Ebbetts Pass - Labor Day 2015

"Oh, the humanity!"  So, I wanted to get away for Labor Day this year and my only criteria was to try and find a place that wasn't as crowded as the usual places.  I'd only been through Ebbetts Pass twice before and both times it was virtually empty of people.  I knew there would be more people than those previous times, but I was surprised at how many people there actually were.  Every wide spot in the road had a car parked in it.  Every little dirt road to nowhere had tents, cars, generators, gaudy EZ ups, stereos blasting and car alarms going off.

On Saturday, I had planned to first find a little boondock campsite somewhere and once that was done, go for a nice hike in the area.  Walking, especially uphill, is always a guaranteed way to beat the crowds.  Today, however, it took me most of the day just to find a remote camp area and even then, I had to share it with two other users--thankfully they were a quiet and respectful bunch.

It seemed that every camp site with a view of a lake or river was occupied or too rowdy to even consider, so we drove on.



My research said that there's a lot of dispersed camping near Utica and Union Reservoirs, but after thoroughly exploring the area, we didn't find a location worth spending the night at.  While driving out of the area, we saw a little forest service road that looked promising.  The map showed that it dead ended at Elephant Rock Lake.  We drove all the way to the end and, as expected, a sea of cars at the trail head.

So, we meandered back and took a little fork in the road and voila, near solitude.  This little road took us around a ridge to the west side of Summit Lake.  We found a nice little secluded, level spot and set up camp.

Solitude on Labor Day

Just a short hike to the east, over two little hills, was little Summit Lake.  It was a nice little patch of water, more pond-like than lake-like.  As far as I could tell, it was a very shallow lake and I saw no sign of fish--even small fish.  

Like everywhere, the water was low.

 There was a lot of dead fall around (and in) the lake and the area seemed very ripe for a fire

 Porky made an appearance

This wall was about 50 yards west of the lake shore.  I'm assuming it's some sort levy.  See what I mean about the tremendous amount of dead fall?

We walked the entire shoreline, which was only a 30 minute stroll.  On the north side of the lake, we came upon an older couple who had lugged a couple of camp chairs and a cooler to a nice spot in the sun.  They were sipping wine (from stemmed glasses to boot) and enjoying the setting sun.  They did it right.

 Back at camp, I made the usual first night's meal of steak, potatoes and a salad.  I even fried Dexter up some stew meat for a treat.

The next morning, I made a pot of coffee, sat outside in the haze of a forest fire and finished up Edward Abbey's "Serpents of Paradise."  I LOVE mornings like these.

We packed up camp and headed out to Spicer Reservoir.  I had heard about Spicer before, but had never seen it personally, so I wanted to lay the ojos on it since we were so close.

 I have no idea what these things were and there wasn't a sign explaining them.   If in Nevada, I'd assume they were from the mining industry, but here, these could anything from mining to agriculture to power generation equipment.

Spicer looked so sad with the water this low. 

 The smoke was really thick to the north.

  Just looking at the high water mark of the reservoir puts the drought in perspective for me.

We left Spicer (and a lot of the smoke) behind us as we headed back towards Ebbetts Pass.  We made a brief stop in Bear Valley to top off the tank and ate lunch at a nearby trail head.  We then headed up to the Highland Lakes area.



The Highland Lakes Road is easy to miss if you're traveling westbound on Highway 4, as it's far from perpendicular to the main road.  Now that we're eastbound, we spot it right away.  The first half of the road meanders alongside a little creek (possibly Arnot or Wolf Creek).  There were a lot of boondock campsites along the river and we planned to camp at one of them after seeing the lakes above.

Highland Lakes is probably 4-5 miles from Hwy. 4 and although it's a rough road, most cars can make the trek without any problem.

Remember when I said that we planned to camp down below, near the river? That was before 

we came upon this empty campsite at Highland Lakes.  That's Hiram Peak (9795' elev.).  

The campground was only half full and the people there were quiet, respectful people.  I've grown to dislike most campgrounds, but this was an exception and worth every bit of that $12.00.  

 We had to walk the shoreline of this, the smaller of the two, Highland Lakes.

  I love that view

 The campground, as seen from the east side of the lake

On the south shore of the small Highland Lake is a trail head that will take you

all the way to Spicer Reservoir.  I saw a backpacker taking that exact route.

 It was either Ash Wednesday or Dexter got into a fire pit.

We stayed out, walking the lake shore, until the sun went down and Iceberg Peak turned a brilliant golden yellow.  As the sun set, an icy wind started blowing through the area, so we hunkered down in the camper for the rest of the night.  

A couple of weeks before this trip, while perusing through the local Goodwill, I came across a brand new box set of DVDs that contained all 39 episodes of the Honeymooners for $8.00.  So, for this trip, I packed up one of those DVDs and watched Jackie Gleason threaten to send Alice to the moon, until bedtime. 

It was a pretty cold night, but I stayed warm inside under a down comforter, while Dexter had a jacket on and seemed pretty happy.

The next morning, while sipping my coffee in camp, I could see tons of fish jumping in the lake.  They looked to be feeding on the little white bugs that were flying above the water.  Well, I can't let that go by without tossing a line in the water.  I only had my little Tenkara rod with me, which is best suited for creeks, but I gave it a try anyway.  

I tied on a white and green Sakasa Kebari fly and headed to the lake.  Once I got to the shore, I was surprised to see that the fish that were making all the noise and splashes, were only about 3 inches long.  They put on a great show for such little fish.  But, where there are little fish, there are big ones too, so I kept at it.  The bigger fish were jumping about 30 yards off shore; just teasing me.

I did get two little bites from those tiny fish though.  I actually saw them nibble at the fly as I was bringing it in.  They had a lot of self confidence, I'll give them that.

 On the way out, we stopped a the larger Highland Lake and it was pristine.  A float tube or a kayak

would be a great way of seeing both of these little lakes.

This is one of the reasons I don't like campgrounds.  A necessary evil I know, but I prefer the boonies.

There are a few rustic old cabins in the area; probably because there's a small

open range cattle operation in the area

This is an old cow camp and it appeared to be still in use.

We got back onto Hwy. 4 and headed home.  It was a very nice weekend, despite the crowds, and it's an area I plan to revisit on the off season.

Until next time Ebbetts Pass...