Laboring on Mt. Langley, 14,026 ft.

Mt. Langley viewed from the Cottonwood Lakes

With summer coming to an end it was time to try to squeeze in the last backpacking trip of the season. A friend who had done Mt. Whitney with me the summer prior had been wanting do Mt. Langley at 14,026 ft. ever since. A few of us at the office chatted about it and figured the Labor Day weekend would be a nice chance for us to sneak away for a 3 day backpacking trip to another of California’s fourteeners.

Getting our permit proved a little difficult. We had planned on taking the Cottonwood Lakes trail and doing an out and back in either two or three days. When we called for a permit they could not accommodate our group on our selected weekend. It just so happened I was heading by the ranger station in Lone Pine the following weekend so I stopped in to talk with them. They confirmed that we could not reserve permits for the Cottonwood Lakes trail that weekend. I then asked the magic question, “If I wanted to climb Mt. Langley on Labor Day weekend what other route might I take to do it that does have available permits.” Funny how a “no” becomes a “yes” so quickly as I was advised I could head out on the Cottonwood Pass trail and approach Langley from the western side, cross over and exit by way of the Cottonwood Lakes trail. It would be less populated, more scenic, and most importantly, we would be descending the eastern side of the Army Pass rather than going up it which would be much easier. Needless to say, I reserved the permits immediately!

Our group ultimately consisted of coworkers Mike and Clark as well as Clark’s wife Michelle and another friend of mine, Kevin. We had all done Mt. Whitney together the year prior as a day trip and were looking forward to a 3 day backpack trip up another of the easier fourteeners.

Clark and Michelle headed out on the Friday afternoon prior to our start date to pick up the permits in Lone Pine before the ranger station closed at 6PM. They got the permits with no problem and headed up to Horseshoe Meadows to get a couple campsites for the night. I headed up with Mike and Kevin later that night and arrived about 1AM. We all wanted to spend a night at the trailhead to acclimatize as it is at 10,000 ft.

Leaving the Cottonwood Pass Trailhead.

Morning came and we all packed up our stuff. We decided what we had duplicates of and  left some things behind. One water filter was all we needed (more on that later) and we trimmed down on a few other small items. By 9:30 we were ready to go and hit the trail.

The first issue on our hike happened less than a mile in. I always bring my big Canon digital SLR camera on trips up fourteeners as the views are so incredible that I hate sacrificing the picture quality with a lightweight point and shoot. Unfortunately my camera began misbehaving and electronically locking up. I debated running back to the truck and dropping off the 2.2 pound millstone hanging from my yoke strap. Fortunately we made a stop and I removed the battery and memory card and reseated them and all was well.

A little foot surgery for Michelle.

Not too much farther along as we were climbing the Cottonwood Pass, Michelle needed to stop for a foot issue. She had gotten a blister on her foot two weeks prior walking around the Del Mar race track while playing the ponies. It had acted up a week before on a conditioning hike as well. Fortunately we had the technique down and out came some blister bandaids as well as some duct tape to keep them in place. Patched up, we moved on.

Wildflowers at Chicken Spring Lake.

We crossed through the Cottonwood Pass and the huge valley between the Western Sierra ridge and Eastern ridge was before us. Big Whitney Meadow was due west, down in the bottom of the valley and it looked wonderful. We stayed high on the ridge and travelled north to Chicken Spring Lake, our lunch and water stop.

Kevin's pizza masterpiece!

The lake was beautiful and we were all ready for lunch. We dropped our packs and prepared our feasts. Kevin had the most interesting lunch consisting of a fresh made bagel pizza topped with some fresh tomato he sliced up right there. We all agreed that if we had an extra day, spending the night here would be great.

Our first view of Mt. Langley.

We proceeded on, traversing along northward toward Rock Creek and the Soldier Lakes. Our official destination was lower Soldier Lake but from the map it looked a little past our trail we would be taking in the morning up Rock Creek so we decided if Rock Creek had water, we would camp there instead. Having passed on filling up with water at Chicken Spring Lake to keep our pack weight down, we were all running low. Before we had made it to Rock Creek we all went dry. The last 45 minutes or so to Rock Creek were tough as we were all tired due to the 11 mile long hike and we were thirsty!

Michelle cools her feet in Rock Creek.

We arrived at Rock Creek not only to find a wonderful little meadow and the creek flowing but also to discover a great place to make camp just off the trail. We dropped our packs and headed down to the creek to drink plenty of water to replenish our depleted bodies. We all took the opportunity to cool off and put our feet in the water as well.

Big Dipper setting over Joe Devel Peak.

We had a fun evening cooking up different meals, playing a little Uno and finally heading off to bed. We were not looking forward to the elevation gain in the morning but we all were excited to summit. The weather had been great so far and the forecast called for clear skies, little wind with nights around 30 and days just under 50 degrees. The clear skies meant excellent night skies and the stars were plentiful. I set up my tent hoping to get a picture of the Big Dipper setting over Joe Devel Peak later that evening which I was able to get just before falling asleep.

The morning was cold as expected but we were all up by 6:30. It took us awhile to get going and we rolled out of camp at 9AM. Surprisingly the trail up Rock Creek to the Army Pass was not as bad as any of us had anticipated. Bt 10:30AM we had made it to the top of the pass where we would stash our full packs and transition to lightweight summit packs as there was no need to carry stoves, tents and sleeping bags up and back down.

Kevin on a class 3 section.

I had estimated that morning that it would take about 4 hours from camp to the summit of Mt. Langley. We headed out along the ridge leading to the steeper climb up Mt. Langley. The route was easy to follow although no official trail exists. As we approached the steep section, Kevin and I had pulled away from the others. We have all found it best to just hike our own pace at these high elevations and regroup at the summit. We were all faced with a decision, what route to take. Faint use trails were everywhere and you could see people both ascending and descending on numerous different paths. Kevin and I picked one and went for it. We did need to pack our poles away as at times we needed our hands for some easy class 3 work. Before long we were through the hardest part and looking for the highest point ahead of us.

The crew on the summit.

Unlike Mt. Whitney, you do not see 50 or more people hanging out on the summit. Kevin and I headed for what looked like the high point but we only saw a couple people there. We figured it must be it as they had their packs off. We finally arrived, 5 minutes ahead of my SWAG (Scientific Wild A** Guess) figure of 4 hours to the summit. Here we were at 14, 026 ft., my fifth California fourteener and third this season. The altitude has certainly slowed us down but we both felt good and had an appetite. We ate lunch and celebrated and kept an eye out for the rest of crew who were out of sight.

About an hour later the rest of the crew arrived. They too were very hungry and quite tired, just as Kevin and I were an hour ago. They ate, signed the log book, got pictures taken and were ready to head down by 2:30PM. The wind had picked up considerably from when we had first arrived and lots of smoke was blowing in from the Central Valley from a fire over there. Kevin made a SWAG on our return time to our packs at the top of the pass. When everyone arrived at the packs, his prediction was dead on!

Army Pass. Glad we came down it rather than up it!

We had met some very nice folks on Langley that day. A really nice guy by the name of Dave asked us where we were headed to. We told him we were going to overnight at the Cottonwood Lakes at the bottom of the Army Pass. He laughed and said, “Well the good news is that you only have to go about 20 ft.” We walked the 20 ft. to the top of the Army Pass and understood exactly what he meant. The pass is a darn near vertical wall with one of the lakes at its base. It was hard to envision there was a trail that would take us down this but there was. It was very steep and blocked by some rock falls in a few places but we managed to make our way down.

We had spotted the lakes below earlier in the day and had a good idea where we were headed to camp. We finally found a prime spot near the largest of the Cottonwood Lakes and made camp. We were all hoping for a swim but the sun dropped over the pass about 10 minutes after we arrived at the lake and I did not want to be wet and in the shade. Clark however went for it and fully submerged himself in the frigid lake. His speech was temporarily impaired as the cold water played tricks with his facial muscles.

Back at camp we set up a perfect little kitchen complete with granite counter top and comfy granite chairs. As this was our last night and we did not want to pack out any extra food, we really had a feast. Clark got things going with some freshly made chicken quesadillas that he shared with everyone. We all made our individual meals and did some sharing of those as well. I had brought a raspberry crumble dessert that was a favorite on a recent Cub Scout backpacking trip and all agreed it was great. The coup de grace was when Clark cooked up some fresh popcorn on his backpacking stove. We ate for over two hours that night and capped the evening with another game of Uno.

Clark's Cranberry biscuit.

The morning came and it was time to pack up for the final hike out. Clark made some cranberry biscuits that morning that were quite good. The water pump had developed an issue the day prior and made water purification a little difficult. I had opted to go all natural on this trip and filter nothing while everyone else relied on the filter and later on the purification tablets we had brought as backup. We boiled water as well and topped off our water bladders for the trip out.

The hike out made us appreciate the location we were in that much more. It was so beautiful in the Cottonwood Lakes basin with numerous lakes and wonderful meadows. I would enjoy hiking back into this area just to spend time exploring and playing in the lakes and fishing. It was about 7 miles or so back the parking lot and our cars. In total the trip was around 27 miles. We all got to spend some great time on all new trails for us and are inspired to explore this area in the future.

Full album of pictures from this trip are available here.