After a lovely three-day outing in the Palisades the previous weekend, I had another day off of work for the Fourth of July. I connected it with the next weekend by taking three days off to have this entire week off of work. I planned to use this week to climb some mountains from our base camp in Mammoth Lakes.

First on the week’s agenda was Mount Goode, a relatively easy SPS peak in the Bishop Pass vicinity. I had vaguely intended to climb Mount Goode last summer after an outing up nearby Mount Agassiz. However, that intention was born behind the computer screen where the two little red dots on peakbagger can seem so close and “it’s just a mile.” After an early morning wake up and 6,000’ of climbing, another 2,000’ up the sandy southeast slope of Mount Goode lost its appeal. So, I was left with a not-too-strenuous day to recover a bit for some harder hikes ahead.

I slept in a bit before the hour or so drive to the Bishop Pass Trailhead, hitting the trail just before 10 AM.

The impressive North Face of Mount Goode from beautiful Long Lake. This face sports some famous, hard rock climbs, like the 5.9 North Buttress among others.

Some Indian Paintbrush along the trail near Long Leak. I didn’t take too many photos along the Bishop Pass Trail, having hiked it a number of times last summer. At Bishop Lake, I left the trail, passed the snow survey hut and headed directly west up a slope covered in scrubby pines for the southeast slope of Mount Goode.

Mount Agassiz and the North Palisade Group from the southeast slope of Mount Goode. There wasn’t a great trail to follow from Bishop Lake up through the scratchy forest of small pines. Once I reached the relatively flatter area at 11,800’ I found a good use trail through the sand, though it wasn’t particularly helpful as the travel here was quite easy.

In the final 500 vertical feet or so to the summit the boulders on the southeast slope became larger and required some actual climbing to get up and around them. I found it mostly class 2 or 3 with some routefinding. Before long I was standing on a big rock near the summit. It wasn’t clear which of the many large, flat rocks was the highpoints and I found another hiker wandering around searching for it. After a few minutes we concluded it was a rock slightly north of where we were and scrambled over to enjoy the views.

The Palisades and Split Mountain from the summit of Mount Goode.

The view south. Mount Williamson and Mount Whitney are visible at left, as is much of the Kings Kern Divide and the Kaweahs at right. The peak in the middle-right is Giraud Peak which is above and southwest of the Dusy Basin.

The Black Divide, with Mount Goddard at right.

Mount Goddard (left) and Mount Warlowe (right) and Helen Lake (center).

The view of the Evolution Group the north. I always have trouble picking out the individual peaks here, except for Mount Darwin of course. From left to right I think the major peaks are Mount Goddard, Mount Warlowe, Mount Fiske, Mount Powell (with the long, flat top and a point at the left), Mount Thompson, and Mount Gilbert (below Mount Thompson). Mount Darwin is obscured by Mount Thompson.

A broader view of the peaks to the north, including Mount Humphreys and the moraine of ancient glaciers  that dotted the east side of these mountains.

The lakes of Bishop Creek to the east, with Vagabond Peak above Ruwau Lake and a very small-seeming Chocolate Peak to its left.

I chatted with the other hiker a bit. His name was Jarrett, I think, and he was visiting his wife in Bishop and took the day to go for a hike. He had a telescope that he used  to look for hikers on Mount Agassiz, but couldn’t find any.

There were a bunch of summit register entries from famous rock climbers who had climbed the various routes on the peak’s north face. Here’s one from Hayden Kennedy and Peter Croft.

There was even an Alex Honnold entry!

After enjoying the awesome summit view, my lunch, and the fun summit register, I headed back down. I found the upper few hundred feet a tiny bit tricky with some scrambling, but the lower thousand or so feet were fast and easy plunge-stepping down the sand slope.

White Mountain Heather above Bishop Lake.

Mount Agassiz above Bishop Lake and Bishop Pass. Some clouds came in, but nothing too concerning. I took a slightly different route down, dropping lower to Saddlerock Lake and stopping to soak my feet for a bit before rejoining the trail.

Chocolate Peak above the Timberline Tarns. I had plenty of daylight and energy left, so I decided to climb Chocolate Peak as well and take the trail past Ruwau and Chocolate Lakes back.

After turning off the Bishop Pass Trail towards Ruwau Lake, the trail became harder to follow with a bit of overgrowth. It wasn’t particularly bad, but compared to the very popular and easy Bishop Pass Trail it was more difficult.

Mount Goode above Ruwau Lake. Near here, the trail was right up along the lake shore. Shortly after the lake, the trail climbed steeply towards the saddle southeast of Chocolate Lake. From the saddle, I followed a fairly well-travelled use trail to the summit of Chocolate Peak.

Mount Goode and many of the Bishop Creek Lakes from the summit of Chocolate Peak. The summit register of Chocolate Peak was much busier than the one on Mount Goode. There were hundreds of ascents a year, which makes sense given how relatively easy this peak is. There was a nice enough view of the Bishop Creek area, but the higher peaks on three sides restricted the views to just the immediate area.

After a short break, I reversed the use trail back to the saddle and headed down past Chocolate Lakes for the Bishop Pass Trail again. The trail was still somewhat difficult to follow on this side of the saddle.

Chocolate Peak above the lowest Chocolate Lake.

Below the lowest Chocolate Lake I got very lost in the thin woods and headed off towards Marie Louise Lakes before realizing my mistake. I reversed course and crossed a small saddle before rejoining the Bishop Pass Trail and hiking the final mile and a half or so back to my car and then driving back north to Mammoth for the night.