Darwin Bench Circuit

July 26th, 2026

Scrambling up the stable talus below Keyhole Pass, filled with joy, I shout, “hello Sierras! it's been too long!” 

A few days earlier, my neighbor Karin invited me on a last minute backpacking trip. We have had some intention to meet in the Sierras for some years, and work accommodates, so I pack up and drive out to the east side. She plans to start from Onion Valley in a couple days with a group of friends that she has been backpacking with annually for many years. They are in the their 60s, so I know it’s going to be an easy pace, and I want to get my ya-yas out before joining them. 

Karin has told me about a circuit she did recently from North Lake, over Piute Pass, Alpine Col, out to Darwin Bench, then back Lamarck Col. Checking my Caltopo, that looks doable for me in a long day hike, so I drive up to North Lake in the dark to sleep in my car after cooking up a late dinner of Annie’s in a Bishop park. 

I wake up with my alarm at 630am, shovel down some granola, and hit the trail. My body is feeling smooth, so I move fast up the well built trail, feeling appreciation for the trail artisans and architects generations ago. My body loves to hike. I feel the stiffness of my left psoas and I have an insight that my biking everywhere at home probably does exacerbate my tight hip flexors. Walk more!

The forest gradually opens up as I near the pass. There’s an unmistakable feeling of approaching a broad pass… the pale air seems to thin further as the horizon delineates, washed out azul opening up above the wide parabola of granite… I like to imagine that there cannot possibly be anything else on the other side but divine void.

I crest Piute Pass at 845am, 2hrs after I left my car. 2,400ft elevation gain, 5mi distance. Good pace. It’s surprisingly calm for the W wind I saw in the forecast. The air is clear. High clouds are pushing overhead from the south. That's fortunate as I was about to start regretting skipping sunscreen on my legs. 

I traverse southwest towards Muriel Lake, then leave the trail to skirt the lake. I’ve hatched a plan to try a somewhat less common route, parallel to Alpine Col, through Keyhole Pass. I figure I can try some unconventional options while I’m solo, unencumbered by a pack, and it’s still early in the day. I’m feeling energetic—I giggle in delight as I string together 20 or 30 rock hops along Muriel's edge in a smooth run.

Climbing hard again into Lost Lakes Basin, I scoop up my first drink from a rivulet in the talus. To stay light, I’m not carrying water today. Instead, I have my soft bladder and a filter and I drink deeply at the next source when I notice thirst. I marvel at the vista of an intermediate alpine lake, barely contained by its terminal moraine, blending almost seamlessly into the horizon with the sky above.

About 1045am I crest the ridge and look down into the NE finger of Darwin Basin. I’m 4 hours in, 3,600ft up, and maybe 7-8mi along, what seems like almost halfway around the loop, which is now seeming easily within reach. Keyhole Pass is fun, slipping through an actual hula hoop sized opening, with a short, proper Class 3, 10ft downclimb (in my direction).

Rock Fringe.

Halfway down to the other side, I think I hear voices for an instant, and then minutes later realize I wasn’t just hearing things when I spot a party of two also descending 100ft away and just above me. We shout and I’m surprised to learn they’ve just come through Keyhole too, having camped above Piute Pass the night before. They see I don’t have a pack and ask if I’m doing their loop in a day. They look smart and light themselves for two nights out, but they’re impressed hearing I haven’t done this route before. I feel a little surge of pride and show off a bit by more rock hoping on my way down to the lake. I overcommit slightly on one step and my ankle speaks up gently… I take that as a request to stop showing off (ok ok). 

Nearing noon, I'm starting to feel a bit tired and wishing for a lunch stop but I'd really like to get to the view at Darwin bench before plopping down. I throw back a handful of trail mix and press on. I'm guessing I’m transitioning into ketosis around this point since I’m at about 5hrs and maybe 3,000 calories burned. Breakfast was maybe 600 calories, and I hear there’s about 500g of glycogen (2,000 calories) available in my liver and muscles. nota bene: i am not qualified to talk about nutrition.

Rounding the last lake, a sheer granite slab into the water… oops maybe i picked the wrong side of the lake? ah no, there's a way above by scrambling up 60ft…

Darwin Bench doesn't disappoint. Who wouldn't want to look out onto the natural grandeur of Evolution Basin from a seat on Darwin’s bench? Feels grand, and peaceful, and timeless… timeful?

Well, I suppose I’m sitting a bit above the bench proper. But it’s a better view here. The forecasted W wind has picked up. Little cumies are kicking off of The Hermit… I hope to fly here one day. 

My stale peanut butter and honey sandwich hits good (honey from Karin's bees!). I’m definitely not taking in enough food to match my output, so I’m kinda just buoying my blood sugar with snacks to feel better from this point on. I pull off my shoes and sprawl out for about 45min.

Ok, got to keep moving… I swing up the lake-laced trail towards Lamarck Col. oooh but such a inviting grassy glade by the wayside… I lay down flat for another 10min.

I run into a dude rolling down the trail. He recognizes me from the parking lot this morning… he’s come over the way I’m thinking about going back. His name is Max. Turns out he has been working up here on SNYLF (sierra nevada yellow legged frog) rehabilitation and is back out for several days after a resupply break. And he knows Karin! who had been volunteering on a SNYLF project in McGee Basin the week beforehand. And he knew from her that I was coming up to meet her later! This kinda of coincidence seems to happen with uncanny frequency up here.

Unimaginable aquamarine of the last lake… with the sky, two vast parabolae cut out of granite paper. I imagine, as I have in the past, somehow bringing a light sailboat up here, perhaps a Laser, how absurd it would be, how dreamy, to play in these waters that way. 

At bottom of the climb to Lamarck Col, I'm feeling low so I eat the last few handfulls of my trail mix. I’ve been hiking with an tiny old fanny pack that I keep in my Prius, the kind that was designed to hold a CD Walkman, complete with slip pockets for a few CDs. As a result, I haven’t been carrying as much food as I probably should have. But I still have a thing of shotblok gummies left. 

I’ve been contemplating another route variation, a much less frequented pass parallel to Lamarck Col called Darwin-Schober Col that would dump me into a drainage heading down to Lake Sabrina, which is a couple miles of road from my car at North Lake, but I figure it’s a weekend and I can probably hitch that last part. My topo shows a trail out to meet the bottom of this drainage, and my downloaded satellite imagery shows mixed granite and sparse vegetation… a plausibly straightforward route down. The last leg downhill. And it’s only 245pm now. I tell myself I’ll decide based on how I feel at the turnoff halfway up to the pass.

Uphill! My happy place. I'm feeling invigorated and decide to cut off-trail towards the unconventional pass. But really who am i kidding? Was i really going to give myself the choice to pass up this idea once i had conceived its possibility?

Buckwheats doing their hardy thing.

Darwin-Schober Col is easy. I’m up and over in 45min and I drop down the sandy slope on the other side. The looseness would be unpleasant on the way up, but descending it is kinda cushioning. 

Down 1,000ft, at Schober lakes, my low back speaks up… I’ve been so attending to lengthening my psoas that I’ve forgotten about my core engagement. I lay down on some granite and fold my knees to my chest for some minutes. That does the trick. Core from here on out. 

Five lakes and another 1,000ft down. I pop a gummy every once in a while. I’ve been moving quickly but things are starting to look thicker ahead. One thing I didn’t look up yesterday was beta on the condition of use trails in this drainage. Once, through a narrowing, I catch a hint of a cairn, but apparently there are in fact no use trails here. Cross country (off trail) is usually predictable, pleasant, and rewarding in the alpine Sierras, but I’ve been away too long to remember how thick it can get in certain areas below about 11,000ft. And now I’m in the thick, and the only way out is through.

I’m navigating between cliff-outs on one hand and aspen/willow/currant thickets on the other… no good choices. I would be happier if the currants were ripe, but it's too early… I only snag one sweet one on my way past. The least dense options seem to be cutting under headwalls where sometimes the debris flow has cleared underbrush a bit. At one point I'm rappelling backwards down a slope by hanging onto consecutive aspen branches. 

The adrenaline of route finding through thickets has my energy back up. But I keep second guessing my route decisions.. am i prolonging my pain trying to optimize for less? I thought I was a decent route finder!

I find a series of steep benches and manage to descend them via downclimb. 1,000ft over with, 600ft to go to the trail on the shore of Lake Sabrina. Surely it should get better now. But the talus field I was aiming for is actually overgrown in low aspen thickets as I near. The aspen are somehow growing through the talus field... i don't understand. Where is the soil? water retention? I plunge through, experiencing what Kim Stanley Robinson meant when he found himself horizontal during bushwhacking. 

I'm gingerly sliding down a chute overgrown with willows, branches supporting me under my feet and my sacrum, between my legs. yeehaw! My view disappears as the willows envelop overhead. no no no! i will be here forever if this continues. But I finally slide out into the bare patch I was aiming for from above. Thank goodness at least this is downhill. 

I almost crash past the trail... you call that a trail? jeez louise it's overgrown with aspen thicket nearly as badly as the talus chute I just tumbled down. But it’s there and I’m grateful to follow it. Another 20 minutes hauling, and finally, the lake Sabrina parking lot. 

I look back and breathe, relieved and exhausted. 

A young dude walks over to say hi. Roo from Berkeley. I give them some trailhead info (don’t go the way I just came from!). I consider asking them for some food but decide against it... they’re about to head into the backcountry. 

But I do raid the next bear bin I see down the road… half eaten pizzas, coffee drinks, burgers... come on people, this is trash. ah, but in the back, a 2lb zipped bag of Kirkland Extra Fancy salted cashews. I grab a big handful and close it all back up. I toss them back—exactly what i need—salty calories. Now I’m thinking about the kombucha that’s in my car.

Two more miles of pavement pounding back up to North lake… it’s late now and there aren’t cars going up. The beautiful dusk light helps distract me from my tiredness. And at this point, I kinda want to walk the whole loop anyways.

830pm back at General Prius. Almost 14 hours car to car, and about 20 miles, maybe half of those off trail. But only 5,000ft up, and the same down. I down the kombucha and warm up my second favorite pasta sauce with some leftover fusilli. 

I'm looking forward to hitting up Great Basin Bakery in the morning, and a few days of chill backpacking.

Just had to push it a little further didn't I.