2021 Rae Lakes Tour

One of the most popular backpacking routes in the Sierras, Rae Lakes is normally a 45 mile loop. We decided to go “inside” the loop and do an off trail adventure in Gardiner Basin. We found it was harder than expected! Great trek, hard hiking.  Pat, Keith and Jerry.

Map on CalTopo: https://caltopo.com/m/SAEU

Here is the .gpx of the trek: https://jerrypierce.org/Files/2021-RaeLakes-Trek.GPX 

We had a great time, but there were a few days that were much longer than we expected!  Our first night we camped at Junction Meadows – about a mile before the junction at a bear box!  A bear came by to visit right after we went to bed. See photos below!

The next day we stayed at Charlotte Lake at the far end, where most of the people camp.  Beautiful site, could have held ten tents, good water access, at the very end of the lake.  We strolled along the end of the lake.  

Day three was the first of three tough ones!  The old trail towards Gardiner Pass was great for the first mile or so, then we lost it on the mountainside going up.  We decided that we couldn’t do two passes in one day, as planned.  And it was a bit threatening to have lightning, so we decided to go for the old Gardiner Basin Trail shown on the map – USGS says “location approximate”, but my map showed it as only 5.8 miles around it, so I figured it would work, and if not, Andy had showed us a way to bail out to Woods Creek to the north.  It was beautiful and easy, going down past lakes and tarns, then a plunge down to the creek, where we spent the night, since it was getting late. 

The next day, four,  we struggled a bit up the other side of the creek, (again steep, with bushes to fight), but then again a lovely stroll up past more lakes and tarns until, around 1pm, we got to the lake we intended to spend the previous night.  That was OK, we were only a half day behind schedule.  We got over the pass west of Sixty Lakes Basin, spent a while figuring out a way down, and got almost down to the first lake in the basin, at 6:30 pm, I think.  Tired, but now close to trails!  

Day five we strolled a few minutes down Sixty Lakes Basin, then we continued on over to Rae Lakes, where we stopped to get water. Great views looking down on Rae Lakes from those switchbacks up to Sixty Lakes Basin.  Lunch at Dollar Lake, got water at Woods Crossing bridge and got to the ford at Upper Paradise Valley at 6:30 pm, where it was tent city!  We talked to somebody who told us about a secret area just north of tent city, and we were the only people staying there, right on the water, and hundreds of feet from everybody else.  Very quiet, but we cleaned up from dinner with our flashlights.

Easy walk out the final day, except that the final two miles are awful trudging along in the sand!

We got bonus points by running into the ranger the morning after the bear visited, and the bear team was 100 yards away, trying to figure out how to harass the bear a bit and where he could be.  So they were pretty excited to get a report of the previous night, with the exact location, time, and great photos.  It was worth it to lose my “bowl” (Ziploc brand 2 cup container with lid), since the bear crunched down on it when he smelled it and wanted to check it out, even though it was “clean” by backcountry standards.  That was what alerted Jerry that somebody was in camp (I slept through it, and Keith thought it was limbs falling down near his tent!)

Good trip, but three long days in the middle! You would not have enjoyed the long days in Gardiner Basin and we had to hurry through the rest of it.  Painted Lady and Rae Lakes were stunning, although not perfect light for photos.

My name is Scar and I’ll be your in-camp bear tonight. I prefer nuts, but I’ll rip open a plastic tub if that’s all you are offering. I’ll even pose for pictures. Enjoy your stay. 

Near Bubbs Creek Trail, Independence, CA

https://google.com/maps/search/?api=1&hl=en&query=36.772396,-118.405105

I just got back from my first hike in the Sierras … Rae Lakes in Kings Canyon (but for you it’s just east of the hot spot of Fresno!) We did a 6 day adventure plus car camped the prior night.
  
Well, we went to get our permit from the friendly Wilderness Ranger. He gave us the usual lecture on where to camp, don’t put your tent on grass, no fires ANYWHERE at this time, dig your cat holes a long way from streams, carry out all paper … the usual drill. But then he went into “scare mode” and gave us amazing fear stories about bears … one bear in particular was being tracked by “Bear Management” – three special trained rangers were near where we were planning our first night trying to find the bear. SOOOO … NOTHING in your tent. ALL food in bear boxes. ALL sunscreen, toothpaste, sanitizers EVERYTHING that can smell be in the bear boxes. LEAVE NOTHING out. 
 
Yea, yea, yea … we have heard it all before. We are just such experienced and wonderful campers, what could go wrong???
 
 
So we hiked in the 11 miles to our first campground. Junction Meadows. There was even a metal bear box to hold our smelly stuff. (We carry bear-proof storage cans, but it’s easier to use the forest service bear boxes.) Nice campground. Nice stream. 
 
We had dinner. Hid all the smelly stuff. Did an exceptional job of putting everything away. And some of us went to bed early – a little after 7pm. (Sunset was at 8:15pm). What else was there to do. I went in my tent to read and organize all my silly wires. 
 
At about 7:50pm I heard a noise of someone cracking the firewood near the fire pit. Why would someone come in our camp to take firewood? You can’t build a legal fire? And they kept doing it. 
 
So I needed to find out who was in our wood. I opened my tent, stuck my head out and looked at our visiting bear walking about 20 feet from my tent. 
 
 
PANIC!!    WHERE IS MY CAMERA???? I NEED MY CAMERA!!   So I found my camera, dashed out to find “Scar” just finishing opening an empty plastic Tupperware bowl. Nothing in it, he just wanted to check to make sure. The plastic ripping open was the sound I thought was the wood being broken. 
 
So I got my pictures!! Then in a calm way, I talked to him as I would have talked to a dog that shouldn’t be in our camp – “Hey, get out of here!” “Go.” “Shoo.” 
 
And sure enough, he never looked at me, just slowly lumbered off to the next (empty) campsite. He was sort of upset that he didn’t find any food. And especially that someone asked him to leave. He was just being a nice bear. I thought of him as Paddington.
 
 
Now the other two members of my group never got up. Pat slept through the whole thing. Keith thought that some branches were falling on his tent and he didn’t hear me tell the bear to leave. Some protection they provided! 
 
The next morning on the hike to our next campsite we met up with a ranger … normally she would have asked to see our permit, but we thought she was part of the Bear Management folks and blurted out that we had seen a bear and had PICTURES! Well, she guided us to the REAL Bear Management folks. Three delightful folks that were trying to find OUR BEAR! (We heard from other campers the bear was named “Scar” – the rangers wouldn’t tell us any name. They have a policy to NOT name bears since if they need to be euthanized it makes it hard…) We shared our pictures and they said they were trying to find the bear and shoot a rubber bullet into his butt – it hurts like hell and bears quickly learn that humans can be bad news. 
 
We don’t know what happened after that. It was a fun story and he was a nice bear. We hope the rangers would find him. 
 
BUT What did I learn?
 
1) Use a slower shutter speed. ISO was too high in that light.
2) I should have YELLED and made LOTS of noise to scare Scar. Even throw small rocks at his butt. We need to make them afraid of people.
3) Anything you leave out should be OPEN. Don’t let them have the chance to open it for themselves. 
4) (We already knew to lock away all food and anything that smelled … a given.)