Lundy Canyon with a Backpack

After several hiking trips to Lundy Canyon i made plan to backpack in the area. On 2 previous occasions we came close to Lundy Canyon trailcrest but turned back, last year due to snow covering approach. We also hiked up to May Lundy Mine before. The plan was to connect those hiking routes making a loop and spending 3 days doing it. Weather forced us to cut it to 2 days.

We left LA on tuesday afternoon and surviving traffic, heat and humidity of San Fernando and Owens valley arrived in Lundy canyon ab. 10:30pm. It was nice and cool there. Went to sleep under clear sky full of stars. Early in the morning our Alaska-bound friends visited us and i helped them find problem of alternator and Oxi idiot lights lighting up.

Cleaned up ground strap screwhole(rust) and spliced alt. sensor wire and soon they were on the road going north. By then the storm began moving in and soon rain started to fall. Had to postpone our plan to backpack. Went to Mono Lake instead and showed our friends South Tufa where we saw nesting Osprey with little chick, bunch of Violet-green swallows and lots of gulls; Navy beach and Panum Crater. It rained all day and there was lightning all around. By the evening the storm subsided and night sky was clear and black. Next morning we decided to get going even though weather news promised another storm.

It was sunny, warm and very pleasant to go thru familiar beautiful canyon listening to roar of numerous waterfalls and long cascades, smelling aroma of rich ecosystem with hundreds of flowers of all colors and shades of blue, red and yellow, great looking aspen trees, large ponds dammed by local beaver familys and views of hi ridges all around with green grass at lower elevation, loose rocks and solid walls of variety of colors higher up and patches of snow close to the tops. We were moving at pretty good speed and were up on top of steep trailcrest around noon.

Dropping into valley we passed Lake Hellen when weather changed to rain. By the time we were going by Odell Lake it was realy raining and we heared roar of thunder not far from us. We kept going hoping to get to Saddlebag Lake without getting too close to lightning strikes. When we passed by Hummingbird Lake it was pouring and we saw lightning strikes illuminating dark sky with background of glacier-laden high mountains. Magnificient views!

Finaly whole Saddlebag lake was in front of us in all it's beauty. There was ferry crossing the lake moving our direction and far side of the lake had several buildings and parking lot with vehicles.

We hurried up thru the pouring rain and it even hailed for few minutes. After going around half of the lake it was great relief to walk into local restaurant and fishing supply store. Being penniless we managed to get 2 cups of coffe thanks to generocity of waitress named Anna. Spent 3 hours by the very nice and rustic-looking fireplace built out of local stones just after WWII. Dried our soaking wet clothing and shoes but packs were outside and rain was still going strong. It was getting close to closing time and we needed a place to pitch our tent. There was campground nearby. We just couldn't afford it. So, i went to talk to Campground manager and he turned out to be very nice and friendly. He was called "Torch" due to his very close encounter with lighting fluid and burning 35% of his body... Not only he survived it but recovered quickly and was back to work in 3 weeks! Torch suggested to pitch our tent next to his camper and we couldn't refuse such generous offer.

Tne bad part was that all our stuff in backpacks was soaking wet including tent, sleeping bags(dripping). Pitched tent and went in anticipating sleepless night. At least made it warm inside lighting lantern and cooking "army meal" for dinner.

While we were outside i saw familiar car driving by. I couldn't believe it. It turned out our camping friends heared of all the rain and storms and came to visit us. They offered to take us back to campground. It was very tempting to take the offer not knowing what lies ahead of us. But we decided to stick to the plan and stayed.

Just when we were about to go to sleep we heared Torch talking to us asking how we were doing and if we needed anything. We said dry sleeping bags would be nice. He said he had few in "other" storage area and drove there to get them. Soon he returned with 3 old fish-smelling bags and we were extatic to get into dry bags for the night.

Next morning sky was totaly overcast and started to rain again. Spent some dry time in same restaurant drinking coffe and getting advised to hitch a ride down to our camp by Lundy lake. Stubbornly, we decided to get going and packed with wet gear started toward Dore Pass. Had to choose a route carefuly as there is no trail. It was steep but not very hard going up.

Made it in less than 2 hours(local experienced hiker predicted 4 hours) to Dore pass. When we came up to the top there was grand panorama and shear cleaff with ab. half a mile plunge down to Lake canyon. The view was fantastic but we saw no way of getting down to the valley below with 3 attractive lakes.

There was just one small "break" in the wall and reluctantly we started going down. It was monumental problem being wet and still hammered by rain carrying backpacks with soaking wet gear, wearing slightly more than sneakers, hot inside waterproof jacket and pants going down almost vertical slope... We were very careful but almost every step caused a small rockslide(it was all rock and all loose). Very steep!

Thanks to our hiking/ski poles and some experience we made it down to the lake without injuring ourselves. Saw trail on the other side of the lake but my wife insisted on taking other "trail". Eventualy had to cross gully to take real trail and took small break to eat some snack while being attacked by an army of mosquitos. By then we were pretty tired.

Soon we were standing on another vista looking down at remnants of old shacks and rusted mining equipment. This was May Lundy mine. We walked by it again and wandered how in the world all this super-heavy cast-iron stuff was hauled up such inaccessible place... Still raining... Started going again and briefly saw muledeer doe with cub quickly going their way... There was still 3 miles to our destination and we were very tired and wet. Trail was very steep in some places, creek running the width of the trail. Didn't matter, we were wet from head to our shoes.

Arrived at the dam at 4PM and took off our "rock-heavy" packs. I hitched a ride to our campsite and drove Westy back to pick up my wife and we were very happy to be back "down on earth", with few sore spots where pack straps were contacting our bodies. The goal was accomplished and one more blank spot in our plans was filled.

Went inside our Westy and slept few hours... Next day we enjoyed splashing in Owens Hot Creek while it was still raining. After very relaxing soak we headed toward Bishop and loaded on mexican food in Taco Bell.

With plenty of daytime left drove north toward Fish Slough. There were very interesting lava rocks and forms including couple of great-looking "mushrooms". One hidden wall of petroglyphs and one large pile of rocks covered with petroglyphs. This area is known for great birding but we didn't see much out there in the rain.

Turned back on hwy 6 and started driving back south. There was still little time before sunset and we "discovered" couple of nice canyons in Owens Peak wilderness. Went to spend the night in our favorite Sand canyon in our favorite and very nice campsite. There was nobody in the whole canyon(rarely anyone is) and just before going to sleep spooked some mountain sheep and they took off leaving few rocks rolling down...

Next morning explored old black riveted iron aqueduct pipe wandering at such monumental piece of engineering that is still working well(with small patches). Stood next to it and placed hand on cool black metal and felt it moving and vibrating under the flow of water. Thought came across, what if this pipe would burst in some place leaving lots of San Fernando homes without water... Naaaaa...

Back to reality and it was time to finaly go home into LA traffic...