A Short Trip in the Pioneer Basin Area

After the walk to the highest large lake of the basin, we headed for lake 11026, there to the left. Mono Pass is mid-picture.

East Pioneer Basin

A Pioneer Basin Trip from Edison Lake, June 2003

We meandered back to the east and dropped down on lake 11026 over more easy cross-country broken by the occasional snow bank. The lake was picturesque, but not an ideal place to camp unless you really like exposed rocky camping. We were still among stunted trees that were nice to look at, but not much in the way of serving as shelter. The banks of the lake alternated between being sandy and loamy and except for the occasional snow bank, it provided easy walking. The soil had that look of pulverized rock ground to bits by glacier action. The occasional polished rock told the tale of the long gone ice along with the scattered rock erratics. Mainly the view of the Mono Divide captured most of our attention, an unforgettable sight.

From the lake we began to angle back towards camp. It had been a long couple of days, and we were looking forward to some down time to admire the views from a more comfortable relaxed position. After all, we had climbed over 2000 feet that day, which was a fair amount of hiking.