Dusy Basin Backpacking | Days 3&4 | August 7&8, 2011
January 14, 2012
Day 3: Lower Dusy to Upper Dusy
A cool morning in Lower Dusy Basin
The morning of day 3 was pretty cold. The water bottles were half frozen, but I was feeling plenty warm in my 850 fill down jacket. Prior to this trip I had reviewed my old images from the Sierras and noticed that I didn’t have any good wide angle mountain shots. Finding and photographing a classic view of the mountains was on my mind for much of the trip and my main goal this morning. I spent quite a bit of time wandering around and ended up at a spot I’d checked out the previous day. After photographing for a little while, I headed back to camp, ate breakfast and got ready to move.
The 1.5 mile hike to Upper Dusy Basin started off pretty steep as we left the lower basin, but was a fairly gradual ascent after that initial stretch. The lake at the West edge of Upper Dusy Basin is visible from the main trail and we quickly made it to the lake’s edge after following and losing a few faint trails. We immediately tried to make our way towards Lake 11388 right under Iscoceles Peak, but couldn’t quite figure it out. We came back to the first lake and relaxed for a little while. I decided to day hike over to Lake 11388, hoping to find an easy way to get there. I made it there and back, unintentionally following two very different routes. It’s an incredible area, right at the base of the mountains. I liked it much more than the first lake but getting there with full packs on seemed like a hassle, and we decided to stay at the first lake. (After returning from the trip I talked to a few people who described getting to Lake 11388 as a non-issue. Did I miss some obvious path? Am I so accustomed to city living that I need a nicely paved sidewalk with signs to get me from point A to point B, less than a mile away? I’ll have to try again next time. I’ll also need to bring along a much wider angle lens than I currently own.) Overall, Upper Dusy turned out to be much more pleasant than Lower. It was a little breezy and the mosquitoes left us alone. At this point I hate Mountain House meals. The only thing appealing about eating is the marginal reduction in pack weight. Like the previous days, the lack of clouds left me feeling somewhat uninspired, but well after sunset the Palisades put on a nice show as they glowed in the very last light of the day.
Glowing Palisades
Day 4: Upper Dusy to San Diego
There wasn’t much to photograph the final morning. Upper Dusy Basin is definitely a sunset spot. We packed up and started the journey home. We had a short hike with a little elevation gain to 11,972′ Bishop Pass, then 5.5 miles with 2000′ of descent to South Lake. It would be a little hard on the knees, but otherwise pretty easy. We started off by losing the trail right away. That was frustrating, but kind of the way things go on the faint side trails. Eventually we found what seemed to be the main trail. It was heading in the right direction and there were lots of footprints, so we figured we were on the right track. On the way out we passed a guy we’d talked to on the second day. He was with his wife then, and was coming back now with some friends. I should be more like this guy. After finishing the hike we headed down to Bishop and I called my wife to let her know we were fine. I was looking forward to showering, hanging out with my family and eating real food again. At this point El Pollo Loco counted as real food.
