Warmup
While sitting up late on Saturday night I saw a FB post on the JMT group, a couple people were in Lancaster looking for a ride to the Olancha Pass trail. Since I was heading that way I volunteered some space and time. Sunday I left home as planned and stopped at the Comfort Inn to meet the two riders, turned out they are from Germany and planning to spend their last six weeks here backpacking along the PCT. It was a hot day and the little bit of shade at the trailhead was welcome, as their permit was for the following day. I told them it would probably be OK to head out in the late afternoon and get a few miles done on the trail as I would not expect to see any backcountry rangers at that time. From there I continued my drove north, meeting my friend Diane at the Mammoth Creek Inn. After settling in and going over some gear we walked across the street to Salsa's Taqueria for dinner.
Day 1
We walked over to Carl’s Jr for breakfast before driving up to the Lodge where we would park for the week. From there we caught two buses which left us at Horseshoe Lake, near the beginning of the Mammoth Pass route.After a photo we started on the hot uphill section, it was nice to get into the woods shortly before reaching McLeod Lake. From there we continued on a trail toward Red Cones, finally stopping near those landmarks for a break and some map-reading. Turned out we had missed the actual Mammoth Pass trail and had to take a different route toward Red’s Meadow. It was a little longer and certainly warmer although mostly downhill. Since the shuttle wasn’t running not very many people were hanging around so we didn’t either. We did take advantage of this opportunity to go visit Rainbow Falls, leaving our packs at cutoff trail junction with the JMT. Walking back, we loaded up once again and took the trail over the top of Devils’ Postpile. Visiting both of these places was really cool since we were the only people there. Most photos have another 40 people in them, ours only had the locations and each other. Our day continued up and up toward Minaret Creek and my friend was really starting to drag here. It was warm and uphill and late in the day, and we had to do a partial wet-feet crossing as the old log is no longer spanning the water. I moved on ahead to find a campsite and told DL to stop for some food. I got set up and then ran back toward the creek so that I could get some water for the night and next morning. We didn’t have much dinner that night and both retired to our tents pretty early.
Starting point, already pretty late in the day for this.
McLeod Lake.
One of the Red Cones ahead of me. Somewhere around here I realized we were not on the intended trail.
Rainbow Falls.
Devil's Postpile.
Minaret Creek in the very late afternoon.
Day 2
I got up at first light and scouted around our campsite for a while, learning that I didn’t have to go half a mile back to the creek for water as there was a stream nearby that was hidden in the late afternoon shadows. After a leisurely breakfast we packed up and hit the trail to our planned lunch spot at Rosalie Lake, one of my favorite spots on the JMT. This was more uphill, so I suggested we take a shade break near the Trinity Lakes, and 15 minutes of that was exactly what was needed. Rosalie was a good chance to go wading in the frigid water which served as my method of washing my clothes during the week. A mile later we turned off on the Shadow Creek trail toward Lake Ediza, which was our camp location for this night. Walking up Shadow Creek was definitely a highlight of the entire trip, it has a mixture of slow meandering sections interspersed with rushing falls. And Ediza was definitely worth a visit! It was hard to find a camp site as the only flat ground in sight was an island in the lake. The brisk wind was a deterrent for me, so we set up on some tundra, betting that we wouldn’t have a ranger visit overnight. For the record, we were not the first to use this particular spot as the grass was pretty trampled.
Campsite in the morning
Short walk to this nice break spot
Rosalie Lake, one of my favorite places on the JMT
Diane crossing the Shadow Creek bridge, uphill for a few miles after this
Following along Shadow Creek for a while
Meadow before reaching Ediza Lake
Ediza Lake backdrop
