There was another lull in the floor work when I had actually finished most of what I could do but the concrete contractors weren't able to come until after labor day. So I headed into the mountains. This time I chose to hike up over Mono Pass and into the Fourth Recess to investigate that area. By the time I had my stuff all unpacked (from storage) and repacked (for hiking) and drove to the trailhead and back down the road to overflow parking it was about noon. I saddled up my too heavy pack and headed up the trail. Soon I turned off up the Mono Pass trail and continued on uphill with some nice views down into Little Lakes Valley. Once I turned the corner the views were of the Ruby Wall and Ruby Lake among others. Soon enough I got to Mono Pass where I left my pack and headed up towards the summit of Mount Starr. This was a pretty simple if long and a little loose talus hike/scramble up to the summit. There was one other guy there and we enjoyed the view and talked for about an hour. You could see the smoke from the Rim fire off to the north.
The descent from Starr went much more quickly. I was pretty dehydrated at this point and out of water, so when I found 3/4 of a bottle of gatorade that passed the sniff test I drank it. Unfortunately it was warm and cucumber lime flavor. ugh. Still, it was wet and my body needed it. I stopped by Summit lake (an odd lake way up near the pass completely surrounded by rocks and gravel) for some pics and more water.
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I headed on down the trail past Trail Lakes where there were some other people. Then I cut cross country to the south towards the 4th Recess. This brought me over a rocky shoulder where I could see what I was up against. Either some potentially sketchy traverse up high on rocks or an unpleasant drop down to some unpleasant looking talus to traverse and then back up an unpleasant looking chute or slot. I headed towards the traverse for a bit 'til I could see it looked worse then I dropped down through the cliff bands and scrubby trees to the talus. Then I traversed slowly across the loose talus and scree slope above 4th Recess Lake. It was getting dark at this point. At the end of this traverse I started up the loose steep chute with just a little bit of snow remaining in the bottom. About 2/3 of the way up this I had to stop to get out my headlamp. I cut right onto the bench at the top of this chute and found a flattish spot to camp. By the time I had set up camp and cooked dinner it was pretty late. That night there was a heavy dew and my bag was barely warm enough.
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I got up early in the hopes of some good sunrise pics. I headed uphill first and found some lakes there, then back down to the top of the cliff I came up the previous evening. The sunrise wasn't spectacular. By the time I had cooked and eaten breakfast I was still in the shade, so I packed up my damp camp and continued hiking south into the recess. The hiking was actually pretty pleasant up here with meadows and rocky benches with a stream and lakes. I set up camp near the lower of the Snow Lakes and let things dry a bit. Then I reset for a day hike and headed up towards the ridge / peak at the head of the valley. To the east was Mount Mills, but that looked a little formidable, so I headed towards the peak at the head of the 4th / 3rd recess divide. I saw a few cairns and footprints, but I don't think this area is visited that often. From the divide I headed up the N ridge of the peak. At first this was pretty fun scrambling, but near the top I was confronted with a finger crack that was a little harder than I was willing to try without a rope, especially solo and with approach shoes. So I climbed out to the right where I was stymied again. Then I back-tracked down the ridge a ways and traversed right onto the face of talus and scree. This wasn't difficult climbing but because it was steep and loose it wasn't much fun. Eventually I made it to the top and was able to see over into the Mills Creek Lake basin and see Mount Gabb. One of the plans I had was to continue east along this ridge and then drop back into the 4th Recess from the end of it. This didn't look like it would go very easily though, so after enjoying the view and taking some pics I headed back down. Unfortunately the visibility was decreasing markedly by now as the smoke from the fire had shifted this way. As I descended the visibility continued to decrease. I decided not to head up another peak in part because of this lousy air quality. Back at camp I kicked back and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon with breaks to check on the visibility and scope a way to head out of the recess since I didn't fancy the way I came in. Instead of the usual alpenglow in the evening, the light just faded away.
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That night things cleared a little bit, but the pictures of the stars probably would have been better without the smoke. The next morning I got up early to get pictures of the mountains reflected in the lake and the sunrise. The smoke was mostly gone and I spent a lot of time taking pics. After breakfast I waited around for the sun to clear the ridge to dry my stuff. I also took a bunch of pictures of the numerous sierra yellow-legged frogs in this lake. (there were fish too). The frogs were either too cold or relatively unconcerned as I was able to get as close as my lens could focus to one of them.
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When my stuff was mostly dry I packed it up and headed back downhill before cutting east up the talus towards a notch. This was another endless slog up loose rocks and scree before I got to the notch. Unfortunately it was steep on the other side so I had to traverse and climb to the north a bit before I got to the summit above Mono Pass. There was also a little rain here to keep me on my toes. It was easy going down to Mono Pass and from there back to the trailhead marred only by a stinky mule train. From the pass back there were plenty of people on the trail in stark contrast to the previous day where I saw nobody.
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Later investigation revealed the recommended route into the 4th Recess is to descend down the trail to a side trail up to the 4th Recess Lake and then traverse up on the west side of the lake. It was a nice area, but I don't really see myself going there again.
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