Eastern Sierra hikes - 2018
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In September, 2018, a group of 13 of us stayed at Bishop Creek Lodge, in cabins or at campsites. The lodge is about 20 miles SW of the town of Bishop, Ca. on hwy 168, at 8,400 ft. with great hikes all around.
The group consisted of Rich & Linda, Chris Lewis & John, Patrick, Victoria & Elise, Bonnie, Jean, Frank, and me, plus a couple whose names I don't recall.
Our first hike began at nearby South Lake, on the Bishop Pass Trail, but we took a turn to the north in search of Treasure Lake.
note - on a pc or laptop you can zoom in & and out, but not on a smartphone.
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glad to be in the mountains again |
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long uphill beside the lake |
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South Lake |
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Mt. Hurd in the distance |
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South Lake |
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trail condition sometimes |
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white pine |
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looking for the trail, see note |
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log bridge |
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note - this is where a few of us fell behind Rich's main group & somehow lost the trail. But soon we saw two hikers coming downhill and we had missed seeing a log bridge over a small creek. Linda crossed the bridge and after about 30 minutes found the rest of the group at the lake, having lunch.
Because I had a slightly upset stomach, I stayed behind to rest, which helped. After lunch beside the little granite waterfall in the last photo, I started downhill and the hikers caught up to me in an hour or so. The scenery on that downhill walk is just great.
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return hike |
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on the trail |
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rock garden |
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Jean | |||
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regal Hurd Peak at 12,237 ft. |
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back at the cars |
That evening, five of us drove downhill to Bishop for dinner, see Postscript later.
The second started at Sabrina Lake but we took a turn to the south, on an un-named trail to George Lake & beyond, but we stopped before we got that far. After 2.5 miles of constant uphill we needed to stop, especially for Patrick's sake.
We found a great place to rest for an hour, and I had a chance to get some people photos.
Patrick and Victoria's daughter Elise had her first East Sierra alpine experiences as a one+ year old.
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Elise at the cabins before the hike |
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Patrick, Victoria & Elise at car park |
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starting out |
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Sabrina Lake |
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mountain mahogany in fall |
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paintbrush, see note 1 |
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Elderberry |
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always more uphill |
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Rich & Linda |
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Victoria & Elise | ||
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Bonnie & Jean |
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same tree, see note 2 | ||
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Mt. Lamarck at 13,357 ft. |
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White Mtn. to the NE |
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back to Sabrina Lake |
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note 1 - Indian paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea) grows up to elevation 11,000 ft., but only in the western parts of north & south America, from Alaska to the Andes.
note 2 - this a Great basin bristlecone Pine, among the oldest trees on the planet. The two groves on the way to the White Mountain trail contain living Bristlecone trees more than 4,500 years old.
Using AllTrails maps later, I think we walked 5 miles & climbed from 8,900 ft to about 10,400 ft., just shy of George Lake.
On the third walk we took the Chocolate Lakes Loop turn off from the Bishop Pass Trail. Once we reached Long Lake we had a nice one-hour stop.
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the group |
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starting out |
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Hurd Peak from South Lake |
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Chris Lewis |
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taking a breather |
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Long Lake at 10,000 ft. |
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Bonnie |
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Bull Lake |
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Chocolate Lake ahead |
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Victoria and Elise |
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Rich | |
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the fam |
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ready for Elise |
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Chocolate Peak at 11,516 ft. |
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a solo hiker |
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heading back |
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views across Long Lake to Mt. Goode |
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Mt. Goode, at 13,062 ft. |
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Hurd Peak from behind |
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South Lake, late afternoon |
The loop walk was 6.6. miles with 1,570 ft. of gain.
Once again, we had a great group gathering trip to the Eastern Sierras. As usual, due to the limited number of cabins, all of us had to book in January in order to get cabins close by.
Postscript - On the 2nd night I clearly remember the marvelous downhill drive to Bishop, for dinner, losing 3,000 ft. in about 30 minutes. It was after sunset and there were shades of red & maroon in the landscape, with majestic White Mountain looming above the larger landscape - that was our driving view.
In my old Honda cruiser were Bonnie & Jean and Rich & Linda.
We had dinner at Whiskey Creek Restaurant, an old reliable stop with a good menu. Bishop has near-constant big rig traffic noise out on Main St. (hwy 395) but fortunately the restaurant's inside waterfall drowned it out.
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