Backpacking divers?

[calicant]

I have discovered on this forum that there are many very enthusiastic divers in California and after diving in the kelp for the first time last week I can understand why you are attracted to doing so. I also discovered a few years ago that there are many enthusiastic backpackers in California who enjoy hiking on long trips through the wilderness and after hiking the John Muir Trail in the Sierras, I could understand why.

I wonder now how many of the hikers I met in the middle of the Sierras, where only a few Californians ever reach, were also divers. Or how many divers I have met also enjoy climbing Half Dome and Mt Whitney.

When I venture up there in the mountains later this summer, will I look at the lakes differently? Will I wonder what it would be like to dive them? Has anybody dived them?

Who dives Guitar Lake or Lake Garnet, Or Evolution Lake? It must be possible to pack in scuba gear as well as fishing gear.

 

[DeerCreekers]

Good God, I dont like hauling my scuba gear from the truck to the surf....I can't imagine packing it up a mountain on purpose.

 

[Kupu]

I had similar thoughts while hiking thru California on the PCT a few years back. Very curious what it would be like to dive in some of the many beautiful lakes, if I was based somewhere near there would consider making the effort and have a look underwater.

The backcountry of the California national parks has some of the most amazing scenery I have seen anywhere.

 

[calicant]

Good God, I dont like hauling my scuba gear from the truck to the surf....I can't imagine packing it up a mountain on purpose.

I agree about the hauling!

It is possible to hire packers who use mules to carry 100's of lbs of gear in for people to camp and fish in the wilderness. A tank would strap nicely to each side of a mule, and perhaps a few lumps of granite would serve as weights.

 

[calicant]

I had similar thoughts while hiking thru California on the PCT a few years back. Very curious what it would be like to dive in some of the many beautiful lakes, if I was based somewhere near there would consider making the effort and have a look underwater.

The backcountry of the California national parks has some of the most amazing scenery I have seen anywhere.

California parks are beautiful and it will be a great shame if any of them become closed to access due to budget cuts. Just as I develop an interest to go underwater it seems like the State Treasury is doing likewise.

 

[cmburch]

I have no real interest in SCUBA diving California's freshwater lakes/reservoirs unless they opened them to spearfishing. Mud, rocks, boulders, algae, planted trout, insect larvae. What else to see? Mono Lake may be interesting if it were not for the caustic water. It may be easier just to bring some quality goggles or a small mask in your back/daypack if you can stand the freezing water from the snow runoff in the eastern Sierras. I like freediving our rivers though. I would be interested in freediving some older reservoirs to see a giant catfish or other out of the ordinary life. Half Dome and Mt. Whitney are very crowded during tourist season. I think diving the Channel Islands, Big Sur, or Northern California the best due to less people.

 

[calicant]

I like the freediving thought but the lakes I took a bath in were nippy and I think exposure protection would be needed for any length of time under water.

I wonder what a bear would think if it saw a fully geared up scuba diver emerging from a lake.

 

[cmburch]

Freediving Northern California 46-52F, I use a 7mm open cell Farmer John freedive wetsuit. Need 18lbs of lead to offset wetsuit buoyancy.

DiveRite had some info and videos on hiking with SCUBA gear.

My limit for SCUBA and freediving would probably less than a couple of miles of hiking one way or about 4 miles round-trip. I do not think I could handle a 45lb backpack + 20lbs of lead + SCUBA gear.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

A buddy of mine dived in a lake in the Sierras in 2002 and brought up bags of trash, plus a bonus! He recovered a radiator and shroud from a pre-1916 Ford Model T truck.

He restored the brass and it now sits next to his fireplace.

Complete story and more images at Sierra's 2002