Fall Hikes Eastern Sierras

Two Eagle Peak and its morning reflection in Lake 7, Big Pine North Fork

September and October are the best time to go into the Sierras, days are still warm (but no longer hot), nights cool, and crowds and mosquitoes have thinned out (the latter completely after the first freezes). It is easy to get overnight permits, even for impacted areas like Mt. Whitney or Big Pine North Fork (which has a daily quota of 25). This time, I got a permit for Big Pine North Fork and left SM after teaching a statistics class in the morning. That was a 260 mile drive, but I was on the trail a little after 3 pm and by sunset made camp at a lake 1 (nobody else there).

Camp at Lake 1

The trails from the East start very similar: drive a few hours north through the desert, make a left turn in a small town, 20 minutes up a windy road, start hiking. First town is Lone Pine (Mt. Whitney), second town is Independence (Kearsarge Pass), third town is Big Pine (Big Pine North and South Forks), then Bishop (South Lake for Bishop Pass). Whitney is popular because it happens to be the highest mountain (making Lone Pine the biggest of the first three towns); Kearsarge connects with Kings Canyon National Park; Big Pine is pretty, but it is a small area because both North and South Fork trails dead-end. Big Pine has some of the best names: The North Fork trail goes into the Inconsolable Range and Cloudripper is the highest mountain among the Inconsolables.

Only 25 overnight permits are issued per day for the North Fork. However, it is also very popular with day visitors within the first miles from the trailhead. Dayhikers with dogs are a particular nuisance, dog poop on the trail (and "responsible" owners leaving it wrapped in plastic bags on the trail), loose dogs that "just want to play", annoying barkers. Both on the way in and the way out. There is a pretty area with Aspens early on and they were in fall colors. Unfortunately, they are also heavily graffitied, suffering from the popularity. Fortunately, 2 hours of hiking gets you beyond that.

Cloudripper (on the right) from a distance, it is the highest peak in the Inconsolable Range

There are 7 numbered lakes (1-7) and a few other lakes. The main area is easy trails with gentle gradients up to where the trail splits into a branch going to Palisades Glacier and a branch to Lakes 4/5 (it is still a lot of climbing, so easy conditional on 1000m gain). Few day visitors (which is the majority) beyond Lakes 4/5 and I didn't see anybody at all for 1 1/2 days once past Lake 5.

The trail seems to end at a campsite at Lake 6, after that comes a swampy meadow up to Lake 7. I stopped for lunch at Lake 7, set up my tent, and left the luggage there.

Many lakes, more than 7

After Lake 7, it goes up steeply in almost every direction, it sits at the foot of the Inconsolable Range. The tallest mountain in that range is Cloudripper at 4122 m (so not quite a 14er) and supposedly not a technical climb. I had not looked for descriptions beforehand, so I had to search for routes. The initial route I took was the wrong one - or at least a route that was becoming much more technical than what I would do. From the bottom, it is hard to tell what is and is not workable, I ruled out a chute to the far right which looked too steep and all loose scree (AFTER a big chunk of talus hopping). But that was the way to go after all.

Now which way? (Turns out none of those, it would be further to the right, but I only figured that out later)

Made it to the ridge, now just straight ahead along the ridge

View from Cloudripper southeast to the Palisades and Palisades Glacier

Looking the other direction from Cloudripper towards Bishop Pass/Dusy Basin

Turns out that there is another tall peak very close to Cloudripper, in fact, the second highest in the Inconsolable Range and also over 4000m: Vagabond Peak. It is not particularly difficult either (I hiked in running shoes), but a bit more scrambling than Cloudripper at the top. Coming down from Vagabond Peak, I heard some voices in the distance, presumably a group was either climbing or descending Cloudripper, but I didn't see anybody. In fact, I didn't see anybody all day.

I was back at my tent by 5.30, so had a little bit of daylight left. I walked out the next morning.

back at my campsite at lake 7