Basin Deranged
Senior Member
Like many Californians I was first introduced to the Great Basin on its very western edge at the East Side of the Sierra Nevada. N and myself, and our children when they were still in the house, visit the East Side almost every year. We have our favorite places. This trip was a return to some of those places and a chance to explore some new places as well. N chose not to join me on this trip: She has spent most of the last 8 months living with her dying father and caring for him, so she was eager to spend a little time getting re-acquainted with her own home.
I'm always restless the night before a trip and this one was no exception. I was wide awake at 4am. I left the house at 4:30 and certainly missed all of the Bay Area commute traffic. I was on Sonora Pass by 10 eating my breakfast muesli and enjoying the views.
Leavitt Lake was my first stop. I have driven past the road to the lake plenty of times but never visited it.
It is a beautiful lake, though it was a bit peculiar to visit an alpine lake that has vehicle traffic! I enjoyed my lunch there before heading south on Highway 395 a few miles past Bridgeport to the turn off to Green Creek.
Green Creek has a small Forest Service campground which is closed at this time of year, but I prefer to camp in a favorite spot in a meadow with as much sunlight as I can get at this time of year when the days are shortening and the air is cool. The first night was, in fact, the coldest night of the trip. Thick frost coated my camp chair in the morning. Near the campground is a trailhead into the mountains in the picture above.
My camp was near the creek itself and I had the companionship of a coot for the 3 days that I was there.
I guess the young coot felt a certain kinship with an old coot like myself.
I saw quite a few waterbirds during my stay in the area including grebes and ducks.
My bicycle was put to good use on fishing and exploring expeditions in the area, very handy for traveling the 3 miles from camp to the trailhead where I could leave it locked up while spending the day hiking and fishing.
The lakes above Green Creek are beautiful, and at this time of year, deserted. I saw two other hikers in a full day of hiking and fishing at several of the upper lakes. There was a good dusting of snow on the ground from a storm a few days before at the highest lakes I visited, the Hoover Lakes.
Taken from near Green Lake, this photo looks down on the Green Lake Valley. My campsite is in the meadow at the very center of the picture. The air was hazy during most of my trip.
My next stop was at the top of a jeep road through Sumner Meadows (sometimes also called Summers Meadows) and up to a trailhead for a little trail that cuts over to the Tamarack Creek drainage. I spent a day fishing Tamarack Creek and visiting Tamarack Lake.
The view into the Twin Lakes Valley and the Bridgeport area from camp that night was superb.
My next stop was Twin Lakes, an area that I usually avoid due to the crowds; but at this time of year the crowds are gone, the campgrounds are closed, and the lakes are quiet. Hiking and fishing for Brook Trout in Cattle Creek and Robinson Creek in relative solitude was a treat. A quarter mile beyond the last building at the Robinson Creek trailhead, all alone in the pines, I found this guy. Anyone else remember the Bicentennial Fire Hydrants?
To be continued...
I'm always restless the night before a trip and this one was no exception. I was wide awake at 4am. I left the house at 4:30 and certainly missed all of the Bay Area commute traffic. I was on Sonora Pass by 10 eating my breakfast muesli and enjoying the views.
Leavitt Lake was my first stop. I have driven past the road to the lake plenty of times but never visited it.
It is a beautiful lake, though it was a bit peculiar to visit an alpine lake that has vehicle traffic! I enjoyed my lunch there before heading south on Highway 395 a few miles past Bridgeport to the turn off to Green Creek.
Green Creek has a small Forest Service campground which is closed at this time of year, but I prefer to camp in a favorite spot in a meadow with as much sunlight as I can get at this time of year when the days are shortening and the air is cool. The first night was, in fact, the coldest night of the trip. Thick frost coated my camp chair in the morning. Near the campground is a trailhead into the mountains in the picture above.
My camp was near the creek itself and I had the companionship of a coot for the 3 days that I was there.
I guess the young coot felt a certain kinship with an old coot like myself.
I saw quite a few waterbirds during my stay in the area including grebes and ducks.
My bicycle was put to good use on fishing and exploring expeditions in the area, very handy for traveling the 3 miles from camp to the trailhead where I could leave it locked up while spending the day hiking and fishing.
The lakes above Green Creek are beautiful, and at this time of year, deserted. I saw two other hikers in a full day of hiking and fishing at several of the upper lakes. There was a good dusting of snow on the ground from a storm a few days before at the highest lakes I visited, the Hoover Lakes.
Taken from near Green Lake, this photo looks down on the Green Lake Valley. My campsite is in the meadow at the very center of the picture. The air was hazy during most of my trip.
My next stop was at the top of a jeep road through Sumner Meadows (sometimes also called Summers Meadows) and up to a trailhead for a little trail that cuts over to the Tamarack Creek drainage. I spent a day fishing Tamarack Creek and visiting Tamarack Lake.
The view into the Twin Lakes Valley and the Bridgeport area from camp that night was superb.
My next stop was Twin Lakes, an area that I usually avoid due to the crowds; but at this time of year the crowds are gone, the campgrounds are closed, and the lakes are quiet. Hiking and fishing for Brook Trout in Cattle Creek and Robinson Creek in relative solitude was a treat. A quarter mile beyond the last building at the Robinson Creek trailhead, all alone in the pines, I found this guy. Anyone else remember the Bicentennial Fire Hydrants?
To be continued...
