We try to go on one “difficult” backpacking trip per year. This year we did the Bear Lakes loop, with our old friend Vicky and new friend Laurel. Kristen fondly remembers doing this trip with Steve, Matt, and Karoline when she was 16, and has been talking about it ever since I met her.
For reference, we are using a version of the trip description from the Sierra South book, by Morey & White. We are hoping this post will fill in some gaps in detail, and set expectations for anyone hoping to do this trip in the future.
Day 0: Driving in
Bear Diversion Dam OHV road – an easy section
Our Expedition at the end of the Bear Diversion Dam OHV road
The trip starts at the end of the Bear Diversion Dam OHV road, which is a 2.5-mile off-road trail. Basically it’s an unmaintained double track that goes over granite slabs, and has some loose, steep sections and lots of big rocks. In the Sierra South book, they say that only high-clearance vehicles can make it over the road, and that the “typical urban SUV” cannot pass the road. When Kristen did the hike 13 years ago, they parked at the start of the road and hiked the whole thing. We wanted to drive the road but were a bit worried, since our Expedition is somewhere between a pickup truck and an “urban SUV.”
As it turns out, the book is completely wrong about this one. Our truck was fine. We did not see any other modified or raised trucks at the dam – it was mostly pickups, large SUVs (Suburbans, etc.), and there was even a Honda CRV that passed the road. I think if you have a basic understanding of how to take a line, what types of angles (up/down/high-center) might be dangerous for your car, and are willing to move a few rocks around, it’s not a big deal. Put it in 4-high, turn off the traction control, and away you go. It took about 45 minutes on the way in, and about 30 on the way out since we knew what we were dealing with.
Anyway, we arrived at the dam around 5pm, and set up camp. I went fishing in the reservoir, and caught a large brown trout!
Day 1 – Bear Diversion Dam to Hilgard Meadow (~10 miles, ~2,500ft ascent)
Us on the way up Bear Creek
Getting water at the incredible Hilgard Meadow
Day 1 was an access day. We were packed up and off by 9:30am. The first part of the hike took us up the Bear Creek drainage, and was mostly wooded, though with great views of the Bear Creek river. The river was flowing modestly and beautifully over granite slabs.
After 6.5 miles, the trail hits the JMT/PCT, which is more or less the superhighway of the Sierra. It is impeccably maintained and marked. We saw a few of what appeared to be through-hikers. By this point I was feeling the altitude, and we stopped for lunch to re-charge. I took diamox, which is a miracle drug if you get altitude sickness like I do, but it doesn’t help you get up the elevation – it just takes away the migraine and nausea so you can function.
After roughly 2 miles on the JMT, we took the turnoff onto the Italy Pass trail. After a bit of a climb over some slabs, and a bit of route-finding as the trail became faint, we made it to Hilgard Meadow.
Hilgard Meadow is really incredible. A stream meanders through the flat grassy expanse, and the area is framed by several bare granite peaks, including Mount Hilgard. I can’t even imagine what it is like in the early Summer when the wildflowers are out.
We camped just beyond the meadow, arriving aroung 3:30pm (so ~6ish hours on trail), and had an extremely cold night – it got down below freezing and we had ice on our tent the next morning.
Day 2: Hilgard Meadow to Vee Lake (~10 miles, ~2600ft ascent)
Hilgard Meadow as seen from the ascent to Lake Italy
The path from Lake Italy to Jumble Lake – a disaster of scree the entire way
The four of us at the saddle above the Bear Lakes
Vee Lake at sunset
Alright, here we go. Thinking about this day still makes me hurt. We were on trail from 9:30am until 7:30pm. It took 10 hours to go 10 miles, so roughly 1 mph. We are all very fit – the terrain is what killed us.
For anyone who happens to stumble across this blog, I am going to lay out the correct way to do this. Because we did not do it correctly. We . . . let’s say . . . learned a lot about cross-country route finding above 12,000ft.
First off, everything from Hilgard Meadow to the saddle above Jumble Lake is a complete disaster of granite debris. Where Yosemite Park granite is smooth and flowing, Muir Wilderness granite is broken and otherworldly. The route requires a significant amount of boulder-hopping and hand-over-hand scrambling, through talus fields, loose scree, and granite boulder moraines. Which is way harder than it sounds with a full pack on your back.
The CORRECT route to get up and over the saddle
From Hilgard meadow, follow the trail along the easy, flat section until you begin to climb. The trail quickly turns to granite talus, and you’ll be hopping boulders on the way up the river valley until you’re even with Teddy Bear Lake. Make sure and take a look back at Hilgard Meadow – the river valley is very beautiful from the trail. The critical point will be where to cross from the left side of the river to the right side (West to East). We crossed too late, and ended up doing far more boulder hopping than is necessary. Instead, cross the river at the nice flat-ish section before the final ascent to Lake Italy, not too far past the Teddy Bear Lake inlet. The trail is much easier on the right hand (East) side of the river. We probably wasted 30-45 minutes and a good amount of safety on the wrong side.
Next big thing – I’m pretty sure there is a trail somewhere about 30-50 vertical feet above Lake Italy. We stayed down by the shore, which is again a disaster of boulders, requiring tedious negotiation. We did not arrive at the far side of Lake Italy for lunch until something like 2pm.
Lake Italy itself is totally otherworldly. It is framed in nearly 360 degrees by high, bare peaks. Broken granite lines its shores, and the buff mountainous landscape in the near distance is foreboding. It is a place that looks as rugged as can be. There are no trees, and very few plants. Everywhere is rock. It is at the same time beautiful, strange, lonely, and peaceful.
From Lake Italy, there isn’t much of a trail. You go up the right side of the drainage coming down from Jumble, which is difficult to identify. They key thing here is to cross to the left (North) side of the lake early. As soon as you get up the initial slope from Lake Italy, cross the drainage and head for the left margin of Jumble Lake. Do not get lulled into thinking you can make easy progress on the right (South) side of the lake. There is a nice, flat, mostly boulder-free area that leads up to the lake’s moraine on the South side. The moraine is pretty, but looked impossible to cross. This is a dead end.
Now is where it gets tricky. Follow the faint cairns up the slope from Jumble Lake, heading toward Italy Pass. The route gets very steep as it approaches a bench (which you cannot see from below). Sierra South tells you to turn South (right) off the trail just below some granite ledges. These were fairly easy to identify – about 20ft high vertical slabs. There are some cairns if you turn off here.
From this point, DO NOT FOLLOW ANY MORE CAIRNS. There is a trail of cairns leading to absolutely nowhere up the slope. We followed those damn cairns, which were hard to find, all the way up to about 12,300ft. The intention was to climb up to the elevation of the saddle, then make our way around the rim of the bowl and over to the saddle itself. This is not possible, or at least not possible in any reasonable amount of time.
Instead, once you turn off the trail below the granite ledges, start heading further south. You can gain a little bit of elevation, but your target at this point is to aim directly for the pass. The bowl has two drainages, separated by a nose in the middle. The Italy Pass trail follows the Northern (left) drainage. You need to get into the Southern (right) drainage. After you exit the trail about 50ft below the ledges, keep heading south at near constant elevation, over a nose into the South drainage.
Now, you should be at a relatively flat spot in the Southern drainage. If you’re above the flat spot, go down to it. If you don’t see a flat spot, keep going up and over.
Now look at the saddle. There are two clear features leading up to it: a vertical indentation (likely a drainage), and an angled indentation, which goes from upper left to lower right as you look at the saddle. Aim for the angled indentation. Once you get onto this slope, the going isn’t too bad, and you can pick your way up to the saddle relatively quickly.
The saddle as viewed from the top of the false cairn trail. 45-degree cut is visible to the left of the shadow on right side of the pic. Flat area for crossing drainage at lower right of pic.
The CORRECT route to get from the saddle to Vee Lake
At the far side of the long saddle lies the prize. The view of Bear Lakes and the surrounding area is so spectacular and unexpected, we all stopped and stared. The labor of the last 8 hours was forgotten, worry about the quickly failing daylight was put on hold, and we just took it in (and took some pictures as well). The view from here is one of the best I have ever seen.
Going from the saddle to Vee Lake is a pretty easy affair. The initial drop-off to White Bear Lake is steep, sandy, and loose. Beyond that, the terrain is quite easy. Just make the correct turns as indicated by the map – stay to the right (North) of White Bear, right (North) of Big Bear, left (South) of LIttle Bear, and then every time you hit a fork in the road, go left until you get the Vee Lake. It’s mostly down, but there is a slight incline in the cleft on the way from Little Bear to Vee. It looks enticing to follow Little Bear’s drainage downhill to the right (North), but that is a road to nowhere.
Initially I was worried about the approach into Vee Lake, since the topo shows a pretty steep grade from the trail into the lake, but it’s nothing to be worried about. Easy picking down to the lake.
Vee Lake itself is another amazing place. It is a more personal version of Lake Italy. Where Italy is craggy and foreboding, Vee is inviting. There are great campsites just up the shore, and the scree isn’t too densely packed. And of course, we had the place to ourselves. I’d bet Vee doesn’t see more than a handful of visitors a month. It looks like the surface of the moon, and you know you’re pretty far off the beaten path in that place.
Day 3: Vee Lake to Bear Creek/JMT (7.5mi, 2,400ft descent)
The surreal view Northeast from our campsite at Vee Lake
Kristen and Laurel gathering water at Vee
Kristen and Vicky on the descent from Vee Lake. Seven Gables peak in the background
We had planned at layover day at Vee Lake, either for day hiking or just lounging around. Certainly we deserved it after the feat the day before.
However, a few things conspired to cut our stay at Vee short. Due to the nearby fire in Sequoia NP, a thick cloud of smoke descended into the basin around 2-3am, and Kristen’s lungs were burning. It luckily blew out by 5-6am, but we didn’t want to chance it again. Plus, we were all too fatigued from the effort of the previous day to want to day hike.
So our compromise was: take a leisurely morning, leave camp at noon, and enjoy the theoretically easy ~7 miles downhill to the JMT and beyond.
We succeeded in taking a leisurely morning. In fact it was really nice to hang out and drink a second cup of coffee in the spectacular Vee Lake basin.
The trip out, however, was not as expected. Within 10 minutes, we were descending a steep, scree-filled gully down to the Seven Gables Lakes. From that point on, there really was no consistent trail to speak of until we hit the JMT. It was a patchwork of random cairns (which we no longer trusted), random tree blazes, and lots of scree. The going was again slow, though the Seven Gables drainage was gorgeous – a wide, meandering river through a granite gorge, with views of the surrounding peaks the whole way. The key to descending this river valley is to make sure you’re on the proper side of the river. I think we crossed that river a dozen times throughout the day. We’d keep going until it became clear we’d run out of reasonable trail, and then we’d either cross or backtrack until we could cross.
By the time we hit the JMT, it was probably 4pm, and we were thrilled to be on such an easy trail. We did a good pace all the way to the Bear Creek turnoff, probably 3-4mph average. The well-maintained trail felt almost laughably straightforward after the previous few days. We made great time, and got to camp with plenty of daylight to play around at the river and cook a big dinner.
Day 4: Bear Creek to Bear Diversion Dam (6.5mi, 1,400ft descent)
Kristen and Vicky on Bear Creek
The whole group after finishing the trip
The last day was more or less a victory lap. 6.5 miles of pretty easy trail, mostly downhill. We were out of camp by 9:30, and at the dam by noon. We met up in Fresno for our habitual In-n-Out burger stop, where Kristen ate only one double-double.
It was a fantastic trip. The views on this trip were as good as any we’ve ever had, particularly the view from the saddle into the Bear Lakes.
We learned a lot about cross-country navigation, and route planning to take into account terrain. The going was shockingly slow on this trip, and I am grateful that all four of us have very good fitness. In fact, I think it was our fitness that gave us the margin for error that permitted us to finish day 2 . I bet we lost 4 hours that day to mistakes, which could be potentially devastating at that altitude. But we came out of it stronger and smarter than ever, and we’re already planning our big trip for next year!
