SHigSpeed
09-26-2010, 09:09 PM
So those who know me and follow my shenanigans are aware that of late I've been scratching a new back-country itch. First it was a couple of "break-in" strolls up hills, then a moderate hike up to the faucet that feeds Tahoe and Pyramid. This time, I wanted gold! Golden trout, that is.
A good friend of mine told me of an adventure he took a couple of years ago where he hiked to a lake that was said to harbor golden trout at 9000 feet in the Mokolumne Wilderness. Sounded cool, but the stories of a somewhat strenuous hike and an treacherous road in to the trailhead (at least in anything less than a SUV) had kept me at bay until now.
Being as how I have a car more suited to on-track giggles vs. off-road crawling, I needed an accomplice. I hit up Blueracer and asked if he was up for a "somewhat bumpy road to a stroll in the mountains". <LOL>
Being game, we bailed out of work Friday with a couple of boards ("just in case" the road was in disrepair), packs, tubes, and a sense of adventure.
We left the valley at the crack of o'dark-thirty and hit the road.
Sure enough, the pavement ended, and then there was washboard dirt. Then more rocks and potholes to dodge, then there might as well have been a sign that said "Abandon all hope all ye who pass this point":
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4131/5023715465_a32bd1979b_z_d.jpg
Heh... This ought to be good. By this time Bryan may have been looking at me a bit sideways, but I wasn't going to make eye contact. He may see the fear (and excitement?) in my eyes...
Here is a pic of some road repair... You may not be able to tell but it's heavily rutted dirt with exposed boulders - and it's pretty steeply uphill.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4112/5023645441_4db1234713_z_d.jpg
Pretty sketchy stuff, but with a little rocking, and a little momentum, we made it up, over, and through without tearing out the exhaust or getting high centered.
Though there were a bunch of other spots where the ruts were deep and the washouts blocked the road, we managed to get to the trailhead without needing the boards again, but there was a lot of walking around and scratching of heads at the various obstacles. Fun! And glad we did it, but next time let's borrow a truck?
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4112/5024248580_a50de9592c_z_d.jpg
The hiking then commenced. Trailhead was at around 8100 feet, but it turns out that the total climbing (though the lake was at 9000) was more like 1300 feet over 5 miles. The vistas were amazing though! A few samples:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4088/5023670449_983b3874f6_b_d.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4152/5023668567_35ecf1817e_z_d.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4125/5023708575_d2d213e48e_z_d.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4088/5024321376_2ca552e8fa_z_d.jpg
On the last bit of up and up and up, I started to lose some steam and Bryan scrambled ahead. Guess I need more excercise! He got to the lake maybe 20 minutes before me and had already gotten his tube set up by the time I crested the rim.
Though I was out of breath and hot (though the weather was GREAT - still cool in the morning with a slight breeze), what welcomed me was amazing!:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4125/5024325356_663758fd5a_b_d.jpg
I've only seen photos of this lake with the clearest of water, but I guess the pollen has blown in and there was a bit of an algae bloom as well. What was amazing was that there was a HUGE hatch of flying ants and the entire lake surface was littered with them. As soon as the breeze died, the fish would start picking off these drowned critters in the schmutz. You'd see black swirls of clear water in a slick of pollen every time a fish would come up and suck something down. What was great to see was small fish. From four inches and up - this means that there's spawning going on. The lake hasn't been planted in years and there's no real inlet or outlet stream so they seemed to have made a go of it.
Time to fish! I blow up my "punkin'" tube, don the waders and fins, and head out.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4104/5025448866_f0f433156d_z_d.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4131/5023698113_b56902ce60_z_d.jpg
Damn if these guys weren't picky sons-a-#%#*$(s. I tried my whole dry fly box from hoppers to, yup, black ants. I finally got one on an EHC.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/5024303946_9cd9e9b8b2_z_d.jpg
From the looks of it, it's a golden/Lahontan hybrid.
From then on, I didn't get any more on top. Nor did I get any more goldens. I had to pull out my deep sinker and strip. Example of the Lahontans I did catch for the rest of the trip:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4127/5023701707_aea07689cf_z_d.jpg
Bryan did a bit better than I, and had on a big dog at one point but it came unbuttoned. Funny thing was that these LCT were much harder fighters for their size than those I've caught before in the past. Perhaps the mykiss genetics have made them better, stronger, faster?
By this time it was getting on in the day and we had a long walk and a mini-Rubicon ahead of us so we had to pack up and say goodbye.
The walk back, though 1300 feet of descent, included those dreaded 400 feet of climb, much of it as we neared the car. Tired from a long day, but pumped from a great day, we finally made it back to the car.
With a bit of confidence gained from the drive in, we made much better time on the way out, but the last bit of the nasty bit was still a bit daunting...
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/5024247270_23e5576f34_b_d.jpg
Still, we made it out without breaking anything, and were back on the road home, tired and with a feeling of accomplishment.
Though we didn't get any pure gold, I've seen enough photos to know that they're in there. Maybe when the water's clearer and there's less free food lying about, we'd have better luck. Still, it beats the drive down to the GTW. I think if I go up again it may be an overnight affair, or maybe I'll try for another known gold-fish bowl in our neck of the woods.
Ah adventure...
_SHig
A good friend of mine told me of an adventure he took a couple of years ago where he hiked to a lake that was said to harbor golden trout at 9000 feet in the Mokolumne Wilderness. Sounded cool, but the stories of a somewhat strenuous hike and an treacherous road in to the trailhead (at least in anything less than a SUV) had kept me at bay until now.
Being as how I have a car more suited to on-track giggles vs. off-road crawling, I needed an accomplice. I hit up Blueracer and asked if he was up for a "somewhat bumpy road to a stroll in the mountains". <LOL>
Being game, we bailed out of work Friday with a couple of boards ("just in case" the road was in disrepair), packs, tubes, and a sense of adventure.
We left the valley at the crack of o'dark-thirty and hit the road.
Sure enough, the pavement ended, and then there was washboard dirt. Then more rocks and potholes to dodge, then there might as well have been a sign that said "Abandon all hope all ye who pass this point":
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4131/5023715465_a32bd1979b_z_d.jpg
Heh... This ought to be good. By this time Bryan may have been looking at me a bit sideways, but I wasn't going to make eye contact. He may see the fear (and excitement?) in my eyes...
Here is a pic of some road repair... You may not be able to tell but it's heavily rutted dirt with exposed boulders - and it's pretty steeply uphill.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4112/5023645441_4db1234713_z_d.jpg
Pretty sketchy stuff, but with a little rocking, and a little momentum, we made it up, over, and through without tearing out the exhaust or getting high centered.
Though there were a bunch of other spots where the ruts were deep and the washouts blocked the road, we managed to get to the trailhead without needing the boards again, but there was a lot of walking around and scratching of heads at the various obstacles. Fun! And glad we did it, but next time let's borrow a truck?
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4112/5024248580_a50de9592c_z_d.jpg
The hiking then commenced. Trailhead was at around 8100 feet, but it turns out that the total climbing (though the lake was at 9000) was more like 1300 feet over 5 miles. The vistas were amazing though! A few samples:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4088/5023670449_983b3874f6_b_d.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4152/5023668567_35ecf1817e_z_d.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4125/5023708575_d2d213e48e_z_d.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4088/5024321376_2ca552e8fa_z_d.jpg
On the last bit of up and up and up, I started to lose some steam and Bryan scrambled ahead. Guess I need more excercise! He got to the lake maybe 20 minutes before me and had already gotten his tube set up by the time I crested the rim.
Though I was out of breath and hot (though the weather was GREAT - still cool in the morning with a slight breeze), what welcomed me was amazing!:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4125/5024325356_663758fd5a_b_d.jpg
I've only seen photos of this lake with the clearest of water, but I guess the pollen has blown in and there was a bit of an algae bloom as well. What was amazing was that there was a HUGE hatch of flying ants and the entire lake surface was littered with them. As soon as the breeze died, the fish would start picking off these drowned critters in the schmutz. You'd see black swirls of clear water in a slick of pollen every time a fish would come up and suck something down. What was great to see was small fish. From four inches and up - this means that there's spawning going on. The lake hasn't been planted in years and there's no real inlet or outlet stream so they seemed to have made a go of it.
Time to fish! I blow up my "punkin'" tube, don the waders and fins, and head out.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4104/5025448866_f0f433156d_z_d.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4131/5023698113_b56902ce60_z_d.jpg
Damn if these guys weren't picky sons-a-#%#*$(s. I tried my whole dry fly box from hoppers to, yup, black ants. I finally got one on an EHC.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/5024303946_9cd9e9b8b2_z_d.jpg
From the looks of it, it's a golden/Lahontan hybrid.
From then on, I didn't get any more on top. Nor did I get any more goldens. I had to pull out my deep sinker and strip. Example of the Lahontans I did catch for the rest of the trip:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4127/5023701707_aea07689cf_z_d.jpg
Bryan did a bit better than I, and had on a big dog at one point but it came unbuttoned. Funny thing was that these LCT were much harder fighters for their size than those I've caught before in the past. Perhaps the mykiss genetics have made them better, stronger, faster?
By this time it was getting on in the day and we had a long walk and a mini-Rubicon ahead of us so we had to pack up and say goodbye.
The walk back, though 1300 feet of descent, included those dreaded 400 feet of climb, much of it as we neared the car. Tired from a long day, but pumped from a great day, we finally made it back to the car.
With a bit of confidence gained from the drive in, we made much better time on the way out, but the last bit of the nasty bit was still a bit daunting...
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/5024247270_23e5576f34_b_d.jpg
Still, we made it out without breaking anything, and were back on the road home, tired and with a feeling of accomplishment.
Though we didn't get any pure gold, I've seen enough photos to know that they're in there. Maybe when the water's clearer and there's less free food lying about, we'd have better luck. Still, it beats the drive down to the GTW. I think if I go up again it may be an overnight affair, or maybe I'll try for another known gold-fish bowl in our neck of the woods.
Ah adventure...
_SHig