TR: Nelson Lake overnighter

Hey Folks!

The miss and I decided to do Nelson Lake this past weekend and had a blast! Just wanted to share some photos of the trip!


To give a little back story on this trip... After leaving the Marine Corps on the 22nd, I decided that I wanted to celebrate by going on a backpacking trip to Yose. No better way to celebrate!

With only the weekend off, we decided to do an overnighter at Nelson as permits were easy to obtain. So after getting off work Friday, Ashley and I drove overnight to Mono Lake from San Diego. Since we would be arriving late (2am), I decided to not stay at the TM BP camp site as that would take away precious hours of sleep and possibly interrupt some ZzZzzZ hikers. Instead we decided to disperse camp (in the car) around the Mono Lake basin area which was about 45 minutes away from the wilderness office. Got to the area around 4am and threw out the sleeping mat and got some nice shut eye....

Getting to the site...


Nice and warm


Morning!


After getting up at 7:30 and eating a lunchables for breakfast, we drove up to the TM wilderness office and obtained our permits. Drove down tioga road and parked near the campsite and started on the trail at around 9am.

Some photos of the trail leading up to Elizabeth













"Trail" from Elizabeth to Nelson. Pretty easy for most of the part but accidentally got off track and missed the saddle. Went another route and got a pretty nice view





















Eventually made it to Nelson and set up camp in the north western area. There was only one other group (6) there who happened to be practicing yoga when we arrived.








Was estimating maybe low 30s for the night and boy did it seem colder! Woke up and found frost all over the tent and ground

Hard to see in some of the pics but there was frost all over the grass and log!









Overall it was a blast and was worth the 8-9 hour drive Was a good work out too in preparation for my PCT Oregon trip coming up this week. Will be back in Yose in Sept to do half of the HSC loop!

-Kevin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2015 08:21PM by KevinD.

Wow, thanks for posting all the photos! Nice closeups of the hoarfrost on the vegetation.

Those overnight lows below freezing is what helps kill the mosquitos and keep them to a minimum in late summer. Also it was very considerate of you to disperse camp and not to arrive in the wee hours at the TM backpackers campground and disturb the other backpackers trying to get some shuteye.

Glad your trip was a success. Good luck and happy trails on your upcoming Oregon PCT trek.

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Nic report and pics. Thanks for posting. In one of your pics, it looks like you were using your hiking poles to support your pack as you stood to admire the view. I thought I was the only one that did that

Nice pictures, thanks.

Out of curiousity, where did you end up crossing the saddle between Elizabeth and Nelson? The correct crossing is at the crosshairs, here. In any case it looks ike you found the use trail pretty easily on the south side of the crossing.

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ttilley
Nice pictures, thanks.

Out of curiousity, where did you end up crossing the saddle between Elizabeth and Nelson? The correct crossing is at the crosshairs, here. In any case it looks ike you found the use trail pretty easily on the south side of the crossing.

Hey Ttilley,

We ended up crossing maybe 150 to 200 feet to the left of the saddle. From where we crossed, you could easily see the saddle area that would have made life easier. Was a bit steep going downhill but eventually ran into a cairn and went from there. I'll mark it on a map when I get home.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2015 10:06AM by KevinD.

That looks awesome!