2010 Summer Trip - Day 1 - Cottonwood Lakes

(click on any photo to enlarge) Its been far too long since our last post, but between the end of ski season and Aug 1st there hasn't been much 'travel' in our lives. We have been working on the house with most of our free time. Things are coming along but we needed a break and luckily I had applied for permits six months ago to climb Mt.'s Whitney and Langley from the West. So begins our Summer Trip this year. Our Route this year has us leaving Cottonwood Lakes Trailhead, south of Mt Langley at the southernmost end of the Sierra and coming out over Kearsarge Pass to Onion Valley. The latter is where we left our Subaru on the way down.

The company included the usual suspects (us and the Funks) and we were kindly dropped of by Funks mom and dad (THANKS AGAIN Dave Sr. and Janine!!) on Sunday Aug 1 at around 1pm. As Dave and Janine drove away that awesome feeling engulfed me again, once I realized there was no way to get to our car other than walking to it! So with the sun high in the cloudless sky, we started our journey north.This entire trip is new to all of us except Funk who has climbed Langley before on a long day trip from this trailhead. The Cottonwood Lakes Basin is very scenic and our destination for the evening was Cottonwood Lake number 5, just below Old Army Pass. I chose this route instead of New Army Pass because it was a shorter distance to the top of Langley for the summit hike tomorrow. That meant we only had about 6 miles of hiking today. Tomorrow is the big day when we will climb Langley then descend down the other side to the Rock Creek Drainage.

Todays hike was leisurely and enjoyable. Knowing we only had a short hike today kept the mood light and the miles ticked away quickly. This basin really is beautiful - great sweeping views, brilliant blue lakes bordered by deep green grass. All contrasted by the bright white gray hue of the ever present Sierra granite.

There is only one thing wrong with this heaven on earth, the dreaded Bloodsuckers. It seemed that between 9500ft and 11000ft they were the thickest. Unfortunately our camp for the night lied between the two altitudes. Christi and I arrived to our proposed camp site for the evening. We dropped our packs and I scouted he area for a shaded and flat spot for the four of us. After 10 minutes I found a couple of spots. We settled in and went through our first 'evening routine'. Christi and I fell into the comfortable routine of setting up the tarptent, fluffing the bags, inflating the therma-rests, and getting the stove ready for dinner. I really have missed the simplicity of the hiking life. Too bad I only get to do in a couple of times a year. After dinner we stretched and relaxed, luckily the bloodsuckers weren't too bad. Out by 9pm as usual with dreams of Mt Langley dancing through our heads.