TR: Ansel Adams Wilderness 7/18 - 7/21

[udpumpkin]

Thanks to the feedback I received on this forum, our group had a great few days of backpacking. We ended up planning as we went which led to some backtracking. It rained briefly most days but otherwise the weather was perfect. Very little in the way of bugs - although I would have traded some more bugs for full streams in July. We started out at Agnew Meadows headed towards Thousand Island via Shadow Lake.



Per the advice gleaned from here, we camped up the hill on the north side of Thousand Island Lake.



View from about 20 feet above our campsite:



The next day we hiked to North Glacier Pass without our packs. We completely missed the trail and hopped boulders on the way up. On the way down we caught the trail and remarked how much easier it would have been - but not as fun.



We camped a second night on Thousand Island. The next day we debated doing a day hike to Donahue Pass or backtracking towards Ediza. We chose Ediza. Two of our group fresh off the fun of hopping boulders to North Glacier Pass decided to go cross country to Ediza. They started around the western edge of TI over to Garnet. They then ran into some other hikers that showed them a map of the 'High Sierra Trail' which appeared to offer a different route than Whitebark Pass that I read on this forum. They managed to cross over to Nydiver and then again over to Ediza all on the western edge of the lakes. They really enjoyed it and I'm not sure we will be able to get them back on a trail again. We all met up at Ediza and found a great campsite overlooking the lake.



180 degree view from Ediza campsite. You can see Ediza in the far right corner of the image.



After setting up camp, we hiked to Iceberg Lake.



We then carried on to Cecile. I'm not sure I would want to do the Iceberg to Cecile 'trail' with a full pack. It doesn't seem very forgiving of a possible trip or bad foot placement.



Lake Cecile:



Then back to Agnew Meadows:



Thanks again for all of the advice!

[davidsheridan]

Thanks for the great TR and pictures. I found the pictures very helpful to see that there is no snow around the Icerberg/Cecile lakes.

My wife and I will be headed up to the same area in about a month. We also intend to head up to North Glacier Pass form 1000 Island Lake. Can you provide any helpful details on how to locate the trail you mentioned finding on the way back to 1000 Island? Any detail would help.

Thanks for taking the time to report. Glad to hear everyone enjoyed the cross country sections.

[udpumpkin]

I'm sure someone can respond with the exact coordinates for the trail. I'm obviously directionally challenged having missed the trail on the way up.

We hiked to the western end of TI but turned off the TI trail to head up to North Glacier Pass too late. Shortly after the trail around TI starts to turn around the end of the lake, start heading up to the pass. If you stay by the stream and on the green then you should eventually run into a well defined trail. That gets you 2/3rds of the way to the top before you have to start hopping some boulders. We were too far south on the approach. I lost the trail coming down so I'm not sure it actually connects with the trail around the lake. Trail or no trail, it's still a fun and not too challenging hike. We took a nice break on the pass before heading back down. As soon as we got to the trail at TI thunderstorms rolled in. I would not want to be starting the trip down the pass during afternoon thunderstorms.

[maverick]

Great to read that you had a fun ans safe trip! Thank you for coming back
and taking taking the time to share this wonderful TR and cool pictures.

[sekihiker]

The area really comes alive with all the people in your excellent photos. Thanks.

[oldhikerQ]

Good trip report and great photos. Rekindled an idea for a short trip in the future.
Love that area!