TR: 6/16 N. Yosemite Boundary Lakes

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Harlen
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Re: TR: 6/16 N. Yosemite Boundary Lakes

Post by Harlen »

What an interesting, rambling route you made. It looks like a lot of fun, though with some peculiar difficulties in the micro route-finding. All of that marshyness, post-holing into water, and the "crotch-deep" and deeper stuff makes me wonder whether it might be better to go even earlier, with snow shoes? Not all of us are quite so aquatic as you Daisy. We too really love the look of Spotted Fawn Lake, and some of those great little Inferno Lakes.

You give us a lot of new options, but Bearzy and Smokey wish that you hadn't.... what does your own dog have to say about your absences?

Thanks for putting this nice TR back up for us Daisy.
Properly trained, a man can be dog’s best friend.
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Re: TR: 6/16 N. Yosemite Boundary Lakes

Post by Wandering Daisy »

Our dog is a bit too much of a "princess" to go on these kind of trips; she happily stays home with "dad". "Dad" also is not interested in these kind of trips! They both prefer more mellow trips with lots of fishing. As beautiful as this area is, most lakes are barren. Also, this trip is in Yosemite- dogs not allowed, even if she would like such a trip.

Yes the time I went was during the melt, thus very soggy. But 2016 was at the end of the big drought and a low-snow year. I suspect the same time in a normal to wet year may be more snowy and less soggy. I always thought this would be a great spring ski trip. Not sure the road to Cherry Lake is open then. Emigrant has good potential for winter ski trips too- terrain is not as avalanche prone as the high Sierra.
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Re: TR: 6/16 N. Yosemite Boundary Lakes

Post by giantbrookie »

Wandering Daisy wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2016 7:24 pm Years ago my husband and I went to Edith Lake. Our in-route via Laurel Lake was a bushwhack deluxe. We exited up to the ridge to the south and down the adjacent drainage (not all the way to Frog Creek) and that was easier. I did not take a camera. Looking down on Edith Lake from Nance Peak really makes me want to go back to Edith Lake to get some photos and fish. May do it in the fall, as I suspect mosquitoes are already in full swing down there now. There are many hidden nooks in Northern Yosemite far from trails and difficult if not impossible to get to that are on my "to-do" list. Google Earth has been so fun to get more ideas.
So, has Edith entered into recent or future plans?

Thanks for bumping this post. I'm sure I missed it when you posted it otherwise I would have chimed in.

Anyhow this is a super wild area and arguably the least-visited part of the "high" (or not so high) Sierra because the daunting combination of cliff steps and amazingly dense brush. Judy and I have long called this the "Bermuda Triangle" of the Sierra (ie trailless NW Yosemite) for this reason. I first reached Edith on the most unpleasant and difficult backpack I've ever done in 1986, going in from Cherry Lake (because I got aced out of a HH wilderness permit entry). To this day, after 50+ years of off trail hiking for recreation or geology, that 1986 trip is the most horrific bushwhacking experience I've ever had (a week and a half ago, I notched my "2nd worst" geology-oriented bushwhack experience in the S Diablo Range). In early May 1992, I went in with Judy and Todd by way of Laurel and headed for the lake downstream of Edith first---nice fish there. The bushwhacking was moderate on the route and then we headed upstream to Edith. Edith is a very special place: that setting beneath the immense south face of Nance Peak, and the big Kendrick Creek cascade flowing into the lake...and, the fishing aint bad. Judy, in particular, had an amazing day for big rainbows (her top end was 17"). Now, if one is really going for the home run (ie super big fish) I am fairly sure some of the trailed rainbow lakes of NW Yosemite actually have bigger fish (I can think of two of them), but the off trail setting of Edith is something special. That big waterfall upstream (but not in view from the lake) is also amazing (might be best unnamed waterfall in the entire range in terms of the combination of flow and height).

And then there are the boundary lakes of your report (sigh). By the time Judy and I visited those in fall of 1995, the likes of Flora, Spotted Fawn, Boundary, Inferno et al. were all fishless, but I looked at the topo and guessed that during the air drop era fish probably migrated downstream to populate some of the Bartlett Creek Lakes--so we aimed for those after camping on day 1 at Mercur Lakes (nice brookies in those days but likely fishless after air drop cessation). That made for a magical experience to come across big fish in lakes that weren't supposed to have fish...we nicknamed those lakes (ie Bartlett Creek upstream of Flora) "The Emerald Staircase". Alas, the fish in there were netted and killed a few years ago. But Edith remains as well as the lake downstream of it. Yes fishing, and fishing for anomalously large wilderness trout remains a top priority, but some places are special for other reasons.

Thanks again for bumping this. I'm currently rehabbing a right knee MCL injury hugely aggravated leading a student geologic mapping exercise in the S Diablo Range, made super memorable by the standout Jedi-level performance of a new graduate student ("The Force Awakens" is what I've told some of my friends). Although I fully expect to get my knee functional very soon (want to try do a canyon entry and exit of the deepest canyon the Diablo Range, exploiting brush removal from the SCU fire), something about Edith makes me think of paraphrasing and fitting lines from epic stories of long ago "My memory grows dim, but I recall..." I have so many places I still want to get to, I'm not sure if I'll get back to Edith even though I'm physically capable, until further notice, but Edith will always be a special place for me and Judy. I hope you get there again to enjoy the place.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: TR: 6/16 N. Yosemite Boundary Lakes

Post by sekihiker »

Photos make this look like a top-notch destination. Thanks for posting. It was like a virtual trip to an area I won't visit in this life.
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Re: TR: 6/16 N. Yosemite Boundary Lakes

Post by Wandering Daisy »

If I go into Edith Lake again, I will go in the way we came out. From Edith, we climbed south to the top of the ridge and then follow the ridge down. We dropped off the ridge into the Frog Creek valley as we neared the bottom. It was early season so there was compact snow in the valley. The climb up from Edith had just a few short places of class 3, otherwise not bad. I am sure if you spent time looking you could find an entire class 2 route. The top of the ridge we descended could have considerable deadfall by now due to beetle kill and fires.
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Re: TR: 6/16 N. Yosemite Boundary Lakes

Post by giantbrookie »

Wandering Daisy wrote: Thu Nov 26, 2020 12:59 pm If I go into Edith Lake again, I will go in the way we came out. From Edith, we climbed south to the top of the ridge and then follow the ridge down. We dropped off the ridge into the Frog Creek valley as we neared the bottom. It was early season so there was compact snow in the valley. The climb up from Edith had just a few short places of class 3, otherwise not bad. I am sure if you spent time looking you could find an entire class 2 route. The top of the ridge we descended could have considerable deadfall by now due to beetle kill and fires.
I agree that is the best way to get in and out of Edith. In '92 that is how we left the lake. We managed to keep the route entirely class 2 and also limit the brush to just a few small patches. After we crested out and descended to Frog Creek we followed it upstream to Bearup. We dropped the packs at the unnamed lake downstream of Bearup where the mosquitoes were so bad we nicknamed it "Bug Cloud Lake". Fishing was outstanding there, though. Good point about the beetle kill and fires. A lot has happened up there since 1992.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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