I had a big birthday in 2023 and wanted to try something out of my comfort zone. Yes, Chuck and I have tent camped, car camped, van camped and dry camped, but we had never carried all of our gear on our backs and walked out into nature to set up camp. It sounded like a challenge that was right up my alley! And being the nice friend that I am, I invited some of my closest to join me! What can I say? Some people want to sit on a beach in Mexico to relax for their birthday; I want to carry 40lbs on my back, eat out of a pouch and learn the art of squatting in the woods with my best friends. What ensued was a great adventure filled with some wild weather, beautiful sunsets and core memories.
Obviously this isn’t our typical itinerary because it is mostly just getting into nature, walking around nature and then getting out of nature safely. However, I will walk through some of the steps we took leading up to this trip and things that I would change/do differently next time. Obviously, we are beginners at this backpacking thing, but I think it’s less intimidating that I thought it would be so I wanted to share this trip. I will try to focus on the things I was stressed out about before leaving so I can provide someone with the information I was looking for and couldn’t find. I did attach the basic itinerary as well so you can see where we stayed while in Mammoth.
Prepping for Backpacking
A couple things that are very important to know about backpacking in the Sierras — you need a permit to do this. Permits are available to reserve 6 months in advance (60% of them) and the remaining are available 2 weeks in advance. As you probably understand by now, I don’t like leaving plans to the last minute — especially when this was our first backpacking trip — so I secured a permit in advance. The process isn’t hard, but there are some things to know:
- You have to have a recreation.gov account to secure a permit.
- You have to know the trail you are entering/exiting from when you secure the permit. You can change the exit point after you book but you cannot change the entrance point. I find THIS link very helpful for the Sierras.
- You have to know the number of people and days in/out to secure the permit.
- The 6 month advance permits open at 7am on the dot and there is a quota for the number on each trail. Duck Pass happens to have a large quota so securing a permit wasn’t that hard, but some trails are very difficult so make sure you are logged in and ready at 7am!
Once you have your permit, there is the question of gear. Now all of us approached this differently. For all 4 of us, this was our first backpacking experience. For me, I opted to borrow a friend’s backpack and bum some of their gear. For Chuck he went all in a bought a backpack. For all of us, we did a practice hike/two with weighted packs just to make sure they would function (biggest lesson I learned here is to hike in a tshirt instead of a tank — the straps can rub!).
We planned individually for food but shared 2 bear canisters between us. VERY IMPORTANT: You must have a bear canister to hike in this area. We chose to rent ours from a store in Mammoth for this trip (I have since bought one).
Basic Itinerary
We wanted to acclimate as best as possible so we drove all the way up to Mammoth two days before the hike so we could sleep at elevation for one night before heading on trail. We can work remotely so this wasn’t a burden on our schedule. I highly recommend this if you are new to backpacking at elevation (or even hiking) because the elevation is no joke on the lungs. Even one night (they say 24 hours is better) helps!
We set out on Duck Pass Trailhead at around 9am in the morning. There is overnight parking at the trailhead and as long as it isn’t full, you are allowed to park there. However, there is also a shuttle in Mammoth in the summer that can take you to the trailhead in case you are worried about parking. At 9am on a Thursday, we were fine with plenty of spaces, but I’ve heard that by even 10:30am the lot fills up.
The goal was to get to Pika Lake. This is around 6 miles from trailhead (despite what AllTrails says) and around 1100ft of elevation gain. The trail starts going uphill right away. The nice thing is that it is shaded that whole first part, but it is definitely an abrupt start to the day on the lungs. Take it slow and take breaks. We took plenty.
After the initial uphill, you start getting to the various lakes along the way: Arrowhead, Skelton, Barney. These are great spots to take breaks in as long as the mosquitos aren’t swarming! We had lunch at Barney Lake, refilled our water (thank goodness for our Sawyer Squeeze!) and then started to make the trek up Duck Pass.
The trek from Barney to the pass says it is only 800ft in elevation gain but it looks/feels more than that since you are on rocks on the side of the mountain for most of it — which means you are exposed and trudging uphill. I promise it is worth it. The view from one side of the pass looking back at where you came from is stunning because you can see all three lakes you passed, plus Lake Mary and Mammoth mountain.
And then you get over the pass … Wow! The reason I chose this trip as our first backpacking one is that I’ve day hiked to the pass before and remember thinking how glorious the backdrop to Duck Lake is. The lake is large, but the first time seeing these mountains that are completely hidden unless you get to the pass is breathtaking. As Chuck and I say, sometimes you have to “Pay to Play” and in this case paying by hiking up the 1000ft to get to this point is worth it.
The trek down to Pika is pretty steep (we were already dreading having to come out while we were walking down), but the walk around Duck Pass shows just how large the lake is. When choosing a backpacking spot, there are not a lot that are good right around Duck Lake which is why most people go to Pika. For Pika, there is almost an island looking land mass that you can pick a spot at. We found a great one that worked for two tents and set up camp. Exhausted feet, but happy girls (and boy).
The next day we decided to explore around Duck Lake and take the trail out towards Virginia Lake. We made it to about the junction of where the PCT and other trails meet and a whole other mountain range and backdrop opened up to us. Honestly, it made me realize why backpacking can be addicting … the sheer amount of nature and beauty that is hidden unless you get back into is astounding. But back to this trip … the sky started rumbling (yes, that was thunder) so we headed back to our tents in case the skies opened up. Spoiler alert: they did.
What followed was trying to make dinner in the rain that turned to hail. Then hustling to tents to eat the food and stay dry. All the while, the rain and hail just kept coming down to the point where there were puddles under our tent. Then as fast as it was coming down, it just stopped. It was freezing still but not raining. We decided to venture out and happened upon the prettiest sunset I’ve ever seen. Moral of this story: be prepared for any type of weather when backpacking. We did this trip in the middle of August and still got hailed on. What a memory!
The next day we had our coffee and packed up camp. The walk out was pretty seamless and less stressful since we knew what was ahead. We made it back to the trailhead around 2pm where we promptly got a celebration drink in Mammoth. What was nice about coming/going from Mammoth is that there are a lot of options for food/drinks when you get back into town.
As it was my birthday weekend, we decided to stay in town one extra night. We got a hotel to clean up and have a bed to sleep in and then headed out to a nice dinner in Mammoth Lakes with all our friends. All in all, a very successful first backpacking trip!
Tips for Backpacking/Changes to this Itinerary:
- Mosquitos! These pesky insects can seriously ruin a good backpacking (or camping trip). As we were around lakes, we were very worried about this. At the advice of someone at the place we rented the bear canister from, we bought Permethrin spray. This is a spray that you soak your clothes in prior to leaving for your trip. It deters the mosquitos from landing on you and it worked! We had mosquitos the first night that were very annoying, but not landing a bite. I call that a win!
- Food planning for backpacking. I think this was actually what we all were most stressed about since it was all new to us. Would we have enough? Would it taste OK? Did we have the right cooking gear? Honestly, we had too much food and trash from the food we took and had to get very creative to make sure we didn’t attract bears. My tip is to look your general miles per day plan and at what you normally eat in a day and plan for slightly more calories, but nothing too out of the norm. For example, if I have half a protein bar each morning for breakfast, I do not need to go overboard by packing oatmeal + a protein bar. I just need the one protein bar. Here is what I ate in one day:
- Breakfast: One protein bar (20g and around 220 cal) + instant coffee packet
- Lunch: Flour tortilla with peanut butter/jam packets (Split Nutrition is a great brand for this purpose) and a cheese square. Maybe some jerky.
- Dinner: A freeze dried packet that is between 750-900 calories. My favorites I’ve tried are from PEAK Refuel but everyone is different on this.
- Sweets: Anything that is not melty. Starburst are great or M&Ms if you like chocolate are good at not melting.
- Another tip for food is to pack something pre-made but small for lunch day 1. It does not need to pack into the bear canister since you will be eating it prior to getting to camp, but keep in mind that the trash from it will need to go into the canister. I usually opt for a small burrito or a pre-made deli wrap (out of the plastic and put into a small baggy).
- Print the backpacking permit (and sign it!). You must have it on you and you cannot rely on cell service to pull it up.
- Download the area maps for hiking offline. There is no service here so it is a good idea to have everything downloaded offline.
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