Rock Creek's Ruby Lake on Snowshoes with Bear, Feb. 9-11-2022

[Harlen]

My trusty canine companion and I sought to bite off another section of the JMT/SHR to enjoy in winter.  I was very interested in seeing how the eastern Sierra was looking after the huge December snowfall, and I planned to stop at some hot springs, and again to visit an HST connection-- Niko and Liane-- the former aka "Silky Smooth."   Besides being backcountry skiing compadres, they now have land between Walker and Coleville, where they set up the fantastic Coachwhip Cafe, with the finest cuisine in all the east!  The hot springs were snowed-in, to my car at least, but I had the pleasure of meeting up with Niko and Liane both coming and going, and Bearzy got to meet Banjo!  

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Outdoor seating and climbing at the Coachwhip Cafe.  (That's Banjo racing ahead-- looks like he only has 2 legs, but in fact, he has 3.)



I chose snowshoes over skis to have a safe and simple trip at Bearzy's pace, but as has happened to us once before, the snow surface foiled our plans. Seven sunny weeks without new snowfall had turned the surface into a rude mix of granular mush, and sharp ice.  Bearzy was going to suffer four post-holing legs, and if I had to carry him over my shoulders I would suffer too, so we altered our plans.  Our original route was to go from Rock Creek over Mono Pass; then down Mono Creek to the JMT and over Silver Pass.  From there to Duck Lake, and the SHR to Deer Lakes, and up onto Mammoth Crest, and out via Mammoth Pass.  The highlights would have been the huge trees and diverse forest of Mono Creek; the scenery around Silver Divide, and the airy high route trail along Mammoth Crest, with 360º views.  Oh well, best laid plans, and all that.  Suffering is said to be ennobling by  some, but Bearzy and I just get miserable.  If one is going to endure 12 hour nights, the days had better be pretty damn nice.... that's what Bear says.  So after a really beautiful morning spent walking the perimeter of frozen Ruby Lake, we turned tails and bailed.  We had made it in about 7 miles, to a cliffy camp at 11,000,' just a bit east of Ruby Lake.   The road up to Little Lakes Valley was gated at Palisades Campground, which added 4.5 miles of snowy road to reach the trailhead at Mosquito Flat.  
We figured there must be something great to do down in the desert.  One idea was to walk a circuit around Mono Lake-- something I have long wanted to do in winter, when you can collect snow for water.   Another idea was to drive up Hwy 168 out of Big Pine, and head up into the relatively dry White Mountains for the amazing views back on the Sierra at sunrise.  But I thought that would include more harsh snowy trails for Bearzy.  I immediately thought to camp by one of the hot springs off the Benton road, and to use that as a basecamp, but we nearly got stuck trying to get out to them.  So a pure desert trip is what we decided on, and Bearzy was really happy.  All coffeed up in the morning, I got bit by the travel bug and started racing off to the Ruby Mountains in Nevada.  I got to Tonopah before I slowed down, and where Bearzy pointed out that we were going to be on the roads for closer to 2,000 than 1,000 miles if we carried on to the Rubys.  I agreed that it made more sense to do a smaller circle, and the Nevada map showed a way over to Walker Lake, an area famous for large herds of Bighorn sheep that come down to drink its water, and then we'd head west back to Mono Lake via Hwy. 167.   It was nice to see some new country, and I'll add that part of our trip as another short report in the Beyond the Sierra forum.

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First night in the burned over land on the south side of Mono Lake.

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Sunrise on Mount Dana.  

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By sunset of the same day we were camped high on a cliff in Rock Creek-- don't stumble out of the tent!  [I left the damn date and time stamp on!  It was 2/10, but sunset was more like 6 p.m]. 

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Mt. Morgan is the highest peak around, at 13,748.' 

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Sunrise on the high cliffs that hang 2,000 feet above Ruby Lake.

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Bearzy and Mt Abbot.

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I still enjoy cooking snow for water.

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Cold mornings! Bear Creek Spire right over Bear's head. 

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Stick fetching on Ruby Lake.

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[Harlen]

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The big cliffs look mountainous from the west side of the lake.

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The trail to Mono Pass lies under the cliffs.

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Mt. Abbot (13,704') seen beyond the ridge.  It has a great view, and no easy way up.

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Parts of the lake ice were heaved up and beautiful.

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A rare Great White Ice Shark cruising the lake.

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Any wildlife was welcome; we only saw Ravens, Clarkies, and Juncos.

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The frozen lakes  made the best traveling surface.  Bear Creek Spire is left of center.

[Harlen]

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This is Silver Lake and the Mokelumne watershed, that I saw on the drive back.  What a different trip it would have been if we had stopped and hiked in from here, just west of Kirkwood.  It would have been one third of the driving distance, and I do want to explore the Summit City and Devil's Corral Creeks someday.  But I would have missed my time on the east side, including the rendezvous with Niko and Liane at their new and wonderful place.

[The Other Tom]

thanks for the TR. Love the great white ice shark.

[LMBSGV]

It’s always fascinating seeing familiar summer places in the deep of winter. Rock Creek Canyon and Little Lakes Valley become different places even from when they have extensive early summer snow coverage. I’ve long thought of Ruby Lake as a place to backpack when I’m finally unable to go more than a couple of miles, but still want to be somewhere beyond car camping. It was great to see it in solutude. I loved the burned over land photo and sunrise on Mt. Dana. Thanks for sharing!

[Wandering Daisy]

I have camped at Ruby Lake early season a few times. It is a real gem that everyone seems to just walk by. Here is a photo on my last Mono Pass trip. It was a high snow year!

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[Harlen]

Thanks Laurence, those two photos were better compositions before I had to crop out the damned time and date stamp. Speaking of photos, my current favorite from your website is from the gallery show you created--photos coupled with poems by Barbara Swift Brauer. It is titled: Mount Clarence King, Tarn, Sunset, Kings Canyon. Where is it taken from, if you don't mind my asking? I remember a beautiful view of Mt C. King from the lakes in the basin below Mt Baxter, but your image seems to be from a greater distance. Can you add that fine photo to the HST Photothon? I think it is masterful.

[bobby49]

Two suggestions for the time and date stamp. On most cameras, that is a user-selectable option, so simply turn it off. Or, instead of cropping that out, why not clone over it using Photoshop or similar editor?

[LMBSGV]

Harlen, thank you for the kind words on the Mt. Clarence King photo. The photo was taken in 2014 (on a film camera) at one of the tarns that is to the east side of the JMT after one does the climb up from the Woods Creek/JMT junction. There’s a long plateau/basin before the climb to Pinchot Pass with lots of gorgeous off-trail lakes and tarns. It’s a favorite Sierra location of mine since backcountry ranger Kay Edens suggested it to me in 1998.

There’s a larger lake to the west of the trail that appears on the Mt. Pinchot map with Twin Lakes to the southeast below Mt. Cedric Wright. After you go past that lake, there are a couple of unmapped tarns to the east. I camped at one of the tarns and took the photo from the neighboring one. It was a lovely spot to camp. The JMT was far enough away that I only saw people going by in the distance. I liked that photo so much I had it drum scanned, which is why the detail comes through so well. Since it is for sale as a photo or notecard, I don't want to add it to the HST Photothon. To me, commercial photos violate the spirit of the Photothon. I did a trip report and the Clarence King photo is the second photo. The trip report is here (scroll down past Denali):

http://laurencebrauer.com/ASITHSTripReports.html

Also, thank you WD for the Ruby Lake photo/recommendation. I’ve thought about doing it early or late season since I’m hoping there won’t be a lot of people there though in all my times over Mono Pass, I’ve only seen someone camped there once. As you said, everyone seems to walk by.

[Harlen]

bobby49, Thanks for the advice. I did manage to remove the date stamp, and when it happened once before, I went to the trouble of signing up for a free week trial with Photoshop. You are right, that is the way to go, but my trial period is up.

Lawrence, you give such a generous amount of detail about the site of your fine photo. So you are not among the photographers who will only tell you their photo locations if they can arrange for your death shortly thereafter. The clouds and colors in your picture won't be easy to reproduce, so you're original is safe with me and my $50.00 Kodak. Cheers.