Fun fact: when attempting to get permits for our August trip with Chris last year, we actually tried to get permits for both THIS trailhead, and out of Rush Creek, which we did with Chris back in June. And without even doing it intentionally, we were able to do both of those trips this year!
I love our new tradition of an August get-away with Jon’s longtime friend, Chris. Fishing is always a priority, and I’m happy that Tessa and I get another excuse for a trip to the mountains. Chris had recently gone backpacking out of Pine Creek, and knew the fishing was awesome, so we were stoked to snag last minute permits out of Pine Creek for our trip.
We zipped up to Mammoth on Friday morning and hit the trail around 1:30 PM. The trail starts pretty low – around 7,000’ and climbs up to over 9,000’. So it was a bit of a grind in the heat that first day and we forgot Tessa’s cooling vest, so we took lots of rest in the shade when she asked for it. Given how quickly we’d be going up in elevation, we planned for a short day – only hiking in about 4.5 miles to Lower Pine Lake. But we ascended about 2,400’ in that distance so it definitely wasn’t an “easy” day!
The climb up was more enjoyable than the hike out of Rush Creek, so that was nice. We found a great campsite just off trail and not too far from the lake, and the guys got to work fishing. We were located just under this amazing mountain face of striped stone. I’ve never seen anything like it! Just incredible.
We had a relaxing morning the next day, then made our way up and over Pine Creek Pass. Once over the pass, we traversed this huge basin to reach Moon Lake, which was also right by L Lake and below Star Lake. The fishing was very good at all three lakes, and the guys basically disappeared fishing for the afternoon and evening. Which I didn’t mind – I was reading a good book and what can be better than relaxing high in the mountains? It seemed like we were the only ones at the lake, but on our hike out the next day we crossed paths with another group that had been staying at L Lake, but we never saw or heard them!
In the early evening, I met back up with the guys and we all scrambled up to Star Lake. And it was a literal rock scramble to get up there! Tessa did great – she’s fearless on the rocks. Which makes me nervous, but everyone stayed safe on the way up AND down. The guys had a blast at Star Lake, and caught a ton of Golden Trout, which would be our dinner tonight.
Normally we boil the fish in the JetBoil, but it leaves the pot a bit funky, so we brought Jon’s backpacking skillet on this trip to try out. We filled the pan with water and kind of simmered the fish in the shallow water, and it worked out pretty good! Except that we kept accidentally tipping the pan over and splashing Jon with the hot water (sorry, babe!). But overall, this seemed like a more effective way to cook fish and didn’t add too much additional weight, so we’ll just have to work on our technique.
As seems to be what we always do, Sunday was an early morning since we had the hike out and then drive home. Chris had gotten up even earlier than us so that he could tag a peak and then regroup with us at the Pass. As we were packing up camp, we were treated to a herd of deer in the field behind us! Moon Lake sits at nearly 11,000’ so Jon was really surprised to see them so high up!
The hike out was rather uneventful, but it got pretty hot for Tessa as we descended in elevation – it was probably in the 80’s when we reached the car. She’s definitely more of a mountain elevation dog, and it was good that this trip was so high up (most of the weekend spent above 10,000’ – which made the weather perfect since it was like over 100 degrees in Bishop). Another very successful trip in the books.
Trip Stats:
3 days, 2 nights
23 miles and 4,950′ elevation gain
RaimerAdventures 
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