2024 Trip Chronicles: Page 11

Treasure Lakes Backpack 8/7 1of2

After spending Tuesday night along the road near the Sabrina campground, I rose at sunrise Wednesday, August 7, 2024, then drove back down to take the South Lake Road. I stopped at a convenient pullout where I poured all my gear onto blue plastic tarps, then packed up my backpack and camera daypacks. I continued up the road to the 8am opening Parcher's Camp store, where I bought a $3 pint of milk. Then continued the 1.3 miles to the South Lake parking lot trailhead at 9800 feet. The overnight slots were initially full; however, within an hour, I replaced someone's leaving vehicle, just returning from a backpacking trip. Until mid-afternoon, I would leisurely spend several hours at the parking lot. Skies were mostly sunny, with mid-day 70F temperatures forecast. While under a shady pine, I was able to re-read about 60 pages of Ray Kurzweil's "How to Create Mind". Custom Caltopo map of the South Lake zone with that orange line the John Muir Wilderness boundary.

My 4-night, 5-day wilderness permit for Treasure Lakes didn't begin until Thursday, August 8. However, I would be able to legally backpack 0.8 miles up 400 feet vertically to the wilderness boundary. Thus, at 4:01pm, I set out slowly along the trail along the east side of the reservoir. I did feel stronger thanks to 3 earlier backpacks. The skies had become mostly cloudy, and by the time I reached that boundary at 10260, some thunder and sprinkles were to follow. Others had also camped in this area, with a red dot on my map above marking the spot. After setting up my tent, I had to hike back and forth about a 1/4 mile up the trail to reach the Hurd Lake stream for water. The rest of the night was uneventful and quiet.

Sunrise began again with mostly clear sunny skies, but that wouldn't hold this day, Thursday, August 8, 2024. My primary photography interest on this trip day was not about the Treasure Lakes, but rather the west side of Long Lake; I would base camp along the west shores. However, reservable permits for any of those SF of Bishop Creek lakes were reserved months before due to large numbers going over Bishop Pass and then down to the PCT/JMT through trails. So I got around that limitation by using the much less in-demand Treasure Lakes quota with a plan for a 1.5-mile cross-country route around the north side of Hurd Peak. If someone plays the same adjacent basin game to try and use a permit for Bishop Pass, I expect that is not allowed.

The well-constructed trail loses a few hundred feet of vertical traversing across drainages west, and then climbs about 700 feet to Treasure Lake #1 at 10668 feet. Along that trail, my Osprey Aether 70 plastic waist belt buckle snapped in two. I removed both ends of the buckles, then rerouted the 2 waist belt straps through secondary plastic webbing pieces in the back of the primary buckles, which I simply tied webbing straps together. Making good time on the 2-mile, 900-foot vertical trail, stopping frequently, feeling strong, I reached the lake just before 9am PDT. A strong breeze eliminated the notion of some photo work. Other groups were at the lake, and more would arrive. An online topo map of the SF of Bishop Creek area:

Caltopo SF Bishop Creek map

Per my plan, I sought a camp well away from the trail to the north side of lake #2; however, after much exploring, legal camp choices were poor. With cumulus clouds forming and weary from the backpack effort, I hastily decided on a shaded pristine spot further away than even closer sites but still maybe only 60 feet from the lake edge. As I was cooking soup, a backcountry ranger came by, said I could stay there, but rightfully criticized my choice of tenting too close to the lake; that was atop sandy areas with bits of dwarf bilberry and some grass. The only other spots were up above the lake, out in bright granite, shadeless areas. Well, except for a good spot I had nearly tented at just above that I initially rejected because of adjacent bright granite. After she advised me and had left, I thought about how this was not consistent with my style, thus regretted that choice. After looking at the higher site again, I easily moved my self-standing tent up to this other spot that I later mentioned to her.

The most heavily used camps along lake #1 were in fact all less than 100 feet from shores. I've long advocated that national forests mark such sites with "CAMPING ALLOWED" OR "NO CAMPING" metal placards high up on tree trunks, just like Yosemite does in places, since large numbers of camp spots in all our wilderness areas are in fact within 100 feet of trails and lake edges, which goes against current recommended policies. Most such sites were created decades ago, many by horse packers, are already beat up from heavy use, and thus are better off if still used versus creating new tenting sites. But letting groups use them without relating anything more sends the wrong message that no doubt leads to the current situation where significant numbers of visitors regularly camp too close to lake shores even when nearby legal sites are available. I do praise the way the wilderness ranger was iceberging (half-burying boulders in tent spots) some too-close-to-the-lakeshore spots; that is a strenuous task.

The issue of not creating tent sites atop a minor amount of robust vegetation ought only apply to areas closer than a modest distance from trails or lake edges. And not those like this person who usually camp remotely in the vast areas far from trails or lakes. And specifically, not in such remote areas atop robust grasses or dwarf bilberry or arctic willow. Policy, of course, does not address the 1% of users like this person but rather the majority camping near trails and lake shores where, indeed, they ought not create new mineral soil picked-clean tent sites.

The above image, after 3 hours of sometimes heavy rain, is a Canon ELPH190 view of my tent tucked against trees with Treasure Lake #2 beyond pines. Thunderstorms with at times heavy rain and small hail began about 1pm and lasted nonstop for 3+ hours. Afterwards, I explored much of the area. The best source of fresh, clean water was along the south side of Lake #1. The clean water from the streams of lakes #3 and #4 was blocked by areas of large talus and dense, tall willow. Lake #2 is rather algae-coated with an abundance of pan-sized rainbow trout and golden rainbow hybrids. The largest fish I saw was maybe 11 inches, and I felt I could have easily caught fish had I tried.

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Sunrise Friday, August 9, 2024 I got outside my tent early to capture an arete section of Thompson Ridge in a sunrise orange light. I decided not to move my camp to Long Lake this day so I would have a full day and a second night here. After a warm hot chocolate for breakfast, I climbed up to the 10920+ bedrock rib due east of the lake, hoping to capture both lakes #2 and #1 in the same image; however, whitebark pines blocked most of lake #1, and lake #2 remained shadowed till about 8:30am.

At page top is a view from that rib towards peak 12792 at frame center, all granitoid geology. Parts of both Treasure Lakes #1 and #2 are below.

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This next subject, shot at 9:25am, shows some lichen on bedrock beside a rainwater pool with a bit of lake #1 below. After storms for a day or two, one may find numbers of such small pools in glaciated granite bedrock that can provide clean drinking water. The striking peak behind lake #1 with small permanent snowfields is noname peak 12040+. Given breezy conditions and limited exploration of the basin over 2 days, I wasn't too successful capturing this Treasure Lake zone despite plenty of aesthetic landscapes.

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Back down at the lakes, breezes had not subsided all morning. I ventured over to the mossy turf lake #2 inlet and worked the above small mossy island in shallow waters with Sierra willow, ranger buttons, and gone-to-seed shooting star. The white reflections are clouds.

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Another mossy turf section of the shore with a white cloud sky reflection, shot at 10:38am.

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Later, after lunch at 3:01pm, I found an interesting unknown pink-hued lupine species I need to research. The top flowers are not in sharp focus because I misjudged where the closest frame elements to my 56mm lens were, and a breeze made serious work impossible.

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At 4:25pm in afternoon sunlight, worked the west slope view of whitebark pine covered, 12237 foot, Hurd Peak. Peak bagging would be easier on this west side versus the east side.

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Later in the day at 7:12pm above, worked Hurd Peak again in warmer light as shadows crept up its slopes.

Saturday, August 10, 2024 began breezy enough to discourage any effort photographing Treasure Lake areas and instead packed up gear then set off cross-country towards Long Lake. After paying attention to the topo for obvious lower gradients, mostly a Class 1 hike with a bit of Class 2 in a few locations and minor willow bushwhacking. The route had to cross two ribs extending north from Hurd Peak. This first image below shows the Class 2 route I used to reach the top of the west rib.

From there, dropping down into the basin north of Hurd Peak was an easier Class 2. Down below were meadows, willow thickets, and a drying small stream. The west side of the east rib had much more morainal talus. I chose to navigate in areas of most whitebark pines where detritus had built up. A few awkward spots to monkey through, however, I was soon up near the ridgeline that, per image below, had an easy bench route to lower-gradient areas north, just west of the top.

The image below shows landscapes northeast of Hurd Peak with the east rib Class 2 route in magenta dots. There were 3 or 4 seep streams for easy water.

The above shows landscapes northeast of Hurd Peak with Class 1 rambling I descended. Where I approached Long Lake, another willow thicket required pushing through before gaining the broad, easy-to-travel dry terrace 70 to 150 feet above the lake. Beyond are 3 generally unaesthetic due to tree debris avalanche meadows with seep streams of good, clean, flowing water. I found and set up camp between the last two. To this point, my a6700 photography had little to show.

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David Senesac
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