Dusy Basin Backpacking | Day 1 | August 5, 2011
November 14, 2011
It took me about a year to write the trip report for my 2010 backpacking trip to Young Lakes. Now, three months after coming home from Dusy Basin, I’ve got a mess of a trip report sitting here unpublished. So, let’s see if breaking this up into a few pieces gets the ball rolling…
Day 1: San Diego to Long Lake
A pine tree near our campsite at Long Lake
Six months after reserving our permits for Bishop Pass (to Dusy Basin), Arun and I had made it to the South Lake parking lot. Whether we would spend the night at one of the first come, first served campgrounds nearby or start the hike towards Bishop Pass was still undecided. We looped around the overnight parking area, saw no open spots and headed towards the campgrounds. Like the overnight parking lot, they were full. I was already not liking the idea of parking 1.2 miles downhill from the trailhead in the overflow parking area. Getting a spot early in the morning seemed unlikely since people probably wouldn’t be hiking out late at night or very early in the morning. We headed back to the overnight parking area, waited around and luckily got a spot.
After a change of clothes and double checking our packs, we slowly started the hike South. Having dealt with altitude sickness twice before, I was very concerned about coming from sea level and starting to hike at 10,000′. The previous summer I had a miserable experience in Little Lakes Valley after coming from San Diego up to 10,000′. The pace at which we hiked towards Long Lake reflected my concern. I stopped every time I felt like my heart rate was getting much above the level it’s at when I’m sitting on the sofa at home. We made a lot of stops. I don’t know how long it took to get there. I didn’t ask Arun what time it was when we started or when we arrived. I didn’t need to know. Eventually we made it, set up camp, cooked dinner and called it a night. I’d have no altitude sickness issues this trip.
