[pct-l] Bear boxes on PCT in Southern Sierras

[msaenz at mve-architects.com (Mike Saenz)]

Ahhhhhhhhh.......

Just back from 4 days in the Golden Trout Wilderness. Had an awesome
time!

Regarding bear boxes, I didn't see any at the Cottonwood Pass trailhead
out of Horseshoe Meadow. The ranger station, though not requiring bear
cans, "highly recommended" them. The guy I talked to said that there was
a bear that works this area that knows how to take down even the best
counterbalanced hangs. So I rented a can. My buddy scoffed at the bear
threat and insisted on hanging his food. Actually, since we shared the
food load, we had some of it in the can, and some of it hung. So, as an
"experiment" we had the can sitting directly underneath the hung food
bag. Each night we set this up in this manner. ...and not even the
slightest evidence of any bear was found the entire trip! 

We started out from Horseshoe Meadow at around 9am Friday morning (drove
up from work Thursday night, a six hour drive, and slept in the back of
my truck) and made for Cottonwood Pass. At the pass, the PCT crosses the
trail down into the GTW. We took the PCT for a short hike up to Chicken
Spring Lake Saw no one until we pitched camp at the lake. We tried
everything to catch fish, but we didn't even get "nibbles". Temps ranged
from the high 80's, with a very refreshing cold wind, to 39 at night.
"severe clear" and BIG blue skies.
Next morning was cross-country down to Big Whitney Meadow, then westward
to Rocky Basin Lakes. Saturday night camp was just below Rocky Basin
alongside a pretty little pond (though I made it to the largest lake of
Rocky Basin via the "footpath" route, I became separated from my buddy
and spent 3 hours and 7 miles before finding him camped alongside the
"horse trail". By the time we hooked up again, neither he nor I was
interested in hiking up to the lakes - a small adventure story in
itself...
The next morning we climbed the rest of the way to Rocky Basin. As it
was very warm and the hike up to the lakes was fairly strenuous AND we
were three days without a shower, when we got to the first lake, the
packs were dropped, the clothes were stripped off and into the water we
went! Very cold water, but washing away the grime, sweat and crusty DEET
residue was well worth the shivers!
The rest of the day was spent trying to catch fish at Rocky Basin Lakes,
but again, we were "skunked". We left the lakes in the late afternoon to
start our hike back.

I was told by a ranger from the Lone Pine station that "every stream and
lake is filled with hungry fish". Hmmmmmm... could it be my fishing
skills? ...Naw...

We DID see many fish in the streams that meander through Big Whitney
Meadow as we crossed it heading to Rocky Basin. I tried casting to them,
but the streams are only about 2-3 feet wide and the trout spook easily.
I didn't catch any (got a couple of strikes, but no takers). Also, a
massive grasshopper hatch was underway with plague-proportions of tiny
hoppers swarming around the trail crossing. A significant percentage of
these were falling into the water to be devoured by the trout waiting in
the water below.
Sunday was our hike back. We camped in that big island of trees in the
middle of Big Whitney Meadow. We wanted fresh morning legs for the climb
back up Cottonwood Pass.
After pitching camp, we saw a guy fishing one of the steams, so I walked
out to the water to try my luck again. I tied on a dry bumble bee fly
(looks remarkable like a black grasshopper when wet...) on my third
cast, a 5 inch golden trout made a grab for it! That was my single fish
caught the entire trip. While cleaning it, I found that it was literally
STUFFED with small grasshoppers! It was into the frying pan to
supplement our dinner that night! Heard coyote howls during the night in
the meadow, but aside from that it was dead quiet.
The mosquitoes were active at dawn and again at dusk, but with liberal
applications of DEET, they were manageable. I got bit a few times, but
it was a very small price to pay for such a glorious 4-day weekend!

Head properly adjusted and back in the office...

M i c h a e l   S a e n z
McLarand Vasquez Emsiek & Partners, Inc.
A r c h i t e c t u r e    P l a n n i n g    I n t e r i o r s
w  w  w  .  m  v  e  -  a  r  c  h  i  t  e  c  t  s  .  c  o  m

-----Original Message-----
From: Joel Dasenko [mailto:dbcpa@empnet.com] 
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2004 12:51 PM
To: pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
Subject: [pct-l] Bear boxes on PCT in Southern Sierras

>
>
Last year or 2, someone posted the locations of bear boxes on or near 
the PCT.  Hopefully, someone can provide a list of the areas on or near 
the PCT between Cottonwood Pass and Mono Creek where bearproof boxes 
exist.  My son and I are carrying bear cannisters, but early on there is

no way all the food will fit.  Thanks for any help. Joel Dasenko.


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