North Lake to South Lake via Lamarck Col July 23-24, 2009

Our guests on this trip were a group of fun loving adventurous guys from Orange County who wanted to do an overnight backpack trip and cover lots of mileage.  After considering several trip options we settled on this loop trip.  This route covered a lot of ground over two days.  In addition to the 35+ miles our elevation gained and lost added to the challenge.  Starting at 9250+ feet we hiked up to Lamarck Col at almost 13,000′ then descended down to the John Muir Trail where we ended up at Wanda Lake at 11,426′ 12 hours after we began.  After a good dinner of pad thai with shrimp and vegetables we went to sleep prepared to wake early for day 2.

We woke early and were hiking before 7 AM.  A short ascent got us to Muir Pass at 12,000 feet then a long very scenic drop in elevation over a 7 mile period as we headed south on the John Muir Trail.  We turned off the JMT at the LeConte ranger station at 8900 feet.  The next 6.6 miles was an ascent through Dusy Basin to Bishop Pass at 11,972′.  Finally we descended the last 6 miles down the Bishop Pass trail to the South Lake trailhead at 9600+ feet.

The weather has isolated storm cells around but none of them ever got near us so we stayed dry the whole time.  The scenery was gorgeous the whole time.  The Sierra wildflowers were in full bloom.  The scenery included an abundance of blue alpine lakes, meadows, pine trees, white granite spires, and patches of snow.   A great time was had by all and we celebrated that evening in Bishop with a big dinner at Whiskey Creek.