Pine Creek Mine to North Lake Backpacking Trip w/ Ellen.

Photo Album

Sunset over a pond behind Lower Golden Trout Lake.

Ellen, our longtime friend from Germany, had a dream of hiking the John Muir Trail upon her retirement from teaching English and PE in Germany for 35 years. I flippantly stated several years ago that I'd do the trail with her when she was ready. Well, it turned out the summer of 2025 was going to be The Year for her, but I had been battling through severe ankle problems, the collapse of the United States AND and a new puppy that made the JMT untenable for me. But Ellen was determined to do the JMT solo if she had to, so I planned a 5-day tune-up trip for us in the High Sierra as a litmus test for my ankle health and to pass along my Sierra backpacking knowledge. 

Ellen hikes up the trail past Summit Lake in Humphreys Basin.

The available trailhead permits were not ideal (all had massive elevation gains and were fairly exposed to sun) but we settled on leaving from Pine Creek Mine and exploring French Canyon, Piute Canyon and the associated high-elevation lakes teeming with golden trout. We saw lots of amazing scenery ranging from double rainbows to electric sunsets and caught so many trout I actually got bored quite quickly. We cut the trip short by one day because the mosquitos and biting flies were so terrible in Piute Canyon. There was absolutely no place we could stop for more than 20 seconds without being swarmed and bitten. So we made a 5 mile day into a 10 mile day to find relief at the high-elevation Lower Golden Trout Lake. 

Perhaps the misery from the previous day's mosquito-fest made us more appreciative, but our last day's hike through Humphreys Basin was just absolutely spectacular! We had planned on exploring Desolation Lake, but we were both ready to just get home, so we made a bee-line over Piute Pass and marveled at the amazing rocks in the canyon of the North Fork of Bishop Creek. I'm certain that many of these photos will make their way to BlueSky (@phaneritic) for proper earth science discussions. Please open the complete photo album to see all of our sights!

Amazing geological contact between granites and orange metamorphics in N Fork Bishop Creek Canyon.

Cutest pika ever at Chickenfoot Lake.

Map and GPS Tracks

3D Scan of Large Glacial Erratic with Frost Wedging Fracture

Frost Wedging and Exfoliation in Large Sierra G… by phaneritic on Sketchfab