I had a hard time getting my buddy Mike to commit to the GTW opener until the reserve permits were all gone. By then my two grandsons decided they wanted to come so it was time for a new venue. Even though I had never been there I decided on the 20 Lakes Basin because of the unlimited overnight permits and relatively easy hike. Thursday morning we drove to Lone Pine and got the permit then headed for Saddlebag Lake. Rather than hike around the Lake we took the water taxi to the back of the lake. When you step off of the boat you are already over 10,000ft in elevation. Once off the boat we hiked to Steelhead Lake and then cross country to Cascade Lake to set up camp.
The boys and I on the trail to Steelhead Lake.

Once we set up camp we decided to fish Cascade Lake until Dinner. I didn’t actually get to fish much because David decided he would rather fish my fly rod which was quite alright with me.
Friday we all hiked back down to Saddlebag Lake to meet some friends that had to work on Thursday. By the time we got back we fished the lakes close to camp until dinner.
Chad at Steelhead Lake.

Saturday morning we got up early to fish our way around the loop hitting as many lakes as we could. The problem was that everyplace we went we caught fish and it took forever to get the boys to keep moving. We ended up only going as far as Shamrock Lake. By the time they were done at Shamrock they wanted to go back and re-fish the spots that they had done well earlier in the day. I was OK with it because this trip was all about the boys having fun anyway.
Chad and David at Shamrock lake.


David and I at Shamrock Lake.

Some pictures from around the basin.





My friends Vince and Tania that we had to go meet at Saddlebag on Friday.

My buddy Mike.

On our way back down to Saddlebag lake.

David sitting in the front of the boat on the way back to the truck,

Even if I didn't get to explore the valley the way I would have liked this was a great trip. It is a fairly easy hike through alpine country with great fishing for small to medium fish. Highlight of my trip was when 9yr old David was getting pretty consistent casting the spinning rod and he looked over at me and said that even if he wasn't catching anything this was pretty fun. Always before it was only fun when they were biting.
Now it's time to get on to planning other things. I've a backpack bow hunting trip in the works and our week long trek through Yosemite is coming up too.