A Stormy Sierra Weekend: One Summit, Buckets of Rain, One Fish, and a Mosquito Invasion

Friday night storms
Friday night storms

With our longer Sierra trip coming up soon, we wanted to head out last weekend and get in some hiking and sleeping at altitude. I always feel better when I get some time above 10k before hauling a heavy pack up there. Our intended trip was to head out to Laurel Lakes (just south of Mammoth), climb Laurel and Bloody Mountains, followed by camping and fishing at Laurel Lakes. Sunday would be another ~10k peak with a short hike. It sounded perfect, at least until we looked at the weather forecast.

The thing about the Eastern Sierra is that even if your original plans fall through there is always something else equally fun to do. So we headed out despite the forecast, figuring that we’d find something to do no matter what.

As we drove out on Friday night we watched the enormous storm clouds hovering over the mountains. They were beautiful as the sun set and they glowed bright pink. By the time we made it through the mountains the clouds had cleared and we pulled into a dispersed campsite outside of June Lake where we slept under the stars in the back of the truck.

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Tuolumne to Agnew Meadows, Day 4 & 5: Nydiver & Iceberg Lakes and hike out

Middle Nydiver Lake
Middle Nydiver Lake

On the morning of Day 4 we had a break from packing up camp. Instead we prepared for dayhiking to some of the other nearby lakes. With no rush, David decided to head back to Ediza to try for some breakfast fish, and sure enough, he came back with one for each of us. My own personal breakfast brookie mmmmm.

Our morning destination was Nydiver Lakes, another area that was possibly approachable by trail, but I wasn’t sure. It turns out that the trail was pretty easy to find, and we really needed it, too. The hike along the drainage of the lakes is steep, but the trail is nice enough to switchback up the steepest part, keeping us out of the thick bushes and jumbly rocks. Towards the top (when my GPS had us within 500 feet of the first lake), we found ourselves running out of trail in front of a wall of rock. The water coming out of the lake’s  drainage tumbled down the rock in a waterfall, so that wasn’t the approach. I knew it shouldn’t be that difficult, so I just started scrambling up towards the only direct possibility – a notch in the wall – feet slipping and sliding on the steep scree surrounding an old tailings pile.

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Tuolumne to Agnew Meadows, Day 1: Lyell Canyon

Lyell Canyon Reflections
Lyell Canyon Reflections

One of my goals for this summer’s backpacking trips is to get back to some of my favorite stretches of the John Muir Trail. I have two longer trips planned, and the first trip back was a five day stroll last week from Tuolumne Meadows to Agnew Meadows. The purpose wasn’t just to hike the John Muir Trail again – rather it was to take time to fish, relax, explore off-trail, and just enjoy the amazing surroundings. When I did the JMT I flew through this stretch in about 48 hours, so it was good to see it at a slower pace!

We drove out towards Mammoth on Wednesday night and crashed at the Glass Creek campground around midnight (less than a mile off of 395, it’s not perfect but it’s free and easy to get to in the dark). Alarms went off about 5:15 and we were quickly on our way to Mammoth to catch the 7 am YARTS bus after dropping a car at the Inn. At $8 a ticket for the one-way to Tuolumne, YARTS is a bargain.

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Seeing the Eastern Sierra in a Different Way

Bristlecone Pines
Bristlecone Pines

This past weekend I got to tag along on a four day outing to the Eastern Sierra. This trip differed from my usual hiking adventures – it was with the Geocachers of the Bay Area 4×4 group and organized by bthomas, a cacher, hiker, and 4x4er.

The trip started off Thursday morning with Motorbug and Geobrowns. We cached our way through Oakdale and along highway 108, stopping to explore some backroads and an old railroad trestle. We also stopped at a virtual cache with an an incredible view overlooking northern Yosemite and the Marine training area. This even ended up being a big milestone day: the Geobrown’s Jeep turned over 100 miles, I found my 900th cache, and MotorBug celebrated his 10th anniversary of retirement.

After a night’s stay in Lee Vining we connected with bthomas’s group and headed into Virginia Lakes for breakfast on Friday morning. Of course we picked up a few caches along the way! In the words of Tom (or was it Jim?) – there’s nothing like a coffee and an open cache to make a perfect morning! After a great breakfast at the lodge by the lake, we started off towards Copper Mountain, the first real 4×4 run of the day. On the way there we ran into Cap’n Finder, and also picked up the last arriving vehicle on the radio. We all connected on Copper Mountain, where we were treated to incredible views of Mono Lake, Lundy Canyon, and of course, a geocache.

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John Muir Trail, 2007: Day 4 – Red’s Meadow to Deer Creek

Red's Meadow
Red's Meadow

It was a lovely, relaxing day. We had heard horror stories about the long, hot climb out of Red’s Meadow, so we decided to plan a half day of hiking and only hike 7 miles to Deer Creek. We stuffed ourselves with an amazing breakfast at the Red’s cafe and didn’t bother getting on the trail until 10:30 am. We took our time and were happy to find that the reports of the trail were greatly exaggerated.

The first mile or two climbs gently through the remnants of the 1992 Rainbow Fire. I can imagine that on a really hot day the sun would be intense without the shade, but I found it to be a scenic hike through gentle terrain and enjoyed it. The trail then climbs through the shade between the Red Cones, two volcanic cinder cone peaks just south of Mammoth Mountain. A short while later, after meandering through the unburnt woods, we found ourselves at the nice little babbling Deer Creek.

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