Eastern Sierras - Piute Pass

Eastern Sierras - Piute Pass - July 2005

Trip:

2-day, 2-night, 14-mile, out-and-back over Piute Pass to Summit and Piute Lakes.

Location:

Inyo Nation Forest (map)
John Muir Wilderness Area

Topo Maps:

Piute Pass

Camp Locations

Profile

Satellite Photo

3D Satellite Photo

Pictures:

Starting out on the trip - everyone has their packs on. Misquitos were pretty bad at the lower elevations. You had to keep moving and repellant was a necessity.

Mountains ahead, and valley behind.

The first lake we hit is Lock Leven.

Between Lock Leven and Piute Lake, we pass the best waterfalls on the trip.

We hit snow soon after Piute Lake, and had to blaze our own trail over the pass. It took some time to convince Sadie to follow us through a boulder field. She's not quite the same scrambler as Reilly. On our way over, we saw hikers trying to snowboard down the pass. It didn't look like much fun on that snow.

Coming over the pass we get our first glimpse of Summit Lake - partially frozen over! We couldn't go any farther, so we set up camp out in the open near the lake. We expected a cold night, but it was really cold. I put on every piece of clothing I had, and still couldn't stop shivering. Exhaustion was the only reason I slept that night.

The wind made some cool (hah, hah) shapes in the snow.

Landscape around Summit Lake.

First thing in the morning, we packed up and headed back down to Piute Lake. It was much warmer there, ever though it was only a few hundred feet lower. Miquitos liked the warmer temps too, though.

We got to camp pretty early, so we had some time to just relax. Sadie had over-done it on the way up, and she was visibly sore on Saturday and Sunday. She must have covered 5 times the distance we did - running off trail chasing anything. She would limp around, but then go tearing off on chase as if nothing was wrong, so I wasn't too worried.