Well, my girl and I had a few days completely to ourselves and were dying to get to the high country. After some searching we found our potential destination. The Lane/Roosevelt area out of Leavitt Meadows in the eastern Sierra. Since I couldnt ascertain real time snow conditions up there, we packed very heavy, and packed so that we had the option of doing several other things if conditions dictated. As soon as we got to the junction of 108 & 395, I knew we would be good.
We started up the trail and opted to take the more difficult, but more scenic route to Roosevelt via the Secret Lake trail. Some great scenery for sure.
Looking back towards the Marine Mountain Combat Training Center
This tree is cool. Click link for more detailed view http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Vp8HTeEigcF2tKYnSKlohgtNjyV9gk2xizeZAHvzSkw?feat=directlink
That is Kirman Lake down there.
Secret Lake. Fished for a little while. Did see one small rediside, no sign of trout.
After a little fishing, lunch, and a great nap on the rocks we moved on down the trail to Roosevelt and Lane Lake. Our destination for the trip.
I was bummed to see how much of a challenge this lake would be to fly fish without a tube. Somehow I had missed out on that little jewel of information during my short research of this trip. But, while my girl played home maker and set up the tent, i played hunter/gatherer and put my fly rod to work. After only ten minutes of fishing, I had this nice Lahontan come up and suck in my redside imitation streamer that I came up with this winter. Killer.
After making a circuit of the lake with my fly rod and finding only a couple places to cast, I headed back to camp and picked up my girl's spinning rod. After a bit of experimenting, I found the lure that they liked and spent the rest of the evening catching probably 20 fish. Most were between 8 and 12 inches, but did catch a couple nice ones the size of the first fish that I caught. Had a great dinner, found a tick on my male anatomy, dispensed justice to it, then went to bed. Had a very nice, mild night and got to sleep on my insulated Big Agnes air pad for the first time. Talk about an upgrade. I didnt realize you could wake up on a backpacking trip and not feel like the Crypt Keeper. :D
After breakfast, I caught another 15 or so fish, and we decided that since I couldnt flyfish effectively, we would opt not to spend another night here. Had a blast with the spinning rod, but after a little while, I get bored of that. So we packed up and headed out on the normal trail into these lakes. There were some awesome views of the valley on this stretch too.
So we got out of there, and headed to Bridgeport to get a Jolly Kone burger ( damn those are good! :D ) and talk to Jim at Kens Sporting Goods. We were still undecided on what to do for the rest of our trip at that point, but after talking with him, we opted to spend the rest of the day on the East Walker river.
Caught 2 fish and missed a couple more. Both were very nice Browns.
I told her to be ready to take a pic, because I didnt want to stress the fish anymore. She snapped this just as it flopped free of my hands ( i had already dehooked it)
Mad Jedi fish levitation skills. The force was with me.
And that was our first backpacking trip of '10. FINALLY!
Bridgeport is beautiful.
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