On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
TKH
In two earlier submissions () I haf shared some photos from my hike in 2022 from Road’s End in Kings Canyon/Sequoia NP to Mammoth. I had hoped to complete the trek last year, but, alas, it was a monster snow year in the Sierra and snow travel, the extended kind, just does not do it for me.
So this year I hoped to finish the route from Mammoth lakes to Twin Lakes, West of Bridgeport CA. In the end that did not happen as I ran out of time and got out at Tuolumne Meadows. The reason was that a planned five day stay at Lake Tahoe to acclimate fell through. I therefore had to deal with acclimation while hiking and my daily mileage therefore always came up short of my goal.
It is amazing to me, and it speaks to the attraction of Roper’s route, how the challenges of the Northern third of the route are so different from those in the Southern third. In the latter it’s all macro navigation (Which notch in the skyline is the pass?”) while in the former it’s all micro navigation (“What am I gonna do in the next fifty feet?”).
This is a top-down view of the basalt columns at the Monument. When lava layers cool they break into these hexagonal or pentagonal columns. In the surrounding area glacial activity has scraped away this basalt layer, but in this specific spot a little bit remains.
Side-on view of the basalt columns at the Monument
This the view from Nancy Pass of the Minarets.
Nancy Pass is named after a little girl who was the first in her party to reach this col. Nancy passed away shortly thereafter from leukemia and her family installed a plaque at the col in her memory. The col since then has been known a Nancy Pass.
However, depending on which map set you use two other notches in the ridge line are also called Nancy Pass. I went over the “real”one and saw the plaque.
The Minarets are destinations for serious rock climbers and in the early days of Sierra rock climbing a few people lost their lives while scaling them. I am just a backpacker, so I just look and move on, feeling no urge to get up one of these peaks.
I had ambitious and, in retrospect, illusory mileage goals for this second day of the hike. One of the slowest and most challenging sections for this day was Iceberg Lake. The map shows a path that leads diagonally down a slope from a pass. When you get there, what you find is a steep descent through the chossiest choss I had ever encountered to that day: loose dirt mixed with chunk of rocks that were not stable and moved when you touched them. The coup de grace was the subsequent crossing of a snow field for about half a mile. The snow drops right into the lake, so you slip you sre dead meat if you can’t self-arrest. It was very late, about 7:30-8 PM, I needed to get across, and I did, but the sphincter got an extra work-out.
Sunrise at iceberg Lake. With a little bit of sunlight it does not look as menacing as it gelt the night before.
I know that this looks kinda flat, but it is nothing of the kind. As I came over the crest st the top, I was faced withe the entire width of the pass being covered in snow. There was a flat area of about 15 feet and the the snow bank just dropped into “nothing”. Could be a cornice, a snow overhang, or just a steep drop-off. Impossible to tell from where I was standing. And Iwas not going to find out the hard way!
After I had turned out all my pockets to find all the bits of courage I could muster, I found a way where I could see the bottom of the drainage below from the top. My descent would require some scrambling on talus, some snow travel, more talus, some more snow travel and a final talus scramble to the bottom. The two snow travel sections I completed sliding on my ass, making sure that my head stayed upslope ( running into talus head-first is not good for your modeling career). And so it got done, not exactly in style, but nobody was watching anyway.
That day I took half a day off as I was just wiped out, both mentally and physically,
Sunset at Thousand Island Lake. Just enjoying the scenery.
Lake Catherine could also be called Iceberg Lake. Huge chunks if snow/ice were floating in it. I descended to the lakeshore from North Glacier Pass and then made my way along the shore in direction of the lake’s outlet. Probably not the best micro-navigation decision, but the better route, or the better-looking route, only became apparent when I reached the outlet and looked back.
The bowl you see there on the left is the location of where the glacier used to be. Now it is, at best, a perennial snow field. Climate change is real!
Baud
I love California.
Manyakitty
Amazing 🤩
CCL
Your description sucked me in…and the photos are stunning. Thank you.
TKH
Somebody asked the other day for some logistics information for the trips described in OTR submissions. I’ll provide some here:
You get a backcountry permit for Inyo National Forest via recreation.gov. For busy trailheads (like Becks Lakes near Mammoth Lakes as for this trip) you log on exactly 180 days before your intended start day at exactly 7 AM CA time. The daily quota is 15 people per day of which 10 will be available 6 months ahead and 5 spots will be made available 14 days ahead. (I hope this impresses on you the need to be organized. The spots are often gone within 10 min).
Fees are nominal. A refundable fixed fee, independent of how many days you will be in the backcountry plus a non- refundable service charge.
You need to have a bear canister on the trip. You can rent one from USFS or commercial outfitters in some of the towns along the 395 corridor. USFS is not renting the lightest canisters.
There is no resupply before Tuolumne Meadows, so you carry every bit you’ll be eating for however many days you will be hiking. At Tuolumne Meadows store is a Post Office where you and many John Muir Trail hikers can send a parcel by USPS. Michael, the local honcho who runs the PO is a genius.
Maps: There Natl Geographic maps that are great for overview, but not detailed enough for hiking off trail. Best are electronic maps such as Gaia GPS or Caltopo with USGS and similar detailed maps downloaded to your smartphone well ahead of time. A modern phone will last for three or four days in airplane mode at low screen brightness and modest use.
GB in the HC
Nice photos. That certainly appears to be a major undertaking.
Congratulations.
Winter Wren
What beautiful pictures of the backcountry!
Dmbeaster
I have hiked that section a few times. Going in early July is annoying with that amount of snow. I once aborted that route in mid July because the snow was everywhere before reaching Ediza – forget Iceberg or Cecille!
I was first at Lake Catherine in 1982 as part of a climb up Banner from Thousand Island Lake. The glacierette between it and Ritter that you reference in your last picture was at least 80 feet thicker. It came into the lake with a vertical wall of ice, and baby icebergs calved off the edge into the lake.
Now, it is just a minor ice tongue that stops short of the lake, and you can walk the shore where it formerly towered over the lake. Like the nearby McClure glacier, it has probably ceased all movement and is just a remnant ice field. Before, you had to travel up the glacier as part of the climb. I did Ritter from there around 8 years ago, and you can now go up the left side on just glacial debris, avoiding any ice. There is a creepy moulin there now.
Climate change is very real.
You can find garnets in the metavolcanics at Lake Catherine.
Trivia Man
@TKH: Exactly the kind if back story id hoped to see. Thanks for a peek into a niche sub genre of hiking. Did you see the other 15 on this trip?
TKH
@Trivia Man: Nope. There were a few weekend campers at Cecile Lake, but I am sure they got there by a closer trailhead.
After that it was splendid solitude until I got close to Yosemite and its major trail corridor along Lewis Creek and then near Tuolumne Meadows there was the JMT crowd.
I mean as annoying as the permit system is when you have to get up at 4 AM, it does get the job done. One can get the wilderness experience with a judicious choice of where to go.
Betty
I applaud your bravery and am happy you were able to avoid any injuries or worse. Climate change has been real for some time now, and the consequences of losing the glaciers is frightening to contemplate.
Trivia Man
@TKH: Sorry, more questions. Is it likely you get checked for a permit every time? Did the others all change their mind or is it just so big it’s unlikely to cross paths?
TKH
@Trivia Man: Not every time, but since the JMT is near, there are rangers in the corridor. In the Southern third, two years ago, I ran into a ranger twice and they did want to see the permit. The first time near a notorious weekend party place, shortly before which I turned off the trail. The second time near a major trail corridor. The pattern appears to be to check up on the “good old boys” who are likely to ignore fire rules, for instance.
I am sure that there are areas where you likely are not going to see a ranger, but they are more work to get to.
If they catch you without a permit, they walk you out to the wilderness border and then you appear before an administrative law judge.
To your last point, a given trailhead gives access to a very substantial area, this will lead to an immediate dilution of the influx. Moreover, it’s 15 individuals, not 25 groups. Since there are few people with the nerves to do this solo, 15 people is seven twosomes.
Fair Economist
There’s a boardgame I got last year called Trailblazer, which is about hiking the nearby John Muir Trail. It’s a good game, with one problem: it’s got me absolutely ITCHING to hike it – which, with my hip and knee problems, I couldn’t do (well, not responsibly).
So I’ll just play, dream, and enjoy your travelogue.
stinger
Great line!
cope
What a wonderful trip through gorgeous places. Thank you.
Mr. Prosser
Great photos and a very gutsy walk.
KatKapCC
Wonderful photos! Been out there a couple of times myself, though it’s been many years since. Nice to “revisit” it through your pics :D
pieceofpeace
This hike was my first in the Sierras back in the 70s.
So thanks for the memories and remembrances of this gnormous earthly structure, capturing the feel of that area of the mountains.
kindness
I snowshoe above Pinecrest every year. Long hiking and camping in the stuff I leave to others. The Sierra’s above me melt off by June where I typically go. Yea, I don’t go up to the peaks. Mountain biking the logging roads is wonderful once the mud mostly dries out.
UncleEbeneezer
Very cool! Would really love to get up to Thousand Isle Lakes at some point. I did Shadow/Ediza with some of my buddies, way back when I first moved to CA in 1999, but I don’t know if my wife would be game for back-country since we really enjoy the relaxation and comfort of car-camping at nice campgrounds and doing day hikes. She also hates the drive down to Red’s Meadow as it makes her extremely anxious.
frosty
OMG, what a hike! Far too grueling for even 20-something year old me. Great pictures and great description though! Glad you made it.
ETA The discussion of logistics was good, too. I like the idea of adding this in a comment to OTR posts.
Mike Mundy
“Just a backpacker” . . . ?? Wow. To me, it’s just hard enough to hike the trail up to those places, let alone cut through snowfields.
I camped below the Minarets in 2014 . . . nice sunrise. And hot cocoa.
TKH
@UncleEbeneezer: The road is being (or has been) redone. Thanks Joe! It had been closed and was only opened for a shuttle bus on July 3rd. From the bus it looked that they were doing very significant work widening the road bed.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
Great hike and nice shots. I no longer have the gear for backpacking, so I’m just a day hiker now(that can get into the nights, but I hike out).
KSinMA
Thanks, TKH. Beautiful!
TKH
@frosty: We are probably roughly contemporary. And, yeah, with the gear of the 1970’s this would be a real challenge. And people met these challenges back then, after all. Today with a 2 lb backpack, a 1 lb tent, a 2 lb down quilt, it’s a lot easier. Not to forget that all this new ultralight gear is so expensive that your pocketbook will also not be weighing you down!
BigJimSlade
Beautiful! It’s been a long time since I’ve backpacked in the Sierras… how much were you on trails and how much was cross-country? Some of the descriptions sound like there was some cross-country involved.
TKH
@BigJimSlade: There is little official trail after the Becks Lake trail. Through the Minaret lakes basin there is an inofficial use trail that you can kind of follow through to Iceberg Lake. Iceberg Lake to Thousand Island Lake off trail but easy.. Thousand Island to Lake Catherine use trail, but covered in snow in early July. Lake Catherine to Twin Island Lakes, off trail and hard. Twin Island Lks to Bench Canyon off trail and hard. Bench canyon to Blue Lake off trail and easy. Blue lake to Isberg trail off trail, first very hard, then easy. Isberg to Tuolumne Meadow official trail.
As I said in the intro, never a dull moment and the variety makes it exciting.
Interstadial
This sure brings back memories. I’ve been in the general area (Lake Ediza and Thousand Island Lake) but not the High Route. Lake Catherine is a spot I wanted to go to but never made it. Sorry to hear that glacier is now inactive; it caught my attention on maps decades ago. BTW, I think that’s a sunrise shot of Thousand Island Lake which is on the east side of the Ritter Range.
Thanks for the photos and commentary!
BigJimSlade
Exciting! I’ve only stuck to the trails.