This is a 3 night backpacking and fly fishing trip for golden trout in the Cottonwood Lakes Basin. Our backcountry permit is for a group size of 4 for 3 nights with an entry date of Sept 1, 2024.
The Cottonwood Lakes Basin is in the John Muir Wilderness a little south of Mt Whitney. The Cottonwood Lakes trailhead is at the end of the Horseshoe Meadows Road, 24 miles out of Lone Pine, about 5 1/2 to 6 hours from Truckee/Reno. The trailhead elevation is 10K feet, and the target basecamp at Cottonwood Lake #1 is at 11K feet 5.3 miles from the trailhead.
So yes, it is a long drive away, and yes it is kind of tough to hike at 10K+ feet, but the Cottonwood Lakes Basin is spectacular and full of lakes with golden trout, and for the lakes we are looking at, the fishing season opens Sept 1, 2024. We need to keep expectations in check, but this could be an epic experience!
The general idea is to drive up Saturday Aug 31, either spend the night in Mammoth (8k 9k elevation 2.5 hours away) or at the backpacking campground at the trailhead (10k elevation). We hike in on Sunday 9/1 and setup a basecamp and then for the next couple of days explore the 5 named Cottonwood Lakes, #1 #2 #3 #4 #5, and the other surrounding lakes such as Long Lake, the South Fork Lakes, High Lake, etc. We will also explore the creeks in the area too, as the Cottonwood Lakes Basin has lots to offer,. After 3 nights which means we have 2 full days Monday and Tuesday, we hike out Wednesday 9/4. Yes, we could drive and hike in on Sunday, but only if we are in good shape and elevation acclimatized enough…up for discussion.
Lots of good reference links on this, top for me is HCFF who has made a number of trips and is a great motivating read!
http://www.highcountryflyfisher.com/pages/chronGTW0.htm
https://flyfishingthesierra.com/cottonwood_gtcreek.htm
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/cottonwood-lakes-trail
(for reference only...no plans to do any passes)
If you are interested please let me know. If you are for sure able to make it, please register. Ir you are interested but can not commit, please let me know to help in planning as this is 6 months away and there will likely be fluidity in registrants.
If you have any questions, please contact me. Thanks.
Bill
(nice pic from HCFF)
(This map shows the Cottonwood Basin with the purple tent the planned basecamp area)
