Backpacking The High Sierra: John Muir Wilderness Bear Lakes Basin to Italy Pass Cross Country Loop

hmm well have a nice day Mr Marvin [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] back [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] California going into the Sierra again uh this time I'm heading out via the Pine Creek past Trailhead I'm gonna head up to Honeymoon Lake today and I'm gonna spend about a week out here I'm gonna go do kind of a big loop it's gonna be probably a half and a half cross country half and half like on trail and I'm gonna cover a lot of kind of the classics a bunch of cross-country passes it's going to be heck of an adventure so yeah but let's get hyped foreign [Applause] Creek Pass Trail today today's hike is not super long it's only six miles but there's 3 100 feet of elevation gain so it'll be a challenging six miles and also I'm not acclimated and we're going from 7 400 feet elevation up to 10 500 feet elevation so I plan to go pretty slow up this [Applause] foreign I'm already drenched in sweat I doubt I'm much more than a quarter mile in this is just a straight uphill Trail [Applause] looks like we're about to have a pretty good view oh wow check this out Straight Ahead here I think is Morgan pass already getting some epic kind of exposed Granite views here just gorgeous and then directly ahead here is Pine Creek Pass where I'm going [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] this is another shot of Morgan pass from higher up foreign [Applause] [Applause] epic waterfall flowing down Pine Creek so you trace it it goes all the way down here and kind of see it right after this tree right here there it is just an epic waterfall [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] thank you [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] still Pine Creek move it yeah this Pine Creek is epic it's like a Whirlpool down there and here's the view directly behind that last shot okay climbed about 2300 feet out of 3100 so I got another 800 feet to go it's leveling off a little bit foreign Lake let's go take a look hey this is Pine Lake I have to actually walk all the way around it so the trail is going to be heading off this direction Sun's in the shot sorry about that yeah Pine Lake thank you foreign [Music] Creek I think that's coming out of upper Pine Lake which I should be hitting any minute now pretty sure I got a mile to a mile and a half before I hit honeymoon Lake but yeah I gotta go around upper Pine Lake first all right looks like I've reached upper Pine Lake with its gorgeous views what a beautiful spot this is only day one of seven and I'm just blown away already I think I've got just under a mile until I hit my destination [Music] thank you [Applause] [Applause] okay this is a good sign I'm gonna take honeymoon Lake direction okay I think I found an acceptable campsite actually looks pretty good [Applause] nobody's over here [Applause] awesome and I got to make sure I can get down to the lake and get water great success things worked out after all so I'm gonna collect some water first before I even set up camp this is a pretty sweet Lake so this is honeymoon Lake this is where I'm collecting water I'm camping a little ways up above the lake tomorrow I'm going up this direction where the camera is pointed hopefully I'm going to try to get up near the Royce Lakes tomorrow I think [Music] it's Camping Time for night one today's hike was pretty difficult this is a sweet campsite I'm super stoked about this trip right now because uh just the scenery is just badass tonight's dinner is going to be a pre-made backpacking meal it's going to be the peak refuel sweet pork and rice this has recently become my very favoritest uh pre-made like store-bought backpacking meal it's delicious and I'm probably gonna be throwing some I brought my usual I brought a whole block like eight ounce block of sharp cheddar cheese brought a couple of avocados and I brought a whole 12 pack of socks like Street taco shells so I got a ton of food for this trip I'm gonna go cooking go to bed and I'll see you guys tomorrow [Applause] foreign guess I should probably get up okay it's time to get hiking so for day two I'm heading up to the Royce Lakes so I'm going to be taking this um you see this peak right here I'm going to be following it and then I'm going to be heading down the plateau that the rice Lakes are on and to the L lakes and then eventually I want to camp at puppet lake so this is completely cross country today no Trail whatsoever so I haven't done this route before so I'm not sure exactly how difficult it's going to be it's going to be a little bit of an adventure time to get hiking foreign [Applause] oon Lake behind the trees beautiful day foreign [Applause] cross country there's no Trail over here just making my own way I'm going to be following along the little Outlet stream uh that follows along Royce pass foreign pass that's where I'm going [Applause] okay there's Royce Past Dead Ahead the route finding was fairly easy uh yeah it looks like pretty straightforward cross-country hiking now [Applause] there's a panorama there I'm hiking in that right there is a treasure Benchmark that mountain and that's Roy's pass where I'm going to beautiful Alpine Meadow well that's a creek flow more than I was expecting I think that's due to a big Monsoon storm that came through this area a couple weeks ago everybody out here I've talked to has been talking about it how it's a little bit unusual to have this much Creek flow this time of year and uh that again is the area that I hiked up from yesterday those Three Lakes Pine upper Pine and honeymoon [Applause] foreign I probably could have picked a better line that wasn't so steep but uh it is what it is uh you'll notice there's Pine Creek Pass running up that way and um honey Moon Lake where I came last night is somewhere behind those rocks there and you can actually see upper Pine Lake right there so I'm finally just about above Tree Line completely it's turned out to be just a beautiful day but this is very difficult hiking in terms of cross-country passes this is actually pretty easy though so basically walking up this slab here and I'm gonna contour and make my way up that way he's just the Teeny tiniest bit of snow up there [Applause] [Applause] I'm on top of voice pass and this is Royce Lake in front of us and I'm gonna have to go kind of cross country along Royce Lake foreign [Applause] foreign [Applause] looks like there's excellent camping over here a Royce nice flat Sandy spot all right let's keep going foreign okay all right I have passed by the Royce lakes that one down there is the very last Troy's Lake yeah and up there is the glacier divide and I'm going this direction so I'm actually gonna be uh contouring along this line here making my way up over this little lip and down the other side back into French Canyon here's a more close-up shot of the glacier divide [Applause] that out there is I think it's French Lake and I believe the steelhead Lake hell Lakes and and barely even see it but that's I think puppet Lake and I'm trying to get there to camp tonight another shot of French Lake I don't know if I'm gonna walk by that or not today probably not and even more zoomed in this out here is Humphrey's Peak okay I'm making my way down back into French Canyon I think right below Pine Creek Pass from there I'm going to take French Canyon to um the L Lakes so the idea is I'm following this Outlet stream [Applause] down there is French Canyon foreign all right I've reached Pine Creek Pass so uh the honeymoon Lake that I camped at last night is just over the past there so I've kind of made a little mini loop and um going around this Lake uh the trail is literally right through this little Boulder Field right here [Applause] [Applause] well looky what we got here an actual Trail okay I'm gonna continue along French Canyon Trail and eventually make my way up to I don't know L lake or puppet Lake I'm gonna camp at one of those two Lakes that slope out there is what I distended up there is the Royce Lakes I think this is my turn right here let's see yeah says a lake that's the direction I'm heading this is the creek that's feeding French Canyon [Applause] [Applause] so those Mounds out there are the Royce Lakes Basin where I was just up at and this is kind of interesting there's actually a pretty cool waterfall coming out of the Royce Lakes Basin feeding into French Canyon foreign foreign [Applause] Lake coming up another one of many gorgeous Lakes [Applause] [Applause] if I'm not mistaken this Dead Ahead here is puppet pass [Applause] thank you I'm getting very close to L Lake okay I had a tough decision to make whether I want to camp at L lake or I want to climb up to puppet Lake this is the way for L Lake and there is a trail you kind of can't see from here but that's the direction to puppet Lake and there's a little pass that you get to to go up to it from there I started walking the way for puppet Lake and now that I see it up close I kind of don't feel like climbing up that pass I think I'm gonna just set up at L Lake early today because uh well I had enough climbing with the Royce lakes and all that so uh yeah it's gonna be a shorter day Camp two set up I got here a little earlier than expected I was originally going to go up uh to puppet Lake but once I saw the little um I guess cross-country Traverse to get up to it I was like nah no thanks I'm just gonna hang out the rest of the day eat some food maybe watch a movie or something here's where I've been pulling water from a little L Lake I thought I'd get a close-up view of the lake because why not I do have a couple of neighbors tonight about 50 feet away they arrived here like just after I got here but uh really cool dudes and I talked to them for a while they are like locals so they hike a lot out here and I told them about my plans and uh from what I said they were kind of like yeah if they actually went over puppet past yesterday and they're kind of like yeah it's a super steep head wall uh you might have a better time just going to Marion Lake right down from like the French Canyon so that's probably what I'm gonna do and I'll probably save uh the like Humphrey's Basin for when I do like a North Lake South Lake Loop trip maybe next year we'll see it's super hard to get permits for that area but yeah and then eventually I'm gonna work my way up from Miriam Lake over feather pass into the bear Lakes Basin which I hear is one of the most awesome places and the Sierras so uh that's my trip update but uh yeah it's still pretty early but thinking about making early dinner see what I got here I got a bunch of stuff uh chicken teriyaki rice pork jambalaya Mexican style adobo rice and chicken I think I'm gonna make that because I can turn this into tacos I can cut up some avocado and some cheese and put those in some little uh Street taco shells and uh it's one of my favorite uh meals lately all right so this is the Mexican style uh adobo rice and chicken got my water boil in here I've made this one a bunch of times there's like rice chicken there's zucchini Tomatoes a lot of seasonings um I think there's also pinto beans in it delicious chicken so these guys I'm camping nearby said that there was just a rock fall out this direction I don't see it at all it was like a plume of dust or something literally spooning this a little difficult to film this but here we go through the magic of video this is plated so it's the Adobo chicken rice stuff cheese avocado and some hot sauce I think this is Valentina hot sauce and uh looks like I got some on my finger so I'm going to dig into these and call it a knife see you guys tomorrow okay it's day three already packed up camp uh last night's Camp was awesome this is a really beautiful Lake I think this is what is this little L Lake I decided that I'm gonna make today kind of an easy day kind of just a leisurely day so my plan today is to head back out the way I came back down to French can Canyon head down French Canyon in short ways and then I'm going to climb up to Miriam Lake and I'm gonna Camp up there at Miriam today and that'll set me up to be able to do feather pass first thing on day four so that's the plan let's go [Applause] that over there is Moon Lake and uh that Canyon out there is where I'm going directly ahead is where Miriam lake is [Applause] [Applause] [Music] hey looks looking back at Pine Creek Pass and this here is the plateau that I hiked down yesterday from the Royce Lakes basin you see it drops precipitously kind of a big head wall and this up here is kind of the Royce Lakes Basin it's kind of hidden behind that plateau that's where it was yesterday and there's that waterfall that I was filming yesterday foreign [Applause] Canyon again I'm gonna head down I think it's about a mile maybe less so the turn off for Miriam Lake foreign here's a more close-up view of that kind of head wall along the kind of the edge of the Royce Lakes basin this is the way I'm headed Lush Green Meadows out here very very green are getting kind of the first traces of fall a few of the Pines out here are kind of turning yellow and orange [Applause] okay here's a close-up shot of that waterfall coming out of the Royce Lakes basin pretty cool foreign Creek I just crossed is being fed by that waterfall out there I guess I must be down around just over ten thousand feet because the forest has become a lot more dense I'm sure I'm enjoying the shade today it's very sunny kind of hot outside foreign [Applause] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] think I ranged my trail Junction I'm gonna be heading off to Marion Lake out through these trees quick break just right past the junction to the Merriam Lake Trail I'm looking at right behind the camera view and it just goes straight up so I'm only about a mile and a half from Miriam Lake but it is going to be very very steep that mile and a half [Music] okay this climb is about 1500 feet gain over about 1.5 miles so uh yeah it's about a thousand feet per mile thank you this Trail is like really loose and crumbly that just makes it more difficult hiking up this I'm only a few hundred feet into this Trail and look how high I've gotten French candy is way down there oh look at this a little bit of a climbing respite kind of a clearing over here I guess this is the creek that's flowing out of Miriam Lake so I guess this Creek is probably going to be next to us for the rest of the day until I make camp I must have been excited to see on this tree fell huh [Applause] [Applause] foreign next to this giant Granite Mountain I don't know what this one is called but I've been next to it most of the day so I'm almost getting above tree line and this is the direction I'm going so we can finally see kind of the area where our destination is it's actually right over there uh kind of in the granite that's where Miriam lake is and then following up this way is a canyon to LaSalle Lake and eventually feather pass where I'm going to hike tomorrow [Applause] foreign [Applause] has kind of become cross-country there's a Canon or two here and there I think I'm supposed to go up this way and up through there and Miriam lake is just kind of over kind of past Edward right here [Applause] foreign [Applause] Lake reached Miriam Lake it's beautiful Alpine Lake just gorgeous day glad that the clouds rolled in it's cooling me off a lot [Music] all right I need camp at Miriam Lake this is a beautiful campsite there's a route that goes around the lake I'm going to check it out in a little while though it was a pretty chill hike except for that last mile and a half but it was beautiful so yeah I think it's time for some food now here there's my camp it's a beautiful day for a while there it looked like we wanted to storm but it seems to be clearing up so if you see way out there there's a little waterfall kind of hard to see from here but I'm going to be contouring along the Lakeside tomorrow and then eventually I'm going to be making my way up kind of next to that waterfall I think there's a cross-country route that I can get to uh up to Lake LaSalle Lake and feather pass here's a better view of the way I'm going up tomorrow right through that little pass where that waterfall is that mountain right in the center of the frame right now is called Mount Moro and I believe these Peaks over here are unnamed strangely enough Sun just went behind the mountain to finally view Miriam Lake [Music] tonight's menu we've got the classic Mountain House chicken and dumplings those of you who's been into backpacking a long time probably know exactly what this is dumplings chicken carrots peas and gravy delicious today's hike was super cool it was pretty chill for that first few miles from L Lake down French Canyon and then uh once I hit the trail for Miriam Lake holy crap that was steep uh that reminded me a lot of when I do my sort of frequent summer hikes up the Mogan Rim I think it was exactly the same amount of elevation gain except this is at higher altitude that's the end of day three see you tomorrow okay it's time to get on a trail for day four so as you can see it's a pretty crappy view behind me uh so I would be moving on uh today I'm going to be uh heading up around the waterfall over here or maybe I'll be heading up a different way I got a route find to get up to where LaSalle Lake is and then I'm gonna head over feather pass and then into the Bear Lake's Basin and probably camped by V lake so uh here I go [Applause] foreign [Applause] so I'm trying to get up there trying to kind of make a circuitous route up through this granite this is my first time doing this feather pass route so I don't really know it's it's unmarked so I'm gonna be trying to walk up through this Granite here [Applause] [Applause] okay so I've pretty much made it on top of this a little Traverse above Miriam Lake so climbed up all of that here's Miriam there is French Canyon where I came up from yesterday just extraordinary I don't think this Basin hasn't a formal name and this is just kind of a Tarn just some random water out here so now I can see where the pass is so LaSalle Lake is kind of off in there and feather pass is I'm going to write between those two peaks right there kind of a foggy muddy area thank you [Applause] all right LaSalle Lake is right over that rock wall right there and there's kind of a shoot that's going to go up like right there so I'm going to try to hike up that thank you [Applause] all right I've reached LaSalle Lake it's a terrible View Okay so my route is supposed to take me up that but I'll do a close-up in a second there's supposed to be a shoot up here that I'm supposed to climb up still a little bit of old snow along LaSalle Lake [Applause] this is a really good sign here's Footprints over here so I think the Chute is straight this way okay it's getting a little gnarly in here [Applause] all right I need to get around this wall I've come up against because I can't climb up that I don't think it's steeper than it looks on camera but I think I can make it through these boulders right through here and I'm almost to the top of the chute [Applause] [Applause] hell is not easy and I'm still climbing up a little bit but I'm about to start the approach to feather pass real soon you can see LaSalle Lake down there and um finally on the approach to feather pass which is right there so I'm going to be heading out this way [Applause] well wouldn't it be just my luck and it looks like probably rainstorms are coming in so hopefully it's not bad weather up on feather pass I'm gonna try to beat the storm system foreign [Music] [Applause] okay I'm probably halfway up feather pass it's difficult in terms of just the elevation and just a lot of climbing but it's not super difficult in terms of technical stuff so that right there that pass will take you down back into the Royce Lakes however I was looking at it a couple days ago and it looked super Steep and Technical in nature but anyway this is a view looking down the whole basin that I climbed up from so I'm a little bit above 12 000 feet now just as firing views and hopefully I'm gonna make it before the storms get over here [Applause] nearly to the top I'm on top of feather pass this is feather Peak right here and I'm just gonna pan down to see the whole Basin that I climbed up out of sorry about the wind noise so I'm about to get a storm here so I need to start descending but let's walk over to the other side where I'm going to descend it to okay so there's a little bit of snow down there this right here is the Bear Lake's Basin I'm gonna go Contour down that eventually make my way to view Lake and the way down is apparently it's like right down there it's kind of a a little bit of a trail that goes down there it's really hard to make out but I can kind of see it down there okay I wanted to do one more pan for a little more detail so this is what I've got to climb down it's looking pretty gnarly so it's probably going to take me a little while but uh that again is the relics basin [Applause] foreign I actually came down that and had to go down this uh so that was some scrambling I didn't film it so I am making my way down so I think the route goes down through here Cuts around that snow bank and out that way kind of walking through a little Boulder chute foreign [Applause] pass um that wasn't too difficult I'd call it like a class two on this side uh probably class one on the the other side that I went up foreign [Applause] s out here I believe those signify the Sierra High route which is kind of what I'm on right now [Applause] well it's raining not too bad yet but I was expecting rain today and here it is okay I wanted to take this shot before my camera gets too wet from the rain and these are those spiers that I was just filming [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Applause] foreign back towards feather pass just kind of a desolate moonscape out here however I am about to descend into the bear Lakes basin very close to that you can actually see a trail down there pretty sweet thank you it's raining again got my main camera and this little kind of a rain jacket for the camera itself kind of goofy I guess I'm officially in the beer Lakes basin I'm actually on some solid Trail now who knows how far this good trail will go but I need to get to V Lake which is about two maybe two and a half miles foreign [Applause] ly making my way around Bearpaw Lake [Applause] all right making my way up around Bearpaw Lake and that in the center there is feather pass that I descended pretty creamy weather today but it's not terrible the rain is more of like a drizzle it's not really a downpour I was getting hailed on earlier but it wasn't bad it was just light hail anyway that's the way I'm going towards uh I don't know the rest of Bear Lake's basin one last look at feather pass this is bear paw Lake just uh gonna be crossing over it soon [Applause] in this interesting I guess I'm supposed to cross between these two Lakes like right here huh okay after Crossing that little creek now I'm next to I think this is Ursa Lake oh another kind of bear name all right so I got to continue along this way [Applause] it is still raining kind of a little bit I think it's going to be raining for the rest of the day this is kind of the barely spacing it's kind of hidden from this uh Hill in the foreground but that's all the stuff that I hiked through now let's see if I can get down to V Lake from this direction supposed to be a Sandy shoot all right there's v-lake that's where I'm planning to camp at [Applause] it's kind of looking like this is gonna go through [Applause] looking kind of Bleak out here but also very beautiful kind of a weird juxtaposition but those Lakes out there and just barely visible in distance are uh claw Lake and tooth Lake and uh you can see a smidge of V Lake right there this is the direction I'm going kind of through there I'm gonna descend down to the lake and camp [Applause] okay I found a campsite for night number four uh look at this view spectacular uh weather's been kind of crappy but uh the rain has been mostly kind of a drizzle but yeah it's time to set up camp uh what a day so in a wonderful twist of fate right as I was setting up camp this guy started clearing up that's my camp at V Lake there's still dark storm clouds out there kind of the direction I came from today hope they don't come back over here but yeah they probably will so that's V Lake It's a Long Lake keeps going out there and I think I'm going to be heading this direction tomorrow almost positive on that it turned out to be quite an adventure today was only about five or six miles but it took me about six and a half hours to hike it and the reason for that is it's just all cross country very very steep cross-country passes and a lot of Boulder scrambling makes for very slow hiking but it's also makes for very spectacular views and I'm glad I got to capture that stuff so on the mini tonight shoot I don't know there's some kind of teriyaki thing [Applause] chicken teriyaki yeah just chicken teriyaki rice it looks pretty good actually it's got a good uh smell to it yeah that's pretty good you could use some hot sauce but the flavor is like right on it's like uh so you need a chicken teriyaki bowl somewhere all right that does it for me uh because the weather's kind of been crappy so I'm not going to film anymore tonight uh so I'll see you guys tomorrow foreign [Applause] already packed up and ready to hike I kind of wanted to get on the trail as fast as I could because I'm pretty sure it's gonna storm again today plan for today is to head around the Contour of like the the that would be the Northwest side of V Lake and kind of follow its uh Outlet stream eventually I'm gonna connect up with the East Fork of Bear Creek I understand that there's a disused or unmaintained Trail eventually that you meet up with gonna be kind of Adventure of that part eventually I'm going to meet up with the GMT and then connect up with the Italy pass or Italy Lake Trail and I'll Camp probably in some of the Meadows that are kind of like a little bit below the ascent to Italy Lake that's today's plan so time to get hiking foreign Peak [Applause] [Applause] foreign this here epic peak in front of me is the Seven Gables this is one of the highlights of what I wanted to see for this trip there's a little bit of a trail along the lake which is nice [Applause] foreign [Applause] Boulders Boulders always boulders [Applause] this is gonna be our last look at V Lake in the upper bear Lakes basin what a gorgeous place one of the prettiest areas I've ever hiked I mean that sincerely so right here is the outlet stream for v-lake and that's the Seven Gables all along here and my understanding is there's a little shoot that I need to go down right here to the right of the outlet stream [Applause] okay I'm entering the shoot looks a little bit scrambly and boldly [Applause] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] noise those of you the Seven Gables a Little Closer so this is the way I'm headed I'm going to Contour around the right side of this Lake I believe you could probably see a trail down there behind where that pine tree is cam down off of that chute that was super Steep and a little bit bouldery but mostly it was like loose and Sandy kind of reminded me a little bit of like the bull Pass Trail and the superstitions we almost kind of need trekking poles of course me I'm using my tripod with my camera in place of trekking poles in case anybody asks but uh now it's kind of flattening out a little bit so uh let's keep going foreign to be a little mixed up here I climbed up high just to get a survey of the area so I think I'm gonna have to go that way and cross the creek or lake or whatever the heck this is because I was walking down there and [Applause] there's like a waterfall through there and it walks through these pine trees here but it just looks like a sheer drop off that was kind of unexpected but uh I was expecting today to be kind of a little bit challenging with the uh River Crossings so uh I'm gonna try to cross and see if that works out this is a long Crossing and I think I'm kind of at an impasse where I have to walk through deep water or something okay the water was like knee-deep right there I lost rocks to hop on so I'm gonna go up this [Applause] see if that works out okay I'm a if I had just kept going through those Pines like right through there I would have found that the trail goes through here instead I went up through this area and down that Little Chute and then I I walked along the creek and the shallow part and then I walked to this part right here and I crossed where it was shallow so don't do what I did [Applause] [Applause] foreign after that last shot I did have to forward the East Fork of Bear Creek it's not super obvious where you go and it was really like slippery rocks so I wasn't able to film it I just know if you're gonna come out here and do this route that you're gonna have to cross East Fork Bear Creek a bunch of times [Applause] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Applause] so this is the direction I'm headed straight this way they just wanted to kind of give an overview of this area because there's not much info about it like anywhere so East Fork of Bear Creek is uh this direction so I'm kind of been hiking along this sort of uh Granite I don't know what you want to call it Canyon and that's looking back the way I came from pretty pretty strong kind of Epic flowing Creek East Fork Bear Creek okay a little bit wild in here it did say unmaintained huh dozens of wrong directions out here I keep taking just over this kind of cross over to the wrong side but I looked across the way and I saw this Cairn over here this is a very adventurous route this East Fork of Bear Canyon is it's not always obvious where to go and the creek crossings are a little bit sketchy at times foreign [Applause] [Applause] [Music] so that's the way I'm headed somewhere down there is a GMT I think in a pretty spectacular view just opened up to my left basically um on the side of me is Seven Gables look at that just after that last shot the trail turns into kind of a Talus field but it's actually pretty easy and very well caring [Applause] okay as you may notice the creek is on my left side now I had to do a kind of a sketchy Crossing again at least work I actually had to use exact GPS coordinates from the guidebook I have which is Sierra South to figure out where to cross that it was not easy to find okay it's uh raining pretty good so I'm probably not going to be able to film very much until it stops but uh looks pretty amazing right now come check this out foreign close to the GMT I didn't really film very much for a while because it was raining pretty bad something you missed me filming was an actual scramble where I had to hoist my camera and tripod up on the rocks and I almost had to take my pack off but it was actually a pretty easy scramble it wasn't bad I've done harder stuff in places like Canyonlands and such but it was raining when I had to do that scramble and so the granite was all wet and it wasn't as grippy as it normally would in fact I my foot almost slipped off a couple of times so yeah once I hit the GMT I'm gonna get a hike that for about maybe a mile mile and a half until I hit the uh the Italy Lake Trail and now I'm going to take that up I think in like a couple miles not sure exactly until I find a good place to camp all right I'm now on the GMT PCT I'm not going to film very much of the JMT PCT because uh it's been a long ways to go and uh there's a lot of videos of this place on the web so it's not really the highlight of the trip for me more of a go between foreign [Music] looks like a thunderstorm is coming in okie dokie I've hit my trail Junction [Applause] so the weather's pretty crappy right now but I'm gonna go up a ways I'm probably gonna camp in a meadow somewhere along the hillgard branch which is uh I guess like a creek it's kind of a weird name for a creek [Applause] foreign [Applause] that was Thunder I saw the flash is not that far away I might need to Camp sooner than later I don't want to be up too high in the storm [Applause] yeah it's raining a lot again so I can't use my main camera but the conditions are pretty bad out here right now so I'm not going to film very much of this until it clears up in fact I might not film much more until I camp foreign [Applause] welcome to my humble abode I hiked through a thunderstorm that was at least two hours long lots of thunder and lightning it's pretty sketchy at times I'm by the hilgird branch so I'm near water but it's everything's just wet out here hey it finally stopped raining there's my camp some tucked off in the forest the Italy Lake Trail is kind of right behind those kind of logs over there and uh let's go take a look around here Okay so the hillgard branch is just over here and think of what else to film other than my water source because there's really not much to see over here I'm just kind of tucked off in the trees so there is a little bit of a view from the Hilgard branch which I'll film in a sec right so this is the Hillyard branch this is my water source for today and uh you can't really see this view from my campsite but it's certainly certainly not far from my campsite and it just got really cold and dark out here it's only 6 p.m it gets dark usually around just after eight so I think there's gonna be more storms rolling in I thought it was going to clear up I saw blue skies for a second there but yeah I think it's just gonna storm on and off the rest of the night today's hike was really cool a waking up at V leg was a beautiful view of course and then there was a trail along it which kind of surprised me the trail was pretty much there like the entire way all the way down to the GMT um it was pretty hit or in missed in spots um there was like that shoot that guy got all bouldery for a sec but that was really no big deal it was kind of kind of uh loose and Sandy but it was really not a problem but really through a curveball in my way was all the creek crossings of the East Fork of Bear Creek and kind of there was a little bit of Route finding even though there were Cairns everywhere it was kind of confusing kind of a lot of turning around and trying to figure out like do I cross here do I keep going down further but yeah once I got down to the GMT it was smooth sailing I probably only hiked um a little over seven miles maybe seven and a half miles today that was pretty short day be as soon as I hit the Italy Lake Trail that's when like the thunderstorm really started kicking in full gear and I had to put on my rain gear and it was just kind of just a downpour for the rest of the day so looks like it's starting to rain again actually right now so um anyway I think this is going to be the end of day five see you tomorrow morning it's day six getting a late start today I spent the whole morning kind of drying out all my stuff plan for the days to hike up around Italy Lake and over Italy pass probably going to camp at Granite Park foreign Trail who uh got a late start like I said it's actually like 11 30 right now so I'm gonna probably be hiking until fairly late today good news is it doesn't get dark till about 8 P.M so I got all day [Applause] there's a few downed trees through here make it under whoo [Applause] foreign [Applause] thank you way cool oh I wasn't expecting this oh it's kind of rough through here so this is all the hillgard branch which is the same Creek that I was camping by last night [Applause] [Applause] foreign [Applause] I've been walking out on these granite slabs and you want to avoid this dark stuff this is water flowing down but it's kind of like a slick kind of a sludgy-ness to it it's kind of the same thing as desert varnish almost and this looking back the way I came from this is the view along the hillgard branch there's hillgard Branch a basin that I climbed up from I hope it doesn't rain again the weather's going to do what it's going to do so uh I don't know if I'm gonna cross this hillgood Branch soon or if I'm going to go up to the left so it's going up this way I see Karen's way way up here so I'm going up the granite still you guys should be walking up really steep slopes of granite on this route all right I've reached a spot where it kind of flattens out I hope that's looking back the way it came from gorgeous Mountain View day [Applause] that's some kind of pass out there but that's not what I'm taking I'm actually heading uh this way I'm getting kind of close to Italy Lake it's just through those uh kind of that pass right there hey buddy hmm well have a nice day Mr Margaret so uh Italy lake is just over this little hump here [Applause] okay reached Italy Lake I got a contour along this Lake and then I think uh next Lake will be jumbo Lake and then we'll be ascending over Italy pass foreign [Applause] just barely contouring the shoreline here [Applause] [Applause] this is looking back the way I came from really nice view of Italy Lake out here and then some epic mountains I couldn't figure out the name of them on the map can you tell me in the comments if you know what the names of these mountains are but anyway um so I'm not too far from the opening to Italy pass so we're going here and I think we're going up this way and Italy passes right there this is okay I'm gonna start making my way up towards jumbo Lake and then Italy pass [Applause] foreign [Applause] jumbo lake is aptly named this is just basically surrounded by boulders I very much doubt it's campable so there's the trail ahead and Italy pass to the very left right there [Applause] foreign tough climb I'm not done yet I just hit about 11 900 feet and uh so I think about another 600 feet to climb before I'm completely over Italy pass foreign [Applause] should be able to make out some Cairns up there so I'm still climbing up that's not quite the top I don't think but uh I am nearing the top so there's kind of the knife's edge of whatever this is I guess just Italy pass and then down there is a basin that I climbed up from pretty awful View that up there is the top it'll be passed some bad clouds are coming in so I had to kind of Hurry Up This [Applause] oh wow [Music] this is crazy okay I am on top of Italy pass this is the last cross-country pass of the trip so pretty much done with all the climbing for the rest of the trip it's all downhill back to the car so this down here is called a granite Park and um it actually is closer to Honeymoon Lake than I thought it would be so basically I'm going to be going down that way and then I'm going to be going down that to the kind of that outlet of granite Park and down in that direction is honeymoon Lake where I camped on night one so I might just Camp down there that way it's a shorter walk to the car tomorrow and right through there is the Royce Lakes where I went on D2 so pretty good feeling to have looped around finally and way out there very distant view of Mount Humphrey's [Applause] foreign oon Lake I need to drop over 2 000 feet in elevation so it's gonna be quite The Descent but I'm sure I'm glad it's not climbing [Applause] [Applause] Granite Park [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Granite Park is just beautiful there are some people camped out here seems like a really popular area [Applause] [Applause] well isn't this a familiar sight camped at honeymoon Lake again so tomorrow's hike back to the car is the exact same as day one but in Reverse but because of that I'm not gonna film anything tomorrow so that means I'm gonna go ahead and end this video here I want to talk about this route let's trip a little bit I did three cross-country passes on this one the first one being right over here the Royce Lakes I guess pass and then I did feather pass and then I did Italy pass today and it's hard to say which one is the hardest I know the Royce pass was the by far the easiest feather pass in Italy pass were probably equal in terms of difficulty in fact it probably would rate feather more difficult out of all three of them because one there's really no Trail at all it's completely cross country whereas there is a trail with Italy pass and with feather pass there was like actual class two almost class two plus kind of minor scramble link and then the approach to it was just super long and very kind of not technical but very just difficult hiking a a number of different shoots uh so uh yeah feather pass Takes the Cake um it's not exactly what I would call like hard in terms of technical difficulty whatsoever it just is a difficult pass in terms of the vibe it was actually really chill out here it was not as crowded as I was expecting it to be long time viewers on my channel will remember I did a hike in the Ansel Adams Wilderness about a year before this and it was super crowded whereas on this trip I saw a few people here and there and and I talked to a few people and they were all really really cool people but for the most part this place has pretty much I was just on my own alone because of that I get a real actual Wilderness Vibe out of this place for example Miriam Lake in terms of how like remote and isolated it is and how beautiful it is has to be up there probably my top five top three campsites ever just in astounding place it's almost too difficult to like pick what was my favorite part of the trip I I liked kind of all of it even though it was very challenging with all those passes so I do want to come back to the Sierra trying to make this like a yearly thing we'll see if it happens but uh yeah I'm super tired it's been a long trip and I'm ready for food so I'm gonna end this video here like if you like And subscribe for more see you next time

Channel: Wildland Explorer

Views: 25,069

Keywords: WildWestHikes, Backpacking, Hiking, California, Sierra, JMT, John Muir Trail, Outside, Hike, Sierra Nevada, Bear Lakes Basin, Feather Pass, PCT, Pacific Crest, Pacific Crest Trail, John Muir Wilderness, Bishop, Bishop CA, Mountains, Wilderness, Camping, Sierra High Route, V Lake, Vee Lake, L Lake, Merriam, Mariam, Merriam Lake, Italy Pass, Granite Park, Honeymoon Lake, Pine Creek, Pine Creek Pass, French Canyon, Hilgard Branch, Royce, Royce Lakes

Id: 8exEZpUxx58

Length: 119min 59sec (7199 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 16 2022