I made no specific plans for the day after my Cloudripper climb since I wasn't sure how I would feel. I woke up early with no lingering aches and pains,…
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…
We had an easy day ahead of us on Day 3, so we took our time packing up in the morning. Pavla went for a swim, I wandered around with my camera looking for wildflowers, and David fished a bit. I think we hit the trail around 10 am and headed south along the JMT towards Shadow Creek. When I went through here in 2007 I was flying and barely noticed how amazing this stretch is. Ruby lake is a stunning deep turquoise color, Garnet Lake has a million little things that make it unique and different, and the wildflowers were just popping.
Once at Shadow Creek we left the JMT and headed up the Lake Ediza trail. The plan was to find a campsite somewhere in the area and stay for two nights, dayhiking some of the less popular lakes in the area. We found a nice legal site just before Lake Ediza where we could have campfires (so we could cook any fish we caught!), and set up.
After setting up, resting, and eating, we decided to dayhike up to Cabin Lake, which is a bit off the beaten track. It was stocked with golden trout in 2000 and David wanted to see if there were any left. Rumor had it there was an unmarked trail heading up to the lake, but we couldn’t find it on the way up. A bit of bushwhacking, scrambling around rock, and persistence finally got us to Cabin Lake. Of course, once we were there we saw the use trail. Figures.
Donohue Pass is the first pass you have to climb when going the north to south direction along the JMT, so it has the reputation of being a tough one.…
This was a long but enjoyable day. We rose early and hit the trail around 7 am. In no time at all we had reached Duck Creek where we took…
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.
I was actually looking forward to an early morning wake-up call this day since I was eager to see sunrise over Mt Ritter and Banner Peak. I wasn’t disappointed as I sipped my coffee and sat on a boulder to watch the peaks glow orange as the sun rose. After nature’s morning entertainment I quickly packed up so that I could rejoin the rest of the group and form the plan for the day.
Andrea’s ankle was swollen and bruised so Mary (new trailname: Dr Bono) carefully taped it up so that she could make the hike to Red’s Meadow, 13-16 miles away (depending on the route chosen, heh). I was feeling good so it was determined that I would run ahead and secure a campsite and get things figured out at Red’s.
Knowing we had a long Day 2 ahead of us, we started early with a 5:30 AM wake up call. Hitting the trail shortly after 7 AM I began the climb to Donohue Pass in the cool morning shade. I found the hike to be far easier than expected – I think my prior weekend at altitude helped me quite a bit on these first couple of days. I lingered in some beautiful alpine meadows and got the pass at the time I normally hit the trail, 9:30 AM.
Although it was an enjoyable day, there was a lot of time bled along the way, but starting early kept the day pressure-free. Andrea was feeling the affects of the altitude and took a tumble on the way down from the pass, twisting her ankle – this injury would unfortunately cause her to leave the trail the next day. Anna Marie and I got to Thousand Island lake an hour ahead of the rest of the group and had a windy but nice lunch break. We watched lots and lots of hikers go by, including a bit Boyscout group. Most hikers were coming from Agnew and staying at 1000 Island Lake – not many seemed to be heading South along the JMT towards Garnet, so we thought finding a campsite would be a ‘piece of cake’.