After foot surgery kept author and Sierra explorer Lisa Michelle away from the trail for nearly three months, returning to Sierra Nevada backpacking gave her a new appreciation for every hike—and a new idea for helping other women experience the mountains.
Lisa returns to the Sierra Rec Now Podcast to talk with Charlie Pankey about recovery, gratitude, backcountry fishing and why the mountains keep calling her back. From Gem Lake and Glen Aulin to Young Lakes, Cathedral Lakes and the Carson Pass region, this conversation explores what happens when we slow down and rediscover experiences we sometimes take for granted.
Lisa also shares the beginnings of True Nature Girls, her effort to create personalized Sierra adventures for women in small, supportive groups. Catching a first backcountry fish, seeing fall color or simply spending a quiet night outside can become much more than another trip to the mountains.
Lisa Michelle
Lisa Michelle is the author of True Nature: Hidden in the High Sierra, a collection shaped by her experiences exploring, backpacking and fishing throughout the Sierra Nevada.
Her latest project, True Nature Girls, grew from women asking Lisa how they could experience some of the places and adventures she’d written about. Rather than traditional large-group trips, Lisa is developing small, personalized outdoor experiences designed around what participants want to discover—from backpacking and fishing to fall color, waterfalls and simply becoming more comfortable in the backcountry.
Learn more: LisaMichelleStories.com
Book: True Nature: Hidden in the High Sierra
Getting Back on the Trail After Foot Surgery
Nearly three months away from hiking changed Lisa Michelle’s relationship with the trail.
“I caught myself so many times just smiling while I’m walking. I’m just smiling.”
Lisa Michelle
Foot surgery forced someone accustomed to backpacking, fishing and exploring the Sierra to stay home and recover. When Lisa finally returned to hiking, the first trips weren’t necessarily about covering big miles or reaching another bucket-list destination. There was something much simpler to appreciate: she could walk in the mountains again.
That renewed appreciation has influenced the way Lisa explores the Sierra. Instead of measuring every trip by distance or how quickly she reaches the next destination, she has become increasingly comfortable slowing down.
It is one of the things she enjoys about hiking alone. There is no pressure to match someone else’s pace. She can stop when she wants, take another break, fish a stream or lake, swim, explore a side trail or simply spend more time in a place.
For anyone who spends enough time in the Sierra, it is an easy lesson to forget. Sometimes the objective becomes the trail mileage, the summit, the lake or getting back to the trailhead before dark. Lisa’s return to hiking has been a reminder that some of the best Sierra experiences happen when we stop worrying quite so much about getting somewhere.
Fly Fishing the Sierra: Start in Hope Valley
Lisa rarely heads into the Sierra backcountry without a fishing rod, so we asked her a simple question during this conversation: Where would you send someone who wants to learn to fly fish in the Sierra?
One of her first choices is the West Fork Carson River in Hope Valley.
For a beginner, part of the appeal is practical. The open meadows along portions of the West Fork Carson provide room to learn a cast without spending the entire day retrieving flies from trees and brush behind you.
It is also Hope Valley.
Even on a day when the fish aren’t cooperating, the combination of the Carson River, broad Sierra meadows and surrounding peaks makes this one of those places where catching a fish doesn’t have to be the only measure of a successful day outside.
Lisa admits that fly fishing can be frustrating—something experienced anglers probably won’t argue with—but learning in a beautiful place makes the inevitable tangles, missed strikes and bad casts a little easier to accept.
Backpacking and Fly Fishing in Yosemite
Some of Lisa’s favorite Sierra experiences combine backpacking with the opportunity to fish once she reaches camp.
Yosemite National Park provides plenty of both.
During this conversation, Lisa shares a recent trip into Glen Aulin, where she spent time fishing the Tuolumne River and exploring an area that felt noticeably different with the High Sierra Camp operating again. She also talks about places farther into Yosemite’s backcountry, including Young Lakes and Ten Lakes Basin.
Young Lakes has become a particular favorite.
Lisa first put the area on her list after hearing it discussed on Sierra Rec Now. Since then, it has become one of those places she continues to recommend for backpackers willing to hike beyond Yosemite’s most familiar destinations. The combination of high-country scenery, camping and fishing makes it especially appealing for the kind of Sierra trip Lisa enjoys.
Ten Lakes Basin provides another opportunity to combine those experiences. Like many well-known Yosemite destinations, it can attract plenty of summer visitors, but Lisa has learned that timing and a willingness to explore beyond the obvious stopping points can dramatically change the experience.
That is another recurring theme in her Sierra travels: the most memorable place may be just beyond where everyone else stops.
Lisa Michelle’s Favorite Sierra Backpacking Destinations
Near the end of our conversation, we put Lisa on the spot and asked her to name some of the Sierra backpacking destinations she would happily recommend to someone else.
The resulting list ranges from Yosemite high country to quieter lakes near Carson Pass.
Showers Lake
Showers Lake made an impression on Lisa during a mid-to-late summer visit when wildflowers were still blooming around the lake.
Located along the Pacific Crest Trail and Tahoe Rim Trail south of Lake Tahoe, Showers Lake offers a combination Lisa appreciates: beautiful water, granite, good camping opportunities and enough space to enjoy the surroundings without necessarily feeling isolated deep in the wilderness.
The lake itself may not be a fishing destination, but Lisa found another reason to get in the water—swimming.
For backpackers looking for a Sierra lake experience without committing to a major multi-day expedition, Showers Lake is one of the places Lisa believes deserves consideration.
Ten Lakes Basin
Ten Lakes Basin remains one of Yosemite’s classic backpacking destinations, and it earns a place among Lisa’s favorites.
Her preference, however, is to visit after some of the busiest summer traffic has disappeared. Exploring later in the season has allowed her to experience considerably more solitude, including around nearby lakes where the number of visitors can drop quickly once hikers move beyond the most popular camps.
For Lisa, that ability to find a quieter corner is often part of what transforms a good backpacking trip into a memorable one.
Young Lakes
Young Lakes is another Yosemite destination that combines several things Lisa loves about the Sierra: high-country scenery, backpacking, fishing and enough distance from the road to make arriving feel earned.
It has also become one of her favorite places to fish.
That combination is important to the way Lisa chooses trips. Backpacking gets her into the landscape, but fishing gives her a reason to stop moving and spend time observing one place.
Instead of arriving at a lake, taking a photograph and immediately thinking about tomorrow’s mileage, the fishing rod encourages her to stay awhile.
Fourth of July Lake
Fourth of July Lake earns a recommendation with one important warning: be prepared to climb.
Lisa laughs about taking a friend there who had not backpacked since childhood. The climb may not have made her particularly popular on the way in, but the destination helped make up for it.
For backpackers willing to work for their campsite, Fourth of July Lake offers the kind of quieter Sierra experience Lisa continues to seek out.
Round Lake: The Place She Once Walked Past
Perhaps the most appropriate destination for this particular conversation is Round Lake near Carson Pass.
Lisa had already been there—or at least she should have remembered being there.
While hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail, her route took her directly past the lake. Yet when she later looked at a map, she realized she barely remembered it.
She had walked right by.
Returning with the intention of actually spending time there created an entirely different experience. Lisa remembers the surrounding volcanic terrain glowing as the light changed, a quiet night around the lake and catching her first large Lahontan cutthroat trout.
It became one of her favorite discoveries.
There may be no better example of the lesson Lisa keeps returning to throughout this conversation:
Sometimes the Sierra place worth discovering is the one you already walked past.
From True Nature to True Nature Girls
Lisa’s relationship with the Sierra is also beginning to move beyond her own adventures.
After the publication of True Nature: Hidden in the High Sierra, women began reaching out to Lisa about the places and experiences she had written about. Some wanted to know how they could experience those places themselves.
Lisa started taking a few women outside.
What surprised her was how much she enjoyed watching someone else experience the Sierra for the first time.
A first backcountry fish. A first night sleeping in the mountains. Fall colors. Waterfalls. A mountain lake that someone might never have imagined reaching on their own.
Those early experiences are developing into True Nature Girls, Lisa’s effort to create small, personalized Sierra adventures for women.
The idea isn’t to put a large group on a predetermined itinerary and march everyone toward the same destination. Lisa wants to understand what someone hopes to experience and then help build an adventure around that goal.
For one woman, success might mean catching her first trout. For another, it might mean carrying a backpack into the wilderness and discovering that she is capable of spending a night outside. Someone else might simply want to see a particular part of the Sierra they have never felt confident exploring alone.
In many ways, it is a natural extension of the stories Lisa has already been telling.
True Nature shared the places that helped shape her relationship with the Sierra. True Nature Girls gives her an opportunity to help someone else begin creating stories of her own.
In This Conversation
00:00 Finding Joy on the Trail Again
01:22 Backpacking the Sierra with a Trail Dog
03:26 Fly Fishing at Gem Lake
04:51 Returning to Hiking After Foot Surgery
08:37 Backpacking & Fly Fishing in Yosemite
12:21 Helping Women Start Backpacking
17:13 Personalized Sierra Nevada Backpacking Trips
20:20 Planning the Next Sierra Adventure
36:31 Best Sierra Fly-Fishing Spots for Beginners
41:28 Favorite Sierra Nevada Backpacking Destinations
45:14 True Nature Girls with Lisa Michelle
Seeing the Sierra
Seeing the Sierra is a Sierra Rec series featuring writers, photographers, artists and storytellers whose work and experiences help us see these mountains differently.
Through their stories, we explore not only where to go in the Sierra Nevada, but how the people who spend time here learn to notice more, experience more and develop their own relationship with the mountains.
Discover more at SierraRecMagazine.com.
