Golden Trout Wilderness, Sierras

 My brother Jay and I went backpacking in the Golden Trout Wilderness last week.  What an awesome trip!  I don't think I have ever seen such a clear weather forecast as I did for this trip- totally clear and no wind the entire time.  Good thing- it was still late October in the Sierra.  (All these photos are from Jay's iPhone - thanks Jay for taking it along).

This was our first overnight spot on the side of Casa Vieja Meadows about two miles into the wilderness and about 8500' high.  Wow, it was cold, about 18 degrees and humid, brrr.  I like to sleep under the stars but brought along a bivy sack to stay a bit warmer.  

 One cannot outrun the inner geek - I brought a small ham radio and successfully made contacts from the middle of nowhere with a 135' end fed dipole strung into the trees that Jay helped me make before we left.  We spoke with guys in LA, San Fran, Porterville, Edwards Air Force Base, and Sacramento.  Wow, 5W only.  But wow, freezing- no much sleep for either of us at that temperature.  In the middle of the night a pack of coyotes came around and yipped and yaped at us.  They were so close you could hear their paws- I sat up under a full moon, didn't see them and they left.

 

This was a fishing trip after all, we both tried meadow fishing with not too much luck.  We finally caught some small guys and figured we better take a photo as it may be all we had for the trip.  

We decided to hike to a lower elevation to try and get some warmer nights.  We descended about 4 miles and 2500' down to a place called Jordan Hot Springs.  At this altitude the Sequoias start- what cool trees... 

 The next morning we decided to go sit in the hot springs.  We had the place to ourselves other than some horse pack hunter guys who were far away.  Thankfully no hippies.  I thought the hot spring was at the base of this geothermal formation.  Yeah, there was a hot dribble, but not so, it was about 34 degrees out bummer, cold bummer!

OK, this pond above and off to the side was the hot spring. We sat in the spring until the sun came up and the fish started to be interested in flies.  Yes I have a swimsuit on ;-).

 We fished for most of the day after walking far downstream and scaling a big hill off of the trail to reach very remote water- the fish loved dry flies, especially any with a bit of red.  Whereas I was counting strikes, after a while we stopped counting the number of fish we caught- super fun.

 We each kept two of our biggest and brought them back to camp for a little cranberry stuffing and Tony Chachere's seasoning.

 Hmmm,,,no fires allowed still- we had to figure out how to cook these guys and wound up using Jay's single burner stove and and old grate that was in our campsite.  We would just rotate the fish on each side, sliding them past the flame.

 It worked.  Super good golden trout.

 Here's a geothermal formation alongside the stream we fished Saturday morning before heading home.

And a great photo of a golden trout Jay caught.

 We hiked through an area of forest fire, a huge fire.  In fact everything was burned for most of our trip except our two camping spots and vicinity...  Sad.

 Made it out...  Tired and happy.

What a cool trip - fishermen dream of catching a golden trout- Jay and Ilene were great hosts and between hunting, a federal shutdown, the late season, we had the place to ourselves only seeing a few people on the trail.  Thanks Jay for putting this trip together, can't wait to do it again (maybe with kiddos when they get old enough too!).  I missed my family and Joy was ready to go anywhere but home by the time I returned.  Thanks so much Joy and Ilene for supporting our trip.  Who wants to go next time?