Klaus made his inaugural trip from Georgia back to California for his Sierra hike. Uwe put together a flexible itinerary to cover several routes over Piute Pass north of Bishop.
We spent the first night at Jefferies Campground where we had a nice steak cook-out and a nice bottle of wine to celebrate with Klaus. After a short drive to the trailhead the next morning, we started up to Piute Pass. Water was plentiful and waterfalls spilled down Bishop Creek in many places.
Gallery 1: Flowers still blooming while fall colors have already arrived. (click on any image to enlarge/start slideshow)
We made it to Piute Pass mid-afternoon and decided to head for Muriel Lake instead of Summit Lake. Srisuda explored this lake 2 years ago when Uwe and I summited Four Gables Mountain. We found a nice, but scattered campsite which would be our base for 2 nights. The next morning, we headed toward Goethe Lake with the original plan to summit Muriel Mountain via Alpine Col. However, reaching Goethe Lake we scanned the approach to Alpine Col and decided with the snow fields and with Uwe’s cast on his forearm, the climb was not in the cards that day.
Gallery 2: Perfect conditions, now clouds, now wind. (click on any image to enlarge/start slideshow)
After dinner back at camp, we climbed a small ridge and watched a beautiful sunset in the west over the Sierra, then 15 minutes later, turned east and watched a spectacular full moon rise above the Sierra. Quite an experience.
It grew very cold this night and frost was on all our gear the next morning. After warming up, we decided to head out of the mountains instead of camping one more night. Cold and snow were predicted and we were not up for that.