A Short Trip in the Pioneer Basin Area

Looking over newly blooming Shooting Stars towards First Recess.

Second Recess

A Pioneer Basin Trip from Edison Lake, June 2003

As we left the First Recess area, the trail began to climb in an exposed hot area. Indeed it seem to curve around and climb unessarily high before sweeping back and down towards Second Recess. Actually, after hitting the canyon floor, the trail had already climbed 700 feet over about 3 miles before descending somewhat towards the Second Recess trail junction. Most of the gain seemed to be over the last half mile.

The Second Recess is another goal and destination all its own, and there is much to see up there, even if there is not much to see down here.

Finally the trail left the now blazing sun, exposed bush and broken trail to hit a very large camp area at the junction of the Second Recess trail. I had to look a bit to find the sign and the Second Recess trail itself, and I do not think it is really obvious until you manage to get across Mono Creek, a bit of a swift chore this time of year.

We decided to take a water and snack break before continuing on. We had alread gone about seven miles, so we were about due for a rest break.

This is the ford to the Second Recess Trail, early season.

After a rest and an exploration of the area for future planning, we headed back to the once again hot exposed trail.

A short walk and another 259 foot gain brought us to the Laural Creek Trail Junction (another future trip) and the crossing of Laural Creek. This crossing prooved to be a wet but not too difficult safe crossing. After a round of shoe wrangling and feet drying, we were back on the trail and looking forward to camp and a good position for the next day's activities.