Second Try at Minaret Lake

First Light on The Minarets, originally uploaded by Jeff Sullivan.

After getting shut out on my attempt to make a visit to this lake realtively easy from the adjacent canyon, I returned a few days later to make the long, hot 7.5 mile hike up from the bottom, via Devil's Postpile National Monument. This time I camped in the monument ot be able to drive my own vehicle in, which greatly simplified logistics (and enabled me to use a bear box to safely store food away form my vehicle, an option which was lacking on the prior week's trip when the ranger station advised me to park at Mammoth Mountian and take the shuttle in).

It would be a 15 mile round trip, so I budgeted two nights in case I might want a layover day to go explore nearby lakes.

In the end however I decided that I wanted to make sure tha I got to Yosemite and Cathedral Lakes more, so I hiked back out the daya after arriving, and headed back to the Tioga Pass/Saddlebag Lake area to catch sunrise and get ina hike to the old mining camp of Bennettville before making the Cathedral Lake hike in time for sunset.

The Trail Succumbs to Snow

John Muir Wilderness Sunrise, originally uploaded by Jeff Sullivan.

Descending from Garnet lake to Shadow Lake, the mosquitos were becoming more numerous and persistent, so it was a fast trip. Taking a right turn up the canyon, I completed the roughly 5 mile trip to Ediza Lake. There was no access to the northside of the lake and there still quite a bit of snow on the north-facing and east-facing slopes, so campsites were difficult to come by. The wind was strong, but the mosquitos were stronger. I had a brief moment of relative calm winds and water to catch some reflected light on the far shore, then I retreated to the safety of the tent to prepare for dawn, which fortunately arrived calm and clear. It wasn't cold enough for the snow to re-freeze solid, and I hadn't carried crampons or gaitors on this trip, so I decided not to traverse the snow and pass up past Iceberg Lake, and to put off a visit to Minaret Lake.