#mountgoode

Park Creek Trail had been closed off indefinitely due to wildfires, so south of the mountain was completely off limits. So I approached from the north via Bridge Creek Trailhead and took advantage of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) for a good while. I met a few through hikers and section hikers along the way. Near bluebird awesome approach day, views down Bridge Creek Valley went for miles and…

8/13/16 — 8/14/16

My younger sister Joanna (only 17 years old!) had spent the summer in California for the first time in over a decade. Over the course of her three months here, we got to show her some of the mountains in California and turn her into a young dirtbag. For one of her last weekends here, I had planned to take her out to the Eastern Sierra. A couple weeks before our planned weekend, a good friend of mine from high school, messaged me letting me know she’d be in town that same weekend, and asked if I wanted to do some mountain stuff. I told her I had plans with Joanna, but that she was welcome to join (not really expecting her to take the bait). Instead, she said she wanted to come, and even wanted to bring her own sister, Thea (just 12 years old!). And so our sister weekend was born.

Mount Goode had been at the top of my mind since seeing it on my failed attempt up Mount Agassiz over Memorial Day weekend. The Bishop Pass area is gorgeous, and Mount Goode is a surprisingly achievable 13er (as far as 13ers go). While the north side is commanding and imposing, the backside looked to be a reasonable way up. I ran the idea over by Oana, and she said her and Thea were game.

Obligatory trailhead photo.

Oana and Thea took the train up to San Francisco from Palo Alto on Friday evening, and we were on the road just after six. We made the usual dinner stop in Manteca (this time In & Out), and then continued the drive up to Tioga Pass, stealth camping off Saddlebag Lake Road. I wasn’t sure how Thea and Joanna would take the dirtbag-throw-your-sleeping-bag-on-the-floor-and-go-to-sleep style, but there were no problems. We were in bed around midnight, and got up the next morning around 6:30am. I was hoping to sleep later, but with the sun coming up and people near us stirring, it was hard to sleep much later. We got in the car, drove down to the Mobil for a pit stop, and then continued down to Bishop, grabbing breakfast at Schaat’s (yum) before driving up to the South Lake trailhead.

The parking lot at the trailhead was packed. We illegally parked the car while we sorted out gear, planning to move down the road once we were ready. I got lucky and managed to snag a spot though as someone else was leaving, so I didn’t have to make the schlep back up the hill. Before long, we were taking our trailhead photo and heading off.

View of Mount Goode from Long Lake.

This trip was Joanna’s second backpacking trip (after Alta Peak earlier in the summer), and Thea’s first. I was really excited to show all three of them this incredible area. We planned to camp near Bishop Lake, which is only a 4-5 mi hike in, so we really took our time. We hung out for at least an hour and a half at Long Lake, dipping our feet in the water and snacking. While Oana and I chatted on a big rock and got in the water up to our waists, Joanna and Thea laid out on the shore, seeming to get along great. After some prodding by Joanna and Thea, Oana and I finally packed up, and we finished the hike in to Bishop Lake.

Oana looking epic standing on a rock, as she is known to do.

We searched for a while, and found a pretty secluded spot in the center of Bishop Lake, surrounded by water on three sides. We had the whole afternoon to hang out, so we spent some more time swimming in the lake. Thea was the only one who was brave enough to get in all the way to her shoulders — the rest of us were too scared because the water was so cold, and we only managed to get our lower halves in. After we had our fill of the water, we all lounged out on the rocks in the warm sun, napping and enjoying. What a rough life.

From there, we finally set up camp and went about making dinner. Since it had been such a short hike in, we hadn’t skimped on the dinner supplies — we made angel hair pasta with tomato sauce, broccoli, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper, and tons of parmesan, just barely managing to fit everything in the large pot I had brought. An hour or so later, we were all full and ready to go to bed. Just as it began to get dark, a mouse came out and wouldn’t leave our camp alone. Since we had only brought one tent for Joanna and Thea, and Oana and I were going to sleep outside, we moved our groundsheet a little away from camp to get away from the mouse.

Sunset light from camp.

The next morning, we got up around 7:15am, and started to get ready for the day hike. Getting ready took a while, and we probably only left camp around 8:15am. I had figured it would take us about 3 hours to get to the summit, which was about 2000ft above camp.

We walked around Bishop Lake and made it to the base of the climb. The first section was up lush slopes, but we soon made it to a mix of sand and rock. This was understandably Thea’s first time doing any type of off trail stuff, so we gave her lots of advice on how to go about it. Slowly but surely, we were making progress up the hill. I continually checked the time vs elevation gain, and saw that we were going at a slower pace than I had expected. Thankfully, we had the whole day — it would just be a matter of how late we’d get home.

At the top of the first section, which was sandy and rocky, it opened up into the bowl below the peak. From here, we had a straight up sandy section for the next few hundred feet, which of course no one enjoyed. There was no choice to slog up it though, keeping our eyes towards the boulder field that lay ahead. Once we finally reached the boulders, the terrain became a lot more interesting and less miserable. The scrambling was a bit harder than I had expected though — I definitely didn’t want to take the group on anything harder than class 2, which I guess this wasn’t, but there were plenty of opportunities to make it class 3, which I hadn’t expected. This meant that we needed to make sure we picked good routes for Thea. Oana made sure to stay with Thea the entire way up, guiding her and helping her figure out how to proceed. Thea had also been excited at seeing the snow. Whenever we came across small patches of snow, we’d stop for a quick snow snack, which was definitely a welcome treat in the warm sun.

Joanna scrambling up.

Oana and Thea closely following.

Six hundred feet before the summit, Joanna slipped and scraped her knee, so we stopped to tend to that. I had left my first aid kit at camp (of course), so we only had a few things in the one pack I had brought for the four of us. What we found inside was a bit of gauze and some blister bandaids, so we made do with that, knowing Joanna would be able to fix it better once we got back to camp. In those last 600 feet, the scrambling got a bit harder, but everyone made it up like a champ. Joanna and I made it up first, with Oana and Thea trailing five to ten minutes behind. It had taken us about four hours to make it to the summit.

Summit selfie.

The summit block was just big enough for the four of us to comfortably sit on it. I grabbed the summit register from some lower rocks and perused it as we all rested. I was surprised to see that I actually knew six of the signatures: Ephrat and Luca (of course), Mark Thomas and Nic Risser (who had done the climbing route), and Nga and Matthew. I took photos of all of their entries and we signed our own. It was only later on, when looking through my photos, that I realized Peter Croft has signed directly above Mark and Nic!

Summit views towards Agassiz with Bishop Lake at bottom left.

We took a good 15/20 minute rest at the top. We saw that another party was coming up, so we might as well wait for them to take a photo for us. This group consisted of two men and a dog. I was really impressed with how easily the dog made it up. As for the men, one of them had a broken collar bone, which he was super casual about. He took a photo for us, and we thanked him before starting back down. I knew this section would be a little tough for the group, so I led off, doing my best to find the easiest line down the scrambling. It wasn’t perfect, but I managed to find a way that everyone could handle, helping each other out when necessary.

The group on the summit.

It was a welcome relief when we finally made it to the sand, and we could quickly plunge-step our way down. From there, it wasn’t too much longer to make it to camp. Back down by the lake, there was much less of a breeze, and we all started to feel how hot it was. Our camp was on the other end of a small lake that’s surrounded by Bishop Lake. I was bummed that we wouldn’t have time for a full on relaxing swim, but I was still tempted to get in the water. I figured it wouldn’t cost us too much time if I took off my clothes quickly, threw them in the pack, and asked Joanna to carry them back for me as I swam across the lake to camp. When I shared this idea, Joanna and Oana decided they wanted to do it too. This left Thea with the not so fun task of having to carry *all* of our clothing and shoes back. I managed to barely fit everything in the back, tying two pairs of hiking boots to the outside.

Normally I’m that person who takes forever to get into the water, and often chickens out. But this time, I didn’t really have a choice — which is great that I set it up that way. If I bailed, I’d have to walk around the lake without any shoes, and I’d feel bad for making Thea carry my stuff. So, after seeing Oana get in, I finally forced myself to do the same, Joanna following right after. It was definitely cold, but by the time I made it to the other side, I felt refreshed. This had been the best idea I’d had all trip.

On the other side, I took a few minutes to dry off in the sun, and then quickly got dressed and set about cleaning up camp. I took down the tent and started to pack up my belongings. We all ate a bit, as we finished packing up, eager to start the hike out. Packing up always takes longer than expected, and we didn’t start hiking until 4pm on the dot.

The hike out went by smoothly, with minimal stops. It took us about two hours to make it back to the cars. We were all very thankful to be back on trail. Earlier in the day, I had been telling Thea that if Mount Goode were in Yosemite, it would be the second tallest peak in the park, and that there was only other peak shorter than Goode in Yosemite that was still a 13er — Mount Dana. And Dana even has a trail to the top. Thea responded to this, “Oh, well that doesn’t count then.” And I felt beyond satisfied at how early I had converted her. :) I also made sure she had had her fill of climbing over rocks. On the approach, there had been a few stream crossings where you hopped on rocks to get across, which Thea enjoyed. She assured me that scrambling up to Mount Goode had more than fulfilled her interest.

Joanna and me on the summit.