by BCL » Mon Aug 11, 2014 6:35 am
If you make your Florida buddy slog up Sill from Dusy Basin, you won't be friends anymore.

I was afraid of that...

peninsula wrote:

TheRightPants wrote:A great spot for fishing is the upper Treasure Lake basin at an elevation near 11,200 feet. Treasure Lake trail comes off the main trail to Bishop Pass at around 10,225 feet — it was well marked last time I visited 13 - 14 years ago. I camped at a nice spot near one of the upper lakes by a small tarn full of fingerlings. There are also campsites near the lower Lake at 10,675 (more traffic around the lower lake), but it is the upper lakes that offer the best fishing. After a day of fishing and acclimating, the main trail can be picked up via a Class One x-country route to the south of Hurd Peak due west of the Timberline Tarns. The fishing along the main trail before Bishop Pass is not all that great due to the heavier traffic, but their are plenty of campsites. Dusy Basin is one of the areas picked for the Mountain Yellow-legged Frog restoration project and the fish may have been removed from area lakes. The fishing in Dusy Basin was very good before the project. Camp sites away from the main trail in Dusy are spectacular, it is an awesome basin. The Palisades are of my all-time favorites.

Awesome. This might be a winner, thank you. I'll call Inyo about backcountry camping and fishing in the Treasure Lake area this week. Looks like a good trail past Saddlerock to Bishop Lake-ish, then a bit of cross-country. Any tricks to be aware of on that ascent? The page for the west slope route of Aggasiz is a bit thin. Maybe that's a good sign!

TheRightPants, given that you are bringing a newbie from Florida, I think you have chosen very wisely. Even Agassiz may be a thrill and challenge! Both sides of Bishop Pass contain superb scenery. Peninsula gave you some great tips. More on great camp spots and fishing in Dusy Basin area can be found on HighSierraTopix. Had you stuck with Big Pine, I might suggest Sky Haven and Cloudripper for great views of the Palisades without huge effort. They are accessible from South Lake TH as well.

Now as far as your own future agenda, I may post details and images regarding Gould Pass here or elsewhere at some point. Mt. Sill is very high on my list of objectives as well. University Peak has good beta on SP and on HighSierraTopix.

In late season or a low snow year, you don't need a GPS nor much skill if you are willing and able to approach Gould Pass from the Mt. Gould radio transmitter or from Mt. Gould itself, but it is not a good trip for your newbie buddy nor for a heavy pack. You do need determination, persistence, risk assessment skills, and self-reliance. Map reading skills, a GPS, and/or some homework would make success more likely from Golden Trout Lake and/or if you don't want to tag Gould before traversing to the radio transmitter and down to the nearby pass. Dragon Lake Basin, Rae Lakes basin, Sixty Lakes Basin, and Center Basin are all spectacular.

TheRightPants wrote:Awesome. This might be a winner, thank you. I'll call Inyo about backcountry camping and fishing in the Treasure Lake area this week. Looks like a good trail past Saddlerock to Bishop Lake-ish, then a bit of cross-country. Any tricks to be aware of on that ascent? The page for the west slope route of Aggasiz is a bit thin. Maybe that's a good sign!

Found an excellent reference at High Sierra Topix on lakes without fish or slated for fish removal. Turns out Upper Treasure Lakes 3-6 are on the list! Definitely make that phone call...

http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... f=6&t=3243

I enjoyed this loop a couple of weeks ago. Only had 3 nights out versus my usual four or five.

Day 1: Pine Creek Pass trail to Italy Pass trail then to bench above and west of Honeymoon Lake

Day 2: Over Royce Pass to lake 11,656

Day 3: Royce Lakes

Day: 4 Hike out

by SeanReedy » Mon Aug 18, 2014 2:37 pm
TheRightPants, given that you are bringing a newbie from Florida, I think you have chosen very wisely. Even Agassiz may be a thrill and challenge! Both sides of Bishop Pass contain superb scenery. Peninsula gave you some great tips. More on great camp spots and fishing in Dusy Basin area can be found on HighSierraTopix. Had you stuck with Big Pine, I might suggest Sky Haven and Cloudripper for great views of the Palisades without huge effort. They are accessible from South Lake TH as well.

Now as far as your own future agenda, I may post details and images regarding Gould Pass here or elsewhere at some point. Mt. Sill is very high on my list of objectives as well. University Peak has good beta on SP and on HighSierraTopix.

In late season or a low snow year, you don't need a GPS nor much skill if you are willing and able to approach Gould Pass from the Mt. Gould radio transmitter or from Mt. Gould itself, but it is not a good trip for your newbie buddy nor for a heavy pack. You do need determination, persistence, risk assessment skills, and self-reliance. Map reading skills, a GPS, and/or some homework would make success more likely from Golden Trout Lake and/or if you don't want to tag Gould before traversing to the radio transmitter and down to the nearby pass. Dragon Lake Basin, Rae Lakes basin, Sixty Lakes Basin, and Center Basin are all spectacular.

Yeah, I think Agassiz is a great peak for the circumstances. The ranger did discourage me from keeping an itinerary that included both Treasure Lakes and Agassiz, though, mostly because they require different permits. Apparently one cannot hold concurrent permits for different trails, even if the first is an overnight permit and the other is a day-hike. Understandable for quotas, strange for, um, dynamic itineraries:)

So I've modified the itinerary a little bit. All reservable permits for the area around Bishop Pass from South Lake have been snatched up for that Sunday. Boo. We'll gamble on a walk-up permit for that night (permits are 60/40, reservation/walk-up) and reserve for Monday and Tuesday night. The views and fishing, from what I saw, at Saddlerock Lake made it the most attractive. I know you guys mentioned that area was more popularized, but it seems to be working best for me here. If anyone has recommendations to the contrary, though, I'd definitely hear them out. Your guidance thus far has been great.

(PS- Sean, I'll be looking out for your info on Gould Pass and Sill!)

by peninsula » Thu Aug 21, 2014 2:55 pm
Found an excellent reference at High Sierra Topix on lakes without fish or slated for fish removal. Turns out Upper Treasure Lakes 3-6 are on the list! Definitely make that phone call...

http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... f=6&t=3243

That's excellent intel, thank you. I called the White Mt. Ranger Station this morning and asked about the fishing there. The ranger said that area is A-OK, though didn't provide much in the way of details. Judging from the thread you provided, it seems like there's some consternation surrounding how that info is disseminated so I'll take her answer with a grain of it.

Bishop lake (the last one on the trail from South Lake before Bishop pass) has some nice campsites as well and is plenty scenic (lake itself is just behind the bushes in the photo). I like having my campsite close to the peak when staggering down off of it. It's not far to walk from there to Saddlerock for fishing.

TheRightPants wrote: The ranger did discourage me from keeping an itinerary that included both Treasure Lakes and Agassiz, though, mostly because they require different permits. Apparently one cannot hold concurrent permits for different trails, even if the first is an overnight permit and the other is a day-hike. Understandable for quotas, strange for, um, dynamic itineraries:)

That's a new one. Once inside the SEKI, you can pretty much go anywhere and exit anywhere on a single permit. This Inyo Forest rule is not in the spirit of mountaineering. Odd to me anyway...

JHH60 » Fri Aug 22, 2014 1:48 pm
Bishop lake (the last one on the trail from South Lake before Bishop pass) has some nice campsites as well and is plenty scenic (lake itself is just behind the bushes in the photo). I like having my campsite close to the peak when staggering down off of it. It's not far to walk from there to Saddlerock for fishing.

Nice! Thanks for the context. The shorter the stagger, the better!

peninsula » Fri Aug 22, 2014 3:55 pm
That's a new one. Once inside the SEKI, you can pretty much go anywhere and exit anywhere on a single permit. This Inyo Forest rule is not in the spirit of mountaineering. Odd to me anyway...

That makes two of us. If we arrive on the 7th to no available Sunday night permits, I'll head to Dusy and run with your SEKI idea. Thank you. I'll report back here with updates.