Day 1

Hike In

This was our second trip up to Cottonwood Lakes. We had come up in 2023 and had a great time, although Mt Langley had been rendered inaccessible by a huge ice cornice on New Army Pass. So, by popular request, we headed back up. Chris and I were determined to summit Langley on this trip, despite some troublesome forecasts of rain. Sean also joined us for the first time on this trip.

We woke up early on Friday and headed up. These trips into the more southern reaches of the eastern Sierra are always nice as it knocks 2 hours off the drive. Due to debilitating procrastination, I am writing this over 5 months after the fact, so the details are a bit hazy, but there’s no way we headed out without the traditional McMuffin breakfast. After traversing the scenic Alabama Hills and the somewhat terrifying access road carved into the face of the Sierra escarpment, we made it to the trailhead at around 10:30 am.

There was rain in the forecast, and indeed most of the hike was overcast. At one point, just before the final ascent to the lakes basin, it started to rain long enough for us to stop and put on our rain jackets and pack covers. Of course it stopped as soon as we’d done that.

We were about one month later in the season, and this winter had seen less rainfall than the historic 22/23 winter. When we got our first glimpse of the basin, the scenery was remarkably different. The lush greens were replaced with golden oranges and browns.

We took the same route we had taken in 2023 until this point. The previous year, we camped on the west side of Lake #2, but we never made it up to the northern valley containing lakes #3 and up. So this time, we took a right and passed in between Lakes #1 and #2, crossing the creek in between, and headed for the relatively flat area along the northeast shore of Lake #3. It was surprisingly difficult to find a good campsite here. The area was relatively flat, but the gentle yet persistent slope and density of boulders and pines was enough to make for a challenging search. We found a decent spot straight away, but in classic form I wandered about for 15 minutes or so looking for something better. I eventually gave up and we set up camp near the southern tip of Lake #3. Totals for the day: 7.5 miles and 1300 ft ascended.

Fish Feast

After setting up camp, we headed down to the banks of Lake #3 for a bit of fishing. Koga had Golden Trout fever, but I ended up being the lucky one to yank out a big beautiful golden boy. Camp Chef Chris cooked him up using his new stove + lightweight pan technology. It ended up being one of the better-tasting trout I’ve had in the wilderness. Cooked perfectly!

Day 2

The next morning, I took a few minutes to relax in my hammock with a (slightly obstructed) view of Lake #3. If you’ve been following along, you’ll recall that my previous hammock had been mercilessly slaughtered at San Gorgonio, so I bought a new one from the same company (Hummingbird Hammocks). It was so comfortable, and I was really looking forward to lying in it after returning from Mt Langley. The very first time I got in, I had hung it too low, and I scraped the bottom along a rock, causing a slight tear. Undaunted, I slapped a rip-stop nylon patch over the hole and crossed my fingers…

Mt Langley Ascent

We headed out after breakfast at about 9:30 am. Chris and I were set on reaching the summit of Mt Langley, while the rest of the boys were going to tag along as far as the upper Cottonwood Lakes where they’d stop and fish. I had checked the weather using advanced technology (sending a text to Dani via my satellite beacon asking her to check it online) and it looked like there was only a moderate chance of rain. So we decided to go for it and turn around if needed.

We started off with a scenic hike along the northeast shore of Lake #3 (1). We could just barely see our goal poking up behind the sheer cliffs of Cottonwood Cirque. Mt Langley loomed at just above 14,000 ft, nearly 3000 ft above us.

The northern end of Lake #3 terminates in a relatively short shelf, above which sits the higher basin containing lakes #4 and #5. On the way up, we could see Lake #3 laid out below, including some dudes in those little fishing floaties conversing loudly among themselves (2).

At the base of Lake #4, we could see our next major goal: Old Army Pass. This is the older sister to New Army Pass, which is just a short distance south as the crow flies, but a much longer hike around Army Pass Point, the bulk of which looms on the left of the photo below (3). Old Army Pass is known to be more steep and exposed than New Army Pass, but that only really comes into play when there is still ice and snow on the trail. Thankfully, almost all of that had melted away by this time.

At this point our ascent really began in earnest, and we bid farewell to the fishing squad as we tried to pick our route out visually on the cliff face above. We ascended from around 11,200 ft to neary 12,000 ft at the pass over a relatively short distance. This was very strenuous, and we took quite a few breaks. The altitude did not help. There was one exposed section near the top with a large vertical drop to the right, but the trail was still quite wide and safe. Looking back down, we could see Lakes #4 and #5 and our teeny tiny friends near the shore.

Next was a long, gradual climb across a huge, desolate slope of rock, gravel, and sand (5). This wasn’t all that strenuous, but it was a bit of a slog, and being above 12,000 ft just makes everything harder.

The view west offered some local nearby rocky peaks, as well as an impressive view of the south end of the Great Western Divide across the Kern River valley, behind which lies Mineral King.

The weather was holding for us, but I was constantly staring up at the partial cloud cover trying to predict whether we would stay dry. There were patches of rain drifting over the landscape all around us. The trail grade began to increase, and after about 13,200 ft, it took a sharp right and attacked the final 800 ft head-on (6). Every few hundred vertical feet there were these massive cairns. It was encouraging in a way - all you had to do was think about making it to the next one!

This final push was a struggle. After just a few seconds of slow, tired steps, my heart was already racing. And worst of all, I had burned through most of my gummy worms and nerds clusters. With just a few hundred vertical feet to go, Chris refused to take another step. I had already convinced him a few times to keep going; that didn’t work this time. Not even a nerds cluster could help him now. So I left him by one of the cairns and continued up to the top solo.

Summit

Mt Langley has an unusual shape - the summit is quite flat, sloping gently south and west, with sheer granite faces dropping thousands of feet to the north and east. So as you approach, you don’t see much other than the same old gravel slope until suddenly the ground drops out and you get a breathtaking view north along the Sierra Crest and east into Owens Valley (7). Plus, Mt Whitney stands just a few miles away and only about 400 ft higher. The mixed cloud cover only enhanced the dreamy feeling up here. This was the first time I had topped a peak over 14,000 ft (a “14er”).

I met some friendly (and also insane) hikers who had done Langley as a day hike…from LA. They got up at like 2 am, drove up, and hiked all the way up from the trailhead which is at least 12 miles and 4,000 vertical feet (one way). Somehow they were still alive to take a photo of me with Whitney in the background.

After spending a few minutes enjoying the views, I decided to move on. I needed to rescue Chris, who was waiting a few hundred feet below. But before that, I hiked down to the southeastern corner of Langley’s flat top to get an awesome view of the Cottonwood Lakes basin (8). I love it when you can see your entire route from the previous day laid out in front of you (marked in red below).

Descent

I headed back down to rescue Chris and begin the long walk home. The descent was tough on the knees as usual, but there was a decent amount of sand on or near the trail which allowed for a sort of sliding half-run which was both faster and easier on our knees. We made it down in time to snap a great frame of Lake #5 and the Upper Cottonwood Cirque at golden hour.

In all, we had done 10.9 miles and 3,200 vertical feet up and down. That’s a serious day (for us at least). I was so looking forward to lying in my hammock, but when we rolled up to camp it was yet again torn in two with the culprit nowhere to be found. Now, this wasn’t surprising because I had already damaged it the previous day, but I was still bummed. Turns out David had gotten in and was unlucky enough to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The boys had no major fish to report, so we cooked up dinner and called it a night.

Day 3

We got up and were on the trail by 10 am. We took the same route as we had in 2023 - out down the southern branch of the trail that went on the other side of Flat Top. The steep bit after crossing South Fork Cottonwood Creek was still a bit hard to follow, but it seemed easier this time. We booked it out of there so quick we didn’t take any photos - not even our traditional final selfie at the trailhead. RIP.