We were nervous about the Lions fire burning just south of our route in the Ansel Adams Wilderness but with no other good options we made the drive to Mammoth to forge ahead and to access the smoke when we arrived. Luckily we found that our route was about 10 miles north of the burn area and that all of the smoke was headed east, away from our hiking area.
The afternoon before our hike, my son and I took the shuttle bus into the Devils Postpile area to see Rainbow Falls and to access the smoke. We found the Falls to be true to its name.
We took the bus all the way to Reds Meadow to also see that area since I had never been there before. We found many people just exploring for the day and also found JMT hikers. We enjoyed some ice cream after hiking down to the falls. We tried fishing in the San Joaquin River in the area above the falls and did get a bite but not fish.
We were considering snagging an empty campsite down in the Postpile area to avoid the morning shuttle to reach the Agnew Meadows trailhead the following morning and to also hopefully continue to fish longer into the evening but the smoke in the area was too much, so we retreated to our reserved campsite at the Shady Rest Campground in Mammoth.
We made it to the Devils Postpile shuttle early in the morning and we were on the trail heading out of Agnew Meadow towards Shadow Lake by about 9 am.
Weather was good and not to hot. We followed the River Trail up to Shadow Lake and had a great leftover BBQ tri-tip lunch at the lake. Fished a bit, but no bites.
We continued our hike towards Ediza and expected to find the double log bridge at the outlet replaced but this was not the case (rangers said it was replaced from 2017 winter destruction). Here is part of what is left of the bridge.
"Downhill" continued up a new trail up the north side of the outlet creek but my son and I crossed the creek about 100 yards below the old bridge location. This was a safer crossing option. The crossing consisted of 3 different less than knee height creek crossings.
Ok, now onto the mosquitoes. They were there. We put on the head nets and set up camp on the north side of the lake on a flat grassy area. We fished a bit without success and hung out in the tent playing cards until dinner. We cooked dinner using the Jetboils in the tent to avoid the mosquitoes.
Finally, night came, and the little buggers flew away. The area is just amazing. No wonder it was Muir’s fav.
I was able to get good night sky shots and some time lapse videos
Video
[youtube_vid]https://youtu.be/YCp9XMHJPpQ[/youtube_vid]
https://youtu.be/YCp9XMHJPpQ
Morning was stunning also.
We headed out for Garnet by around 10 am. The hike up towards the pass between Shadow Lake and Garnet Lake was tiring but we were able to keep moving and made it to Garnet by about 3 pm. We camped on the North side of the lake and thankfully the wind was up a bit and kept most the mosquitos away.
We fished and my son out-fished me again, two to zero.
The night was clear and calm.
Videos
[youtube_vid]https://youtu.be/ok5pKxVaPJU[/youtube_vid]
https://youtu.be/ok5pKxVaPJU
[youtube_vid]https://youtu.be/GeThmhoLAks[/youtube_vid]
https://youtu.be/GeThmhoLAks
We slept in just a bit and then got on the use trail between Garnet and the River Trail.
We had a little issue following the trail leaving Garnet but found our way. We crossed the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River just downstream from where the Garnet outflow creek and the San Joaquin River intersect at the bottom of the trail. Crossing was easy (put on water shoes and only about knee deep). The trail down from Garnet did look quite unused and unmaintained but we didn’t get lost. It was quite steep and would be a good climb to come up it. We crossed just downstream of this waterfall.
It took us a while to hike all the out to the Agnew Meadows trailhead due the sun and heat, but we made it.
All was good again after a fine German lunch at the Yodeler at the base of Mammoth.
All in all, a great trip with my son and Downhill. We lucked out with the Lions fire and had great weather. I must give my son a lot kudos for hiking 16 miles up 2k ft. Not bad for a 10-year-old! Very proud of him and his efforts.