://www.davidsenesac.com/Information ... ake_s1.jpg
http://www.davidsenesac.com/Information ... _cr_s1.jpg

Some Google Earth 3D screen captures (refer to my topo locations):

http://www.davidsenesac.com/Information ... _cr_g4.jpg
http://www.davidsenesac.com/Information ... lly_g2.jpg
http://www.davidsenesac.com/Information ... col_g1.jpg
http://www.davidsenesac.com/Information ... ake_g3.jpg

My own choice of routes I'll add a bit later.

Hike-If I am not mistaken, the easier route to Burro Lake might be from the north (maybe around Frog/Virginia, unconfirmed). My Dad, his friend, and the friend's dog went up there about 50 yrs ago from the Lundy route. Very steep climb. Dad fell off the trail and survived by falling into a tree. They did not turn back until the dog (the smart one) refused to go any further.

Fishing- reportedly a little brookie lake (unconfirmed).

one could consider coming in via blue lakes and then dropping south over that nasty looking skree pile.. looks like 800-900 ft drop. the summit lake aproach looks easier; still have to drop off the skree. The only reason those looked more interesing was that there were more lakes to fish.

Still, very pretty country.. thanks for the initial post..

I have been to Burro Lake, and am familiar with both the "frontal assault" (outlet creek) route and the "back door" route from the Virginia Lakes. I visited the lake with my brother and my dad in 1992 en route to climb Excelsior. It was my dad's last off trail backpack (age 64 at the time). His painful hip (probably injured originally on a fall taken while climbing Mt Goddard with me in 1977) had gotten so bad that he was on the verge of giving up on the ascent to Burro Lake. This is a standard class 2 talus slog--not easy, but not exceptionally onerous, in my estimation. I remember crossing over the outlet cascade at one point in order to pick the optimal line (a rather wet crossing). The next day my dad said he couldn't possibly descend the way we came up so he and my brother saddled up their packs (I had already lightened his pack considerably) and went to the saddle on the divide to Virginia Lakes. There they dropped their packs and the three of us followed the ridge to Excelsior, then returned to the saddle. Then I sent my dad and my bro down to the Virginia Lakes trail--a very much easier route than the ascent route. I sprinted down to the lake, broke camp, descended the outlet, then drove the car around to Virginia Lakes and hiked up to Blue Lake to fish and wait for them (met them after I had fished a bit short of an hour).

Bottom line about routes: The backdoor route from Virginia Lakes is much easier than the frontal assault up the outlet (easy class 2).

Other particulars: I found Burro to be one of the prettier lakes I've visited with a marvelous perched setting with colorful metamorphic surroundings. Burro Lakes and the ponds connected to it are teeming with stunted brookies that ran to about 9". Even my brother, who doesn't fish or hike as often as me (ie not as jaded), was bored after he had caught and released about a dozen fish.

Thanks for the post GB. so 9" stunted brookies.. good pan fodder i guess.. What about Virginia and the lakes to the North on the way in?