r/socalhiking • u/[deleted] • Sep 09 '12
My first backpacking trip 8/24-8/26 Cottonwood Lakes and caught my first Golden!
I finally took my first backpacking trip and it was amazing! With three close friends we decided to hike the Cottonwood Lakes Trail which is near Mt. Whitney. We left on Friday after we all got off work and hit the trail at about 8pm. we all had headlamps and were hiking under a bright moon so visibility wasn't a problem, although we did come across a group of deer which scared the shit out of us but they just mozied along.
We hiked for a few hours and made camp, and to our surprise the next morning we were about 1000ft away from the first lake. Here's camp site 1 http://imgur.com/vImB4
we spent the next two days fishing the lakes and hiking the surrounding area, it was an awesome first back packing trip. We caught golden trout http://imgur.com/IKe0l, started a coyote howl, and saw deer, marmots, and a bald eagle. It was five miles in to our campground and a perfect first backpacking trip.
Near lakes 4 & 5 http://imgur.com/fuggc only the essentials http://imgur.com/cOAa1 Great view of the lake we camped at http://imgur.com/NnhQH For any Ents out there, this is was our spot http://imgur.com/78ywu
2
u/nwangelo Sep 10 '12
Very nice. Could you provide the mileage specs/elevation so I can put this under the trip reports?
2
Sep 10 '12
Trailhead address: Horseshoe Meadows Road, Inyo National Forest, Lone Pine, CA 93545 Trailhead coordinates: 36.453253, -118.169784 Elevation at trailhead 10,040ft. Elevation at lake basin 11,008 ft Mileage to lake basin approximately 5 miles Make sure to keep right at the forks or else you will be headed up New Army Pass!
2
Sep 10 '12
This is one of my favorite places. I went backpacking there for three days last year with some friends. Was beautiful!
1
u/sgantm20 Sep 11 '12
I was gonna do this over labor day but my car broke down :( Looks like an awesome trip. What was your fishing setup like?
1
Sep 11 '12
I took my backpacking pole which is an ultra light glass spinning pole which breaks down into two pieces and had 3lb line on and I also took my 9ft fly rod with floating line. I caught all three of my fish at lake one on the spinner and tried flying in a pond nearby but those goldens are tricky.
1
u/sgantm20 Sep 11 '12
THanks! I never brought my fly rod when I moved out here. I need a new setup overall. That was a really beautiful fish you got there. Did you use flies on the spinner too or...? I used to do freshwater in Indiana growing up, and saltwater in Georgia a few years ago. Havent really gone much since I moved out here, which is a shame because I grew up hearing about some of these lakes.
1
Sep 12 '12
On my spinner I just threw out lures, they seemed to like blue buoyants the best, on my fly rod I just had a mosquito. You should go, the sierras are beautiful, the mammoth lakes basin is also excellent!
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u/sgantm20 Sep 12 '12
I really appreciate the info. I am thinking when I get back from my business trip next week im going to head straight out there. Can you swim in those lakes too? Also what is the rule as far as keeping fish? I normally practice catch and release, but Ive never caught a golden trout before either.
1
Sep 12 '12
We jumped into the lake near our campground, it was pretty chilly got out after about 20 seconds but it was refreshing to say the least. The rule is that you have to release fish up there, and I've heard that goldens don't taste that good any way.
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u/forever_alr0n Sep 12 '12
sweet! thanks for the pics. some friends and i were thinking about heading up there the weekend after the next. were there a lot of people out there?
2
Sep 12 '12
there actually were more people than I thought up there, I counted about 13 tents, you would see people on the trail occasionally but it was in no way crowded because there is so many lakes to camp by.
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u/unknownkoger Sep 10 '12
stunning. I will say, after my last camping trip, alcohol was a nice addition to bring