Yosemite Here We Come.....Again! (Ten Lakes Basin)

Once again I took a trip in mid August to the Ten Lakes Basin, Yosemite with my best buddy Marco.  We had planned on it all summer and were not going to miss it for the world!

We left his place in Orange County around seven in the morning, headed down the I5 and were so excited to be on our way to a four day adventure!  Last year we had gone to the same area in Yosemite, and we had left around eight.  We knew we had a bunch of driving ahead, but we resigned ourselves to the trip ahead.  We arrived in the Valley and got our permit and bear canisters.  I thought one would be enough, since I have never put sealed or prepackaged food items in a bear canister with the belief that they were scent proof to animals.  However, recently, when I went to the Lost Coast, the Rangers said that I needed to put EVERYTHING in the canister. So I got two!  Good thing we both had large packs!  I was sporting my new (used from the REI Gear Sale) REI Flash 65 Pack.  I also had a few other new items, which I will comment on later.  Marco had his massive 85 liter Gregory that he had borrowed form a friend and never given back! We cruised up to the trailhead and got there around 3:30 PM, a good hour and a half earlier than we had arrived last year!

We began to get our gear in order and I realized that I had overlooked one minor detail.  It wasn't a piece of gear, I had all my stuff, including my fishing kit and pole, but I had forgotten to get my car fixed.  I had been experiencing power failure due to some wiring issues and I tossed around the idea of removing the battery mount while we were gone, but I forgot during the excitement!  We put on our packs, said goodbye to civilization, and headed out!

 My New Pack (the grey one), Marco's Monster!

 How is it that I have all the gear and he has only clothes? HAHA

 The Trek Begins!

6.3 Miles to Graceland

Day 1

We headed out on the trail and quickly passed a couple who had left around a half hour before us! Marco was setting a blistering pace, determined to get to the Basin before the light failed this time, whether I died in his wake or not!  All that cycling sure does the body good!  I did my best to keep up (smokers lungs and all ;-)  and we soon reached the first trail intersection, 2 miles from the trailhead at a small brook.  

 Us right before coming to the first trail intersection back towards Whitehorn

I was wearing my Vibram Fivefinger Treksports as usual and Marco had on a pair of Tennis shoes, and we were both feeling good! The only issue I had the entire trip was on the hike in around this point.  My pack was new so I had not adjusted it to my frame yet.  It was really uncomfortable, and I hoped that once we got there I would be able to adjust it better.  I was also wearing some new convertible pants made by North Face!  It was nice to actually be able to wear shorts in the semi-hot weather.  We continued on and came upon the high meadow that signaled the end of the easy hiking.  The climb up from the Meadow was near vertical, a climb of over 900 feet in less than a mile!  We headed up the slope, chasing the fading light, trying to beat it as it sank close to the edge of the far off mountains.  

The High Meadow (the light was fading fast!)

We climbed the hill rather quickly to my chagrin and reached the summit of the basin rim around 6:45 PM.  We had only been hiking for less than two hours, and had covered nearly 5 1/2 miles!  I keep telling Marco to keep drinking, but he said he felt great and didn't heed my warnings!  We saw a deer sitting along side the trail, and it looked hurt solely because it wasn't getting up as we approached.  We got within about ten feet of it before it finally rose to its feet and slowly walked away.  We also saw a spooked dear (some people in the woods next to us scared it) tear across the high ground at top speed!  Man those things can move! We headed down the hill into the lake basin as the sun started to go behind the hills.  

 Looking back the way we had come (my favorite pic of the trip!)

 The deer!

The trail heading down into the basin from the rim

We had enough light to make it down the rocky hillside before it got too dangerous, and as we came to a log bridge over the main creek in the Basin my warnings to Marco to keep drinking came back to bite him!  He was stepping up onto the log and as he did he got the worst cramp in his calf that he said he had ever had!  A blistering pace and not enough water will do that I told him as he rolled around on the ground in agony.  While we waited for his cramp to go away, the light continued to fade.  By the time we were going again it was dusk and we had just enough light to make our way down to the big main lake and skirt the edge and find a camping spot.  I had my mind on a spot that some other guys had had last time we were there, up about 200 feet from the lake on top of a little ridge over looking the scenery.  We found it uninhabited and took it for our home!  It had a great campfire pit and also a ton of rocks and things to sit on.  We set up the ten fairly close by so as to have the fire near at hand if any bears came through.  While we cooked a little dinner, sausages over the fire, which had been pre-lain by the last group through, Thanks guys!, Marco got eaten alive by the mosquitos!  I had had them all over me during the hike, but once we got there they rarely bothered me.  They must like Mexican blood better than Scandinavian! HAHA! Anyway, we ate, drank some sake, the best camping booze there is cause you can drink it warm, put our bear canisters to bed and headed that way ourselves.  It had been a great start to the trip, and we were hopeful for the following days hiking expeditions and also the promise of high lake trout!  Sleep came easily with the aid of Tylenol Simply Sleep!

Day 2
We started the day off right with a breakfast of coffee, eggs, and sausages.  Our fire was keeping most of the bugs away, so Marco was happy!  Our plan for the day was to take a little day hike up the main creek and to explore the fishing possibilities at the string of high lakes above the main one.  We headed out around nine and got to really experience the beauty of the area unlike last year, when I had only my Vibram KSO's that were not nearly thick enough for the granite and rocky terrain.  My feet just hurt too much the last time for day hiking!  My own fault, but I was not going to miss out this time!  We followed the creek and soon came to the first lake above the main one.

 Marco cooking and rockin out to country music on the Ipad!

 The Creek we followed

 Speechless beauty

 I'm ready to catch some fish!

A mexican in paradise...hhaha!

We continued up the creek as it snaked its way down granite rock faces.  We stopped along the creek at a really cool point to sit and write.  What a beautiful day!  

 Creek on Granite Slab

 Neat Waterfall area

 No better place to contemplate God and Life

Two Buddies

We hadn't seen many fish in the first lake, so we hoped that there would be some in the higher lakes.  As we came to the third lake in the chain, we saw that there were indeed fish all over the place!  Small 6-8 in. rainbow trout! Some were larger, but the majority were typical for a hight altitude lake. But fish are fish! so we decided to try a few approaches.  Marco tried a dark little Panther Martin size 1-32 spinning lure.  I decided to try my hand out on some power bait.  We both threw ours lines in and I immediately got a bite, but I think that my bate ball was too big and they didn't hit again after that.  Marco was the first to pull one in!  He was simply dangling his line in front of a few fish that were swimming right next to shore, when he was able to snag one!  A nice little seven-eight incher!  We put it on a stringer, not wanting to let any of the fish go, since we hadn't caught squat the year before.  He had one other nibble on his and caught a little guppy, but that was it for Marco.  I got tired of power bait, and I tied on a little Mepps silver spinner, a 1-32 as well.  As soon as I threw it in the fish swarmed it and I had one within a few casts!  I then caught about eight others, but only kept the larger ones, so we walked away around 2 PM with five fish for dinner!  I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful place to catch the first fish I had caught on my own well.......ever!  

 The third lake

 Marco's first fish

 Standin on a fallen log fishin

 So pretty

The catch of the day!

We went back to camp with our catch and thought of a great idea about how to preserved the fish till we were ready to eat dinner.  First we cleaned them out in the nearby creek, and then took them to a small snow patch that was still lingering on in the shade of the trees above our camp.  We dug a hole in the snow and put the fish inside!  This kept  them nice and refrigerated for the next few hours while we got firewood, water from the lake, and took a little much needed rest.  When we were ready to cook the fish we got them out of the makeshift fridge and slathered them in olive oil, salt and pepper. We then wrapped them in tin foil and threw the whole mess in the fire!  Man they tasted good! The first few were a little overcooked, due to my paranoia of getting diseases from uncooked meat (sorry buddy!). But the next batch was great!  Now we know how long to cook them for next time!  I had brought along a grease guard to try and use as a grill, but I also now know that a grease guard does not stand up to open flame!  Learned my lesson!  While we were eating and chillin we had a surprise visitor in the camp!  A four point buck just came strolling into the camp not ten feet from the fire!  I tried to get a pic but he was moving constantly so they all came out blurry.  Lame! We enjoyed some more Sake and I drank both the flasks of Rum that we had brought cause Marco wasn't feeling it.  His Loss!  I got a decent little buzz (cause we all know it takes much more alcohol to get you buzzed while backpacking for some reason?) and headed off to bed ready for the next day and our next exploration of the area.

 Our camp in the afternoon sun

 View of the lake from our camp

 The first batch of fish

 So Fresh!

 A blurry pic of the Buck

The fire at night

Day 3

The next day we decided to check out the one lower lake that was not really connected by stream to any of the other lakes.  We hiked around the bigger lake and up and over the small rim of the next lake over. We took our fishing gear thinking there would be fish, but we saw none in its clear glasslike waters.  It was a hot day, so we decided to take a swim at a nice area where the granite slabs ran right into the water for about 100 feet, giving us a nice bottom on which to stand.  It was chilly!  But refreshing once you got in and started to swim around.  We felt clean finally and headed back to the big lake to do some more fishing!  Marco caught one right off the bat, but it was a little small so we let it go.  Then I caught one that was nice sized and we put it on a stringer hoping for more for dinner!  But sadly we didn't catch anything else!  We must have gotten really lucky the day before.  All I caught after my first fish was a sunken log! I didn't want to lose my lucky lure, so I went for the second dip of the day to retrieve it!  We headed back in the early afternoon and settled for dehydrated meals.  Marco had an idea that we could hike up to the top of the rim of the lake basin before it got dark so that we would have plenty of time to drive home and not get in too late.  I concurred so we packed up camp and headed out.  As we were heading out (this was Friday night), we saw tons of people coming the other way on the trail! I was actually happy that we were leaving now, since there had been hardly anyone around the whole two days that we had been there.  We passed at least 20+ people! As we reached the rim of lake basin we got to talking about how nice a cold beer would taste. And low and behold we talked ourselves right off the mountain and back to the car!  We had had our fill of fishing and camping and really didn't want to have to rush our drive on the way home in the morning.  As we got to the car I remembered what I had forgotten at the beginning of the trip.  Didn't disconnect the battery mount. Shit!  The car was dead, but luckily it was a stick.  We push started it after about twenty minutes of battling it out with a stunted tree that was blocking our path!  Finally on the road we drove into Bakersfield and enjoyed a nice cold BJ's Beer and some steaming hot Pizza!  What a good way to wrap up a trip!  

 The fourth lake

 A good ways out

 Swimmin back in, its cold!

 I look like my dad in this pic! Scary.

 Marco takin a swim

I have come to love the ten lakes basin so much, and will definitely return again someday, but next year we are planning on checking out May Lake, a close by lake to the ten lakes basin.  Wish us luck!  Thanks Marco, buddy for a great trip!  We learn something every time!