The 395 and Owens Valley-Eastern Sierra Region

There once was a ship that put to sea.
The name of the ship was The Billy O'Tea...

 

Top of the hill north of Bridgeport?

 

Drugs are bad kids…

 

100%!

 

Petroglyph

 

Fuck i cant wait, last day of work for the week then time to jimmy jam up to the east side!

 

Update: My wife has confiscated my sea-captains hat.

Here are some hopefully more useful answers to your questions:

There's one epic site with ideal lake access, and another one or two plausible but lousy spots at shore-level. The rest vary in quality, but they’ll leave you with a short scramble down to reach the lake. Everything is close to the lake though, and a bit of distance might help from a mosquito perspective. Also, it’s dispersed camping, so it’s hard to define what is a site and what isn’t. The "premium" site is at the south end, above and furthest from the lake, I think it sucks and it's always occupied when I arrive.


Looks like some mining history too?

If you're willing to bushwhack, there are also some fantastic foot sites in the area, but you'll have fight through dense foliage and cross some streams to get there; they’re even closer to the good fishing, but not literally lakeside.

Make sure to check relevant regulations when deciding where to camp.


Lakeside

The road is in the best condition I've ever seen it... prior flood damage has been bypassed, and those bypasses aren’t yet washed out. It's not a technical drive, but still an arduous slog, and solidly 4x4 high-clearance only, with narrow off-camber shelf sections and tight switchbacks. I'd give it at least an hour, unless you're in a side-by-side or a helicopter... although a Raptor made it up in half an hour while I was there... at least to the tight switchback above the lake. Then he spent another 15 minutes Austin-Powersing his way around that switchback in the dark!


Said event


Nice view on the drive up

Others are more knowledgeable about fishing, but in my opinion... I’d call it the world's best arcade claw game. Through crystal-clear waters you'll see marvelous prizes that will compel you to keep playing, but you’ll likely leave empty-handed and bankrupt. Personally, I would not recommend this place for teaching a kid to fish.

It’s not stocked, and the rules are super strict: Lures and flies only, single non-barbed hook, minimum size 14". (Also a bag limit of two, but I don't see how that would come into play.) I don't know how to fly fish, so maybe that's the winning recipe... but if you are throwing lures, you'll need either some type of boat, or else a boatload of lures, because all the good fishing spots are snag city and so are the shores. Spinners are useless, at least in my experience, only the presentation of a lively jig will result in a strike, and even then, only in the milliseconds before it hopelessly snags against a submerged tree. I fished two days with a single lure from the helm of my mighty Intex Explorer 300 (and ate well the first night!) But then, following the catastrophic events described above, I quickly lost all of my jigs to the lakebed or shore foliage trying to fish from shore, and ate a bag of Doritos for dinner. One benefit of shore fishing is that I could bring a camera... although between the excitement of the catch and the trauma of the mosquitos, I didn't really get any good pictures:


I threw this guy back, then his nephew, then his cousin, while his granddaddy slipped the hook mere inches from my net. And this was a banner day – the median number of fish I catch per day at this lake is a solid zero.

Also, when the fish are biting, the mosquitos are absolutely insane. I doused myself in deet and wore thick clothing with a head net, and I still got absolutely devoured. I could barely work the rod or tie a knot while fishing, then could barely sleep between fits of scratching my skin off. You’ll fare much better by staying at camp, where the misquotes are relentless but not debilitating. But don’t skip the deet and headnet, and enjoy the Doritos.


Finally...

Be advised that there are very few vehicle-accessible camping spots, and this place is super popular despite its difficulty of access. Don’t expect solitude on a holiday weekend, and if you’re going to roll in on a Saturday afternoon on a three-day weekend, you’d better be really lucky or really good at making friends who will let you camp right on top of them. From LA, I’d leave Thursday night and camp light nearby, or else set an alarm for a pre-dawn Friday departure. It’s kind of hit or miss though... I’ve also had the place to myself on pristine summer weekend nights. The safer bet is a total shit-show though – there are far-more reliable areas nearby, from both a camping and a fishing perspective, and I would personally favor them for a family camping trip.

To sum it up, this isn’t a very good place to catch fish or get the best camping spot, at least in my opinion. But it's a great place to camp and fish; the scenery is stunning, and I always make new friends. And despite what I’ve written it’s one of my favorite places in California. My goal here is to calibrate your expectations, not discourage you from coming.


The view, a few feet from my hammock

Good luck with the arcade claw game though... I got devoured by mosquitos and sunburned to shit chasing prizes like these, and all I have to show are bloody scabs and peeling skin:




Seriously awesome though

 

Your post should win some sort of prize for detail, and your pics are amazing, geez.
Thanks so much, it’s exactly the review i was looking for. I’ll have to make the trip up there one day, i might give it a go tomorrow

 

This is when my wife said "nope" and we turned around. This was 4-5 years ago and up to then the road was pretty beat up then. LT and wide front end doesn't mix on a shelf road when you're by yourself.

 

Yeah, definitely read that out loud in me most piratey voice.

Great Milky Way shots!

 

Oh man, thats gotta be tight in a Raptor. It's not too bad in my DCLB but my passengers definitely had their heart rate raised being that close to the edge at spots.

 

Thank you for going into detail about the fishing regulations. It is super important that everybody that goes to Laurel understands them.

As far as fast times up that trail, I've done it quicker than 30 minutes. It was on a weekday. I had a buddy of mine go up the trail ahead of me. He let me know the trail was completely clear of traffic. Then I put the hammer down. I'm not a go fast guy usually, but I really wanted to see if I could do it under 30 minutes. I do not recommend anybody driving that fast on Laurel unless you know it very well.

 

AYE, THE LIST TO PORT BE MOST UNNERVIN'

Wait, sorry. No captain's hat today.

No doubt it can be done that quick, but damn, with as heavy as I load my truck, I could practically feel the core support tearing apart even at 5 MPH. It's just... super rocky. Would be a fun road to race up when safe to do so though, but preferably in someone else's truck!

And cheers and thank-you on the fishing scene... catching that stupid fish by the rules was by far the crowning achievement of my sea-captain career. Letting the rest go... well, I hesitated for a second or two, but it felt good in the end, and I made them each promise not to bite another lure until next time I'm back!

Finally:

Yes sir! And holy crap, this a FANTASTIC drive--which I'm assuming you already know. But for those who don't, I present:

MOUNT PATTERSON: CALIFORNIA’S FINEST HIGH-ALPINE BACK-COUNTRY DRIVE!



I'm a Coloradan at heart, and moving to LA was initially soul-crushing, because although I can see spectacular mountains from my own home, I can't explore them in my vehicle because they're managed based entirely on distrust and overt disdain of the public. It sucks, but perhaps it's a necessary evil, given the 8-digit population enclosed within this geologically unstable tinderbox of supposedly public land.

However, by searching a bit further than the San Gabriels, I've come to truly cherish California's deserts and mountains, and the marvelous recreation opportunities they provide... The Colorado and Mojave Deserts, the Sierra and Inyo Mountains, Joshua Tree and Death Valley... All unmatched in their unique and innately profound beauty.


I began the trip by texting @turbodb for directions to Patterson while he was on vacation, then I fucked around at Bridgeport Reservoir for half the afternoon hoping he'd get back to me (edit: He did!)... the local bait shop (Ken’s) replenished my dwindling stock of lures, gave me some tips, and directed me to the best waters for shore fishing – my only option following the disastrous encounter with the Laurel Lake Monster.

But one thing I've always missed are the high-alpine driving experiences available throughout the Colorado Rockies. Sure, California has mountains... including of course Whitney which wins the dick-measuring contest, and technically CA also has a higher road than any in CO (but which none of us will ever likely get to drive).


The prizes here were also glorious, so I kept lobbing in quarters... gigantic monstrosities that absolutely dwarfed the trophies I’d vied for earlier that morning at Laurel Lake! I repeatedly hit them square in their stupid fish faces with sinker-laden hot-pink lures, but the claw kept coming back empty! Probably for the best as I was rigged with 2-lb line for this trip – little chance I could land one of these monsters if they happened to bite! At least I didn't lose any more lures here though, the lakebed is consistently soft and scummy.

But Colorado wins hands-down for vehicle-based exploration of the high country... I've literally summited three fourteeners by car [latest here], and several more by easy day-hike; there are dozens and dozens of Jeep trails crisscrossing the continental divide well above 12k feet in elevation; and there are countless interconnected gulches and side-trails to explore along the way--all offering vividly spectacular scenery and fascinating relics of early US history.

Plus it's wildly easier to catch fish along the way, although my argument here is based solely on Colorado’s vastly better-connected back-country trail network, which allows me to hit lake after river after lake simply by pulling off the trail whenever I see fishable waters, whereas in CA I have to research and plan side trips if I want a realistic shot at fishing. I’m not saying one state is better than the other for fishing... I’m just saying that it’s far easier to catch fish randomly along the way in CO without having to air up, hit highways, fight crowds, and endure long backtracks to my route. Keep in mind that I’m a total novice fisherman with no factual insights, I simply find childish joy in any and all fishing opportunities--so long as the type of fish is trout and not bass. I caught a bass once and don't understand why anybody would want to catch a bass for a second time. I'm not saying that to criticize the multi-billion-dollar industry based on the relentless manipulation of public fisheries to maximize populations of useless inedible fish, then subsequently catching and releasing these fish as rapidly as possible for recreational and competitive purposes. I'm saying that, because none of that makes a single shred of sense to me, I must not be a very serious fisherman or even a good sportsperson. Anyway, I do at least own a sea-captain's hat, albeit not currently in my possession, and am saving up for my next boat.


Interesting birds flying back and forth over Bridgeport Reservoir that day...

So to summarize, if you've cruised and fished along the back-country passes of the high Colorado Rockies during those brief late-summer weeks when they're open to wheeled vehicles... you'll certainly understand that nothing in California comes even close to that experience...



Or so I thought, until I finally made it up to Mount Patterson...

No, it's definitely not the Rockies, but it is a proper high-alpine through-route with astounding above-treeline scenery, fascinating mining history, epic 360-degree views, and nearly everything else I grew to cherish when cutting my teeth camping and hiking in the Colorado Rockies. And the fact that it's not the Rockies gives it a unique appeal as well.



I have to admit: My thesis isn't particularly well researched here, so please let me know if there exist other epic high-country through-routes in CA, but to the best of my knowledge, this is a relatively unique gem of our state. I'm talking mile after mile of above-treeline driving, alpine tundra, spectacular summits and ridgeline traverses, non-stop panoramic views, distant mountain peaks punctuating the curvature of the earth, sketchy shelf segments, tight switchbacks, and reasonably challenging yet utterly enjoyable trail conditions... the whole entire package. And it's only... like, maybe five hours from home?



It even delivers on fishing opportunities – at least I think so... it addition to Bridgeport Reservoir at its foot, and a few tiny lakes I noted nearby on the way up, about halfway back down and literally trail-side, there’s a massive reservoir: Lobdell Lake. I remember noting it on satellite maps when day-dreaming about this place quite some time ago, but for whatever reason, I concluded it was probably a dinky seasonal cow pond, not a fishable reservoir. That's not the case--it’s huge--wildly larger than Laurel Lakes, and has a somewhat unique history both as a reservoir and a fishery. And although I didn’t fish it owing the late hour of my arrival, nor can I comment on whatever regulations might prevail there... it appears to be public land, with no posted prohibitions, and I sure as hell heard fish jumping like crazy when I paused for a brief moonlit hike along its shoreline. Waters weren’t clear enough to see any fish by flashlight, though, so I’m not sure how it ranks compared to other arcade claw games in the area. But it’s man-made, so there’s probably good access to deep water from the dams (yes there are two) for those of us lackin’ seaworthy vessels as of late. In hindsight I wish I’d have skipped Bridgeport and summited Patterson with time to hit this lake’s shores at dusk, I suspect it would have offered better odds of landing a meal with my gear and skill level. Assuming of course that I could do so legally, which I’ll definitely check before returning.


Not that I minded being at the peak for sunset... I forgot how being on mountain tops alleviates the usual blandness of cloudless sunsets.




As for a trail report: It is presently passable as a through route, from NV 338 just north of the border, to the 395 just south of the Walker Gorge, but in that direction only. The Nevada approach was by far the sketchiest part of my drive, not due to challenging terrain, but because the trail was wildly overgrown -- to the point I was worried it might not exist. Unless you can find a better approach than I did, expect some deep pinstriping from tree overgrowth, and keep pressing on, lest you start a wildfire by parking on the five-foot tall weeds sprouting between the narrow ruts.


Sketchy beginnings...

But soon, upon approaching the base of the mountains, the trail becomes dramatically better defined, although still too narrow for a second-gen to clear without frequent encounters with tree branches from both sides.

The trail appears to be actively maintained, although I did have to stop to lop off some branches of a recently fallen tree...


Go go gadget bowsaw!



Closer to treeline, the forest service has designated the route more clearly and provides useful signage. From here, the trail’s route is always clear, generally bumpy, but with some pretty smooth sections as well. The trail is solidly 4x4 high-clearance only, but is consistently easy-going and an absolute blast to drive. As a reference point, my truck has 33” tires, and lockable axles which I engaged whenever it appeared that I might possibly need extra traction, although this was done to prevent trail wear rather than out of necessity. I don’t recall ever hitting the sliders or skid plates, and definitely never needed to hop out of the cab to pick a line. So I think this trail would be perfectly fine for a stock 4x4 Tacoma with good tires. There's no cell coverage on the east side until tree level, but plenty of signal from the upper reaches and most of the way back to the 395.



On the far side, upon re-approaching tree-level, the trail showed considerably more flood damage, with a handful of transverse washouts that show signs of recent repair, but which briefly tilt you somewhat alarmingly towards the washed-out edge. However, only the most reckless choice of lines could possibly present even the slightest actual danger. Below tree-level, storm damage becomes more generally aligned with the roadbed, presenting a persistent deep rut which meanders from one side of the road to the other, requiring you to pick a side which side upon which to drive, or to span the rut with your tires. There are also a few random bottomless holes concealed by puddles here, so don’t drive too fast. In general, constant attention is required to choose the correct line, lest you wind up stuck on your side in a rut, but the slightest modicum of intuition or experience is all that’s required to have a totally safe and fun driving experience.

Note that this is not a route for the fearful of heights due to steep climbs and descents and off-camber shelf segments. My mind starts to panic at around 30 degrees of side-tilt, and I never panicked here, but if your (or your passengers) have a dramatically lower threshold, you might be in for a bad time.


Upon passing the reservoir, one encounters numerous water crossings, the deepest and longest of which are stagnant puddles, but a few of which are active streams which could be more problematic during rains, but I'd call the entire drive quite typical for a high-alpine Jeep trail.



Finally, upon approach to the main county road connecting to the 395, you’ll encounter a road closure! That’s right, the benign puddles and easy stream crossings you passed between Lobdell Lake and here--by far the best road conditions you’ve seen since leaving pavement in Nevada--fall short of the standards of whomever maintains this segment of road, so driving up to Lobdell in the opposite direction is currently prohibited. Thus I recommend travel from the NV 338 side, where you’ll only encounter notice of this closure via your rear-view mirrors.... or I guess if you get out to take a picture like I did.


Back to the 395

To sum it up, Mt Patterson is easily one of my most favorite driving destinations in California, and I was so moved by the experience that I wrote out this whole entire spiel to post on a truck forum. I did not observe any prominent signs of abuse that would give me concern as to promoting it here. So... while the weather holds, and if you haven’t yet been there... consider making a trip ASAP, because it’s fucking awesome, especially at sunset!

Cheers y’all.


Mono at midnight

 

@mk5 learning how to fish jigs is an art. Next time you're up, get a hold of me and I'll give you a quick rundown.

Also if you backpack and want to catch some bigger goldens shoot me a PM. When I get home later I'll post up a photo of a nice 15 incher I picked up last weekend. If you're up for a weekend trip, I'd be happy to take you to one of my favorite lakes. Caveat is it's eight and a half miles in with 4,000 ft again.

 

Thanks man for another stellar review, im marking this spot on my gps and will give it a go this weekend!

 

The road up to Round Valley Peak is another great alpine drive in the area. You gotta hoof it the last 700ft if you want to summit. Haven't gotten up this year yet...so not sure of road conditions

 

Did you come in from the east or the south on this map? I've see that south route on google and nfs but it goes appeared dead end and I wasn't sure if it was accessible. Also, I've been up there after the Walker ATV/UTV Jamboree and the trail was much, much narrower than my truck. Forcing my co-dog-wife to take another vallum. Bitchen scenery and worth a drive for sure. Thanks for the write up.

 

The south road has a locked gate at 38.38699, -119.34452. Think: east/west (or visa versa).

 

A few years ago ...

The western assault may be impassable until July+ -- this photo was taken at 10,200'

When we finally made it up there, California was on fire and views were crappy:

Also on the west side of the hill:

 

This is a nice 15" Golden caught out of a lake that 99.99% of fisherman will never see. 9.25 miles and 4000' of gain tend to keep the riff raff at bay. Truly a beautiful lake and backdrop. It's also got a super healthy population of large Goldens.






Funny thing was in all 9 miles I didn't see a single deer. Which almost never happens on my Sierra backcountry treks. I went back to work Monday and this guy was hogging my work area after lunch. lol




I also have photo of a road closed sign that I found after finishing a local trail. Let's just say the FS has this one wrong. If your dual locked, dual cased on 35's it's passable. As long as you don't mind panel damage. The FS has no money to repair it and I am thankful for that. Again, it keeps the riff raff out. lol