Anna and I try to take a couple of backpacking trips every year, and we figured with spring bearing down on us, now is a good time to write up a report from our expedition up Baxter Pass last summer. That way, you all can either take on the challenge of Baxter Pass or pick something a little more civilized for your backpacking enjoyment.
Our last trip report was on our hike up Mount Whitney. While both of these hikes are in the Eastern Sierras and have their share of breathtaking views, they could not be more different. While Whitney is well marked, well traveled, and you will be on the trail with a billion of your new best friends; Baxter requires a fair amount of route finding, and Anna and I saw exactly one other human the whole three days that we were on the trail.
Why Aventure Up Baxter Pass?
Reason #1: A Fortress of Solitude
Let’s start with the biggest upside to Baxter Pass. I’ll give you a hint, it’s all about solitude. If you are looking for some alone time with that special someone, and they love you enough to slog up a brutal hike with you, you likely be rewarded with the solitude you seek. At the time, Anna and I were newly weds and there is just something romantic about being alone in the wilderness with the love of your life.
Reason #2: Wildlife Viewing
You probably won’t be totally alone though, Baxter pass is in right in the heart of the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep range, so there is a good chance of spotting one or twenty of them. I have seen sheep on both of my trips up Baxter and there is just something magical about seeing such a majestic species that was nearly extinct 20 years ago in its natural habitat.
Reason #3: The Fish are Biting
If you have a fishing pole, bring it. The trout in Baxter lake will bite almost anything you put in the water because there are so few hikers that visit these lakes. And for a novice fly fisherman like myself, I can use all of the ego-boosting fish stories I can get. Don’t expect to catch anything big, and remember to pinch the barbs on your hooks; first it’s the law, and second, there is nothing worse than trying to pry a barbed hook out of the mouth of an 8-inch trout.
Reason #4: It’s Available
The real reason that Anna and I picked Baxter Pass: there wasn’t anything else available. We drove up to the Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center in Lone Pine after work on a Thursday with nothing reserved. So basically we were in a, “You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit” kind of situation. You can always try to reserve permits for your desired trail at recreation.gov.
Our Baxter Story…
So like I said Anna and I started our trip on Thursday after work. It was a last minute thing for my birthday, and we just really needed to get out into the mountains. We got to the visitor’s center in Lone Pine about an hour before they closed. We were hoping they would have a couple of permits for either Kearsarge Pass or the north fork of Big Pine Creek, but alas, Baxter Pass was pretty much our only option.
I had hiked it a few years back so I was well aware of the trials that lay before us, and I had come prepared with a good set of topographical maps (the trail can be hard to follow and the last time a group of us got off track a few times).
Helpful Tip: As a side note, if you are looking for a great website to look up and print topo maps I always use caltopo.com. There is a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of their tools they are super handy, and you can print out some very useful maps.
Happy Birthday To ME
Once we had our permits, we stopped for a fancy birthday dinner at Seasons in Lone Pine. It’s not like LA fancy, but I have never had a bad meal there. With our belly’s full we headed to the trailhead to camp so we could get an early start the next morning and hopefully get some altitude before the sun got too hot.
Getting to the trailhead is pretty easy, just turn off US 395 at the Whitney Fish Hatchery and then follow the signs. The dirt roads to the trailhead are pretty well maintained, so pretty much any passenger car can get you there. We got there a little before sunset, so we laid on top of the Jeep and enjoyed the fresh cool mountain air and the company of a young doe mule deer.
Day 2 – Climbing the Pass
We got up the next morning a little ahead of the sun, because the trail up Baxter is steep, starts out at pretty low altitude (6,000ft MSL), and does not have much shade until you get to about 10,000ft. I had the wild hare of an idea that Anna and I could make it all the way over the pass and to Baxter Lakes in one day, a bit too much hubris.
To put it in perspective, the trail climbs to the top of the pass at about 12,400 ft over about 6.5 miles, and then to get to the lakes you have to drop down to 11,200 ft over about another 1.5 miles. Also, the last time I went up Baxter pass my hiking crew ran out of steam about halfway to the top of the pass and had to make camp, so I was putting my wife’s love for me to the test with this goat brained plan.
One Foot in Front of the Other…Just Keep Swimming….What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger?
The day went pretty smoothly at first. We made the first two creek crossings without any trouble. It helped that it was late in the season and it was a low snow year. We even managed to navigate through the maze of stinging nettles where I lost the trail the last time on the creek crossing at 8,400ft. Anna and I made pretty good time despite our blisters and our sore feet, that is until we got above the falls to 10,000ft.
By this point we had slowed down a lot, and it was going to take all of our stubbornness to get to the top of the pass and to our planned campsite at the lakes before sunset. It’s probably also worth mentioning that access to water is a lot harder to come by going up Baxter pass than most of the other hikes I have done in the Sierras, so plan your water usage. Anna and I were lucky and there was a good amount of flow where the trail intersected with a seasonal creek at about 10,600ft. With our water filled up, our spirits were buoyed a bit, and we pressed on. The hike from 10,000ft until you reach the timberline is actually really pretty, so much so, that you can almost appreciate it despite the trauma of the hike to this point.
The hike from the timberline up to the top of the pass is pretty easy to follow, but the terrain is really difficult. There are a lot of switchbacks, but the trail is uneven and it really wears on all of those stabilizer muscles that our cushy desk jobs don’t keep tone. But I digress. We made it to the top of the pass in about 10 hours.
Rock Slide or Sheep Slide?
As we got to the top of the pass we heard this crazy racket, which sounded like a rockslide down on the National Park side of the pass. Thankfully, Anna has really sharp eyes because she picked up a big group of say 10-12 bighorn sheep busting a move across the trail and up a steep scree field below us. It is times like this that I wish I had a decent camera with a good zoom lens, because my point and shoot just isn’t equipped for moments like this. Seeing those beautiful beasts is a pretty good reward for all the effort, and if you want to see them, you have to almost be a mountain goat yourself.
Once the elation of seeing the sheep wore off a bit, Anna and I got our hero shots with the sign at the top of the pass, made a few Facebook posts (there is cell service at the top of the pass), and headed down into the national park to Baxter Lakes where we would make camp for the next two nights. Going down with tired legs is almost worse than going up, but we made it and found the perfect site in a little patch of trees north of the lakes and a little ways up the hill. We were so tired that we made our dinner and turned in just after sunset.
Day 3 – Paradise
The next morning we slept in, at least by camping standards, until about an hour after sunrise. We made a relaxing breakfast and decided that we would relax and fish around the lake all day, instead of hiking down to where the trail meets up with the John Muir Trail. We are working on our ability to just relax, and this seemed like a great opportunity to just enjoy creation and each other without any distractions.
Slowing Down & Smelling the Coffee
We fished for a few hours in the late morning until we had enough fish to eat for lunch. The fish in Baxter Lakes are pretty small, but between the two of us we caught enough for a pretty good lunch. After eating, there was nothing on the agenda but laying around, resting, and talking with each other. Pretty much the perfect day if you ask me, and the fact that we had it all to ourselves made it well worth the brutal hike the day before.
Day 4 – Blistered, Bruised, and Headed Home
Sadly every good backpacking trip has to end with a hike out of the wilderness and back to civilization. Anna and I got up with the sun on the last day and started our hike back to the jeep at the trailhead. And as always, we had the foolish idea in our heads that because it was mostly downhill this day would be much easier than the hike in.
Did I Hear a Bear?
We really made great time getting back to the top of the pass. And to our surprise, we were rewarded with another sheep sighting. This time they were a little closer, and I got a passable (no NatGeo awards) photo. After a quick rest and a snack, we headed down the other side of the pass on our way back to the trailhead. Honestly, I think I must have mentally blocked out most that part of the hike. Anna and I are both pretty sure that we heard a black bear off in the bushes at one point, but other than that we were just happy when the Jeep finally came into view and we could drop our heavy packs and trade our hiking boots in for our buttery soft tennis shoes.
A Trip to Remember…All the Feels
All in all, it was a memorable trip. I don’t think I’m likely to get Anna back up Baxter Pass again, but that’s mostly because there is so much more to be explored. I would not trade this trip for five hikes up Mount Whitney. The fact that it seemed like we were the only two people in the whole world and the bighorn sheep really did make this the kind of trip that I will never forget.
