Backpack Notes, Day 1

The group as it heads out.

Bill did a day-by-day replay of our July backpack trip, already, which you can read here. I'll just add a few notes of my own observations.

It's pretty amazing it took us 5+ hours to get started hiking that first day. Starting later made the day quite a bit more difficult, because it was already warm when we started. The stretch of trail before Barney Lake would be nice to get done early because there isn't much shade as you hike through sage flats and the stunted willow/aspens forests on the switchbacks.

There were still some interesting birds the first day despite the late beginning. Our only Yellow-headed Blackbirds for the trip were in the meadows and cattle yards around Bridgeport. There were both Clark's Nutcrackers and Steller's Jays at the Twin Lakes campground, which is interesting since it's only about 7,000'. There were also a few Red-breasted Sapsuckers in the various aspen groves we encountered, and a pair of Williamson's Sapsuckers near the campground itself. Western Wood-Pewees were quite common that first day, but less so afterward.

A big highlight for me was flushing a covey of Mountain Quail right where we ate lunch along Barney Lake's outlet. There was an adult (I assume a female) and a group fo maybe 8 or so young birds that all took flight as I approached them, disappearing into dense growth next to the trail. It was funny to watch the precocious young, about half their parent's size, flutter strongly into the air. Those were the first Mountain Quail I've encountered in the Sierras.

A pair of Black-headed Grosbeaks was nice just past Barney Lake. I'm not sure if that's high for them or not, but they could very well have been post-breeding dispersers or southward migrants that late in July. Further up the trail we had quite a few Audubon's Warblers, Dark-eyed Juncos and Cassin's Finches.

The trail from Barney to Peeler is a real grunt, as it's a consistent uphill climb. We were pretty tired when we got to camp, and we got there pretty late in the evening, so we basically just did camp chores, ate, and went to bed. Pumping water turned out to be an especially involving process with six people. I wish we could have gone fishing that evening, but we didn't have much energy or time.

The mosquitoes were bad!

I put up pictures from the day on our Flickr: Backpack Day 1.