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Heiser and Bull Run Lakes
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Carson-Iceberg Wilderness
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August 22nd - August 24th, 2009
7.8 miles
2120 vertical feet
10 hours, 24 minutes
Rating: 8/10
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Directions:
From Angels Camp, take Highwy 4 east past Bear Valley. Just past Bear Valley the
road passes through a gate (closed in winter) and becomes a winding
narrow road with no
dividing line, although still paved and in good condition. Follow the road past
Alpine Lake, past
Stanislaus Meadows, to the Heiser Lake trailhead at Mosquito Lake on the right.
The lot has
enough space for about 5 cars.
View Driving Map
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It's hard to find 3-day backpacking trips appropriate for kids, but I eventually found what
looked to be a pretty good route over what most people would do as a 2-day trip in the
Carson-Iceberg Wilderness. I called the ranger station 2 weeks in advance to find out about
permits, but they said that there weren't any quotas and I couldn't get a permit in advance
even if I wanted to. I called again the day before our hike just to confirm that this was the case,
and that they'd be open on Saturday so that I could pick up the permit.
Another thing I did was check the weather. It looked decent, with a 20% chance of thunderstorms
on Saturday, then relatively clear on Sunday and Monday. In the meantime, I started packing
on Wednesday. It had been over 7 years since my last 3-day backpacking trip. Despite a few
2-day trips since then, I think I'd forgotten how much more difficult it is to pack for a
3-day trip, especially in the Sierra. The necessity of a bear canister adds almost 3 pounds,
and the extra food adds more weight as well. Because of this, and the fact that we still carry
almost everything for the kids, meant that our packs were heavy and we had to be more meticulous
about what we brought. On a 2-day trip, you can be pretty casual about packing the food, but not
so on longer trips.
It was so much effort trying to pack everything that I threw a bunch of stuff in the car to
decide later, and we finally left the Bay Area around 9pm. We made two short stops along the
way, reaching our motel in Angels Camp around 11:30pm where it was still quite warm. I had
chosen to stay in Angels Camp instead of driving up to the trailhead on Saturday morning
because we're terrible
about waking up early and I wanted to make sure we started the trail at a decent time.
Another option would have been to stay in Murphys, 15 minutes further up the road, or perhaps
Arnold another 15 minutes beyond that, but I'm not familiar with the lodging choices in those
places.
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