As promised, here is the ridiculously long post about our Independence Day trip. Chase really wanted to go backpacking and he wanted to go to Mammoth Lakes (which is on the east side of the Sierras hence the name of the post), so we combined the activities. To get to Mammoth Lakes, we have to drive through Yosemite, which was packed with people and Chase had really bad road rage from all the slow people. After getting our wilderness permit from the forest service and packing our backpacks, we got on the bus to get to Agnew Meadows where our trail to Thousand Island Lake started. This is a picture of me at the Mammoth ski resort, notice the snowshoes on my pack (this is where we got on the bus).
There were three trails the led to Thousand Island Lake, the Pacific Coast Trail which went straight up a hill and down to the lake, the river trail which was a gradual uphill trail to the lake, and the Shadow Lake trail that went up to Shadow Lake then up and down to Garnet Lake, and then up and down to Ruby lake, and then up then down to Thousand Island Lake. Guess which one we had to take, of course we had to do the Shadow Lake trail. It was the only one that wasn't full of people. The trail up to Shadow Lake was cut out of a rock face right next to the waterfall coming out of the lake.
After eating a snack next to Shadow Lake (it was about 4:30 when we got there and I was starving), we got on the John Muir Trail that would take us all the way to our final destination. We wanted to get all the way to Garnet Lake before we stopped for the night and so we started up another hill. Because of the large amount of snow melting in the mountains, there were tons of creeks and streams that we had to cross. One of them right above Shadow Lake was too large for us to cross on the trail, so we hiked about 300 feet above the trail to cross it. We did not want to walk down to the trail and lose elevation, so we walked up the hill and used the iPad that Chase carried to guide us to where we could meet up with the trail. Around 7 we had not found the trail yet, but we happened on a nice flat area to camp, so we stopped. Chase took this picture from our campsite at sunset. The Minarets are in the middle. After we set up camp, we realized that the trail was about 100 meters away.
The next morning we packed up and continued up the big hill. We met up with four guys who were snowshoeing, and they told us that we would need the four pound snowshoes that we had lugged up two hills. I was relieved, because I was really regretting bringing them. We lost the trail about half a mile from the top of the pass we had to go over, but we followed the snowshoers path. We put on our snowshoes and used them for about twenty minutes while going up the last part of the pass, before taking them off again when we reached a rock band at the top of the pass. The other side of the pass going down to Garnet Lake was very steep, and as you can see, there really wasn't a trail. The snowshoe guys went up a not so steep area, but our snowshoes turn into skis when they are going downhill. Instead of haphazardly skiing down the hill, we turned around and went down the hill backwards, using the snowshoes to anchor us. We only used the snowshoes for about an hour in total and totally regretted hauling them eighteen miles.
After eating a snack, taking a nap (Chase), and talking to Bob the entertainment lawyer who works for SNL, The Office, and 30 Rock by Garnet Lake (which was frozen by the way) we started up another steep hill without a trail. The real trail went up a cliff of snow that emptied into the lake, so we went off trail again and used the iPad to guide us. After going up a rocky, grassy slope we hit a talus slope that took us to the top of yet another pass. At the other side we walked down a snow slope to Ruby Lake and stopped to talk to a couple guys hiking the entire John Muir Trail.
We walked by Emerald Lake after Ruby Lake, then we finally reached Thousand Island Lake. I stopped in the shade while Chase went to look for a campsite for us. While I was by myself, a man hiking the entire Pacific Coast Trail (which goes from Mexico to Canada) stopped to talk to me. He asked me if I was by myself, and I told him that Chase was off wandering around. He was planning on doing another four or five miles that night (it was 5:30 by the time we reached the lake). We had to walk another quarter mile or so to find a campsite. It was up on another hill side and I almost did not make it. Chase came down and got my pack for me. He is such a man. We had really great views of Banner Peak from our campsite. It was only nine miles to Thousand Island Lake, but it was the longest nine miles of my life!
The next morning, we started back down the trail, but we went down the river trail so that we didn't have to go up and down numerous times, just down and then up. Yes I said up. The last mile before Agnew Meadows went up a hillside. It was two in the afternoon and I was very hot and very tired from the creek jumping with a 40 pound pack for eight miles. The trail had a large freezing cold waterfall on it, so we stopped to get wet. We dropped our packs after this picture to they would not get wet and basically took a freezing cold shower. It was lovely.
After taking the bus back to our car, turning in our bear canister, and relaxing by Convict Lake, we went to one of the natural spas that are in the cow pastures outside of Mammoth Lakes. Our favorite one is the largest one. There were sixteen people in it, but it did not feel crowded. After twenty minutes, ten people left so there were only six of us in it, and it felt huge. We watched the sunset from the spa and took pictures of White Mountain. After the spa, we went and watched fireworks in downtown Mammoth Lakes. There were so many people watching them that we had to stand. They stopped abruptly in the middle of the last song, so somebody messed up. They showed Megamind for free right after the fireworks and we stayed for it. It was awesome! All the campsites were full, so we random camped near the Inyo crates. There were at least five other groups random camping near us, so it did not feel very random. We didn't get in our sleeping bags until midnight.
The next day, we drove to Bishop to get gas (where it is at least fifty cents cheaper a gallon) and drove to Tioga Pass by the Benton road. It was really hot, so we swam in the Owen's River right outside of Bishop for about thirty minutes until the deerflies found me. I HATE deerflies. The Benton road has some awesome bumps that Chase's dad gets the car off the ground on. We did not go fast enough to do that, but we did get the funny stomach feeling on them. We passed rock formations that looked like the rock monster from Galaxy Quest was going to pop out of them, and stopped at Mono Lake to dip our feet in the salty water. After Mono Lake, we decided that it was time to go home. We did stop at Bridalveil Falls in Yosemite to do the hike, where we got soaked. We also stopped at the tunnel view to take pictures. Bridalveil in the waterfall in the picture. If you have not gone to Yosemite lately, go! The waterfalls are incredible and there was one waterfall to the left of El Capitan that I have never seen before (you can't see it in the picture).
After a large amount of road rage, and a Taco Bell stop in Oakhurst, we made it home. Hopefully you did not get too bored with this long post!
P.S. one thing that made me sad on this trip was my orange flip flops. I have had them since my mom bought them for our Yellowstone trip when I was fourteen or fifteen (seven or eight years ago). The trip where it snowed the entire time and we went home a day early. These flip flops broke in Mono Lake. It made me very sad, they have gone on three backpacking trips, countless car camping trips, and a Germany trip. Oh well, I packed my new pair of purple flip flops so I was not too sad.
