Dan's Outside

August Pack Trip(s)

My planned 14-day Agnew Meadow to South Lake pack trip (with my Talusdancers friends) turned into two shorter trips with a bit of interesting non-backpacking stuff in between.

The original plan called for a 100+ mile trip down the John Muir Trail between Agnew Meadow (near Mammoth Lakes and Devils Postpile) and South Lake (above Bishop). But, as plans sometimes do, mine changed.

Our group of 11 started on at Agnew Meadow on August 1, heading up past Shadow Lake to Rosemarie lake. The first portion of this trail was familiar territory to me, having walked it a number of times on the way to Ediza Lake, Thousand Island Lake, and so on. However, once we turned south after Shadow Lake we were on a section of trail whose main virtue is that it is part of the JMT. For my taste, it was rather non-alpine. Basically, we wanted to do this section of the JMT so that we could all say we had hiked the whole thing. (All of this is my way of saying, “Eh. Not a bad section of trail, but would not have been my first choice for a pack trip.” ;-)

On day two we continued on this southbound section of the JMT to reach Devils Postpile and Reds Meadow, with its store, cafe, and campgrounds. This section of trail included some pretty spots early on, but then descended through low-altitude hot and dusty sections to reach the valley. Following a roundabout route we eventually arrived at Reds Meadow where we hung out on the lawn outside the store before getting dinner at the cafe and then hiking to the campground to set up camp and take showers. Strange.

On day three one member of the group left us, suffering from a bad knee. The rest of the group began with breakfast at the cafe and then hit the trail late in the morning. Again the trail was rather hot, passing through relatively low-elevation terrain and a burned out area before steadlily ascending to our camp site at Deer Creek, a true haven for mosquitos.

On day four we finally began to enter the kind to terrain that I love – open vistas of high ridges and snow fields – as the trail gradually climbed to the outlet stream of Duck Lake. From here it was a short walk to beautiful Purple Lake where the flowers were at their peak.

Unfortunately, that night and the next morning I did not feel well. Nothing really bad but a combination of symptoms which, while not trip-stoppers at home or on a shorter trip, worried me a bit on a day when we were entering a section of the trail where we would be somewhat isolated for nearly a week. I went back and forth: should I do the prudent thing and back out or should I hang in there and hope that I would feel better? In the end, I reluctantly made the cautious decision – but not without misgivings – and headed back out over Duck Pass. (One of my trail companions asked me, “Dan, are you 100% sure you want to hike out?” I answered, “If I were 100% sure, you would be calling for the rescue helicopter.” I think I was about 55% sure…)

Duck Pass, which I had not previously known about, turned out to be quite scenic. Duck Lake (before the pass) is largely rockbound, and I hit some rain as I approached the pass. The rain abated once I crossed the pass, but it was still cloudy with rain in the distance. I finally reached the trailhead near Cold Canyon/Lake Mary and began trying to hitch a ride back to the Mammoth Ski Area and a car. I must have looked pretty scary since it took forever to get a ride. I had pretty much given up and was walking down to Mammoth (nearly 4 miles) when a couple kindly picked me up and took me all the way to the ski area.

After a bit of car shuttling I got a hotel in Bishop, visited the White Mountains the next day (see previous posts), and then headed home.

Oh, yeah. Once I got out I felt just fine… But now it was too late to go back in and rejoin my party, since they were now two full days ahead of me.

I spent about 4 days back home before heading back up to Bishop, with a plan of meeting the rest of the party as they ended their trip in Dusy Basin. So last Thursday I camped at Four Jeffrey campground above Bishop and the next day I headed up the trail.

I crossed over Bishop Pass and descended to the first decent lakes in Upper Dusy Basin, where I camped (more or less) by myself. The next day I headed down towards Le Conte Canyon, carefully stopping at the last spot before the precipitous descent into the canyon begins and waiting there for my party to arrive. They arrived within and hour and were clearly fairly surprised to see me.

I hiked back up into Dusy Basin with them where we camped an nearly the same spot where I had stayed the night before. The next morning we got up before dawn and headed out early – the rest of the party was now on day 14 of their trip and they were very ready for good food and a shower!
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August 17, 2005 - Posted by gdanmitchell | Trips