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63.5 miles of hiking • 10750' elevation gain • 3 nights

This was Sierra trip #2 for the summer: the somewhat well-known North Lake to South Lake loop. For those looking for a “starter” Sierra loop, this is it. About 60 miles, that can be done in as little or as much time as you want. (Another shorter option is to come in over Lamarack Col through Darwin Canyon, which still hits all the good stuff). This trip was the 3+ days over the July 4th weekend. The loop is especially nice because it covers all new terrain with only mild hitching at the beginning or end.

July 3 - Day 0

I left work at the usual time and camped at the Chris Flat campground in Toiyabe—about 2 hours from my final destination in Bishop. This campground is a little pricey ($20/night), but is right on the highway, which makes for a very convenient pit stop.

July 3 - Day 1 - 12 miles

This morning, I woke up early, stopped at the Mono Lake Visitor’s Center for my permit (the secret amongst insiders and “the” place to get permits quickly and easily), did the last 2 hours of driving to Bishop, got my German baked goods at Erik Schaat’s (a required stop in Bishop if you’re ever there), and set off up to the North Lake trailhead. My permit was for Paiute Pass—only about 2k in elevation gain, but as expected, it was slow going for the first few hours because of acclimation. Once you’re at the top, you get great views into Humphries basin. No mosquitos, and the holiday crowds soon tapered off once you were out of day-hiking range. In the basin, there’s an old trail that splits off down to the Golden Trout Lakes—an interesting little area, and no one to be seen. I camped in Hutchinson Meadow.

July 4 - Day 2 - 19 miles

I hiked down Paiute Canyon, down to the San Joaquin river. This river has some great foxtail pine. After a quick stop to refill, I started up towards McClure Meadow, stopped at the waterfalls for lunch, and kept chugging along until Evolution Lake. My goal for the night was the outlet just before Sapphire Lake, which, while I had stayed there before, has a nice sunset, and this time, amazingly had no campers for miles. While there were many day hikers, once you got out of the eastern-side passes, hikers mostly consisted of PCT through hikers and the occasional group—it was far less crowded than I expected for a holiday weekend.

July 5 - Day 3 - 17.5 miles

This morning, I did Muir Pass, stopped at the hut for pictures of marmots and pikas, and made my way down into LeConte Canyon. This is probably my favorite part of this section, especially the lakes and trail going down into Leconte—it’s really something special. As I took my daily nap and ate lunch along the river in LeConte, just past Big Pete Meadow, the clouds started forming. It looked as though it was going to pour, but fortunately, there was no thunderstorm. This did make for a much cooler time of the long hike up in to Dusy Basin, however. Dusy was about the only area with bad mosquitos, and then only the lower section was really problematic. I camped in upper Dusy, were the mosquitos were few, the deer were curious, and the sunset was really super.

July 6 - Day 4 - 13 miles

This last day was 2 miles to Bishop Pass, then down the 6 miles to South Lake. Again, because it was within dayhiking range, there were many more people than otherwise were on the trail. The final push was a hitch back to North Lake. It was super easy to get a hitch back to the Sabrina intersection, but then took a bit of roadwalking before I found someone to get a ride back to the car—all in all not more than 1.5 hrs.

This is one of the best parts of the Sierra: it’s super accessible and makes for a great shorter or longer trip. I always enjoy the Sierras, and this weekend was no different.

Comments

Bosterson, Pablo, Karl, and Roman heart this trip.