Re: Lamarck Lakes July 7

Since we were keeping a close eye on the weather, and we had one day “left over” from our Mono Pass trip, we took the opportunity to day-hike up to Lamarck Lakes on July 7. The weather report was for thunderstorms, rain, hail and snow, so we felt just fine that we were going to end the day back in Bishop, rather than in a tent at 11,000 feet.



After our adventures over Mono Pass, this little hike seemed pretty darn civilized. The trail climbed steadily but smoothly through the forest up to the junction with the trail to Grass Lake. At that point things got a bit rougher, but the views opened up as well. And yes, that's the trail in the photo below...





Lower Lamarck Lake. Some decent campsites on the ridge behind me here....but this is pretty close to the trailhead for us. ©http://backpackthesierra.com
Before we knew it, we were at Lower Lamarck Lake…and we stopped only for a minute before continuing on to Upper Lamarck. Just long enough to take a photo or two.



It's harder to really get to the water at Upper Lamarck, and we ended up eating lunch on a rocky knoll just east of the lake—which was just as well, because the mosquitoes were fierce closer to the water. The water here was an intense blue.

After a sun-drenched rest on the rock, we started down before the clouds could gather too much momentum. We met quite a few hikers on this trip coming down from Lamarck Col—some of whom told of quarter-sized hail pelting them the night before. They looked pretty whipped.



And while the views were nice on this hike, there was also a lovely flower garden at the base of the trail, just a few yards from the trailhead. We enjoyed the flowers, dodged the raindrops, and spent the night back in Bishop, getting ready for our next trip.

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That's a beautiful area, and the climb further up to Lamarck Col is even nicer (given appropriate weather conditions)

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balzaccom

After our adventures over Mono Pass, this little hike seemed pretty darn civilized. The trail climbed steadily but smoothly through the forest up to the junction with the trail to Grass Lake. At that point things got a bit rougher, but the views opened up as well. And yes, that's the trail in the photo below...

You ought to add this photo to the “You call this a trail?” thread: http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?1,29235,29534

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Ha! Yeah, there were a couple of shots like that on the trails we took--including this one over Paiute Pass:

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Check our our website: http://www.backpackthesierra.com/
Or just read a good mystery novel set in the Sierra; https://www.amazon.com/Danger-Falling-Rocks-Paul-Wagner/dp/0984884963

Upper Lamarck Lake is probably a puzzle to many visitors. Areas around the south shore are blocked by cliffs and on the north side beyond mid lake the large talus gets unpleasant. Most groups end up camping at the east end just north of the outlet and stay there. On a return trip from Darwin Canyon two of us made a few years back, we camped along the south shore mid lake as there is one place where a joint crack ramp allows reaching the water. The glacier gouged out immediate south shore drops off into deep water where one can see sizeable rainbow trout cruising that shore but there are very limited places to get down to the water where one might land any fish. To reach the west far end of the lake requires climbing up a few hundred feet on a dome then descending some steep talus so very few ever visit. There are seeps out of the talus draining through the talus onto the dome and some reasonable camp spots in boulders. Looked like one could also reach the Lamarck Col route at about 12k by following the obvious talus ravine above.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2015 03:49PM by DavidSenesac.

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DavidSenesac

To reach the west far end of the lake requires climbing up a few hundred feet on a dome then descending some steep talus so very few ever visit.

Or the use of a pack raft (that seems to be in vogue with a number of members of this forum).

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And not DEET needed there today.