Got back about two weeks ago but have only now had the time to sort through the photographs and post some buff about the backpacking trip. We started at the bishop access to the southern sierras at south lake, headed over Bishop pass, John Muir pass, wandered down through evolution valley and left via piute pass back to North lake. All in all and including the day trips we walked about 70 - 80 miles and probably more when you factor in all the fishing.
To sum up the experience, it was truly amazing. Mile after mile of lake shore and river bank to fish without even seeing another person let alone seeing another person fishing. All of the fish were relatively free rising and by the end I had been almost solely converted to dry fly apart from the deep holes on the San Joaquin river. I fished in the morning, afternoon, well into the evening and any other time I saw a nice spot to fish while walking to our next camping spot. I only failed to catch fish at one lake on the entire trip, this was a real pain as we has walked to a specific lake (11,740 feet ) that the ranger has said to hold 14inch goldens. True to his word I miss two substantially larger fish but failed to hook anything solidly. Other than that I caught fish constantly, the average size was small but boy were those fish pretty. During the eight days we only dropped below 9000 feet twice so as you can imagine the short growing season and high altitude might account for the size of the fish. Plus, they numbered in the thousands in some spots. That being said I did manage some larger fish in the San Joaquine river and deep holes in the other tributaries. I also manage to catch all four species or trout in the area, two of which were a first for me so I was please as punch with that result. All in all it was a remarable trip with stunning scenery, you guys are very lucky to have such a wonderful place as your back garden and play ground.
I will be going back next year.
Evolution Valley
Lower golden trout lake golden
Golden Trout Wilderness
John Muir Hut (11,995 feet)
Evolution Valley Golden
First Brooke
Lake Wanda and Lake McDermand (no fish in these lakes, apperently)
Locals
Evolution lake
Sapphire Lake
Average size of golden trout
I'm also putting together a video from the trip but its busy processing on the hosting site, when it's fisnished I will post it up.
Regards,
Denis
-- Edited by Iasc Beag on Friday 3rd of September 2010 02:06:50 PM
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Fly fishing is so enjoyable, it should be done in bed.
Denis those are some real beautiful fish. Trophies in my book. Nothing like a good high elevation pack trip to clear the head. My wife got into some goldens very similar to those two years ago in high camp Yosemite. Gorgeous fish.
What a set of pictures. Thank you for posting them. They take me back a few years when my wife and I headed off for two weeks in the same area. It is nice to know that the area still looks like it did in the 70's. There is hope.
"Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn." - Anon.
It was a shelter built in memory of john muir by some tree huggers(sierra club)Â for backpackers to use as an emergency shelter.Â
Thats what i figured. Since its not mentioned in any John Muir books I've read. If you love the high sierra's I strongly suggest checkout some of his books guys.
Gopro camera?? And am I the last fishermen to not own a pair of pink crocs? What's up with that?
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Unfortunately its not a GoPro camera, however that toy is defiantly on my wish list for purchases next year. The video quality on the new HD cameras is excellent and it is "stated" that they are very resilient to being bashed about.
As for the Crocs, the pink ones belong to my better half but the ones on my bag are blue. I had shunned and heckled people who wore this footwear in the past but alas I was wrong. I cannot recommend them highly enough as a wading shoe for the summer months (water temperature and dangerous underwater obstacle dependent). I put on a thick sock so gravel doesn't annoy me to much but the shoe sticks to rocks like glue. And the other benefit is that they don't absorb water so their weight always remains the same. Which is fairly important when trying to keep your pack weight down.
drdan wrote:
How many miles did you hike in total?
I'm not sure but including day hikes I would think we walk about 80miles in total. Its not a huge amount and we took it relatively easy over the seven days walking. Some people had planned to do the same trip we did in about 4 days. That is a little excessive in my book as you wouldn't really get time to stop and smell the roses.
Thanks for all the other comments, I will be going back further south next year.
Regards,
Denis
__________________
Fly fishing is so enjoyable, it should be done in bed.
