Secret Sierra Basin

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I think we all have our "secret" places... favorite places that very few know about where we can find complete solitude for days on end. I have a few of my own. There's a place tucked away on the western side of the High Sierra, in a remote basin, with no marked trails. An unmaintained, hard-to-find steep path heads up into this granite paradise. I have been there multiple times and have yet to see one other in the entire basin. A half dozen sparkling lakes call this place their home, set like jewels in a fine stone. Some are lined with trees, fringed with meadows, while some are high up in barren granite bowls. I try and make it in here every year or two, and this last summer was no exception. It hasn't changed a bit in all the years I've been coming here. Incredibly brilliant golden trout live in these pure waters, like swimming wildflowers. Indian paintbrush and lupine and shooting stars and all kinds of flowers I can't even name grace the basin. Bubbling creeks through meadows, cascades, snowfields, and, well, in season, swarms of skeeters also call this place home. I can come here for days on end, with just me and my dogs, and live in wild bliss, climbing the nearby peaks and ridges and casting for rising goldens and burning rolls and rolls of film. Sometimes I'll bring a friend along here to share the wonders of this place.

Here's a photo of one of the lakes in my secret basin. I'm having mercy on you dial-uppers and posting a smaller photo, ha ha! I have cable internet so I'm spoiled with broadband, but I logged on here with a dial up and whoa!, not only was it real slow loading photos, but I also have my screen size at max resolution and the one I used to dial-up didn't and the photo was EL HUGE-O! I'll shrink it in case some of you are still internet dinosaurs and swinging at the WWW with caveman clubs. :^D”

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One of the flower-lined creeks in my sequestered, secluded, super high secret basin. The place is a-l-i-v-e with wildflowers in late June, July, and early August. It's a Garden of Eden.”

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More flowers higher up the basin. These are shooting stars with some yellow thingies in the background. One reason that keeps me going back into this highly covert basin is not just the wondrous beauty, but I think I caught a glimpse of Osama high up on a ridge. That dude's worth a LOT of money right now. And I think I can take him.”

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NooOOooOOOoooOOoo, I'm not posting this photo to piss off the dog-haters. Here Heidi contemplates a creek crossing while I swat mosquitoes and try and hold my camera still. Sierra is in this photo too. I ain't pointing her out though. In Heidi's backpack is her own food, and a new super-lightweight collapsible titanium bazooka that shoots extremely light carbon-fiber shells just in case I spotted Osama. You think I jest?”

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This'll be the last shot, I don't wanna clog this thread up with too many photos. Sorry 'bout that. This is another view of one of the lakes in the basin, showing my flourishing corn crop on the foreground shoreline. If society ever collapses, I'm ready. I also have a black unmarked helicopter stashed back in there too. Boy are those things amazingly quiet when they fly by, whew! I always like to have helicopters nearby, I have them scattered throughout hidden basins in the Sierra and Rockies, but that's just me. You never know when a pizza craving will hit you and BAM!, you gotta have it NOW. You know the feeling. Gotta run. Bye.”

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Hope you won't mind a bystander getting in on the festivities. Here's one at random.”

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Yeah, cable Internet is MUY BUENO!”

“I wanna go there...Heidi can lead me in blind folded. :) The secret would still be safe.”

“I'll tell you where the place is, Wind Walker, and I'll even give you the remote keyless entry thingy to the chopper. Just make sure you clean the windshield and replace any fuel before you fly it back. That's all I ask.”

“BTW, GORGEOUS shots, tekdude®! Whew!”

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I hope you dial-uppers got broadband for Christmas!

I went on another scanning binge and one of my scans happened to be another shot of my super top secret highly clandestine favorite remote Sierra basin. This is one of the lakes in the basin taken during mid-morning. Even though I have many great snowy adventures planned this winter, I can't wait for the snow to melt and the high country to open up again. Merry Christmas to all you TTers out there!”

“It's about time you showed yourself again. Everything alright?”

“Yeah...it's good to see you post again Buck! Merry Christmas!!!”

“Merry Christmas, Buck. Nice pic.”

“Where did you say that basin is?


Merry!”

“Merry Christmas Buck.

Thanks for sharing more pictures of some really great places.

Sign me up for one of Heidi's blindfold tours.”

“Buck's pics make me want to burn all of mine. Another nice pic!”

“Merry Christmas, Buck! Where ya been?”

“Hey, thanks people! I've been a little scarce lately... but all is well, thanks for askin'! Well, actually, to be honest I've been sniffin' some MTBE lately and got a hold of a bad batch... that set me back for a while... and just when I started feeling better, I started leaking. That's not so bad in and of itself, but I was by the company water cooler and now everyone in my office has a case of MTBE and it was traced back to me. I've been tied up the last month or so in a nasty lawsuit with the EPA, but since joining the Nation of Islam a couple weeks ago, I think I can win this one. I wish I was normal. I'll try and pop on a little more often and share the insanity. You guys make me feel more normal.”

“lol!!! And... what's MTBE??!”

“Some one needs to hack into his computer and check out his map software for the location of that basin. That is beatiful. What is the elevation at that basin?”

“I'll bet if I lived in the area, I'd've found and been in that basin by now.”

“I know that there is a lot to the north of Yosemite but that's all I can tell you. I think I might have climbed those mountains! I think I know where it's at but I can't tell everyone because it's that secluded of a place. If it's the same place, Trailbum and I went there in September for a week.It's his favorite area. There was hardly any people! I love that place and would like to explore more of it!”

“What's this about blindfold tours? And the alternative is hacking? Sounding really hard, but we are getting broadband this Christmas, courtesy of Comcast putting in cable on our somewhat remote hill. Great picture. Thanks for posting it.”

“I was gonna add another pic to this thread and just noticed some questions I missed. Sorry!

Bigpoppa, the lakes in this basin are around the 10,000'-11,000' elevation zone situation area.

Buddur, there is no official trail into here, and it's definitely not on maps, but there is a path of sorts (if you can find it) that goes to the lowest lake in the basin, but the other lakes and nearby basin are all cross-country. If you lived here, you may have found it, but more likely you would have found many dozens more secret basins in the process. The Sierra is filled with them.

hikerchic5®, this area is actually south of Yosemite in the John Muir Wilderness.

Sorry for missing these questions earlier!”

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For those with modem overdrive


This is a shot of the very lowest lake in the basin's chain of lakes. They get more spectacular the higher you climb up. There are some really nice sized and quite beautiful golden trout in this lake. Although I have spent many nights at this lake, I usually crank up to the higher ones which have a more rugged High Sierra look to them. But this lake is quaint and a pure joy to stand on its shore and cast a fly for rising goldens.”

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Run With The Big Dogs

One of my favorite hiking pawtners on our way to this secret basin. I know, it's just another dog to all you, but Heidi is truly an amazing hiking partner, as well as her daughter, Sierra. We make a wonderful trio exploring the wildest places we can find. Plus I have fart confidence with them. Don't you hate hiking with folks you don't know that well and having to hold back a ripper on the trail? My dogs actually like it. It puts that extra wag in their tail.”

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The Ruff Stuff

Here they are half way there! It is very rare that my dogs ever bark. The only barkin' they do is what you see here... standing on it.”

“Buck. You're killing me with those photos.”

“Yep, Buck can suuure take a picture.

Makes me want to pet those dogs.”

“Truly beautiful!”

“wow buck! I just love your dogs! Makes me miss my big shepard/lab Jack. He was so big I called him my jumbojack. He was 128 lbs! Blonde with light brown eyes. He was beautiful!

That's a gorgeous place buck. Yeah, the sierras are pretty amazing, aren't they?”

“From memory, methyl tertiary butyl ether, the "safe" gasoline additive here in CA which was very quickly found to be contaminating groundwater and has then taken years to get out of the gas.”