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Day 1: North Lake Trailhead-Piute Pass- Lower Wahoo Lakes
This was another family trip into the Sierras that me, my sis, bro and Mom do every year. We're fairly fit and experienced hikers, altho the ma can become a little scared of heights and steepness. We have figured out we're not the fastest hikers, and have even pondered authoring a book in the vein of Roper's titled "The Sierra Slow Route." In planning the route, I had to keep these limits in mind, but our Loop ended up being ideal for the time and skills we had. Snow-Tongue Pass was really the only part of the trip that had me worried for us. More on that later...This trip report begins at North Lake Trailhead, about 15 miles into the Sierras from Bishop. We got there the night before and found a lovely little campground to stage for our backpack trip. It always seems so convoluted with the food, gear, water bladders, etc strewn all over the picnic table as you try to narrow down what not to bring. After our trim-down (except on M&Ms), we weighed our packs at about 40lbs and hit the trail at about 10:00am towards Piute Pass.
The trail towards Piute is less strenuous than Mono, or Pine Creek, and continues without anything too notable besides typical Sierra beauty. The trail skirts a few lakes, and is a rather easy entry into the deeper Sierras. We made the Pass by 2pm. Theres a cool USGS relic about 100ft north of the pass on the rocks with the elevation marking. Always cool to find those. The view north into the Humphreys Basin is somehwat bleeker street, and the view south at Glacier Divide is more grand and exciting.
From here, we went off the map until Lamarck Col 3 days later. We shot SW towards Muriel Lake, and off to the knob above Lower Wahoo, where we descended and found a nice 2 tent spot on the west side of the lake/ponds. A quick jog to the north reveals the wonderful terrain of the Golden Trout Lakes area, which is one of those fairyland-looking Sierra basins that I wish we had more time for.
Day 2: Snow-Tongue Pass
I was slightly nervous when we began our trek towards Snow Tongue at 9am. Roper classes it as the most challenging pass in the High Route, and theres a few scary tales on this site (https://www.summitpost.org/kings-canyon-evolution-loop-with-altitude/442669#chapter_6) which almost steered me and my family away from it, but I knew the challenge would be good for us. Also, most accounts of Snow-Tongue are from West-East, which is a tuffer direction for sure.From Lower Wahoo we made an unexpected and rather tedious slog up a field of big boulders to Upper Wahoo. From here, the Pass becomes more clear and is intimidating from afar (pic 2,3). I asked my hearty but fairly uninformed brother what he thought and he replied, "I don't see where youre talking about. Nothing looks passable." Shrug. My slightly less hearty yet better informed mother let out a trepidatious "That looks a little steep Robby..." Shrug. Close up views of these freaky features are almost always more digestable. We'll make it i thought.
Above Upper wahoo, the boulders meet you again as well as a little ice patch right below the Pass. In total, it took us about 2.5 hrs from LOwer Wahoo camp to the base of the Pass.
From the foot of the Pass you look up and say "aww sheeeit", but its not unmakeable. We began step by step from the sandy scree base, slipping a bit but making headway. I found it beneficial to have my poles out to grip into the sand better, as well as to poke-test those unstable looking rocks. In 15 minutes, we were a ways up (Pic4,5). In another 15, the top was within reach, and a quick rock-climb over the top and...WHoaaaaaa! A beautiful view greeted us and a whole new basin spread out to explore. The Pass puts you in a perfect spot to explore the Evolution Basin, beginning there atop Lake 11,092 (aka Lake Francis). It was well-worth it to endure the difficult Pass, and IMHO is not so dangerous as long as you are very attentive about each step you take.
We celebrated the feat with salami and cheese as my brother and I renamed the notch Puff-Puff Pass due to the smoke puff looking clouds hovering over Humphreys Basin.
The West side is a splendid hop down towards Lake Francis. I even slowed my steps down to prolong the glorious 2 hr descent, made better by the fact that the hardest part of our route was behind us.
We made camp on the SE side of Lake Francis with a breathtaking look at features like Emerald Peak, Mt. McGee and the Hermit (my favorite one).
Day 3: Lake Francis-Darwin Bench
This day surprised us and was a bit longer than we guessed. We headed out to traverse towards Darwin Bench, which seemed straitforward and easy when we looked the night before on the map. Holding a contour on a slope is always fraught with unsure stops of 'should we go down then up or up then down...?' And so on and so forth for about 4 hours through occasionally fabulous views of the Southern Evolution Features until Darwin Bench finally came into view.Darwin Bench is truly gorgeous. It is loaded with water, big smooth rocks, grassy patches, all nestled between the outlets of two big basins (Darwin Canyon to the East and Mt. Goethe/Muriel Peak Basin to the North). It was one of the most stunning Sierras amphitheaters I've seen and should not be missed. We all let out a few Double-rainbow style whoops of joy. (pic6)
We found camp just below the outlet of Darwin Canyon to the south of the creek.
Day 4: Darwin Bench-Lamarck Col-Grass Lake
I think we were mentally prepared for Snow Tongue to be the hardest part of the trip that we discounted the next few chapters, which ended up wearing on us more than Snow Tongue itself. This day was no exception and proved our longest and most draining.Darwin Canyon seems to just go and go. There are about 4 significant lakes to skirt before you begin the ascent to Lamarck Col. Our biggest error this day was trying to go high above the lakes on the steep slope, which we were lead to by a mistaken Use trail. Be smart and keep to the lakes northern shore where theres a use trail more or less right along the water.
After a frigid but requisite Sierra dip in Lake 4, we continued to the base of Lamarck Col and began heading NE up the slope. It is a taxing slog up a fairly steep slope (sand,rocks, some grass) that has a pace and length designed to wear you down IMO. Sometimes i prefer a steeper, shorter climb than these draggers.
I was leading the pack up the hill and made our second error of the day,which was silly but frightening for a second. While amidst the slog, i assumed that the Col was the notch SOUTH of the actual Col and when I was almost so happy to be at the top, i peered over into a vertical bowl. Holy Moly, Lamarck Col class 2?!?! No way!
A quick peep at the map and I realized i was peering into Schober Lakes. In case you were wondering about dropping down that way (which on the 15 min maps looks like a possibility) don't plan on it. Its gnarly.
Anyways, a loud yell to everyone to re-direct and in 20 minutes we were at Lamarck Col. I'd say it was about 4 hrs from Darwin Bench to here.
Down the snowy patch at Lamarck, on through about 2 miles of Mars-like sandy terrain, and then you hit a Fork where you can go left (north) the steep way down to Upper Lamarck, or right the mellower way towards the forest area SE of Lamarck Lakes. We went right. Leftwards looked very steep , altho there was a trail coming up out of it so it must have been do-able. If i was there again, I'd try going left, cause the "mellower" way was a rock hopping, forest-brush drag.
Shortly after the Fork, the southern trail gets a bit steeper and is then rather littered with large boulders as you descend the alley. It was slow going, tedious and long. I was happy i was going down it though. After about 1.5 hrs of carefully placed steps, we made it into the foresty area. We pondered heading up to Lamarck Lakes, but its a bit steep and also backtracking. We decided to head down to Grass Lake instead from this point. (pic 7)
The Forest section was brushy and you essentially never get a view of Grass Lake until you get arrive at the shore. We were bushed and bouldered out when our tired bodies finally found a flat camp at the Lower Lamarck outlet stream into Grass Lake.
Day 5: Out!
We made the 1 mile on-trail exit back out to North Lake Trailhead this morning, so this section is only added to account our top-notch meal we had at the Village Cafe in Bishop. After a few average post-backpack meals in Bishop during years past, we think we've found a rockin place to quell the dehydrated-food blues.Hope this helps and have a great trip too!