THE BIG TRIP 

Eastern Sierra Waterfalls Part I ….

This backpacking trip in the Eastern Sierra has been on my list for a long time. They say the views on this trail are among the best, if not the absolute best, in the entire Sierra Nevada. Well, I made it a priority to do it this year. I dragged my son Jadon along with me, as well. He actually came willingly, and not kicking and screaming. Timing is critical for this hike. I had to wait for the road to open (which is usually very late, but due to the drought was open much earlier this year), and early enough so the waterfalls are still flowing, and most important early enough to avoid the mosquitoes. I went the weekend after the road first opened, and I think I timed it perfectly.

We arrived at Mammoth Lakes in the afternoon and picked up our wilderness permits. The Ranger said that the trail  to 1000 Island Lake was clear but Garnet Lake was still snowed in. That was to be our second night destination. Humph, well we would just have to see. Her information was a week old, and it was a very warm week, so I had high doubts her information was still valid. We had an early and delicious pizza dinner, and then went on a couple evening waterfall hikes.

I have been to the upper Mammoth Creek Falls before but it was 7 years ago. For some reason I did not make it to the lower Falls and I do not remember why. Now there is a bike path all the way down the road from the Twin Lakes which was not there before, so you have to park up at the Twin Lakes outlet. No big deal. We walked down the bike trail and found an easy going path down to the lower Falls. It is perhaps smaller than the upper Falls but much nicer because it is more of a drop than a cascade. We then went to the upper Falls and also to the Twin Lakes waterfall, and then we drove out to our backpacking trailhead for the night. All those photos will be upcoming.

The thermometer said it got down to 33° at night but we were not cold. if you remember, I previously said on my first test of my new sleeping bag at Yosemite that I was freezing cold even though it was only about 45°. Since then, the sleeping bag has kept me cozy warm at night. Maybe it just needed a couple nights to break in. Do sleeping bags need a breaking in period? Then again, maybe I just got lucky tonight. Who knows.

Well we got up very early. I wanted to get to a couple waterfalls on the trail before the sun got to them so I made my son walk quickly for the first couple miles. It was going to be a very difficult and long hike that day but I promised him that after these waterfalls we would take it easy for the rest of the hike, and we did. The first waterfall was the Shadow Lake waterfall which I shot from a distance away. The second one was this falls on the Middle Fork San Joaquin River. This is the first of eight significant waterfalls on this river (above Devils Postpile) and they are little documented. That is surprising since the trail goes right by them. This first one is the biggest and most impressive, about 50 feet high. I had thought it might be to cliffy to get down to see this one, but it turned out to be fairly easy. Even Jadon  got down to it easily.

After seeing this falls we took it easy as promised. It is in total about a 7 mile hike to 1000 Island Lake and it climbs 1600 feet in elevation, but it is the high elevation that makes it so difficult. The elevation up at the lake is 9800 feet. I have heard that some people have done this as a day hike but I do not see how. There is no way I could do it because of the high elevation. I would die. We arrived at the lake a little before noon and we were both dead tired. All in all I thought Jadon  did extremely well. That was a very difficult hike. We ate our lunch and then found a campsite, which we shared with the Marmots and pikas; one marmot in particular was trying hard to get into our bear canister with us standing right there. He did not mind us being there whatsoever. Fortunately, marmots are not any smarter than bears and he could not open the bear canister. Something about opposable thumbs. Actually, it’s hard enough for humans to open, never mind bears.

Thousand Island Lake is lovely and the views of Ritter peak and Ritter range are astounding. But … I was not really overly impressed with it. There is absolutely zero shade at the lake and it was a very hot day and there was nowhere to hide from the sun. Also it is a very popular destination and there were quite a few other backpackers at the lake. One large group in particular quite annoyed me. Even though they were camped quite a distance away from us, they were perturbingly loud and woke us well before sunrise. I guess they got up and went down to the lakeside to see the sunrise, but they were very loud and obnoxious and their sound carried across the lake and woke us. Argh. Have some respect, people. I got up myself to shoot the sunrise, but unfortunately the sky was perfectly clear with no clouds or any color. It still would have been quite peaceful and lovely, if I could have zapped that large group out of existence. Ah well. We took it easy that morning, had a relaxing breakfast, and slowly packed up our gear for that day’s hike.

More to come …

3 Comments

3 Responses to “THE BIG TRIP ”

  1. Mike K Says:

    This is a very nice waterfall! How were the mosquitoes, especially near the lakes (such as Olaine Lake)?

  2. Philip Says:

    I’m envious …That is such beautiful country !…Many many years ago I did the hike to 1000 Island Lake and back as a day hike hiking in on the high trail by way of a mostly frozen Summit Lake and back by way of Shadow Lake and down to the river by glissading down snowbanks …That was the longest day hike of my life …and I even drove home to Santa Cruz that night ….Ah to be young again.

  3. leapin26 Says:

    Thanks Mike and Philip!
    Mike, not very many mosquitoes at all.
    Philip, that is one crazy day hike!

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