Post by markskor on Oct 13, 2017 20:48:53 GMT -8
Venture asked about this...a past trip report on Yosemite fishing.
Yosemite 5 Slam 2013 (Sorry, my pics don't load here anymore.)
A little prologue first: Many here spend hours planning routes, scouring maps and searching various fishing resources (books, internet forums, and Google) probing for the perfect Sierra summer trip. IMHO, much better to just linger, realizing that someone else will invariably do all the “work” and just wait to be invited along. Being good company, fun-loving, and having the ability to cook trout well always makes possible a whole slew of intriguing backpacking invitations…maybe just lucky but even the best here always need some good company…sigh…even Mike too.
Somewhere back in April, my long-time hiking buddy, Mike - ex SEKI backcountry ranger - sends this detailed but somewhat confusing itinerary… (More of a demand really)…a 19 day trip and a serious try for the Sierra 5 slam – catching all 5 species of Yosemite trout...(had to be at least 12" and pure too - no hybrids. Mike really did the homework) all in one continuous trip. (Turns out that his wife Kathy actually wants to get rid of him most of all summer - who can blame her) and would feel better if someone still continent would accompany the old goat to watch out for him as he is getting somewhat decrepit and senile. How could anyone refuse?
July 14th finds us in front of the Tuolumne Stables, shipping out 30 pounds of gear/food/alcohol @ $5 a pound to Voglesang via their mule train. (FYI, both the Valley and Tuolumne Stables ship to all the HSC’s 3 times a week – Mon, Wed, and Fri and will hold a stuff sack inside any of the HSC main rooms safe…no bear can needed on the mules…$150).
Next, a quick trip to Tuolumne Wilderness office produced the required Wilderness permits needed. BTW, I had previously warned the Rangers there (old friends) about Mike but Rangers Jen and Greg must have felt sorry for him (or just forgot) and issued him a permit anyway. FYI, Each had our own permit… (In case something happened to Mike on the trail? Who?)…Mine said merely Tenaya Lake – Happy Isles…19 days.
It would be foolish to give day-to-day dissertations on the first 5 - 6 days of the adventure (never my style)…suffice it to simply give out our main route and you can fill in the details yourself.
Tenaya – Sunrise Lake #2 – Matthes – Nelson – Reymond – Voglesang… (A lot of X-country here).
Some items of note:
I carried my trusty Gregory Deva 60...(~38 lbs to start out)...Mike an Osprey (Ethier I think) - size 58. We both fish using expensive spinning rigs...4-piece rods, mainly throwing 3/8 Z-Ray lures deep into Sierra lakes. We both carry WM bags and Bearikade Weekenders too.
BTW, after sampling Mike’s cooking/his butchering of some simple pasta dish the week before, we made a deal – For the rest of the trip, I would do all the communal cooking if he didn’t…(worked out for the best). We ate trout at least 10 nights, cooked wrapped in foil...delicious if I say so myself. Found a great addition to the way I usually cook foil-wrapped-trout : add Sun-dried tomato oil to he center of the trout, plus spices, and olive oil...and use a hot-coal fire.
He took over the bar-tending... in charge of Happy Hour fixings – 151 and Crystal Lite…aged Gouda, Asiago cheese, and something akin to Wasabi peas each night...promptly at 6:00.
At Reymond we got into some weather - rain and blowing snow while going over Rafferty Pass and working our way back down to the main trail. FYI, since it was raining and bitter cold that day, after hitting the HSC, Mike opted for warmth, securing the next 2 nights for himself a bed in those white, canvas HSC tent cabins of Voglesang…broke out the plastic and stayed warm while I froze outside. What a putz! Turns out he just wanted to be the youngest guy in the 4-man tent cabin…He was.
BTW, I did visit him in his cabin before dinner once and the room seriously smelled like old-man farts…More on this later.
At Voglesang HSC camp Mike had pre-arranged for 2 nights of dinners and breakfasts for both of us. Nice food…soup, salads, fresh bread, a pulled-pork dish one night, and chicken with a secret Marmot sauce the next... ate very well…seconds on everything too…a gooey chocolate cake for dessert.
While spending those 2 nights in the Voglesang area, visited/fished (among others) Hanging Basket and Upper Townsley…by the time we went over Voglesang Pass 2 days later, had fulfilled the Brookie and Cut requirements. (FYI, Only one Yosemite lake holds pure Cuts.) Picking up our waiting food stash, packs now heavy again, our boots turned south - down the trail and over the pass, intent to get the other 3.
The route continued - Bernice (alas once good in years past, now a stunted Brookie lake), then 2 nights at Lower then Upper Florence (‘Bows), X-country to pick up the high trail, past Cony Crags, down to the Lyell Fork of the Merced, and finally up... to Upper Harriet. Here big cruisin’ ‘Bows (18+”) provided our dinner. We meandered our way down X-country to the Isberg Triple Fork junction before rejoining the trail again...Then worked our way up towards Edna…looking for some truly bigger fish.
Before going on, it is important to tell you about Mike’s unique hiking style and a particular trait he utilizes as he goes uphill off-trail. First of all, he is an animal, a hiking beast…he just does not stop. On off-trail 1500 foot up sections, it was not unusual to do 500 feet of steep uphill before pausing for a break – truly impressive. If you cannot keep up he regales you with sarcasm…What a buddy! What he does do is slow way down – puts it in a lower gear and just continues to keep on moving. What happens then though is that he keeps on getting slower and slower until he almost stops…You wind up getting closer and closer to him and soon enough you find your nose just behind his ass, especially on the very steep, off-trail sections…and then he lets go with clouds of horrendous flatulence. We are talking multiple notes, complex chords, maybe 16 bar musical segments…a real rectal bugle. He then laughs and laughs. This happened at least 20 times over the course of the trip. (You would think I would eventually learn but…sigh.)
Edna was certainly the best fishing lake of this adventure - (IMHO, best fishing lake in the entire park), hard to get to but worth it…multiple big hits...16, 17, maybe 18 inches long with broad shoulders... talking some giant ‘bows here…2 + pound lunkers. I hooked into one that fought like a Salmon, running out and taking ½ of my 6-pound line before breaking me off at the reel. That reel sang for a good long while too...ah...Edna!
Down the Red Devil drainage, over a few 1000 foot ridge-lines, led us up to Adair – maybe a 10-mile X-country jaunt, and by the time we rejoined the trail again above Washburn a few days later, 4 species were officially caught. (FYI, there are only two lakes in the park holding pure Goldens.)
Mike had pre-arranged another night of good food (and a hot shower) at the Merced HSC. Unfortunately that night they served Salmon (now a lil tired of fish actually) but featuring steak and eggs for the next morning’s breakfast. A little fly and bubble action after eating finally/ easily secured the last trout needed…FYI, many Browns are readily found at Merced Lake - all along the Merced actually... and our Yosemite 5 slam was now history.
We split up company just below Merced Lake in Echo Valley, him going up to Echo Lake and eventually, his car in TM... me heading down following the Merced intending to take another art class in the Valley a few days later.
Just an epic fishing trip and a most grand Sierra adventure! BTW, not all lakes visited were mentioned here...have to keep some things secret.
Bottom line: ~110 miles, 19 days, 5 species of trout, - ('Bows, Brookies, Browns, Cuts, and Goldens!) and too many lakes to count.
Thanks mucho Mike, anytime buddy…just ask, I will be there.
Yosemite 5 Slam 2013 (Sorry, my pics don't load here anymore.)
A little prologue first: Many here spend hours planning routes, scouring maps and searching various fishing resources (books, internet forums, and Google) probing for the perfect Sierra summer trip. IMHO, much better to just linger, realizing that someone else will invariably do all the “work” and just wait to be invited along. Being good company, fun-loving, and having the ability to cook trout well always makes possible a whole slew of intriguing backpacking invitations…maybe just lucky but even the best here always need some good company…sigh…even Mike too.
Somewhere back in April, my long-time hiking buddy, Mike - ex SEKI backcountry ranger - sends this detailed but somewhat confusing itinerary… (More of a demand really)…a 19 day trip and a serious try for the Sierra 5 slam – catching all 5 species of Yosemite trout...(had to be at least 12" and pure too - no hybrids. Mike really did the homework) all in one continuous trip. (Turns out that his wife Kathy actually wants to get rid of him most of all summer - who can blame her) and would feel better if someone still continent would accompany the old goat to watch out for him as he is getting somewhat decrepit and senile. How could anyone refuse?
July 14th finds us in front of the Tuolumne Stables, shipping out 30 pounds of gear/food/alcohol @ $5 a pound to Voglesang via their mule train. (FYI, both the Valley and Tuolumne Stables ship to all the HSC’s 3 times a week – Mon, Wed, and Fri and will hold a stuff sack inside any of the HSC main rooms safe…no bear can needed on the mules…$150).
Next, a quick trip to Tuolumne Wilderness office produced the required Wilderness permits needed. BTW, I had previously warned the Rangers there (old friends) about Mike but Rangers Jen and Greg must have felt sorry for him (or just forgot) and issued him a permit anyway. FYI, Each had our own permit… (In case something happened to Mike on the trail? Who?)…Mine said merely Tenaya Lake – Happy Isles…19 days.
It would be foolish to give day-to-day dissertations on the first 5 - 6 days of the adventure (never my style)…suffice it to simply give out our main route and you can fill in the details yourself.
Tenaya – Sunrise Lake #2 – Matthes – Nelson – Reymond – Voglesang… (A lot of X-country here).
Some items of note:
I carried my trusty Gregory Deva 60...(~38 lbs to start out)...Mike an Osprey (Ethier I think) - size 58. We both fish using expensive spinning rigs...4-piece rods, mainly throwing 3/8 Z-Ray lures deep into Sierra lakes. We both carry WM bags and Bearikade Weekenders too.
BTW, after sampling Mike’s cooking/his butchering of some simple pasta dish the week before, we made a deal – For the rest of the trip, I would do all the communal cooking if he didn’t…(worked out for the best). We ate trout at least 10 nights, cooked wrapped in foil...delicious if I say so myself. Found a great addition to the way I usually cook foil-wrapped-trout : add Sun-dried tomato oil to he center of the trout, plus spices, and olive oil...and use a hot-coal fire.
He took over the bar-tending... in charge of Happy Hour fixings – 151 and Crystal Lite…aged Gouda, Asiago cheese, and something akin to Wasabi peas each night...promptly at 6:00.
At Reymond we got into some weather - rain and blowing snow while going over Rafferty Pass and working our way back down to the main trail. FYI, since it was raining and bitter cold that day, after hitting the HSC, Mike opted for warmth, securing the next 2 nights for himself a bed in those white, canvas HSC tent cabins of Voglesang…broke out the plastic and stayed warm while I froze outside. What a putz! Turns out he just wanted to be the youngest guy in the 4-man tent cabin…He was.
BTW, I did visit him in his cabin before dinner once and the room seriously smelled like old-man farts…More on this later.
At Voglesang HSC camp Mike had pre-arranged for 2 nights of dinners and breakfasts for both of us. Nice food…soup, salads, fresh bread, a pulled-pork dish one night, and chicken with a secret Marmot sauce the next... ate very well…seconds on everything too…a gooey chocolate cake for dessert.
While spending those 2 nights in the Voglesang area, visited/fished (among others) Hanging Basket and Upper Townsley…by the time we went over Voglesang Pass 2 days later, had fulfilled the Brookie and Cut requirements. (FYI, Only one Yosemite lake holds pure Cuts.) Picking up our waiting food stash, packs now heavy again, our boots turned south - down the trail and over the pass, intent to get the other 3.
The route continued - Bernice (alas once good in years past, now a stunted Brookie lake), then 2 nights at Lower then Upper Florence (‘Bows), X-country to pick up the high trail, past Cony Crags, down to the Lyell Fork of the Merced, and finally up... to Upper Harriet. Here big cruisin’ ‘Bows (18+”) provided our dinner. We meandered our way down X-country to the Isberg Triple Fork junction before rejoining the trail again...Then worked our way up towards Edna…looking for some truly bigger fish.
Before going on, it is important to tell you about Mike’s unique hiking style and a particular trait he utilizes as he goes uphill off-trail. First of all, he is an animal, a hiking beast…he just does not stop. On off-trail 1500 foot up sections, it was not unusual to do 500 feet of steep uphill before pausing for a break – truly impressive. If you cannot keep up he regales you with sarcasm…What a buddy! What he does do is slow way down – puts it in a lower gear and just continues to keep on moving. What happens then though is that he keeps on getting slower and slower until he almost stops…You wind up getting closer and closer to him and soon enough you find your nose just behind his ass, especially on the very steep, off-trail sections…and then he lets go with clouds of horrendous flatulence. We are talking multiple notes, complex chords, maybe 16 bar musical segments…a real rectal bugle. He then laughs and laughs. This happened at least 20 times over the course of the trip. (You would think I would eventually learn but…sigh.)
Edna was certainly the best fishing lake of this adventure - (IMHO, best fishing lake in the entire park), hard to get to but worth it…multiple big hits...16, 17, maybe 18 inches long with broad shoulders... talking some giant ‘bows here…2 + pound lunkers. I hooked into one that fought like a Salmon, running out and taking ½ of my 6-pound line before breaking me off at the reel. That reel sang for a good long while too...ah...Edna!
Down the Red Devil drainage, over a few 1000 foot ridge-lines, led us up to Adair – maybe a 10-mile X-country jaunt, and by the time we rejoined the trail again above Washburn a few days later, 4 species were officially caught. (FYI, there are only two lakes in the park holding pure Goldens.)
Mike had pre-arranged another night of good food (and a hot shower) at the Merced HSC. Unfortunately that night they served Salmon (now a lil tired of fish actually) but featuring steak and eggs for the next morning’s breakfast. A little fly and bubble action after eating finally/ easily secured the last trout needed…FYI, many Browns are readily found at Merced Lake - all along the Merced actually... and our Yosemite 5 slam was now history.
We split up company just below Merced Lake in Echo Valley, him going up to Echo Lake and eventually, his car in TM... me heading down following the Merced intending to take another art class in the Valley a few days later.
Just an epic fishing trip and a most grand Sierra adventure! BTW, not all lakes visited were mentioned here...have to keep some things secret.
Bottom line: ~110 miles, 19 days, 5 species of trout, - ('Bows, Brookies, Browns, Cuts, and Goldens!) and too many lakes to count.
Thanks mucho Mike, anytime buddy…just ask, I will be there.
