Big Pine Lakes Trail, CA
We went on a spur of the moment 4 day weekend to Bishop, CA with the intention of hiking the Big Pine Lakes Trail. Here’s our weekend.
We headed up to Bishop, CA the weekend after Memorial Day 2019 for some hiking. I didn’t spend a long time planning this trip, but there’s a Glacier out near Big Pine that I’d heard interesting things about. A coworker of mine suggested it to me when she found out we both have shared interests in hitting those “Bucket List” hikes. She said the Big Pine Lakes Trail was one of the most picturesque hikes outside of a National Park or International destination. A true gem! And only a few hundred miles away. She was inspired to tell me about it after she saw me gazing longingly at blogs about “The W hike” in Torres del Paine. “Well, you know about Seven Lakes and the Palisades Glacier, right?”
No, I didn’t. But it piqued my interest. I saw some cool pictures online, read about the local climate: It snows when we aren’t in a drought, through much of winter and also spring. There are brief periods of moderate weather at the bookends of the summer season. And then it is pretty warm all summer long, bursting into an awesome display of fall colors and tolerable weather before shutting down for the shortened days of winter again.
Planning the Trip
Hiking the Big Pines Lakes Trail was a goal of our for the past few years, But David and I travel a lot. Because of conflicts with other longer planned trips, it was hard to plan it unless it was going to be spur of the moment. That’s exactly what happened. I noticed I had a 4-day weekend and went for it. We ended up looking for a hotel with a few criteria: mid-range for budget, high to moderate rankings for comfort, and a Jacuzzi.
I wanted to hike and then spend a day recovering with Advil, alcohol and swimming. We were also looking forward to yoga, massages, and a variety of food choices. This led me to select Bishop, CA over Big Pine as a place to rent a room. They ended up being a short 20 minutes apart anyways, so it didn’t make a huge difference.
Thursday: Driving and Preparing
Gear and Permits
I was checking out comments about the Big Pine Lakes Trail on AllTrails before we left for the latest reviews and noticed all this talk about snow, and snowshoes, and cramp-ons, oh great. Well, it will be an adventure, right? This hike did not require a permit, but to camp around the lakes would require one.
After I made a quick phone call to a local gear shop, Eastside Sports, I found that it would only be $12 to rent snowshoes, and I thought that sounded perfectly reasonable. I didn’t tell David about all the snow. I think he likes to be surprised, but the joke didn’t go over great. There were a few raised eyebrows, but we got the snowshoes just in case.
Dinner at Whiskey Creek
We ended our driving day at Whiskey Creek during Happy Hour. Oddly, there were no whiskey drinks on the happy hour menu, and our waiter seemed a bit confused why we thought that was funny. I had meatloaf, and David had a wedge salad with sirloin, the food was good, and we headed to bed early.
Friday: Big Pine Lakes Trail
Before the Snow
We began the hike around 7:30am. The trail started out easy, but very quickly we stared up the switchbacks past the first and second waterfall, then leveled out through a valley and we could walk side by side. As always, we were having such pleasant conversations.
As soon as we passed the ranger’s cabin there was snow, and we saw some other hikers. They were wearing shorts and talking to us about the expected trail conditions. “In the past week, it’s been so warm…” “It really transitioned from winter to spring this week.” At this point I really started to get hopeful about being able to complete the loop.
After the Snow
The snow was intermittent though for quite a while. Every once in a while, we’d cross over a solid patch, and every once in a while we would cross over a patch with holes punched through. Revealing a latticework of roots and foliage, sometimes overlaying moving water, and not secure to walk over for much longer.
First Lake
As we approached the first lake was the first calf-deep snow. The ground was so uneven it was confusing where to even approach the lake. The whole lake was frozen, aside from a few feet from the shore. There was a lone duck on the lake.
In between one and two was tough but there were other people there. Second Lake was as picturesque and beautiful as everyone says, but again, the lake was frozen. We stopped and dangled our legs over the edge of a rock and had a bit more to eat. There were only a few scattered tents of brave campers. Apparently, the lake is turquoise in the summer. We will have to come back for that.
Second Lake
No one wanted to go on the third lake, and it was pretty clear that we were not going to complete the whole loop of the Big Pine Lakes Trail. But, we continued on alone, willing to be deterred by any further obstacles. The trail to third was easy enough to find but then we realized the time already 1:30pm and decided to turn back. Although the scenery was beautiful, and the altitude was noticeable, and the snacking breaks were leisurely, that still didn’t account for how long it had taken us to hike 5 miles in five hours. Was the snow and the caution really making us that slow? Regardless, we decided to turn back.
Literally Snowing
It started to snow so we were more interested in getting off the mountain then taking more pictures. The way back between second lake to first lake we were off trail many times, we keep loosing the trail and I fell multiple times in much deeper and sloping snow. Sometimes you just need to get one foot on something solid and the accessory muscles in your legs are begging for balance and stillness.
After getting past the steep hill again we walked along a little trickle of a stream. It didn’t seem like we were doing that on the way in but now it was wet everywhere. Maybe the significant sunshine on the way in had been quietly melting the snowflakes. And each newly born drop of water raced downhill to join the force of the glorious waterfalls and even larger and greater bodies of water. Maybe the ground was newly saturated, and the water was just more noticeable on the surface.
Returning Through the Valley
Once we got in the area of the valley, we walked along a different ridge, and saw a family of deer, at least 7 of them. At first, they were startled, but eventually they succumbed to my novice photography attempts.
It drizzled the rest of the way back, with various intensities, but never rising to an element of irritation. The weather wasn’t extreme, in fact there were periods of time when it was quite warm. And by the end of the hike I felt that It’s true that you don’t even need to reach a lake to have an amazing hike on the Big Pine Lakes Trail.
Saturday: Rest and Recovery
Breakfast
The next morning, we headed to Pupfish Cafe. I had a red eye that really could grow hair on my chest, and a delightful Paleo/Keto breakfast of salad with poached eggs and turkey with a half avocado. I love eating cold Avocado with hot food. Hipster Breakfast is one of my favorite parts of vacations, and this fit the bill perfectly. I was petting everyone’s dogs on the patio on the way out to the car.
Massages
Next, we had an Excellent massage at In The Zone Massage Therapy. When I found there only one therapist, and couldn’t offer couples massage, I was holding out. I was looking for another opportunity, where we could both get in and out without having to wait for the other person. But Steve was just what we needed, and so worth the wait. If I could do it again, I would have confirmed an appointment, but it was our luck that he was able to accommodate on short notice. Steve gave us homemade cookies from his wife as we left.
Wine
Now it was time to get our drink on. Not much else to do in Bishop so we found Anneke Schat’s Wine Cellar on Yelp. It was a really cute shop with local wines from just down the road but no license for tasting. Hmm. So we asked if there was anywhere else to go they told us to hit up the organic yogurt shop.
Good Earth Yogurt doesn’t sound like much of a wine bar it had everything! Awesome wine flights, organic food, and freshly baking waffle cones. It smells delicious in here.
Lunch
After the wine I was ready for food, something more than the delicious Greek yogurt and waffle cones from our previous stopover. So, we drove down the road to the Burger Barn, and snagged a picnic table. I had a salad with a hamburger. The meal took like 12 minutes to be brought to the table. I asked for extra ranch, but the ranch was homemade and cost 25c extra. Can’t say no, right? It was delightful. The salad was definitely not an afterthought. All of the veggies were crunchy and flavorful. The ranch was delicious and it did not get wasted. I was really quite surprised.
Spirits and Libations
Next up was Owens Valley Distillery, the only distillery in town. Now we have a debate on our hands. David liked the vodka. Amy liked the gin. But we could both agree that the barrel aged rum was more nuanced and flavorful. Adam showed us around and we ended up buying a bottle of gold rum. I look forward to trying the whiskey in the future.
We ended the night back at the hotel jacuzzi, eating Chinese takeout and watching TV. Perfect ending to a relaxing day!
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