Just got back from a solo clockwise loop with nights at Pinto, Little 5, and Lost Creek. Lucked out with the weather - barely a cloud in the sky the entire time (though going up Black Rock, I would have killed for some).
I went in knowing that Mineral King Road is undergoing construction, with posted "Road Closed 1000-1600" - what I needed to know in addition to that is you need to be at the END of the road at 1000, which is past Silver City. So don't expect to head in at 0945 thinking they'll let you through. I started in at 0845 and I think I may have been the last car allowed in that morning.
First things first - I hated hiking up Black Rock Pass. My pack was still essentially full (50+ pounds - I know...) after just one night at Pinto, and it's a long, boring, no-shade, monotonous slog up. Sure, looking over at the Cliff Creek waterfall, Spring Lake, and Cyclamen Lake is a beautiful view, but it gets old real quick. It took me about five hours to get up; the last two I was second guessing everything.
I eventually made it to the top after more switchback breaks than I could count (the rules say you're allowed to stand at the bend in the switchbacks indefinitely) and enjoyed a late lunch with a group of four guys from San Diego that I had been leapfrogging. They were headed for Soda Creek and Franklin Pass.
Down at Little Five, I stayed at the large lake (with the ranger station) on the northern peninsula that juts into the lake. Caught some fish, read in my chair, cooked some chow... My site was nice, but a lot of the choice sites had "Restoration Site - No Camping" signs in them, which seemed overkill for a completely empty lake. Didn't hear or see another soul at the lake.
My original plan was to spend one night each at Pinto, Little Five, Big Five, and Lost Canyon. Somewhere I had read that Sawtooth Pass (out of Columbine Lake) was tougher than Black Rock and that really got my mind going... I kept thinking back to how miserable Black Rock had been and if Sawtooth was even worse, oh boy... I enjoyed a great night at Little Five, but overnight decided I wanted to get Sawtooth Pass out of the way ASAP (so so dreading it), and thus spend my extra night at Monarch Lake.
Big Mistake.
So in the morning I hiked right past the turnoff to Big Five Lakes and hiked down to Lost Canyon - a beautiful downhill with shade and a fishing stop at the lower Big Five Lake. I had considered staying at the campsites right at the junction of the trails, but was feeling great and wanted to keep going - super glad I did. Lost Canyon is a very gentle uphill along the stream, and maybe a mile up I came to an incredible campsite nestled in the trees not quite far enough from the trail, but good access to deepish pools in the stream to take a bath, a big fire ring with somebody's leftover firewood, perfectly flat, around eight cleared tent sites, and rock seats for the same number. Spectacular, and so as not to gatekeep, 36.46502° N, 118.51647° W. It's just shy of the 10000 foot mark. Pretty ideal. I had a great night there and saw two people all day.
The next day I was gearing up for the worst but Sawtooth Pass turned out to be a very fun climb and descent. The meadow at the end of Lost Canyon is gorgeous and gives an idyllic runway to the climb up to Columbine Lake. The switchbacks are tiring as they are wont to be, but having a beautiful halftime at Columbine is fun. Gorgeous lake, but for the life of me I couldn't catch a single fish (and none swimming near the shore like all the other lakes) - I'll continue to think I'm a superb fisherman and there are just no fish in the lake.
The back end is what I suppose some people don't like - the route finding, scrambling, searching for cairns to find the trail. It was so much fun for me, and distracted from the fact that I'm on all fours with my heavy pack heaving myself up huge talus. I don't want to say it's not tiring - it's just different, beautiful, I had a cool stiff breeze, and the time passes without getting monotonous at all. I regret pushing myself to get it over with and missing what would likely have been a gorgeous night at Big Five.
Day hikers were at the top having lunch and we chatted, and the did the Choose Your Own Adventure scree ski down the back. There are literally a hundred "trails" down and it's fun to mix up some traverse with sliding. I loved going down (not so much my knees) and arrived at Lower Monarch Lake.
I can't tell you how disappointed I was to get there and see that there is absolutely no shade whatsoever. There's scrub brush, a bunch of big rocks that depending on the height of the sun you might be able to hide in the shade of, and a big shitter in the middle of it all. After my previous night I was crestfallen with my decision to get back over the Great Western Divide so quickly. The day hikers were a bit obnoxiously loud and I realized that if I stayed I would be stuck in my tent for shade, and since still 4.5 miles out, might miss the AM road opening if I stayed overnight.
So I hiked out, I'm sorry to say. I had an itinerary that I had planned months in advance, but belief in what turned out to be crappy data on the internet got the best of me and I messed with what would have been a great plan. My five day solo trip turned into a four day trip and I think I missed out on what would have been a killer stay in Big FIve. Lesson learned.
