ONE MIGHTY BASIN : REMOTE MITER HAS BEAUTY.

Byline: BRETT PAULY

We discovered the Miter Basin by accident.

The southern boundary of Sequoia National Park was quickly approaching after a four-day trudge along the Pacific Crest Trail, and lunch was beckoning. But as the stove's single burner hissed to a halt, something was terribly amiss with our traditional fare of macaroni and cheese. I had poured in lemonade mix instead of powdered milk, rendering it completely uneatable.

My disgust, nausea and anguish gave me cause to wonder just why we were departing this beautiful sanctuary to continue our tiring 10-plus-mile pace into lower elevations that would only be less stunning by the day.

It dawned on my two younger brothers and me to make a 180-degree turn and venture into the little-known basin. Ah, serendipity, it can be a backpacker's blessing.

The Miter Basin, hemmed in by the sheer, granite walls that give rise to the High Sierra just three miles south of Mount Whitney as the crow flies, is the most remote, barren and beautiful location I have ever hoofed into. The rarefied air above tree line between elevations of 10,600 and 12,600 feet is the sweetest I've smelled. And I've never seen golden trout larger and healthier; they are a bear to hook in the larger lakes, but in the west-flowing streams that feed the Kern River they will hit any fly you toss, repeatedly.

Rock-hopping over territory that has no trails, you feel as if you're a pioneer scouting the land for the first time. There are precious few places left like it. It's vastness - though only a few miles wide and long - is lonely and strange but also feels strangely familiar, like a place you've always wanted to be or dreamed about. So infrequently visited is it that many prominent features have yet to have names assigned to them.

Then you see a boot print, a scrap of paper or a faint, intermittent footpath and you quickly realize that you're not the first to visit this wonderful place that takes its name from the 12,770 peak that juts into it from the north.

That first trip into the basin turned out to be a reconnaissance mission; I planned to return for further exploration as soon as possible. And I did get back the next year on a 50-mile loop that I recommend to any hardy hiker who doesn't get nose bleeds at high altitudes.

I've dubbed it the Crabtree Pass Loop - after its highest point. You'll be hard-pressed to find a better, more challenging one in the park.

The trailhead is at Horseshoe Meadow southwest of Lone Pine, at 9,900 feet one of the highest eastern access point to the Sierra's crest. Either the Cottonwood Pass or Cottonwood Lakes trail provide the quickest entries; my party - my bachelor party, as it were, since I was to be married the following Saturday - chose the Cottonwood Pass route since it was familiar to us and appeared more direct.

In less than four miles through Inyo National Forest's Golden Trout Wilderness, you top 11,180-foot Cottonwood Pass. From here it's north on the Pacific Crest Trail and into Sequoia National Park. If you get off to a late start, Chicken Spring Lake less than a mile from the summit offers ample camping, but it's better to press on another five miles to Lower Soldier Lake or six miles to Rock Creek Lake. Both sites have bear boxes, but note there are few watering holes and you branch north from the PCT en route.

From Rock Creek Lake (10,400 feet), which is fed by its headwaters high in the Miter Basin, the fishing is phenomenal along a two-mile stretch of its outlet to the west. The small goldens - an 11-incher would be a leviathan - hit on any small dry fly. The first pattern in my fly book - a yellow and red number with gold ribboning - proved a winner, and I never had to deviate the whole day. (I advise packing a four-piece rod with a butt that can be reversed for fly-fishing or spin-casting around the higher, deeper lakes. In a tube, it's as wide as a stuffed sleeping bag on your pack.)

It takes about five goldens (the legal limit) to make a meal, but fired on the spit they're hard to beat. This is a great layover spot.

Now it's on to the basin. Proceed on the trail along the east side of Rock Creek and your destination will open up as the trees start to thin. A pathway will point the way for a mile or so, but then you're on your own, veering to the northwest between Joe Devel Peak and Mount Pickering to the west and The Major General, Mount Langley and Mount Corcoran on the east until you reach Sky-Blue Lake (11,550-feet) at the western base of The Miter. There are grassy campsites and bigger fish to fry here.

Be patient with the latter; use every lure you have and perhaps a scented bait or two. But they'll hit. My brothers landed and released a 15-incher.

The next morning, move around the lake to the east and work your way over the granite slabs north-northwest to the obvious saddle of Crabtree Pass.

It is here you might become frustrated, as I did, at the lack of navigational hints. There are no markers or pathways. Everything in this rocky region looks the same. All you have to rely on is intuition and sense of direction. Just keep moving up and you'll hit a small plateau between two lakes - the eastern one noted on maps only by its elevation of 12,125 feet. From here you can see the 12,600-foot summit and towering Mount McAdie and Whitney Pass above it.

Aim for the saddle and watch your footing on the final, steep scramble. I can't recall a tougher two-mile backpack. The reward is a stellar view of Mount Kaweah and Kaweah Peaks Ridge to the west, on past the Kern River Canyon.

Power Bar up and head down the vicious talus slopes to the unnamed body of water (12,100 feet) that is the uppermost lake in the Crabtree Lakes watershed. Lunch on the east end, then walk the north shore to the slabs that point the way to Upper Crabtree Lake (11,312 feet). You feel as if you've wafflestomped 20 miles, but at day's end it will have been just shy of six.

Plan on two nights here on what we dubbed the Riviera of the Sierra. The sandy north shore is indeed special. And cast your lines deep. A 17-inch golden with pink meat from a natural diet was stewed with almonds and oil our second night there.

Try dry flies on Middle and Lower Crabtree lakes before you come to a rocky path at the northwest end of the lower body, which leads to Crabtree Meadow and the unremarkable western vantage of Mount Whitney. You will join up with the PCT again and travel south over Guyot Pass (10,700 feet) before meeting the lower section of Rock Creek (9,520 feet) - and equally terrific fly fishing. At 11 miles, it will be your longest day.

From here, you keep to the PCT for 10 miles to Chicken Spring Lake for your last night's stay.

The next morning it's back to your car. Even on the drive home, you will begin the longing to return to the Miter Basin; yet if you never make a return trip, you can rest assured knowing few folks will ever step within its confines a first time.

IF YOU'RE GOING . . .

This hike requires a wilderness reservation during the peak-use period from June 28 to Sept. 15, when quotas of 15 hikers per day are instituted from eastern trailheads.

Access is easiest via the Cottonwood Pass (described here) or Cottonwood Lakes trailheads in Horseshoe Meadow; both are monitored by the Inyo National Forest. For reservations - $3 per person - call the Inyo National Forest Wilderness Reservation Service at [phone] or [phone].

Horseshoe Meadow is located 24 miles southwest of Lone Pine. From Whitney Portal Road, drive south on Horsehoe Meadow Road.

Plan on a week in the backcountry, with few amenities and in the company of bears, although they are less of a nuisance above tree line. Food storage boxes - metal enclosures that dissuade bears - are found along the loop at Lower Soldier Lake, Rock Creek Lake, Crabtree Meadow and where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses Rock Creek. At other locations below tree line, it is recommended that food be hung using the counter-balance method.

Anglers ages 16 and older must have a state fishing license. They can keep five trout per day and have 10 in possession anywhere above 9,000 feet within Sequoia National Park. (The lowest point on this loop is about 9,500 feet.) Barbed or barbless hooks and bait, artificial flies and lures are permitted. Live bait - worms, crickets and the like - cannot be captured within the national park and used, although anglers can pack them in from outside the park's boundaries.

Pets, firearms and hunting are not permitted in Sequoia National Park; neither are campfires above 11,200 feet.

The Miter Basin and Crabtree Pass are found on the Mount Whitney 7.5-minute series topographic map. The route from the Cottonwood Pass trailhead is located on the Johnson Peak and Cirque Peak topos.

For further information, call the Mount Whitney Ranger Station at [phone] or the Sequoia National Park wilderness information line at [phone].

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos, Box, Map

Photo: (1--color) An angler tests the waters o f Upper Crabtree Lake below 13,169-foot Mount Chamberlin, where golden trout to 17 inches lurk. It is a Sequoia National Park backcountry gem.

(2--color) Tye, left, and Quinn Pauley caught and released a 15-inch golden in Sky-Blue Lake.

(3--color) Sky-Blue Lake in the upper Miter Basin reflects Mount Pickering on a silent High Sierra morning. The basin offers rugged, remote, off-trail terrain over 10,000 feet in elevation

Brett Pauly/Daily News

Box: IF YOU'RE GOING. . . (see text)

Map: SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK