my 39 mile loop from Agnew

abbaman · Post by **abbaman** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 8:45 pm

Well I was blessed with a long 3 day weekend a couple of weeks ago so I awoke Friday morning in the campground just behind the Mammoth ranger station at 5:30 and got everything sorted out, had a coffee and was back and first in line for a permit. Agnew was the plan, and before I knew it 39 miles had passed below my feet and it was noon on Sunday loading my gear back into the Outback to head home. I took a ton of pics and would not have a problem filling pages with words, so I will get to the good stuff and include links to the many images at the end

I knew it was going to be a great time

Heading out of Agnew Meadow

Met a couple of guys heading the same general direction so we traveled together and headed on Up

and we were rewarded

Shadow lake

we parted ways here as one of them unfortunately has a shoe malfunction I went on with the goal of Garnet lake for the night

With limited time and a relatively light pack I was not content here and pushed on thinking Ruby would be home for the night

Ruby was beautiful but as the day was getting long the prime spots were taken. So I pushed on to Emerald and got pretty lucky

and even had a little company

Days 2 and three to come but the rest of day 1 can be found here
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h89/a ... 1QQtppZZ20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

abbaman · Post by **abbaman** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 9:15 pm

Day 2 started early and I took a long look before heading out, I ended up with the perfect spot for the night

just when i got going I came over a ridge to find the most amazing sight, Thousand island Lake. i took way to many pics as every step seemed just a little bette than the last.

Looking back you can see Emerald and the green area at the far end is where I set up the night before

Sullivan and Weber

My goal was to hang a left at Waugh and I ended up having some lunch as well as an early afternoon dunk to get the dust of here.

Waugh

The bench

The view from water level man the water felt amazing

At this point I was headed up to Agnew Summit so first i went down and then climbed back up, it felt great to get to the top but it was way to early to stop for the day, so I figured I would grab the trail that headed over to thousand Island lake, but hang a Rt on the PCT high line to overnight at Badger lakes. Tis turned out to be a huge mistake, but that is a story for tomorrow.

mediauras · Post by **mediauras** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 7:57 am

Awesome, great pics. Can't wait for the next episode!

Quick sidebar here: how do you like your tarptent Moment? I've been eyeing one for quite a while, it looks like a very well constructed shelter. I'd be curious to hear your experiences with it.

cgundersen · Post by **cgundersen** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 9:02 am

abbaman,
Great to see that much snow on the flanks of Banner and everything looked more lush than I expected for all the dry reports elsewhere. Thanks for the report!
cg

Post by **maverick** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 10:28 am

Thanks Abbaman for taking the time to post this wonderful TR, really enjoy the great
pictures from one of my favorite places.

Bluewater · Post by **Bluewater** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 12:37 pm

Really enjoying your TR and photos. Looking forward to the next day. Thanx.

abbaman · Post by **abbaman** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 2:09 pm

mediauras wrote:Awesome, great pics. Can't wait for the next episode!

Quick sidebar here: how do you like your tarptent Moment? I've been eyeing one for quite a while, it looks like a very well constructed shelter. I'd be curious to hear your experiences with it.

I love this thing... I am 6 ft 5 and disproportionally long in the legs I use this shelter pretty much in everything but snow. It has plenty of room and ventilation for pretty much everything that I need and comfortably fits either my WM Megalight (long) or Kodiak(long with 7" loft) without touching the tarp.

It is very livable for it's size and weight. Extremely easy to set up, even in the rain while keeping the inside dry. take extra care in the seam sealing including all the grommets and places where clips are sewn in and you should be a happy camper.

I think that if I had to find a opportunity to enhance this shelter I would like to have the ability to "open up the sides for views on a nice night. but if this is really that important I would have got a Rainbow.

abbaman · Post by **abbaman** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 6:21 pm

so it was around 5 on day 2 and had made my way up out of the valley to Clark lakes just short of Agnew summit

I started thinking about making my way down a bit to shorten my exit on Sunday morning to ensure that I was home early enough to stay in good graces with the other half (this way I get to go more often) so I hooked off on the trail to Thousand island lakes with a plan to hang a right on the PCT high route and stop off at Badger Lakes for the night. up I went again

but then I saw where I was headed and it looked empty, it was all worth it again

Down I went hungry and ready to set up camp, grab some water and make some dinner, I had mistakenly only made a small chicken burrito for lunch and I just realized that that was a long time ago

to make a long story short, when I got to badger lakes there were a ton of people and nowhere that even resembled the back country to camp near the water ( and I needed water) I also wanted to respect the space of those that had set camp earlier in the day and not not crowd them at all so I set course back to Agnew summit, although looking at the map i noticed a short cut just a little further East off the PCT high route. This proved to be a very steep and loose adventure for a dehydrated, hungry hiker with almost 18 miles already under his belt for the day

Up I went

totally worth it though

went over the summit, past summit lake (should have stopped but my mind was not functioning at this point) back to the Clark lakes junction (where I had been just a little bit earlier.

then I had a great idea to head out what I believe is one of the Clark lakes but is up the trail to Silver lakes.

Found a cool spot, filled up on water but just wasn't feeling it so back l I went to the junction and to a spot I had seen just off the trail toward Thousand Island lakes I had been on earlier either way finally got set up and put some food in my belly and off to a well earned sleep for my last night out.

all of the day 2 pics can be found here
http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h89/a ... 1QQtppZZ20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

abbaman · Post by **abbaman** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 6:42 pm

Slept in until almost 7:30 in the morning,

Breakfast, here at Clark lake

and headed toward the Agnew Summit to head down the easier route to the PCT high route back to Agnew. Stopped for water and a last look at Clark and where I had spent the night

past Summit lake and I must say this was nothing short of Amazing

and probably my fav shot of the trip

When I het the PCT I changed my mind nad headed over to the river trail and out out out

I left the stone that I had pick up to use for a knife (as mine had ended up somewhere in the back of my Outback)

looking up at the relief that I had used to access Shadow a couple of days ago

One last look back

Here you will find all the images from Day 3 http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h89/a ... 1QQtppZZ20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I hope that you enjoy the TR and it gets you through your days at the desk while you prepare for your own adventure

until next time

J

Cross Country · Post by **Cross Country** » Sun Aug 05, 2012 8:51 pm

I've always regretted never having been to this area. It's truly beautiful, as are your pics, and my kind of place. I should have taken my 7 year old son there instead of Taboose Pass and saved TP for when he was a little older (although our Bench Lake trip was a real success), but again we missed out on a really great trip. I'm glad to see you enjoyed it.