Nee's Journeys

Trip Logistics July 10 - 14, 2019 August 25 - 31, 2019 Inyo National Forest - North Lake to Pine Creek Total mileage - Approximately 27 miles not including day hikes July Photos August Photos Route 2019 was a banner snow year and it resulted in lots of late season snowpack and a late backpacking season…sort of. I was leading a Sierra Club trip in August of 2019 and I wanted to scout the route before I took the group out.  I had done South Lake to North Lake a number of years before so I knew the Hopkins Basin area.  This route would be going from North Lake to Pine Creek…Pine Creek trailhead was an area I had no familiarity with.   In 2019 I ended up doing this route twice once in mid-July and again at the end of August as well as a short overnight to Muriel Lake from North Lake.  These were the only backpacking trips I did the summer of 2019 because of the snowpack and other commitments. Instead of writing separate reports for all of these trips I have just wri...

Trip Logistics July 17-24, 2020 Sierra National Forest - Blackcap Basin - Red Mountain Basin and Bench Valley Total Mileage - 30ish - Lots of cross country on this trip Photos Originally Planned Route  - This wasn't the exactly route as originally planned but a version.  There were some deviations that ended up occurring on the trip. In the April timeframe it was becoming clear that there would likely be no organized Sierra Club outings for the summer and I started to plan for an alternative private trip.  I wanted to explore an area I might lead a Sierra Club trip at some point and also somewhere that was likely not to be too crowded.  I had read of Blackcap Basin just a few years earlier….maybe because it’s on the west side of the Sierra I didn’t know anything about it but reading a friend’s trip report and looking at the topo map it looked great.  The plan was to do an 8 day trip given the length of time to get in and out of the basins and 8 days is about all...