Miter Basin Trip Aug 25-29

“Anybody interested in joining me? :)”

“i am trying to plan a 44th birthday surprize hike trip for my husband. he is not a person that hikes on a consistant basis, however, he loves hiking. would this trip be a good one to surprize him with? my email is zita@comcast.net if you want to email me direct. What is the total expense for this trip?”

“There's a great camping spot up there that is right up against the side of this huge boulder. In front there is a big flat rock table to make your kitchen. It's before you get to Sky Blue Lake.”

“The only outright expense is $5/person - to reimburse me for the wilderness permit reservation. This trip shouldn't be too hard for a beginner - we will be doing a little off trail hiking.”

“What a temptation!!! I love the Miter Basin and when I get nervous about the Forester Pass next week I think about bagging the Sierra Renedezvous and going back up to there. Anyone who hasn't gone there should!!”

“If there was too much snow up on Forester Pass I'd switch plans and hike up to the Cottonwood Lakes area in a heartbeat. Spend a few days fishing and then go over NAP and right into Miter. Come out the same way. I liked that area.”

“great minds think alike.....

but I would want to go out over new army pass again. I loved those lakes and those amazing boulders below nap.
last edited: 7/10/05 2:22:39 PM”

“That's what I said. I wouldn't go in or out via Cottonwood Pass. The lakes below NAP and OAP have plenty of grass around them so the flyfishing would be good. Spend a couple of days there to aclimate and then head up to Miter but this time do even more exploring.”

“Bearcrossing..You will LOVE it there!

If you all did Langley..would you do it on that Friday on your way to Miter basin as a side hike from NAP?
Myself and a few friends are hiking up to the Russell--Carillon saddle, and then on to Mt Carillon that weekend, but we don't know if we are doing it on Saturday or Sunday. I was also thinking of hiking Langley too..since I will be in the same area.

It all depends if my friends can leave a few days earlier... I was thinking we could BP with you all on Thursday, camp with you at the cottonwood lakes, and hike part of the way with you on Friday and do Langley together..myself and my friends would camp again at cottonwood lakes Friday night and then hike out on Saturday...I would only be able to do this if we do Carillon on Sunday..which I do not know yet what day we have set for it.
PepperDog & SH you two should go!”

“SH - Cottonwood Pass is so much easer than New Army is the only reason I would think of going in through there.

the only thing that I would need to figure out would be dog care. This upcoming trip has used quite a bit of dog care karma. I also wouldn't be too hot on driving all the way down there alone - anyone else from the Sacto area interested???”

“Madeintahoe - that's what I was thinking - it looks like Langley is 1700' up from New Army Pass, so we'd probably do it as a dayhike as we're going over...”

“Miter Basin is one of the most spectacular places this side of Pluto. If you go up Old Army Pass you can climb up the ridge towards Langley and drop your pack and go climb Langley then come back to your pack and drop directly down into upper Soldier Lake and hike into Miter Basin that way. I once saw a herd of the rare Sierra bighorn sheep on Mt. Langley. Don't tell anyone but there's huge golden trout in Sky Blue Lake. I mean huuuuge. But they're not easy to catch. I usually shoot one or two for dinner via satellite guided lasers, sometimes ground-based lasers if I'm up on a ridge. But most of you don't have access to that kind of equipment. I shouldn't be saying all this.”

“Speaking of bighorn sheep, when we were in Miter in 2001 Old Timer's grandson Turk found the skull cap of a freshly killed bighorn. It had about 3 or 4 inch horns as I recall. You could see the incisor tooth marks of the mountain lion that killed it. He found it somewhere up above Upper Soldier in a sort of cave/overhang. The blood was still dark red, not black, so you knew it was fresh. We told him not to show it to any rangers or they would take it away from him. He probably still has it as a trophy.

Also we have pictures of some of the group fishing Sky Blue Lake. Mel saw some of those huge trout but the water was so clear and they were so smart they spooked everytime someone walked up to the shore.
last edited: 7/12/05 3:25:00 PM”

“Hey PepperDog, I might be interested in an alternate to Whitney etc.?”

“Buck, thanks for the info! I would love to see a Sierra Nevada Bighorn... I've heard of a couple of places to look for them over there, from an avid horsemen who I know who's seen them lots of times :)”

“Bump - I have a couple of maybes but no definites...”

“Bump - I've got a definite! Justdropin' from backpacker.com (don't know if he posts here as well) is coming with :) He went on last year's Glacier NP hike with a bunch of other folks.

Anybody else?? Just think, a beautiful hike on the eastside Sierra, a chance to summit Mt. Langley, and I've already taken care of the permit :D”

“This is the plan so far... we'll be starting out at the Cottonwood Lakes Trailhead, which is about 10,000'. We'll hike to Cottonwood Lake #4, which is about 6 miles, for the first night, elevation about 11,000'. This will help us get acclimated. The 2nd day we'll hike to the top of Old Army Pass, elevation about 12,000', and if it looks like the marmots won't eat our packs, drop them and dayhike up to Mt. Langley, 14,042'. Then we'll head down to Soldier Lake for the night. The 3rd day we'll hike up into Miter Basin and spend the day and probably spend the night up there. The 4th day we'll probably do the same, explore more, maybe try to climb up to Sky Pass which I've heard presents a phenomenal view of the Crabtree area... The 5th day we'll hike out. Part of the trip will be on trail, part will be off trail. Any questions? I'm a medium-speed hiker and am easy-going and can be flexible with plans. So if we decide to hike a little more or a little less each day, that's fine by me. Um... what else? Bear canisters are required on this trip. Oh, and did I mention the scenery looks like it will be utterly spectacular? lol”

“sounds like a great trip - I'm looking at going into that area around August 20th, so I'll be just ahead of you. I'd like to camp check out Arc Pass and do Irvine and/or Mallory while in there.”

“We did that in 2000, great trip! Cirque Peak isn't too far from OAP, if you have time. I'll be in the Whitney Portal area that weekend. Looks like a few of us will be in the same area.”

“I skipped a few words - I'm going to camp at Soldier Lake the first night and then at Sky Blue Lake for a couple of nights. I think I'll be in there for 4 nights.”

“Oh, well, maybe we'll see you hikin out when we're hikin in, winding :)”

“Yes, hopefull we'll run into you on the way out.

The person I'm going in with is going in the day before me because he's coming from the east and wants to acclimate. We're going in over Cottonwood Pass. I'm going in on the 20th and will catch up to him by Soldier Lakes. Then we're going to backpack to Sky Blue Lake and stay in that area a couple of nights. While in there we'll go up to Arc Pass and Irvine/Mallory and he's added an attempt on McAdie to the list. Then as another day hike we're going to try to do Mount Perkins. After that we'll be headed back out and back at the trailhead on the 25th - might do Cirque again on the way out - going out over New or Old Army Pass.
last edited: 8/12/05 10:21:46 AM”

“Bump - any last minute takers? So far it's just me and justdropin' goin but I have permits for two more!”

“BearCrossing - I'll look for you when I'm on the way out on the 25th.”