TR: Pine Creek Loop

[Wandering Daisy]

Pine Creek Loop: 7/24-29

Twice in the past this route was cursed, with respect to photos! First, years ago, my memory card was full by the time I got here. Two years ago, I again had a memory card curse, as I accidently switched to a puny memory card that only held four photos! I was determined to get some photos this time! Amazingly, there were nearly NO mosquitoes the entire trip! The only down sides were that it was really too early for fly fishing and due to conditions, and anxiety level was fairly high.

Day 1. When I picked up my permit dire predictions of a waist-deep stream crossing almost discouraged me, but I had driven down and would at least go up and give it a try. As I drove over Conway Summit lightning all over and pouring rain further made the idea of hiking up to Pine Lake even less likely the first day. When I parked at the trailhead, the storm was winding down. The cloud cover and few raindrops were actually a blessing, as the 2600 feet gain is usually brutally hot in the afternoon.

I left at 2:30, my pack too heavy with seven days food and crampons. In spite of good shade, it was 3 brutal hours to the crossing where I camped to wait for lower flows. I suffered for a few hours once inside the tent, with muscle cramps and general aches and pains. I tried not to worry about the crossing. It looked horrible. But I had talked to a couple at the trailhead who had made it so there was a glimmer of light.

Day 2. I left at 7:30 and the stream flow was down a bit at the stock crossing. I slowly advanced into the strong flow, relying heavily on my trekking poles. Once across, I still had anxiety, wondering if I would be able to go back 6 days later. Shortly, there was another crossing, this time very wide but not as deep as the creek flooded the trail at the upper end of Upper Pine Lake. The remaining trail to Pine Creek Pass was in good shape, even if a bit soggy. Patches of snow covered the trail once in the upper valley about 200 feet below the pass. A hiker coming over the pass startled me. I traversed over to partially frozen French Lake and walked the snowy southwest shore. Before I reached the southeast end I dropped down a gully to about 11,000 feet and then climbed up to the notch northeast of the outlet of Steelhead Lake. I had planned to drop to L-Lake to camp, but found a wonderful campsite on the little hill just north of the outlet of Steelhead Lake at 12:30

After I set up camp, filled two 2-L platypus bottles I hiked up to the ridge to look down into the Petite Lakes and then fished the north shore which was ice-free. The fish were hanging out at the outlet, but had zero interest in my fly. I then dropped to L-Lake to fish the inlet. Again the fish, which were smaller, had no interest. I snagged one in the fin and hauled that sorry little fish up for a spoonful of fish for dinner, took a nice bath and washed clothes at the outlet of Steelhead Lake where plenty of fish were still swimming around. Clouds built all afternoon, but no rain. The view northwest towards Royce Lakes was stunning.

After the very nice 7-hour day I contemplated the next day. I had originally planned to go to Merriam Lake and then to Royce Lakes via Royce-Merriam Pass. Although I could not see the pass from my camp at Steelhead Lake, I could see enough to know it probably would not work. I was not too keen on a 6-mile, 1000 foot drop and gain to reach Merriam Lake, only to reverse it the next day. Merriam Lake would have to wait for another trip.

Day 3. By morning the open water in Steelhead Lake had frozen into a thin layer of glassy ice. I left at 8:30 and went back up to the Petite Lakes with a side trip up to La Tete Lake. Strangely, these upper lakes including Little French Lake were ice-free, but French Lake was still a third or more covered with ice. This time I traversed the north shore and then over the hump and back to Pine Creek Pass. I chose to walk up the low angle snow to the Royce Lake plateau, as it was easier than picking a route on the rock. I reached Royce Lake 11,656 at noon and met two fellows who were camped and fishing. They had good luck with spin fishing, catching some nice golden, but it was very blustery, and my fly fishing was a bust.

After setting up I dropped 300 feet down the drainage to the lowest Royce Lake and caught a beautiful but small golden. Again, I hauled the sorry 6-inch fish up to supplement dinner. When I returned the other fellows had left; they had said that it was too cold at Royce Lakes and they were heading down to lower lakes. Unfortunately, my campsite was in shadows at 5:30 PM. After dinner I walked up the hill to get back into sunlight and then scouted a route to Lake 11,725 and tried a bit of fishing in the lake in between. I was in my sleeping bag early. During the night the wind died down and the stars were amazing. This was also an enjoyable 7-mile/ 7 hour day. It lightly frosted overnight. My mind just could not quite worrying. I almost decided to retreat via Pine Creek Pass and reach Granite Park via the trail.

Day 4. By morning I had decided to just go for it and see if my original plan was feasible. Thankfully the sun hit my campsite early. I left camp at 8AM and soon walked into shadows. The first snowfield was hard as a rock; I gladly put on crampons vindicated for carrying the extra weight. Crunch, crunch, I walked to the saddle at the northeast end of Lake 11,725, some of the snow on a fairly steep slope. The sun had softened the snow enough by 9AM to do the side trip to the upper lake without crampons or trekking poles. There were a few sketchy snowbanks that I had to walk on that were on top of the frozen lake. I would not like to do these in the afternoon but the snow was firm in the morning. The uppermost lake was frozen with some amazing snow walls where the snow had fallen into the lake.

From the saddle, I dropped down towards Golden Lake, at first on rock slabs, and then onto steeper snow, which by this time, was perfect for plunge-stepping. I quickly reached the 11,160 contour and traversed on a marvelous bench to the small pond just south of the Italy Pass Trail. The wading of the creek was easy. A few pesky mosquitoes prompted me to quickly get my shoes back on! I lost the trail a few times in snowbanks as I climbed towards the “swamp” at 11,360. Wading through this swamp did not appeal to me so I stayed on the north side, but had to climb above steep snowbanks and traverse the ridge between Granite Park and Chalfant Lakes to reach the beautiful upper basin at 11,600 feet where I found a perfect campsite on sandy ground. There was a brutal sun and no shade when I arrived shortly after noon. I lazily set up and gathered water.

Clouds began rapidly building out of nowhere. I decided I had better go to the upper lakes to fish before a storm. I had caught a nice fish up there previously. As I reached the lake, it was mostly frozen with no access to the small open water near the outlet. Disappointedly, I fished what open water was accessible, with no luck at all. Skies became darker and I hurried back to camp. It started raining at 3:00 and drizzled the rest of the afternoon. At 5PM I decided to cook dinner under my new backpack umbrella; it worked amazingly well! Not only did it keep me dry, it was a good wind break for the stove. By 6PM it cleared, so I took a walk up to the ridge to peer down to Chalfant Lakes and get some good sunset photos. Unfortunately, the afternoon rain ruined my planned hike to the lake north of the upper Royce Lake. This lake was also totally frozen. Overall it was a short 4-mile, 4-hour day with too many hours in the tent. But Granite Park is one of the most amazingly beautiful locations in the Sierra. It froze hard that night.

Day 5. It was only a 1-mile, 1 hour move to Chalfant Lakes, all of which were ice-free. The entire north slope of the ridge south of Chalfant Lakes was covered in steep snow, so I could not drop down directly, as I had in the past. Instead I traversed the top of the ridge and dropped northeast as the ridge eased, through forest with only one snow patch, to the east end of the second highest large lake. As I waded across, swarms of small fish brushed my ankles! I found a suitable campsite (of course, as the day wore on I discovered numerous better campsites). Weary of the weather, I first fished the upper lakes, releasing the easy to catch fish because they were all small and I did not want to deal with hauling them around with me. Then I dropped to the lower lakes, again testing the waters. The fish here were even smaller, but it was fun to stream-fish the flowing stream.

The weather seemed to be holding, so from the lowest lake II headed up to the ridge to the north, hoping to traverse to the lake in the drainage below Bear Creek Spire. At the top of the ridge, it was apparent that this was a “no-go” due to steep snow and ugly talus. The route to Birchum Lake seemed reasonable, but I did not have time to do that. I returned to camp, bathed and washed clothes, and then headed up to the upper lake to do some “real fishing” for keeps. Murphy’s Law of fishing; when you do not want to keep fish, you catch one on each cast and when you want to keep fish (for dinner) they refused to bite. By now I was really tired, but determined to get a meal. I finally decided to keep all fish, regardless of size. I caught and cleaned my five small 6-inch fish and hardly noticed them in my meal. Returning, snowmelt was creeping towards my tent, so I did a last minute move to higher ground. I now had a nice perch for a view-filled dinner. It did not freeze at my campsite, but there was frost on the grass down by the lakes.

Day 6. I had planned to drop to Birchim Lake to fish along the way to Pine Lake. The route looked good based on my previous day’s scouting. But, in the process of fishing the previous day, I slipped on a rock and recovering so as not to fall into the lake, I tweaked my knee. So I took the safer route down the Chalfant drainage to intersect the Italy Pass Trail above Golden Lake. I left early hoping that I could cross Pine Creek at lower flows; if that did not work out I would camp at Pine Lake and fish. It only took 2 hours to reach the crossing and I crossed at the stock crossing. The water was not any higher, but for some reason, it was more difficult- probably I picked a poorer route. I accidently stepped into a hole up to my crotch and nearly fell in. Too close for comfort. On the other side, as I walked down the trail I was actually glad for the cooling effect of wearing wet pants. I met several groups coming up the trail, most with very ambitious plans. I suspect reality will tone down those plans. I was out by 11AM, early enough to drive home. It rained hard as I drove over Monitor Pass. Although monsoon conditions still were in effect, the system seemed to be farther north this day.

Photos to follow.

[Wandering Daisy]

IMG_7382.jpg

[Wandering Daisy]

More photos

[Wandering Daisy]

more photos - somehow they load backwards

[Wandering Daisy]

one last photo of the class 1 pass I took from Royce Lake. This is from the pond on the bench just before dropping to the Italy Pass trail.

[Wandering Daisy]

A few more photos

[kpeter]

A superb write-up as you always provide, WD. And it is fascinating to see that area with so much snow in it--I've been to that area three times and I barely recognize it. The crossing looked challenging.

I particularly liked your shot of the Granite Park sunrise, sunset, and clouds. Beautiful.

I loved exploring the meadows and small lakes behind French, Steelhead, L and Puppet. A wonderful area for ambling in and out of the nooks and crannies of that higher shelf.

[giantbrookie]

Great report and photos. Ah yes, I wish I was getting up to the higher parts of the Sierra like this...

I hope your knee is OK.

Murphy’s Law of fishing; when you do not want to keep fish, you catch one on each cast and when you want to keep fish (for dinner) they refused to bite.

Gosh I can remember a trip or two like that, which is why I totally overdo it in terms of food supply. I'd rather pack out lots of food (always seem to do this in fact) than have that one night (or more) when I don't have enough food for dinner.

[SSSdave]

WD, very nice floating ice image from "French Lake, north side on return to Pine Creek Pass". A good lake for tossing out #16 drys for goldens. That is the kind of subject that does work very well early summer right when a lake surface is melting.

That spot showing your camp in Granite Park is what we call "The Baseball Field", because it is such a large flat area of soil without any grass. A great spot for an unblocked summer sunrise is up above in front of The Pinnacle.

David

[Lumbergh21]

Nice trip report and photos. I hope to be up there myself in a few weeks.