Bob and I decided to head to Bishop Pass, or at least in the direction of the pass. We really had no big plan to make the pass as there isn't much of a view of the far side. So, we wandered up the trail and came to Bishop Lake when our stomachs decided it was lunch time. We admired the snow and the frolicking ground squirrels below our rock perch and then decided to head back via Chocolate Lakes.
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| South Lake |
We do this about every five years and in the intervening years forget how awful the trail is. It is fine through Ruwua and even the Chocolate Lakes, and then things aren't so great. So, after admiring another side of Cloud Ripper, our third for the year, we headed towards Bull Lake. Then it all came flooding back; how we cursed this trail the last time we did it. This time we had the additional pleasure of snow. Groan. We carefully picked our way down to Bull Lake and through the crowd of backpackers. This was over the holiday weekend and they were stacked up like salmon at the base of a waterfall. The obstacle they didn't want to surmount was the snowy ravine we just came down. I don't blame them.
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| Long Lake |
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| Spearhead Lake |
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| Saddlerock Lake |
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| Any place without snow is spring! |
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| Bishop Pass |
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| Bishop Lake and Pass |
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| Heading to Ruwua Lake |
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| One of the Chocolate Lakes and Cloud Ripper |
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| Looking down at Bull Lake. There is a trail in there somewhere. |
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| One of areas we had to slide down to get to Bull Lake |
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| Bull Lake and Chocolate Peak |
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| More Bull Lake |
Great wordsmithing! Salmon stacked at the bottom of a waterfall.
ReplyDeleteCloud ripper is my kind of mountain!!! Of course, the other peaks with snow on them and mirrored in the lakes are pretty super, too. Looks like some of your misery was compensated for! and how!
Jeez. Look at that scenery. The northern Sierra, and I hate to say it, sucks by comparison.
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