Serving Delicious cake at Thousand island Lake!

Meet: USC Village Fountains at 3 pm on Friday 9/15

Return: Sunday, 9/17 at 3 pm

Member: $77 Non member: $97

Participant Driver (1): $40

Activity: Camping, hiking, swimming, cornhole, eating delicious cake and pie!

Difficulty: 8/10 Hard

Distance: 14.5 miles

Elevation Gain: 2,500 ft

Recommended Prior Experience: Must have strong hiking experience, experience at high altitudes recommended. *we are not backpacking*

Location of Trip: Inyo National Forest, Thousand Island Lake, Eastern Sierras

Native Land: Washoe

Come join Tadd and Bella on a marvelous weekend camping trip in the Eastern Sierras! We’ll be going to the Thousand Island Lake/Mono Pass area, one of Tadd’s favorite areas in all of California.

On Friday, we’ll leave USC Village at 3 pm (because Bella has an extremely important hip-hop dance class on Friday afternoons she must attend) and head straight up to the Eastern Sierras. We’ll camp at the East Fork campground about 20 miles north of Bishop, and Tadd and Bella will chef up a delicious, 5-star dinner Friday night to reward you for lasting the long drive.

On Saturday, we’ll get a nice early start to our hike to Thousand Island Lake, an approximately 14.5 mile hike that navigates through a beautiful network of alpine lakes, meadows, and mountains. It will be a long, difficult hike with a considerable amount of elevation gain at high altitude, but very worthwhile! Tadd and Bella will serve you some scrumptious cake as a reward for making it to the lake, and if warm enough, we’ll get to do some alpine lake swimming, Tadd’s favorite summer activity! We’ll hike out and make it back to the campsite by late afternoon, where we’ll hang out and play cornhole and other games while Tadd and Bella chef up another 5-star dinner. We’ll then have a campfire and s’mores to celebrate our hard work hiking around such a captivating region of California!

On Sunday, we’ll pack up our campsite in the early morning and make the drive back to USC, stopping in the amazing town of Bishop to visit Schatt’s Bakery, an awesome pie shop (BYOPM - bring your own pie money)! After cleansing our palettes with pie and cold drinks, we’ll finish the drive back to USC and get back just in time for you to procrastinate on all of your assignments due on Monday. You also can do your homework before we leave on Friday if you are the studious type- either way, we hope you’ll be able to join us for a fun weekend hiking, camping, swimming, and cake eating!

Contact the Guides:

Bella Childre: childre@usc.edu

Tadd Long: taddlong@usc.edu

What to Bring:

*REMINDER (overnights only) : if you do not have a sleeping bag, sleeping pad, backpacking pack, or other technical gear (non-clothing), do not panic, SC Outfitters has these items for you! Your guides will send out a gear-request form the week of your trip where you’ll let them know what gear you need!

• Small backpacking pack or school backpack

• Sleeping pad

• Sleeping bag 

• ***Warm layers (thermal long sleeves, sweater, long pants)

• Comfortable hiking clothes

• Hiking boots/hiking shoes

• Socks / underwear

• Toiletries

• AT LEAST 3-4 L of water

• Warm hat

• Sun protection (sunscreen, sunglasses)

• Headlamp

• Any necessary medication

• Mess kit (plate/bowl + fork/knife/spork)

• Bathing suit 

• Towel that is easy to pack

• OPTIONAL: cards/games/other fun activities

• REQUIRED: good vibes, can-do attitude

Please Review Our Cancellation and Refund Policy:

All SC Outfitters trips have a no-refund policy unless a substitute participant can be found. In the event your trip requires added reporting measures of participants (plane tickets, external providers, rental services, etc.) dropping the trip close to the date of the trip will not allow for the spot to be re-filled. See the details on trip pages for specific deadlines and reference our complete cancellation/refund policy here.

TRIP DIFFICULTY RATING SYSTEM

• Difficulty rating for trips

  • 1: No physical activity.

  • 2: Leisurely walk.

  • 3: 2-5 miles less than 1000 ft of total elevation gain on well maintained trails. About 2-3 hours continuous activity

  • 4: 4-6 miles, about 1000 ft of elevation gain, well maintained trails. About 3 hours of continuous activity.

  • 5: 6-8 miles, about 1500ft of elevation gain on maintained trials. 4-5 hours continuous activity

  • 6: 8-10 miles, about 2000 ft of elevation gain, well maintained trails. 4-6 hours of continuous activity.

  • 7: 10-14 miles, over 2500 ft of elevation gain, variable trail conditions possible. Full day of continuous activity.

  • 8: At high altitude. 12-16 total miles, over 3000 ft of elevation gain, variable trail conditions possible. Full day of continuous activity.

  • 9: Technical skills may be necessary. At high altitude with physical elevation gain. Scrambling over rocks likely involved.

  • 10: u gunna die

**If you have any questions or concerns about the physical activity, recommended prior experience, or gear needed on any kind of trip please contact the guides as soon as possible!!