Carson Pass to Lost Lakes via PCT

My roommate Megan and I headed out to Carson Pass for a short weekend backpacking trip a few weeks ago. The weather decided to test us with a thunderstorm before we even got out of the car after arriving at Carson Pass. Luckily, as afternoon thunderstorms in the Sierra tend to do, the rain let up within about 10 minutes.

I’d worked a half day that day, so we were already getting a late(ish) 5:30 pm start. Our late start meant that we had the trail to ourselves. Our first stop was about a mile in at Frog Lake, which was completely empty. So nice to have a popular day hiker spot to ourselves. From there, we hiked in about another 2 miles and set up camp in a small grove of trees. I’d waited out a storm during my PCT thru hike attempt (or my LASH (long ass section hike), since I only hiked 2,300 miles of the trail in one go) in that same grove of trees. What a difference nice weather can make.

We only had another 3ish miles to go until Lost Lakes, which was our camp spot for our 2nd night. We’d both woken up early enough to be back on the trail by 8:30 am. I love backpacking with people whose sleeping in super powers are as terrible as mine.

A slow hike to Lost Lakes got us there by 10:00, which meant we had tons of time to kill. The first order of business was lakeside snack time. Megan came up with my new favorite snack idea, the peanut butter frosted apple.

After a sufficient amount of lazy time, we set up camp by the lake and headed out for a day hike, continuing southbound on the PCT until the clouds looked like they were threatening another afternoon thunderstorm.

Hiking back out the next day felt totally different than it had on the way in. I thought I hated out and back trips, but turns out I was wrong. The views going northbound on this section of trail were even better than they were going southbound.

The heat was out in full force by the time we reached the last exposed climb back to Carson Pass summit. Luckily we knew we had a lunch stop at Frog Lake, complete with a dip in the lake, waiting for us in a few short miles.

Permits for the Mokelumne Wilderness were self-issue online (thanks COVID!) and easy to get. And even though we didn’t venture very far from civilization, we didn’t see too many other people out there until we were within a couple of miles of the Carson Pass parking lot on Sunday. I didn’t think such a thing was possible in California.

This weekend, I’m heading back to the Sierra with my mom and aunt for a day trip to Yosemite and for their first backpacking trip. We’ll be doing a PCT/JMT loop, which will probably make their brains explode. I’ll have my new camera and lens in tow to document the adventure, so expect a giant photo post once I’m back home!