TR: South-North Lake w/OT Glacier Divide Loop

[tnewton]

This 2022 trip plan started with the idea of an early summer hike from an eastern Sierra pass that I hadn’t been over before. I didn’t want to do too much snow travel but at the same time thought an earlier date might give me more success at a permit. Looking around on this site for clues, I made a short list of eligible passes and rough route plans, picked the week of the summer solstice and figured out what day and time I needed to be ready with website loaded, countdown…ready to click... I got lucky and snagged permits for Bishop pass on 6/20/22 for 8 days.

So then, planning a trip around that date and location, I spent a bunch of time trying to figure out probable snow conditions, stream crossings, route options, etc. (this forum being very helpful). I had never been in the Sierra high country at this time of year, but I’m familiar enough with miserable late spring snow travel to be wary. The trip options I fleshed out ranged from short; hang around in Dusy basin w/ possible side trips into Palisades basin or LeConte canyon. To longer; a south to north lake loop with off trail and numerous side trip options. Lamarck col, which I'd been over before (in September), was an optional bail route back to the car. As the spring progressed I talked to more people and got a better handle on how much snow and stream flows to expect. I originally considered bringing an ice axe and crampons, but the eventual conditions reports indicated snow coverage and stream flows typical of late summer. Ultimately I decided to wear my trail runners and bring micro spikes. In retrospect, boots might have been the wiser choice considering my route and the actual weather conditions. This seems strange now, writing this about my concerns about snow last summer, given the huge accumulation there this year.

Unfortunately, my long time backpacking partner who loves to fish, had to cancel. That made the more restorative trip itinerary of hanging out and exploring Dusy and Palisades basins seem less attractive to me on a solo trip. The more trip reports I read and videos watched the more a south-north lake loop appealed. I wasn’t super excited about being on the JMT/PCT too long and I thought I could do a partial off trail bypass for some fun. Years ago I had gone off trail from Lower Honeymoon lake in Humphreys basin, up over to Ramona lake, across the slope to lake 10907, over the saddle behind Pavilion dome to lake 11,236', down and across the southern bench of Glacier divide to meet up with the JMT/PCT near Evolution Lake. (This route I originally got from a cgundersen post on this site) I thought I could follow it in reverse and combine it with the typical south-north loop. That hybrid route then became the main plan. I could alternatively stick to the lower elevation trails and do the traditional N-S lake loop, or bail over Lamarck col back to the car. I was planning to fly to Las Vegas and drive to Bishop with an overnight in Bishop the night before my entry that didn’t leave any time to acclimate before heading over Bishop pass. I could fit the whole permitted 8 days of food in my bear canister and at my typical pace I could afford to stay a night on the east side of the pass if I felt like I needed to to help acclimate.

Day 1 - On the morning of June 20, Robert of Sierra Shuttle Service drove me from the North lake overnight parking lot where I left the rental, to the South lake trailhead. Heading slowly up the trail I felt ok at Bishop lake and decided to risk the lack of acclimation and continue over the pass. It was tough work getting up and over the pass on my first day at higher altitude with the heavy pack. I found a good spot by one of the upper lakes in Dusy basin in the early afternoon to camp. Only two other tents were nearby. I walked around the lakes, exploring the area and had a blast watching the super active trout thrash about. The mosquitoes were moderate but by 4pm it got cooler and they left. It was cold and very windy all night.

IMG_0924.jpeg

Day 2 - Summer Solstice, I was on trail before the sun crested the ridge. I explored the lower lakes basin a little bit and headed down into Leconte canyon, admiring the magnificent trail-side cedar tree Roper mentions in his High Route description. It was a beautiful day with no weather or bug issues. Northbound up the JMT/PCT I found another nice spot to camp at the lower end of Big Pete meadow very early in the afternoon, surprisingly tired and ready to rest. I jumped into the river at a good spot just downstream of the meadow. It began to cloud up later in the afternoon and evening.

Day 3 - I was up and on the trail fairly early for me. Today was my highest planned mileage day (still very modest) and I wanted to get over Muir pass early in case of thunderstorms, etc. I needn't have worried - It started raining after 10 minutes on the trail and quickly changed to snow. From there all the way to Sapphire lake it was snowing with almost whiteout conditions at times. Where I saw handfuls of thru hikers in their running shorts lower down that morning, I saw no one on the trail higher up. Those that passed me on the way up, I had trouble even finding their footprints as I followed. Following the trail was difficult. Reaching the hut, it sounded full inside. I guess that’s where everyone else was? I didn’t go in and powered on through the wet snow and slush. Walking down into Evolution basin, eventually the clouds began to thin and lift. In the time it took to walk the length of sapphire lake everything cleared and it became sunny. I stopped on the west side of Evolution lake and had almost enough late sun to dry out my soaked gear. There was a heavy frost that night.

IMG_0987 (2).jpeg

Day 4 - I followed the JMT/PCT to the junction of the use trail leading up to Darwin bench/canyon and Lamarck col. At the first ponds of the bench I left the use trail and headed northwest through the forest along the bench on the southern side of glacier divide. Trying to stay between upper and lower cliffs and between 10,800' and 11,000', I worked my way along, crossing a bunch of small streams and climbing up and down trying to find the best level benches through the forest above Evolution canyon. On this part of the route I was basically following the Sierra High Route description. Where that route goes up towards lake 11,092' and Snow Tongue pass, I would instead continue to contour to the west to lake 11,236'. I was hoping to get past the drainage of lake 11,092' and the southern projecting flank to the west and into the beautiful meadow that lies below lake 11,236' today. I made slow progress traversing the benches. I didn’t remember it being this difficult when I went the opposite direction years ago. Through the day I anxiously watched the clouds building across the valley. Thunder was becoming more frequent and I could see the rain in the far distance heading roughly in my direction. About a mile past the drainage of lake 11,092, as I got close to the flank blocking the bench to the west, the rain came, fast and heavy with hail. There happened to be a small flat spot right there when the rain hit so I set up the tent quickly and threw everything inside before it got wet. Two and a half hours later it had cleared and was sunny again. I explored the area around me and discovered that about 75’ higher up, there was a wide bench that continued quite a ways southeasterly, in the direction I had come. I think if I had been that little bit higher up, on the first bench just below the upper cliffs, I would have had a much easier path the past few miles through the forest. As it turns out, this particular bench ended there. Just east of the flank and I needed to go to a lower bench about 100’ down to make my way around the cliffs of the flank and further west into the next drainage where the meadow is. I found that the color coded slope gradient map overlays in Caltopo were helpful along this part of the route.

I got a strange shoulder injury while at home training for the trip. I had been hiking with a weighted pack and I got something (a crushed blister beetle?) underneath my right shoulder strap that caused a blistering rash. I quit the heavy pack training to try to let the skin heal before the trip. I brought dressings and antibiotic ointment with me on the trail but I had quite a bit of difficulty properly dressing the wound because I couldn’t see it without a mirror. Of course I never realized this problem until I was on the trail. Using my cell camera helped, but I kept making things worse by sticking the adhesive to the wound. That, and the cell phone camera made the wound look scary, so I had to come up with a better plan. Sitting in the tent waiting for the thunderstorms to pass, I rigged a cross shoulder-hip strap out of my nylon belt, my Garmin mini reach carabiner and some spare cordage. The contraption attached to the daisy-chain of my left shoulder strap, crossed over my sternum and rib cage and attached to my right hip belt, and it was adjustable at the belt buckle. It held my pack tight to my torso with only the left shoulder strap being used.

IMG_1014.jpeg

IMG_1015.jpeg

Day 5 - I made my way west across the flank, finding small benches here and there through the cliffs. I contoured around to the north and headed up the drainage of lake 11,236' and through the very pleasant meadow on the bench below the lake. I thought that the headwall above the lake might be a problem because of its east/northeast aspect and lingering snow. I was also worried that any snow might go right down to the southern edge of the lake and present a problem getting around it, so I kept a close eye on the south facing ridge to the left, in case I needed to find an alternative route on that face. It looked tough but doable. As it turned out there was only a few short low angle snow slopes to traverse around the southwest side of the lake. I saw no fish in lake 11,236'. At the headwall above the lake there looked to be two possible routes up to the saddle. On the left side was a slightly angling route up some snow and loose talus. This is the way I came down when I passed in the opposite direction years ago. In the middle of the circ is an angled zigzag grassy crack that was steeper but snow free. I went up that middle way and it proved to be a better way up to the saddle. Cresting the saddle above the lake to the west you can see down the drainage to a series of small lakes that flow west and curve around towards the drainage of lake 10,907'. Looking down toward these lakes there is a direct route that crosses an area of large talus that I wanted to avoid. Contouring around to the north and curving down there was no visible route, and the shelves tended to angle the opposite way, but it appeared talus free. Heading that way, against the grain so to speak, was quite easy as there were convenient shelves and breaks in the few cliffs, making the route to the southern slope above lake 10,907' very pleasant. Spying a way down the steep north facing slope down to lake 10,907' was more challenging. There were long snow slopes that I was not comfortable heading across or down, and alternative routes just weren’t visible. I just picked my way down whatever bare rock slopes I could find, crossing a few small snow areas, and managed to find an easy way down to the lake. I saw tons of fish in the area where the lake exits into the creek. I poked around the north side of the lake on the sloping rock and continued up the more gentle slope to the northeast. Eventually the slope lessens and you can see an obvious bench that angles west above the lake and cliffs at about 11,200'. Following that bench back above lake 10,907' and then downslope to the west, I needed to find the correct spot to turn right to contour northeast across the steep eastern slope of Piute canyon to the hanging valley that contains Ramona lake. I didn’t see any cairns or other markers as I got down lower into the pines. Guessing at the correct spot (about as far west as the small tarns below lake 10,907'), I headed northeast and luckily came to the very memorable road-wide notch in the rocks, a place that looks like it must be the route as it’s so distinctive. I remembered this very spot when I was headed in the opposite direction because it’s like a flat grassy/gravely street cut straight through solid rock that delivers you right to the cliffs above lake 10,907'. From the northern end of this street-notch I tried to make out the route across the long slope to Ramona lake. I couldn’t see any cairns and it looked like there were some fresh slides, so I just picked my way across as best I could. It was loose in places, cliffy and larger talus in others. Eventually I could make out the location of the edge of the hanging valley of Ramona lake and traversed over to it and made camp. Thunderstorms and a small amount of hail moved through again that afternoon. It's especially scenic around the outlet of Ramona lake.

IMG_1028.jpeg

IMG_1032.jpeg

IMG_1059.jpeg

Day 6 - I traveled up and over through the shallow notch in the hill northeast of Ramona lake and followed one of the notches down towards Lower Honeymoon lake. Going right paralleling above the lake I found an easy path through the cliffs to the lake and took the use trail down to Piute creek where there was a fine 5-log bridge to cross. Heading uphill on Piute trail towards Humphreys basin I was chased by thunderstorms and mosquitos and rushed to get to Upper Golden Trout lake before it rained.

IMG_1078.jpeg

IMG_1081.jpeg

Day 7 - I decided to lollygag and explore some of Humphreys basin that I hadn’t seen before. I strolled up the drainage until it crossed Piute trail above Summit lake, then down the trail to the drainage of Humphreys lakes. I walked up the very pleasant grassy slopes following the drainage to Humphreys lakes admiring the beautiful 4” high wildflowers all the way. I saw a White-tailed ptarmigan at Humphreys lakes before heading over the low crest to Forsaken lake, and Desolation lakes. I followed the Desolation lake drainage back to Golden Trout lakes and camped again near Upper Golden Trout lake. The mosquitoes were quite bad throughout the basin. What a great place to poke around off trail though, Humphrey's basin is spectacular. I’ve never seen such active trout before this trip.

IMG_1099.jpeg

IMG_1115.jpeg

Day 8 - June 27, I walked out over Piute pass to the car at north lake trailhead and headed to Bishop for a beer and shower. My one-shoulder pack setup worked surprisingly well on the off trail cross country travel. Without the chafe of the shoulder strap my skin began to heal. I'm glad I did the route south to north. I was walking more with my back to the sun and I liked having the off trail portion toward the end. I was originally thinking that my off trail loop around Glacier divide would be about equal in effort and time to the longer and more elevation grinding trip on the trail. However because of my difficulty finding the easiest benches on the south side, and evidently misremembering the overall effort, I'd say the off trail route into Humphreys is definitely more time consuming.

[frozenintime]

cool route! thanks for sharing.

[richlong8]

Very interesting, impressive trip report. Hopefully, more people will read it and give you a heads up. It is a lot of work to put together a long trip report, and I believe we should affirm those who take the time to share their trips. Did you only use your phone camera, or were you using a wide angle lens? You have some nice shots, esp. for mid-day(?) photos. Regards, thanks for sharing.

[michaelzim]

Agreed! Impressive route and report...Thanks a lot for posting it. Also great detail on the cross-country parts to follow along with CalTopo and see how you decided to go. Good stuff!
M.

[grampy]

Thank you for your great report!
Nicely photographed; I especially liked the Ramona Lake shot. I had to exercise my brain a bit to understand your L11,236 to L10,907 to Ramona Lake segment; not for anything lacking in your description, but rather from my inexperience and lack of familiarity with that area. I found it to be a nice Father’s Day diversion, AND perhaps some inspiration for the future.

[tnewton]

Hey all, appreciate the comments. My only camera was my iPhone 11. I had to reduce the detail in order to get the picture file size small enough to upload. Maybe there’s another way to post pictures without doing that that I’m not aware of?

[windknot]

Thanks for this report! Your photos brought back fond memories as I did the latter part of your route in September 2012 in reverse (off-trail from Humphreys Basin to Ramona to 10907 to 11236 to 11092). Ten years ago there was a well-ducked route along the slope from Ramona to the shelf N of 10907 that helped keep this route to mostly class 1.

Interesting about seeing fish in the outlet of 10907 -- that lake has long been considered to be fishless including by CDFW. How large were the fish you saw? Could you tell what kind of trout they were?

[robertseeburger]

Ah.. nice trip report..

The route between 11092 and Ramona is a seldom used route. I have spied it on the topo map and always wanted to do it but never been able to prioritize. But both the lakes in between look wonderful.
Like Windknot, I am interested in any details in trout in 10907? I also thought this was fishless.

Thanks for the TR.

[Harlen]

tnewton, Thanks a lot for the fun, and inspiring trip report on "Fathers Week."* Never been that way, and your fine images of that route have set it firmly in my sights. I can see a tighter, high route connecting to your route via Lamarck Col that could be a fisherman's epic. Thanks again for your well crafted TR, and for that reference to the cgunderson TR from that area.

*When you've been a dad for more than 2 decades you get a full week! (Those are the rules that I've just made up.)

[tnewton]

I double checked my notes in my journal and couldn't reconfirm the 10907 fish sighting there. I started the trip report shortly after I got home and wrote that part almost contemporaneously. Thinking about it a year later, I do still have a fairly strong memory of it. Now of course, with the comments of it being officially fishless by experts, I'm questioning my memory! I'm not a fisherman, so my fish identification is poor. They were fish. I think they were trout. I remember them being quite small and really active, seemingly chasing each other around in the shallows, rather than jumping for bugs. I don't remember seeing lots of jumps all across the lake, like many of the other lakes. I was there about mid day. It was them playing fish-tag and wriggling through water that was shallower that they were that made the memory impression.

The route between Ramona and Lake 10907 had a few cairns when I went through several years ago southbound. I've read a few trip reports that also mentioned the route being decently cairned. Going northbound last summer I couldn't find any cairns at all. There were some signs of fairly recent slides. Maybe I missed them, maybe they're gone? The route generally is a straight shot angling from about 10800 at Ramona to about 11200 where is ends on the bench above the cliffs at Lake 10907. There is one thing that looks suspiciously like a cairn located on the top of a small prominent cliff outcrop at the Lake 10907 end. It's visible from long distance. I remember seeing it on my way southbound and wondering if it was supposed to be a marker, or just a random rock. Regardless it does lead you near to the correct area at that end. I double checked behind me as I was heading north last year and It was still there. It's a little rough and very loose in places, but straightforward and not difficult in my opinion.