Our permit was for Sunday, so we drove to Mammoth last Saturday to spend an afternoon acclimating a bit. After parking the car, we caught YARTS to Tuolumne which was a surprisingly pleasant experience. Then with permit in hand, we set off down Lyell Canyon along the JMT. The "plan" was to go 8-9 miles and then camp the first night somewhere along the canyon floor near water. With rain in the forecast, the skies were gray and threatening as we headed south. The walking here is flat and easy which was a nice was to acclimate more before the grind up and over Donahue. Lyell Fork still has decent flow, and there was a nice amount of water over the entire course of the hike, but the Sierra is noticeably drier than is typical. Rafferty Creek was bone dry.
As we chugged along, the skies continued to darken and occasionally drip on us. It was still early when we reached the end of the flat canyon bottom, so we continued to the footbridge at about 9,200' where there are several decent tent sites. A ranger we met along the trail told me that there had been active bears at that spot over the last several nights, but we didn't experience that.
Lyell Fork
Lyell Canyon
After packing up the next morning, we continued south climbing to a small tarn at about 10,200' set in an amphitheatre backed Mt. Lyell. There are several nice tent sites here and it would be a nice place to spend a day or two. The trail crosses the outlet of the tarn here and then skirts its western bank before climbing to another ethereal tarn some 400' higher. We missed that turn and continued for a bit on a well-worn use trail that follows the eastern edge of the tarn. We ultimately realized our error when the use trail petered out so we back-tracked and found our way by following a nice young lady that was solo-hiking the JMT and showed us the way.
Above tree-line now, we continued the slow climb to stark and foggy Donahue which sits at 11, 066'. Here, I surprisingly had signal, so I shot off a text to my wife to let her know where we were. And then the downpour begin and didn't relent until we were a good distance into the Rush Creek basin. I had both a poncho and a rain jacket and still got drenched. Ultimately, we took refuge under an gigantic chunk of granite until the squall passed. We then got back on the trail and continued to junction with the Marie Lakes trail where we had initially planned to camp the second night. But the skies to the southwest still looked pretty dang ominous and the skies to the southeast looked to be clearing a bit, so we abandoned the Marie Lakes and continued down along Rush Creek which was still flowing quite nicely.
Tarn in Upper Lyell Canyon
View Southeast from Donahue Pass
When we reached the junction with the trail to Gem Lake, the skies opened up again and the rain came pouring down. We cowered under some evergreens for shelter along with a couple of ladies that were going the opposite direction as the trail came a stream. At that stage, I decided I should probably plan more backpacking trip as I could probably single-handedly solve the drought situation by just backpacking all the time through the Sierra. After 20 minutes or so, the ladies got impatient, got up and trudged off in the still failing rain. Being the delicate souls that we are, we sat it out a bit longer until the rain lessened in intensity to become mere sprinkles. Then it was up over the whale's back that is Island Pass and down to Thousand Island Lake where we spent the second night. We were told that Thousand Island was a crowded zoo, but that was not our experience. Maybe it was because it was a Monday, but it was quite pleasant and quiet.
As it turned out, opting for Thousand Island over Marie seemed to be a good call. While the clouds over Thousand Island departed, things still looked dark and foreboding where the Marie Lakes sat. Later that night, the wind stopped and it became perfectly still. The next morning, the skies were bright and clear and the sun finally appeared. It was so glorious I think I even heard angels singing. We took our time packing things up just to enjoy the warmth and light. Then we started out again passing the beautiful precious stone lakes (Emerald, Ruby, and Garnett) as we went.
Thousand Island Lake
The Morning After and the Calm Before the Storm
Ruby Lake
Banner Peak
Garnett Lake
For awhile, I was optimistic that the weather would hold. And because we were ahead of schedule on account of the rain, we decided to heed JeffH's recommendation, camp night 3 at Rosalie Lake, and then at Reds Meadow the next day. But as we continued up and over into the Shadow Creek drainage, the weather began to deteriorate again. At the junction with the Ediza Lake trail, the sprinkles began again. By the time we hit the footbridge at the inflow to Shadow Lake, it was full on torrential downpour once again. We took refuge under some tree near the bridge once again and waited it out with several other JMTers. That is when we abandoned the notion of going to Rosalie and out a Reds. The skies didn't look like they were going to clear much so we decided we would stick to the original plan and exit at Agnew. So we tacked east, left the JMT, and continued along the Ediza Lake trail (or the Shadow Lake trail, or whatever it is called - 26E14).
Shadow Lake is beautiful but it was hard to appreciate in the rain. Shadow Creek was flowing impressively down the gorge as we descended to the footbridge crossing the San Joaquin. Wildflowers dotted the path. Then it was a pleasant stroll past placid Olaine Lake and one last climb to Agnew.
At Agnew, we waited for a bus out with two other older couples from Oregon who were day-hiking the area. Several buses came and went but none could take us since they were all full. I tried to hitch a ride by holding out money along with my thumb, but got no takers. I get it. No one wants to pick up a potential stinky axe murderer with a dirty pack. Finally, a bus driver from another bus radioed ahead and all 6 of us got a ride out just in time to catch the last free shuttle from the resort center to the village. The shuttle stop is conveniently located right next to Mammoth Brewing so of course we went straight there for liquid refreshment. Then we carried our packs down Main Street back to the car where we rejoined civilized society.
Shadow Creek
Mammoth Mountain ahead
