Highest Lake in N America via Shepherds Pass, Mt Whitney High Country Indian Summer, Solo

[brian H]

What can I say? The southern High Sierra has forever been tattooed on my brain since my 30 day trek from Matterhorn Peak to Whitney 21 years ago in 1991. The upper Kern plateau especially, and Shepherds Pass is the quick ticket, the bee-line so 2 speak.

It had been 4 yrs since my last sierra trip and 10 yrs since my last Shepherds Pass foray. Lets just say I was overdue.

This was my 1st lightweight trip – I cannot tell you my base wt but my big 3 weigh less than my old school Osprey pack empty [7 lbs], all 3 items obtained here on BPL, thanx people. Also my 1st trek using poles, and they were a huge surprise, esp how much they helped on the Uphill.

Shepherds is tough. No other E side pass makes you work for it thus: you go from 6400 to 12000, but whats unique is, once you get to 9000 you lose about 700 ft as you drop into another canyon from the one you started in. Therefore approx 6300' climb over 11 miles.

But for me theres nothing like the E sierra approaches to the high country; the pungent aromas of sage primarily, and everything from willow to juniper/pinon to mahogany, then the sun-warmed duff and needles and streams. "O glory" as John Of the Mountains would say.

Entering Sequoia NP @ Sheps Pass 12k

I really enjoyed the foxtail pines this trip:
Single fave spot on the JMT: Bighorn Plateau, 21 yrs after 1st visit:

Mini gorge @ Wallace Creek, Kaweah Peaks Ridge:

Wallace Lake and the route to Lake Tulainyo:

Alpenglow – where else have you seen light soften the scene in such a way?
Wallace Lake Inlet:

Lake Tulainyo elev 12,818 sits on the very crest of the range a mile N of Whitney w/ no inlet & no outlet. Over the low saddle in the next image is a drop down the E side; it sits almost precariously on the knife-edge spine of the range, incredibly. It is the highest lake in the range, and I always wanted to visit. And since it is large, over 10 acres, it is said 2b the highest true lake on the continent [the competition consists mostly of tarns, ponds, and 'lakelets'].
A significant snowbank still hugged the shore in Sept of a drought year up there; the large broke-off chunk of snow at waters edge behind me is at least 10 ft tall!
Mt Whitney, center, from the N, Wallace Creek:
In Wrights Lake basin, off-trail, a large momma coyote alerted her pups to my approach; 2 took off but one was dreamin of catchin easter bunnies and i almost stepped on it (!) i got w/in 20' for a coupla nice pix:
The gentle trailless golden grass stroll thru the basin was memorable: a fam of coyotes, a fam of deer, and a pair of nesting peregrine falcons high on the slopes that rimmed the area. Just moments E of the JMT yet I had it all to myself.
Coffee time – cowboy camp along a gorgeous old Foxtail Pine at approx 11,500; I never once pitchd the tarp, whats the point?! Yes thats a Starbux cup – doubled, and lid, which I must say was a gr8 LW mug solution.
Toward Shepherds along Tyndal Cr Headwaters from Wrights Basin Saddle:
before leaving, a Golden Trout to show my young son back home; attached 9' leader and fly to trekking pole [this was a first], as my tenkara woulda been overkill:
Shepherds is mostly used by peak-baggers aiming 4 Mt Williamson [2nd highest in CA] and Tyndall pictured here:
Nosebleed view straight down from the pass:
And lookin back up:
Ahh the trailhead, after 15 mi and 6500' of descent. 4 days 3 nites out. Now to find the can of Oregon microbrew I stashed in the creek ;)
** In the end the message seems clear: the gear is just a means to an end, isnt it people? Lightening my load, using trekkin poles, and doin a few training hikes helped me enjoy this trip Immensely. More than I can say really.

[jason quick]

Great shots, great account, and great adventure Brian!

Being an ex technical diver/instructor, I often look at lakes like that (Lake Tulainyo) and dream of diving in them. Do you know how deep that lake is? It may perhaps be baron underwater, but would be simply beautiful to dive…even with a scooter.

Anyways, great pics, and thanks for sharing….I really look forward to getting over to the US and experience some of your backyard.

Jase in Australia

Edit: Lake name

[Paul McLaughlin]

You're not the first to think of diving there – it's been done:

http://www.sportdiver.com/lake-tulainyo

And of course it's been ice skated as well:

http://dittli.wordpress.com/#jp-carousel-196

[Paul McLaughlin]

More on the highest lake competition:

http://www.highestlake.com/highest-lake-usa.html

[Ken Helwig]

Great report…and now I have another place to visit!

[Jay Wilkerson]

Nice one Brian. I am happy you posted the trip report and pics.

Jay

[David Thomas]

Jase: The scuba-diving link described seeing a very small fish. In a quick skimming of several websites, I didn't see a max depth and did find some hopes for such a survey to be done.

A semi-related story: In the early 1980's, I co-led BPing trips in the central Sierra with a guy who was a pretty serious and very accomplished fisherman. He had been sourly tempted to return to Helen Lake (11,617' and almost a mile across) just NE of Muir Pass at the head of Evolution Canyon in the central Sierra because on a afternoon hike out of camp years before, he'd seen some big fish. He scheduled a trip (getting paid to do so) late in the season so it would be ice-free and brought his gear. He got a 21" rainbow that had deep, salmon-colored flesh (no brownish fleshed hatchery fish, this!) from eating krill or eating things that ate krill. He didn't want to think about how old the thing was since its feeding season is probably only 2 months a year.

Since then, my hunter-gather-fisher skills have improved tremendously. I'm still not at his level, but I've caught more total pounds of fish now for three reasons: location, location, location.

Everyone: My life goes better when I have stupid human tricks scheduled in my future that give me more motivation to stick to a conditioning program. Bringing a pack-raft into one of these high-mountains lake to do a bathyspheric survey or just harass the fish would be right up my alley. If anyone else is interested, PM me.

[Justin Baker]

Do you happen to have any pics of that fish David? Did he keep it or release it? That sounds really interesting.
It's always confused me how fish get up in those lakes. Are all the isolated lakes planted? How would a species of fish in one lake get into another lake?

[Anonymous]

Now for next season. Have thought about this for years through the No. fork from the east but your photos make Wallace Lake a must see. Thanks for posting this.

[David Thomas]

Justin:

I can email him and see if he's got a photo. It was dinner – that's how we knew the color of the flesh. The State and Feds used to plant many more lakes than they do now. I've camped at lakes, 8-10 feet deep that historically had fish in them but after a low-snow, cold winter, froze solid and killed all the fish. Without any fish in them, they were really buggy and unpleasant to camp at and what had been a nice campsite no longer was. I've heard tales of sportsmen bringing fish in themselves in 5-gallon pails on burros many decades ago. That still happens today, at least by car, when non-native species get planted (often wrecking havoc) by sportsmen hoping to establish, say, pike in a new lake or drainage.

I've wondered, apart from small-scale and official planting, how do fish ever move from watershed to another?. Get dropped by an eagle or osprey – one of each gender? 100-year floods creating temporary passages? Rainbows and few other species that can go to sea and return up a different river? Weren't cutthroats and golden trout limited to their original drainages until humans started transplanting them? And species we observe as wide-spread, well, maybe white guys weren't the first to transplant fish. I've seen great habitat seperated by only 1/4 mile of impassable cascades keep out salmon, trout and grayling.

[Ken Thompson]

Beautiful trip and report. Good job!

[Anonymous]

"But for me theres nothing like the E sierra approaches to the high country; the pungent aromas of sage primarily, and everything from willow to juniper/pinon to mahogany, then the sun-warmed duff and needles and streams. "O glory" as John Of the Mountains would say."

That about says it all, and eloquently. I enjoyed your report a lot, Brian. It really enforced fond memories for me. Thanks for sharing a great trip!

And, yeah, Shepherd Pass is a butt kicker alright, but worth every bead of sweat.

[JW]

Thank you for sharing Brian, the Sierra never disappoints. I've been interested in using Shepherds Pass as an entry point. Congrats on finding a good balance of lightweight gear.

[Poki Pagter-Newton]

I've been looking to get down there at some point this summer and this may have been the tipping point. Thanks for the photos and the report.

[Tom K]

What a great report.  Your taste in venue is impeccable, and I like your style, right down to stashing a micro brew in Symmes Creek.  Nothing goes down easier after a stroll down from Shepherd Pass.  You really got your money’s worth on this trip.  I hope you make it back in there again before you hang up your pack for the last time.  We might even cross paths from the places you visited.  :0)

[brian H]

yes tom…from your reports i have been expecting to cross your path ;)

am only recently at the halfcentury mark, and i stll enjoy shepherds, so i reckon i aint hangin up my shoes anytime soon. my most recent trip was to Mitre basin, in october. loved it. i awoke to a curious raven peering down on me, then a hunting peregrine zippin thru my lil meadow!

[Tom K]

“am only recently at the halfcentury mark, and i stll enjoy shepherds, so i reckon i aint hangin up my shoes anytime soon”

Heck, Brian, at only 50 you’re still a young man.  With any luck, you’ve got at least another 25 years up there.  Mitre Basin is a great area to hang out in.  Did you fish in Sky Blue Lake?  It used to be crawling with decent size fish (10-12″), but it’s been 25 years since I last passed through there, so I don’t know if that is still true.  Middle Crabtree Lake on the other side of Crabtree Pass was the best fishing I ever had in that area, with hybrid golden-rainbows to ~20″.  They had blood red flesh and were very fatty, I guess from eating fresh water shrimp.  They put up a real fight, and were the best eating trout I ever tasted.

You’re one of the few people beside myself who ever said they enjoyed Shepherd Pass.  It’s a Sierra classic, my favorite.

[John Kays]

Tom, and anyone who has been up there last several years: It has been 20 years since I’ve been over Shepard’s pass and we hired a ride to the trail head. However she feigned car trouble and dropped us off short of the trail head so we didn’t start as high as we could have had we been able to start from the trail head.  We camped at anvil camp getting a late start that day because we were also picked up about an hour and a half later than we contracted for and didn’t get started until very late, almost noon. I would like to do the trip later on this summer, late August early September, and would like to drive up to the trail head in my Corolla. Will an ordinary sedan make it in your estimation? Thanks for your anticipated help, John

[Tom K]

“Will an ordinary sedan make it in your estimation? Thanks for your anticipated help, John”

Hi John,

I have driven to the hiker TH countless times in a low end rental car, including a Corolla.  If you are comfortable driving on rocky, rutted roads, and exercise care not to put your oil pan in harms way, you will be fine.  The key is to go slow and pay attention to how you drive over or around some of the larger rocks.  That said, the condition of the road varies considerably from year to year, and there have been several where I either chose to pull off to the side en route and hike the rest of the way to the hiker TH, or retreat and hike from the horse packers’ corral.  The latter option adds a mile or so and a few hundred feet of elevation to the hike.  Given the record snowpack this year, it is entirely possible that the road will not be passable for a Corolla, in which case I would recommend hiking from the corral TH.  If you do, be prepared to get your feet wet at the horse crossing of Symmes Creek;  it has not been groomed for hikers.

[Ben C]

Love that area.  Wallace Creek seems harsh until you get up to Tulainyo, which seems too harsh to even linger.  Beautiful though.

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