TR: South Yosemite Loop, July 22-July 29

[Lumbergh21]

Part 1

I started out with the best of intentions and full of hope for the days to come, exploring mostly new terrain with some more in-depth exploration of places I had been to before...And, then the best title I could come up with for this hike was "South Yosemite Loop"? That should tell you something right there.

Day 0
I was about 30 minutes late leaving town, but after swinging by work I was on the road to Yosemite by 0830. Unfortunately, the Hog Fire in Lassen County was now blocking me from reaching 395, so I had to backtrack a bit and drive through Lassen National Park and then Plumas County to finally arrive at Hallelujah Junction and Hwy 395 about 2 hours behind schedule. It was a good thing I had decided to drive to Yosemite a day ahead of time and hit the trail first thing the following morning, as I didn’t arrive at the Tioga entrance until 1700. Not knowing where the Tuolumne Meadows backpacker’s campground was, I parked just west of the closed Grill and took the scenic route through Loop C to Loop A where I camped just down the hill from the backpacker’s official campground. With no other campers allowed, I didn’t see an issue with taking one of the A sites near the bathroom and spreading out a bit, and neither did several other people. That night, I tried turning on my headlamp and found that it didn’t feel like being an active participant in this hike. I tried switching batteries and made sure the batteries were correctly installed but no go. Well, I would just have to make sure that I found a camp site each night well before dark.

Day 1
I was up bright and early and hit the trail at 0630. With no shuttle buses I was going to need to walk from TM to the Parker Pass Trail either at the beginning or the end of my hike. I chose the beginning. By 0800 I was headed off trail to Kuna Lake, finding a “Sierra balloon” almost immediately. It wasn’t going to be my first bit of extra garbage for the trip. The cross-country walk to Kuna Lake was literally a walk in the park.

Kuna Lake.jpg

After spending a few minutes there, I headed out before noon with clouds already starting to pile up in the sky above me. Almost immediately after leaving Kuna Lake the rain started, and I was hiking in my rain poncho the rest of the day. I contoured around towards Spillway Lake higher than I had originally planned and briefly toyed with the idea of climbing further up to Bingaman Lake. But, the rain and thunder convinced me to just slowly drop down to Spillway Lake and the meadows of wild garlic beyond.

Spillway Lake in the Rain.jpg

Wild Garlic.jpg

This decision was confirmed by a very loud clap of thunder as I left Spillway Lake and angled toward Parker Pass, finally joining the trail at the pass where I met the only three people I would see on Day 1. Two stopped and talked for a bit letting me know that they had just beat the rain to the top of Koip Peak, my planned destination for the following morning. I camped just uphill from the tarn at the base of the climb up to Koip Pass, and sure enough, the rain stopped and the sun came out within 30 minutes of me setting up my tent. I had a clear night with all of the brilliant stars above, but I wasn’t able to find the comet, though my wife pointed it out to me in one of the photos that I took of the night sky. My inflatable pillow had developed a leak since the previous night, and I was back to the old method of a stuff sack of clothes, etc as my pillow.

Parker Pass.jpg

Day 2
I was packed and had my water bottles filled from the tarn by 0730, ready for the climb up to Koip Pass and Peak. The views of the tarns and falls below me as I climbed the switchbacks to the ridgeline were spectacular. Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of haze looking to the east towards Mono Lake. I still took advantage of the views as an excuse to stop and catch my breath frequently. I finally arrived at Koip Pass a little after 0900 and stopped for a quick break to investigate what was bothering my left foot before I headed up Koip Peak. Finding nothing, I put a bit of luekotape on a red spot on the arch, which corresponded to a worn spot on the inside of my shoe as well (whatever it was, it didn’t bother me the rest of the trip). I took my time picking my way up to the summit and was disappointed that I didn’t see the plane wreckage that I had read about. However, I was not disappointed by the views in all direction from the top, especially the ice-covered azure lakes below me to the north and east. The mountains stretched about below me for miles and miles.

Looking back at the switchbacks.jpg

Looking back at camp.jpg

View from Koip Peak 1.jpg

View from Koip Peak 2.jpg

Algier Lakes from Koip Peak.jpg

I signed the summit register, had a snack, and started back down, taking a slightly different route around the other side of a snow field still looking for plane wreckage unsuccessfully. Oh, well. Back at Koip Pass around 1230, I didn’t have time to go up Parker Peak and headed down towards the Alger Lakes instead. Near the bottom I cut cross country up and over a hill to the first lake and started looking for a good place to stop and take a quick dip. Finding a spot with easy access, I got in and rinsed out the clothes I had been wearing before rinsing the sweat and dust off me in the pleasantly cool water. Once again, by the time I left Alger Lakes, the sky was filling with dark clouds that stretched from horizon to horizon. I met a couple headed up to the lakes as I was leaving. They were nice. Later that afternoon with the wind blowing fiercely and the sky occasionally spitting rain, I came across a group of 5, including one older man with a pony tail who I’ll call Sitting Mule (he had a tail, was sitting on a rock, and was braying like an ass). He thought I was the funniest thing he had seen with my poncho plastered to the front of me and flapping off behind me in the wind. I made it around Waugh Lake, which has water this year, and ended up camping just off the JMT near the Davis Lakes trail junction at 1730. The clouds parted and the wind stopped around 1900.

Day 3
I started off for the Davis Lakes around 0730 and had made it to the lower lake by 0830. I made my way around the east and south shore of the lower lake slowly gaining elevation and crossing over the ridge to Upper Davis Lake near its outlet. The mossies were out, so I quickly took a few pics and refilled my water bottles before heading a little west of north up through a boulder/talus field towards Rodgers Lakes. I probed and prodded the other side of the ridge looking for a good way down to the lakes. Eventually, I found a way that my old bones and joints could handle, lowering my pack at two back to back 15-foot drops that were quite easy without a pack on. Rogers Lakes looked utterly unspoiled, and I chose a large slab of granite to stretch out on for a very early lunch break at 1000. I got into the very shallow lake and rinsed out my clothes again, but the lake wasn’t deep enough to properly wash my self, only reaching mid-thigh at its deepest.

Lower Davis Lake.jpg

Upper Davis Lake.jpg

Rogers Lakes Basin.jpg

After a relaxing 1½ hour break, I left for Marie Lakes taking a bit of a more direct route than originally planned. I headed up along the inlet northwest of the Rogers Lakes, arriving at a small tarn with a much steeper climb over loose rock along the water flowing into it from the next bench above. I don’t know if I chose the best route, but I ended up heading north towards a ridge line with what appeared to be a thin ledge angled up towards the top of the ridge. When I got there, I saw that things weren’t as they appeared from below. I ended pulling myself up along a crack to a different ledge then east a very short distance before looping up and to the west along the top of the ridge. I eventually got a view of the beautiful, ice-clad tarns that supplied the water for the upper falls. I was tempted to climb down to them but the field of snow/ice below the larger upper pond convinced me this would be a bad idea, and I continued northwest coming upon the trail to Marie Lakes where it drops down to the lower lake. I saw an old Nalgene bottle along the way, but just didn’t have the energy left in me to climb down onto the ice field that it was laying next to and then try to make it back up. Arriving at Marie Lakes, I began to explore the east side of the lake before finally leaving at 1530. I took the trail back down to the JMT and then headed north towards Donahue Pass. I was hoping to head south from Donahue Pass towards an unnamed lake at 11,040 feet. However, the winds picked up, and as I began the ascent to Donahue Pass it started spitting rain, so I put my poncho back on. Given the weather I chose to spend as little time as possible in the rock-bound wilderness above tree line. Crossing over Donahue Pass, I made camp along the headwaters of the Lyell Fork, and when I went to make dinner I discovered I had lost my spoon (are we seeing a pattern emerging?). Following a short downpour, the clouds once again dissipated, and the skies were clear by the time the stars had made their appearance.

[Lumbergh21]

Part 2

I'll start with three more pictures that wouldn't fit in Part 1 (sorry).

I Gotta' Go Up There.jpg

Tarns on the way to Marie Lakes.jpg

Lower Marie Lake.jpg

Day 4
I got off to a late start as I let my tent dry. I just didn’t feel all that energetic this morning, and my left knee was quite sore and swollen. I began counting all of the people I saw coming up the JMT starting at 0830 as I headed down to Lyell Canyon. By the time I reached the Vogelsong trail junction I had seen 52 people compared to the 16 total I had seen the first three days. I saw another 10 people on my way up before turning down the trail to Ireland Lake.

Ireland Lake.jpg

The scenery was nice, but the water in the lake was less nice. I walked around the lake to the algae choked outlet then began to make my way east and north, considering a real early end to my day. I ended up stopping for a quick bite and to filter some water from the large unnamed pond at 10,545 feet. It became a real quick 15-minute lunch as the wind picked up and the sky grew dark fast, thunder cracking the atmosphere.

Pond below Ireland Lake outlet.jpg

I wound my way northwest towards the trail junction, missing it by about 50 feet. After repeating those 50 feet of trail, I continued on west past the Ireland Lake trail junction, past Evelyn Lake, eventually arriving at Vogelsong HSC with the rain. As I quickly threw up my tent, I discovered that the zipper had failed on my rain fly. This was the final straw. As I arrived at the Fletcher Lake Outlet to get water from the algae choked stream, I might have used a few 4-letter words. Back at camp in my tent, I was paid a visit by two rangers. We had a nice talk, and I let them know that I was going to be cutting my hike short a bit, taking the shortest route towards Clouds Rest from Merced Lake instead of the 28-mile loop I had planned.

Leaving Evelyn Lake.jpg

I now had lost my spoon and had a broken rain fly, pillow, and headlamp. On top of that, the lip balm I had brought along wasn’t working worth a darn, and I had forgot skin moisturizer and the patch kit for my pillow/sleeping pad. Things weren’t going that well. Fletcher Peak was pretty nice though.

Day 5
After sleeping in and not leaving camp until 0800, I hiked down, down, down, way down eventually arriving at Merced Lake at 1130. I enjoyed a short side trip to Emeric Lake along the way with a nice scramble on the granite slabs and a small amount of rock hopping to the dried up outlet. From there it was an easy walk down the now dry granite slabs and across Fletcher Creek. I took a break at the Merced Lake outlet to rinse my clothes and sit in the river, rinsing off myself and cooling down before a leisurely lunch.

A couple of bucks.jpg

Merced Lake.jpg

Then the descent continued until I finally started climbing towards Sunrise Creek. I had forgotten the fire from a couple of years before and had planned to camp somewhere around Sunrise Creek. That was a big no go. I also was surprised by a large rattlesnake along the way. It gave fair warning, and I scrambled backwards. It may have been the largest one I have seen up close and personal. It was only about 4.5 feet long but had a very thick body with a green hue to its skin. I eventually made it to Sunrise Creek, and filled up on water, leaving with about 4L including the water in my dirty water bag. I knew I would most likely be dry camping near the intersection with the trail up Clouds Rest about 1.5 miles SE of the top. I found an old established camp site about 200 yards from the current trail, where the trail used to run according to my USGS topo map. It was 1900 and getting dark, as I quickly put up my tent under clear skies (for the first time on this trip there was no rain). I had a quick, cold dinner including a healthy dose of whiskey to help me sleep due to my very swollen and sore left knee.

On my way to Sunrise Creek.jpg

Rattler.jpg

Part 3 still to come...

[The Other Tom]

Nice report. Really enjoyed the pics. Sorry about your gear failure.

[c9h13no3]

That is a honkin' rattler

[windknot]

Thanks for the report and photos! Yikes, I've never seen a rattler in the backcountry and your report confirms I don't want to.

[bobby49]

It almost sounded like you were looking for plane wreckage near the top of Koip Peak.

The WWII bomber wreckage used to be on the north side of the saddle between Koip Peak and Kuna Peak. From a distance, I could not see it, but it is all under foot in the talus.

[Lumbergh21]

Part 3

Day 6
I awoke late again to the sound of an angry squirrel scolding me for sleeping the morning away. After a protein bar breakfast, I hit the trail about 0830, headed to Clouds Rest. About 50 feet from where I had slept that night, I saw evidence of a stealthy visitor the night before, a pile of fresh bear scat. Good thing I don’t keep my bear canister 100 feet from my tent, or it would have been long gone. I felt fairly good once I got myself moving, as I had all trip during the mornings. I saw a pair of grouse at the saddle point just east of Clouds Rest.

From the top, the views were tremendous! I took several pictures and sat down to enjoy a Lara Bar before heading back down to Sunrise Lakes for lunch. A couple I had passed on the way up joined me at the top before I left, but other than that, I had it all to myself.

Southwest from Clouds Rest.jpg

Looking down on Half Dome from Clouds Rest.jpg

Mt Watkins.jpg

I stopped at the lowest Sunrise Lake around 1130 and spent nearly 3 hours rinsing my clothes, taking two dunks in the water, filtering water, eating, and generally relaxing. Shortly after 2, as I was packing up, a group of 3 adults and about 10 girl scouts arrived at the site I had been using for lunch. I assured them they could stay, and I would be gone within 15 minutes. I spoke with the lady who was there to provide potential first aid, and she had no idea where they had been the previous night or what direction they were headed, etc., but she said she was having a good time, lol. The two guys leading the hike were both wearing masks but none of the girls or the medic were. I headed up towards the JMT, planning to camp near Sunrise HSC or further north/east. It was a good thing that I left Sunrise Lakes hydrated and with a full 1.5L of water. There was no water between the highest Sunrise Lake and the “creek” crossing just south of Long Meadow.

Long Meadow.jpg

At the creek crossing there were some pools of water where I filtered water, tried rehydrating, and left with 2L of dirty water as well. The two young ladies there were just completing there NOBO JMT hike, but couldn’t tell me if there was any water between there and Cathedral Lakes, so I assumed I would be dry camping again. I met at least 10 other people after leaving the “creek” and asked two of the groups if there was any water before Cathedral Lakes. Once again, I was told, no there wasn’t. Since I had no hope of getting any water prior to the lakes anyway, I made camp around 1800 at a clear, open, high point just before Cathedral Pass with wonderful views all around. Unfortunately, no more whiskey to dull the pain in my knee and help me sleep. I hit a new record this day meeting 72 people on the trail by the time I got to camp.

Columbia Finger from camp.jpg

Cathedral Peak from camp.jpg

Mathes Crest from camp.jpg

Day 7
This would be my final day, and it would be an easy stroll to TM followed by a drive home. I awoke before dawn and packed up, having a protein bar for breakfast as I hiked down the trail at 0630. In the meadow south of Cathedral Pass - by the way, how can the pass be over 200 feet lower in elevation than the saddlepoint where I camped - I saw a big pool of water in the area shown as a creek on my USGS map. Yep, no water before Cathedral Lakes; nope, no water. I am sorry, but no matter how inexperienced of a hiker you are, you should know what water is and be able to accurately answer the question, is there any water between here and Y where you just came from. Oh well, I had a good campsite the previous night anyway. I met several people, mostly day hikers, headed the other way as I descended past the Lower Cathedral Lake trail junction. I didn’t bother counting this day, but I crossed paths with a lot of hikers by the time I got back to my car at TM. I can only imagine how many there are in a normal year when there is twice as many people in the park. Getting back to my car at 0930, I took care of a few things first, then headed back to civilization at 1000. I stopped to get a burger, actually two, and an order of fries at the In-N-Out in Carson City, which turned out to be a mistake. As it turns out, I wasn’t that hungry and should have just stuck with one Double, Double. I got it all down, but felt super stuffed for the next several hours.

Cathedral Peak in the morning.jpg

I enjoyed the views and even more so the challenge of the off-trail hiking. I’m looking forward to a variation of the North Lake to South Lake Loop at the beginning of September that will include about a 50/50 mix of on-trail and off-trail hiking.

[giantbrookie]

What a neat trip that covered a heck of a lot of ground along a really creative route. The mixing of off trail segments is particularly innovative and fun because it is done to add enjoyment and sights to the route, rather than being the most efficient or only route to a destination. A case in point is the cool kickoff on day1: to head up to Kuna Lake first before curving around to Spillway and then to Parker Pass, versus the "most efficient" route of simply heading directly to Parker Pass on the trail. Whereas all of the country covered on your trip is nice, I especially like the Parker-Koip area. I visited this area on my 2014 "Yosemite Inside Out" trip and I find the area so beautiful I plan to return there even though the fishing prospects are only mediocre.

Rattlesnake along Sunrise Creek. Yikes. What elevation were you at when you encountered that? During my Sierra backpacking trips I've only run into a rattlesnake once and it was at Edyth Lake at elevation ~6200. In my geology field work I routinely encounter rattlesnakes (personal high is six different encounters in one day) but this is in the Coast Ranges and I have tended to not think about rattlesnakes while in the High Sierra.

[Lumbergh21]

Thanks for the kind words. I want to return as well and spend a full day or more in the area,, visiting all 3 lakes.
T he rattler was between 7500 and 8000 foot elevation. I've seen 2 other rattlers in the Sierra, both at around 7,000 feet just north of Cold Creek on the Fish Creek trail.

[wildhiker]

Thanks for the informative report. I'm impressed by your daily mileage - at least twice what I could do! I've visited those areas of Yosemite and Ansel Adams Wilderness multiple times and really love that country - especially for cross-country hiking. But I've missed some of the places you visited, like Kuna Lake, Upper Davis Lake, and Rodgers Lake - now I need to go see them! If you return to the Parker Pass area, be sure to make the short side trip over Mono Pass and down to Upper Sardine Lake. The rock rib just on the east side has a fabulous view down Bloody Canyon to Mono Lake. In fact, this is one of my go-to first day campsites for a trip out of the Mono Pass/Parker Pass trailhead. Based on the distances you covered, it would just be a snack stop for you!
-Phil

P.S. Some of the photos appear upside down for me.