Trail Report: Sierra exploration

[RAT]

Mike, Sharon and her mom Louise went fishing in Bishop CA. this weekend and I met them up there late Friday afternoon. We wnet to the Ancient Bristlecone Forest and did some fishing at my favorite spots and as well as some new ones. The girls went home Friday night and Mike and I went fishing and exploring around the Bishop area for the rest of the weekend. We got up and ran Wheeler Ridge Saturday. Spent the rest of the afternoon fishing. We had some fun and got to wheel some cool places. Here are some pics:

Wheeler Ridge at 11,000 Ft


No name lake- Full of tadpoles and frogs



Tadfrog


Alpine flora






White Mountain in the Ancient Bristlecone Forest


Death Valley in the distance from 11,000 feet. We spent alot of time at this altitude this weekend.


The most awsome tree EVERRR


More alpine flora at White Mountain


The new and the old. Some of these trees have been dated to around 4-5000 years.


New growth female cones. Bristlecones are both male and female:


The female cones are black, dripping with sap, the males are brown and dry.

[RAT]

Spend an afternoon fishing Lake Sabrina at 9000 ft.




Another cool tree


The great tadpole herder. He was going nuts running all over the lake herding tadpoles. All that exertion at 11,000 ft wore him out; he slept like a log most of the way back down the mountain.


I know Mike has a bunch of pics as well so I'll leave some room for him to post.

[mkjeepers]

[COLOR="Blue"]Looks like it's still springtime at 11,000 ft. Did you go to the end of the Wheeler R trail. When I went through there it was pretty narrow, with some downed trees.[/COLOR]

[aw12345]

Looks like a really cool trip Kurt

[RAT]

[COLOR=blue]Looks like it's still springtime at 11,000 ft. Did you go to the end of the Wheeler R trail. When I went through there it was pretty narrow, with some downed trees.[/COLOR]

No we didn't. we hiked about half way around the shelf road and found it very narrow in a few places. We will go back with another jeep (at least one) and then spot each other through. I didn't feel very confident that the sluff on the downhill side of the track would support me if I got too close. It's a LONG way down if you screw that up.

[Mike]

Fishing Trip turned WHEELIN'!

I like Rat Patrol's teaser, but I have to explain that this trip was started as a FISHING run to the Bishop area.

I have just spent the last two weeks in New Jersey and I missed the Sierra Tour that Dirtman13 posted. 'Jonesing' for some escape, I took Thursday and Friday off to try my hand at subdueing the trout of the eastern Sierras.

In a nutshell, the fish flipped me the fin! :omg:

I told Rat Patrol about my plans and he came up to meet us on Friday. He brought his Jeep and although it was supposed to be a fish-oriented trip, the best part turned out to be the run up Wheeler Ridge.


Just a quick overview, Sharon, Louise, and I went up to the area on Thursday. We stopped at the Alabama Hills around mid-day and found lots of cool things to see. My favorite was the Alabama Arch:




Afterwards, we made our way to Bishop and stopped at one of Rat's favorite fishing holes. It was late, but I still was able to catch one fish....the ONLY fish that I caught over the four days:


The next day in town was the beginning of the Jeep adventure when we saw some cool and classic Wilys:




We were in my 4x4 F-350 and decided to go see the Ancient Bristlecone Forest by way of the Silver Canyon Road. My truck got to cross it's first water crossing only a few miles into the trail:


As heavy as that beast is, it wasn't too long before we needed 4WD to climb the steep switch backs on the road. The views were very nice as we climbed the sheer face of the mountains:


Close to the top, we came to a broken down pickup with a sign in the window stating that the clutch was gone. They tried to leave space for other vehicles, but the big F-350 was close to not squeezing past. Louise bailed out and I spotted Sharon though the narrow passage on a really steep part of the trail:




All-in-all, the Silver Canyon is a steep and un-nerving trail for the folks afraid of heights. A low geared Jeep could probably make it up without four-wheel drive, but you will likely want to engage it to to feel more comfortable. I definitely recommend the path to get to the Ancient Bristlecone Forest if you get the chance.

At the top, you will get to see the oldest living things on the planet... the Bristlecone Pines! The road to see the Patriarch Grove is lined with stunning views that are best captured with a panaramic camera. My best shots are on the road behind us as we get close to the grove:


And on the road that leads up to the grove:


At over 11,000 feet, the only tree that grows here are the Ancient Bristlecone Pines. This rare tree only exists in the most difficult of growing regions and is the among the oldest living creatures on earth. I definitely recommend this as a stop when you are in the area:






As I said, this was a FISHING trip! So our next stop was at Lake Sabrina for some evening fishing. The only thing at anyone caught was some amazing views:




Unfortunately, Sharon and Louise needed to be back in SoCal on Saturday morning, so they left Friday night. Since Kurt didn't have to be anywhere until Monday, he and I stayed on to do some more fishing.

Saturday morning, we decided to run up to Wheeler Ridge in his Jeep. I have to say, whether the fish were biting or not, this run was without a doubt the highlight of the trip! If you get the chance to run this trail, you should!

It is not easy to find. I'll try to post a GPX for the trail soon. The trail starts out up Sand Canyon and the trail climbs constantly from the start:


One of the cool critters that we saw along the way was this handsome hawk:


The way to the top of Wheeler Ridge is actually two different trails. Sand Canyon climbs from 6100 feet to 9800 feet on a steep and sandy trail up a canyon and then parallel to Rock Creek canyon for a few miles. You will get see some great views up Rock Creek Canyon along the way:


What surprsed me me was the abundance of young aspen groves surrounding the trail:


The actual Wheeler Ridge trail is a constant and steep climb from 9800 feet to over 11,000 feet. The trail is not too difficult for a modified Jeep, but could be especially challenging for an un-modified Jeep. It is difficult to capture the steepness of a trail with a camera, so I do not have pictures worthy of posting of the climb.

At the top, we dropped down into a mountain notch that had a small lake formed from snow melt:


Even at 11,000 feet there is life in the lake:


The frogs in the lake are in transition between tadpoles and full-fledged frogs. This one still has a small bit of a tail remaining:


But fully developed frogs were mixed into the bunch:


It was amazing at the abundance of the critters in this small lake. Check out this video of a section that we came across (please pardon the language, but you have top appreciate our surprise!):


Ozzy was very happy to play at the lake. We were amazed at his stamina at 11,ooo feet. I would have to be hospitalized if I ran like this at this height:


Just past the lake is a narrow shelf road to a fantastic viewpoint over the Bishop Valley area:


Past the viewpoint, the trail narrows and I can't say that I recommend this path to any full-sized off-road vehicle. The trail crawls along a super narrow shelf road for about 300 yards. This trail had NO track marks from anything other than ATVs:


The berm on the downhill side is VERY soft. I can't say that I would be willing to chance the trail without a spotter for every inch of the way and a secondary vehicle to contact the next of kin if I make the wrong move.

You will not stop rolling for the next 6000 feet most likely. The narrow section goes on further than I would like with some tilty rock-crawling sections
I have to say that the trip down from Wheeler Ridge is even more beautiful than the views on the way up:


This was a great weekend. I really appreciate Kurt (Rat Patrol) for helping to make this a wonderful 4 days.

[FishPOET]

Great trip report and fabulous pics. Another spot on the bucket list!

[dirtman13]

Glad you guys didn't take any trailers. Thanks for finishing our trip Mike. Great pictures.

[GrimJeeper91]

Past the viewpoint, the trail narrows and I can't say that I recommend this path to any full-sized off-road vehicle. The trail crawls along a super narrow shelf road for about 300 yards. This trail had NO track marks from anything other than ATVs:


The berm on the downhill side is VERY soft. I can't say that I would be willing to chance the trail without a spotter for every inch of the way and a secondary vehicle to contact the next of kin if I make the wrong move.

You will not stop rolling for the next 6000 feet most likely. The narrow section goes on further than I would like with some tilty rock-crawling sections

Went across this two summers ago...my drivers seat has permanent pucker marks. And you are right about rolling forever if your rig left the trail. Great pics and report.

[Mitch]

Kurt and Mike,

Fantastic pictures. What a beautiful place. Thanks for sharing another epic trip.

[Geebo]

Awesome report and pic,s ..Thanks guys , and damned if I don,t have pucker marks just lookin at that off-camber shelf road..lol..YIKES!!

[GrimJeeper91]

Personally I found this trail to be more intimidating than Black Bear...

[womb raider 940]

really nice pics guys.

[calkid]

Great pics and story! I need to retire so I have more time to explore places like this.

[nwoods]

I love this part of the world, but I'm not familiar with Wheeler Ridge, where is it in relation to White Mtn? While up there above Silver Canyon, did you visit Cottonwood Springs? It's a really pretty little area.