Day 1, 9/8, Friday. Rainbow Falls TH ‐ Minaret Lake
Checked out the Rainbow Falls first. Nice. Viewing platform. Too bad, that the sun is not shining on the water, so no rainbows. Maybe afternoon is better. On the way back, saw some family with small children going there. Dry and hot, no shade.
Devils Postpile is underwhelming. A national monument. No water at all.
It's in Ansel Adams Wilderness. 2 signs at the border for 2 different government agencies.
Left the monument onto Kings River trail going uphill. Found a creek, was filling water. One guy walked by and told us in 15 minutes we'd have to ford a river. So we dumped the water for later. A couple came down told us it's possible to hop over rocks upstream. It took us 30 minutes to reach the river, and we crossed over the rocks. Filled water here, too buggy to stay put. Sprayed ourselves with repellent.
Not far is Johnston Meadow, swampy, buggy. Up and up, dryer, less mosquitoes.
We sat down to filter the water we took at the river.
Saw many mariposa lily and buckwheat along the way. Dry and dusty.
At this water slide of Minaret Creek, we took a lunch break. Views improved afterwards.
More alpine, creeks, boulders, mosquitoes are back.
Another hour or 2 later, we finally reached Minaret Lake.
Beautiful and large with a few ponds close by. Many small peninsulas. Quite windy, so not too buggy.
Found 2 tents at its south end. We continued to the camp sign on the map. Found many sites.
Too windy, so I opted to tent in the trees without much of a view.
We are of equal distance to Minaret Lake and this lovely pond.
Again the sun disappeared from the lake very early (by 5pm). Scrambled up a little hill by the camp for some last minute photos. No good sunset. Cooked and ate dinner by the lake. I passed out before 8pm.
Total today ~10 miles (including the detour to Rainbow Falls). Up 2800', down 600'.
Day 2, 9/9, Saturday. Minaret Lake ‐ crossover to Ediza Lake ‐ JMT
Thunder and rain woke me up at 2am. Rained off and on all day. Ended up cooking and eating breakfast in the tent. My umbrella enabled me to fetch water and give boiled water to M.Y.
My tent has a huge flaw using footprint. Or maybe all tents have the same problem. The rain poured down to the fly, draped on to the front bathtub of the tent, and onto the groundsheet, instead of draining into the soil. I dug a hole at the front below the tent, guy out the front, to minimize water pooling onto the groundsheet.
Met a runner while I was moving food into my vestibule. She ran up here today. Couldn't figure out the way to Cecile Lake. I showed her where the route is. She decided to run back. She was shivering. She carried no backpack at all.
Sun came out around noon with occasional drizzle. Met a guy looking for a camp site here. He said he checked weather an hour ago and it was supposed to clear up by now. He scrambled up to Cecile before in dry weather, and even then he said it wasn't easy. He will go back tomorrow.
As we were eating lunch airing out my wet gear, the guy came by and told us that the weather should be dry until tomorrow noon, then it's 30% precipitation. How nice!
Rain stayed at bay. I decided to continue my loop, but cut out Catherine Lake.
We packed up and headed up at 3:20pm.
Going to Cecilia is quite easy.
There, we need to traverse its eastern shore which has a stretch of snow.
I put on spikes and crossed the snow. M.Y. opted going around on rocks.
He met the same guy who was telling us about the weather a few hours ago. Now, he was resting on a large rock.
Later, saw him hopping rocks with ease and disappeared out of sight fairly quickly.
At the pass north of Cecile (right end of the above photo). I saw a steep snow going down without seeing an end.
See the left photo of the view looking down from this pass.
We took to some track heading right and up. Crossed the ridge then looked for a way to go down to Iceberg Lake. Aptly named, plenty of snow on the lake surface.
The right photo is later looking up from Iceburg, the red dot is roughly where I popped out of Cecile, the red track is roughly how we ended up going down.
It's very steep. We picked our way gingerly down.
Then it rained, or rather hailed. Put on rainjacket.
Now some slabs were a bit slippery. It's all quite sketchy.
Twice we had to lower our packs later.
Then we hit snow. I glissaded. My phone fell out of my pocket, and my hiking pole couldn't stop my slide, only slowed it.
Finally I was stopped by a rock. Hopped up rocks to fetch my phone.
Meanwhile M.Y. slid his backpack down. It tumbled down, and his tent fell out of the bottom strap, tumbled a bit more.
I wasn't able to catch either. They didn't tumble far, I went to fetch both.
M.Y. put on spikes and inched towards the closest rock.
Then scrambling down rocks. His face was ashen by the time he reached me.
Afterwards, it was some easy rock hopping down to the shore of Iceberg.
Out on spikes to traverse the snow by the lake shore. It's not steep here. Easy. But still care is needed. Don't want to fall into the water with icebergs floating in it.
Finally we were on trail at the north end of the lake.
It took 1.5 hours from the pass down to Iceberg! Maybe 1/4 miles?
Very glad to hit the trail. From now on, it's smooth sailing. A bit wet on the trail.
All the way down to Ediza Lake (~20 min) is very pretty. More and more grass, more mellow.
According to some account, Ediza is John Muir's favorite lake. It is indeed very pretty, set against the peaks we just stumbled across, and more.
Met a large group of campers. The blue sky ahead (to the north) is promising for tomorrow.
It was 7pm already, getting dark. But We continued, and reached the camp on JMT at 8pm in headlamp. Already very dark when we setup our tents. M.Y. insisted on cooking dinner. As we were boiling water, it rained again! I was able to sit and finish my dinner under my umbrella. M.Y. took his dinner into his tent.
Rain stopped around 9:30. I could see stars.
Total today ~4.3 miles, up 700', down 1400'.
Day 3, 9/10, Sunday. JMT RT to Thousand Islands Lake ‐ Johnston Meadown.
Rain started again in the middle of the night.
Late start today. We hiked out just before 8am with a day pack.
Took JMT north towards Garnet Lake. Up and down. Rain on and off. Garnet Lake is quite pretty with many little "islands".
Continued on JMT, passed Ruby Lake, and then Emerald Lake. Both are pleasant.
We are running into more and more people, now that we are on JMT.
Thousand Islands Lake is one of those recommended to me. It looks very much like Garnet Lake.
It's larger, and more little "islands".
We continued on JMT to the view point marked on my Gaia Map.
It's definitely a good view point: a large rock outcrop.
We took a long break before heading back.
On the way back, took an alternate route between the 2 lakes. Saw a tent. Didn't meet anyone.
I do recommend going both ways. A different little lake, more grass.
Trail is not as well defined, but not too hard to follow.
Back at camp around 2pm. Lunch, packing up. Hiked down around 3:30pm. We want to drive out as early as possible tomorrow, for fear of the traffic in LA.
Easy trekking on JMT south.
It follows Shadow Creek, passing Shadow Lake, Rosalie Lake, Gladys Lake, all not pretty.
Saw a deer at Rosalie, and a tent. I didn't bother to take a photo of Gladys Lake.
Settled for the night at Johnston Meadow. Very buggy ~7pm when we arrived. Already dark. I hid inside the tent without cooking dinner. Today is long. 19 miles, 4000' up, 5000' down.
Day 4, 9/11, Monday Hike out
Up before mosquitoes (~5:30am), so I can cook without being molested.
Packed up wet tent, and headed out before 7am.
It's only 3.7 miles, easy mile.
This time, we crossed Kings River by wading. The water is cold. Higher now after 2 days of rain.
All the rain in the last 2 days made a difference.
The silver lining is that the trail is nicer, not as dusty, and the temperature cooler.
The morning light over Reds Meadow is lovely.
This time, we walked by Devils Postpile up close.
Reached the car around 8:30am. Fetched food from the bear box. The August food packages were still there. Where are their owners? 2 NFS truck arrived, about 7-8 rangers. I reported the falled bear can and poncho. They said they are not local, but doing a tour from Yosemite. They are not familiar with the location I told them about. M.Y. handed them the leftover isbutane can. One young lady claimed it happily.
We drove out a little before 9am.
On the way out at the gate, I reported again to the gate agent about the fallen bear can and poncho. She's more concerned, and promised that she'll convey my message to the right department.
Here's the itinerary and profile, map drawn after the trip, so not the live track. The orange is the difficult part, due to lingering snow on steep hill north of Cecile Lake. The green is what I initially planned to do and cut away due to time. The only regret is not going to North Glacier Pass to look at Lake Catherine.
