Gable Lakes Pt. 1

 View out the tent from our campsite in the Buttermilks on the first night.

So, these are some massive photo posts but we were so impressed with the beauty of the area and took so many beautiful (in our opinion!) photos that we just have to share them with somebody!

First, a little background.  LeAnna and I were trying to come up with ideas for Labor Day weekend.  Of course we were psyched on lakes, mountains, beaches...  but, we also were looking to avoid the crowds.  Everywhere we could think of, even relatively obscure spots, were sure to be busy over Labor Day weekend.  But, recently a friend had posted photos of a hike he did called Bishop Pass Trail, above, not surprisingly, Bishop, CA.  Now Bishop is our old friend and a favorite haunt but our dirty little secret was that we had never ventured far from the car, always camping, climbing and swimming in the front country areas, ignoring the huge mountain peaks that made great backdrops for bouldering photos.

So, we got it in our heads that maybe a backpacking trip would be just the ticket for Labor Day weekend - new adventure, no crowds and great way to escape the end (hopefully!) of the long summer heat.  There was only one problem.  Neither of us really knew how to backpack!  LeAnna had literally never been backpacking and my only experience, that I recall, was a trip with Keith to the White Mountains of New Hampshire easily 15 years ago.  The main thing I recall from that trip is my knees hurting so bad after hiking down Mt. Washington that Keith literally had to hike ahead to the car, cutting the trip short, and rescue me.  I have no recollection of what or how we ate, how or where we found and treated water, or generally any useful information for backcountry camping.

On top of the eating/drinking questions, the Sierras, where we planned on hiking are regulated by complex web of rules and various jurisdictions - National Forest, Wilderness, National Park - each with it's own slightly different set of rules.  A permit is required for most overnight trips, as is bear-proof containers, approved cooksets, no campfires, dogs only outside National Park areas, etc. etc.  We carefully selected our hike, the Gable Lakes Trail, based on the fact that it was literally the only permit left available over Labor Day weekend.  The 20 or so other trails listed on the online reservation site in the Eastern Sierra/Inyo NF were all booked up! 

Even though we have enough gear to make REI's Seattle store just a little jealous, we discovered we needed, well, a little more!  Luckily, we are expert online shoppers and soon we had a stack of shiny new gear on our doorstep.  The only things we really needed though were a bear container for food, and a water filter.  The bear container was easy, because there's really only one that's allowed in the Sierras and that's a hard plastic cylinder with a lid that is, indeed, nearly impossible to remove.  Imagine an industrial size medicine container and you have the idea.  Now the water filter was tougher because there are literally a million options.  After LeAnna ordered 3 or 4 to check out, I, assuming we would soon quit reality and be on our way trekking to Patagonia, carefully selected the most expensive one, plus some cheap AquaMira tablets as back-up just in case we couldn't figure out how to use our new top of the line beauty.

I got home from work Wednesday night and Friday, after LeAnna got home from work, we drove off, on the familiar and pleasant route to Bishop.  The first night we camped next to our car (our preferred method!) in the Buttermilks, with the plan of starting the hike as soon as possible on Saturday.  These first few photos are from a little walk Oscar and I took that first morning in the Buttermilks.  I was up early since I was still on Alaska-night-shift time. 

After our little walk we made our way back to the car/tent and packed up and headed into town for some breakfast and coffee and to try to get a permit for our first night.  As I mentioned earlier, we were able to get a permit for the Gable Lakes, but only for Sunday night.  The way system works is about 60% of the permits are available for reservation, the other 40% are set aside for same-day walk-ins at the Forest Service office.  Rolling up to the FS office, we saw a line of about 30 people waiting for the office to open at 8 am.  Getting our Saturday permit was now a little more questionable!

While I took a spot in line, LeAnna made for the Black Sheep for the requisite breakfast burritos and coffee.  After an hour or so, I came out victorious!  Two nights' permits for the Gable Lakes.  After a stop at Wilson's Eastside Sports to look at yet even more gear, we drove the 20 or so minutes up Pine Creek Canyon to the trailhead.  We said hello/goodbye to the multiple hikers we'd seen in line that morning as the trailhead parking accessed many different routes.  And after a quick re-pack of our backpacks from car-camp-mode to backpacking-mode, we headed off.

Start of the trail.

Looking up Pine Creek Canyon from the steep initial section of trail.

Switchbacks and looking down canyon towards Bishop and the Owens River Valley.

Cool mining cable car ruins.

Hot but still psyched.

A rare flat section, looking up the Gable Creek Canyon, towards our destination.

Awesome trees!

Gable Creek.

Columbines lining the trail near the top.

Almost there!

A little fixer-upper.  Long ways to a Home Depot unfortunately.

Cool little succulents.

Hallelujah!

Finally cooling off after a hot, steep hike.

Finally wore out the puppy.

This will work.