Trip Report - Around the Ritter Range

[Arcturus93576]

Late August, 2022, took a trip that ended up going around the Ritter Range, though had planned a different route. Our group was slow, and I lost a day due to a severe attack of vertigo (cured thank god by the Epley maneuver). So we changed the route.

Hiked to Thousand Island via the High Trail - my favorite route. The lake was ridiculously crowded (been there several times, but this was the record crowd). Then took off for North Glacier Pass which I have done several times. I think the easiest route is to the left. You can get higher without boulder hopping, but the upper part is a nastier traverse to the slot. This time I tried middle right and then left near the top, which I think is more annoying.

Getting around Lake Catherine is a pain. Drop down promptly and walk west along the shore. It is still unpleasant boulder hopping, but a higher line is harder and unstable. I was going to camp at one of the Ritter Lakes. If you follow the Lake Catherine outlet stream to the point it begins to drop steeply, go left into a grassy cleft. It leads over to the lakes, but there is nice camping in the grassy areas with a great view down canyon.

The next part of the high route is complicated. Stay right on the rocks as the stream descends, then move right and up onto lighter rocks as you approach the waterfall. Go most of the way up to the crest of the whiter rock, and head downstream. There are numerous ways to get down the flat bench area a few hundred feet below you. We kept dropping and then traversing right on the rock. It may be possible to head right immediately at the top of the whiter rock, and go down the drainage area on the other side, but I did not explore it. You want to get right anyway for the next leg. There is grassy slope climbing up further right, and we left the rock at its apex and down the grass to the bench. This same slope extends up into the unexplored drainage mentioned above, which led me to suspect this other route. You then head right to the steep creek that tumbles down the steep slopes in a rugged cleft, where you turn left to go down. There is probably an easier way down even further right. I could see that route further down, but not the connection over to the top of this second cleft.

The cleft with the stream is difficult. Stay left further down.

There is a great use trail (probably built by long gone prospectors - there is mining debris) that leads off to the far right from the flat area at the bottom of the cleft. It drops you off at the base of a maze of granite formations. Go up the far right and up to get to the highest grassy area, then back left to the gap where you see Lower Twin Island Lake. Go over the top of the granite knobs on your left to the stream crossing at the outlet. You cannot get there along the lake shore. I camped here. It is a magical area, with pika everywhere.

The route from here to Bench Canyon is a lot easier. The traverse from the south end of Upper Twin Island Lake over to the tarn is moderately tricky. Stay high as you will crest above the tarn and drop down to it. There is a difficult talus section just before you reach the drop off down to Bench Canyon.

We dropped down Bench Canyon on the right in a steep chute once you traverse right - my understanding is that there is also a good route on the left, but could be harder to follow. The confluence of Bench Canyon and the North Fork is gorgeous. The hike down to Hemlock Crossing on the trail is very nice. We continued from there south and eastward around the bottom end of the Ritter Range over to Granite Stairway, and then down the creek to Devils Postpile. Nearly all of the trail from Hemlock Crossing to two miles before Granite Stairway has been destroyed by fire. It is now a cross-country route. I hiked this 50 years ago when the Meadows along the route still had cattle. Some of the fences are still there, but no trail. You start seeing the trail again at the East Fork of Cargyle Creek.

The burn section was sad, and I wonder if it will ever truly recover since these lower altitudes are also drier now.

The High Route in the Upper North Fork of the San Joaquin is amazing, and something I always wanted to do. My trip 50 years ago took me to Hemlock Crossing, but then west over Isberg Pass.

[Harlen]

Hello Arcturus, and thanks for that very clear description of the tricky route from North Glacier Pass down to Twin Lakes. We have been baffled by it at least once, and it became a night time epic, with a kid on my shoulders! Beautiful place to get to though, isn't it? "Pika everywhere" sounds wonderful. Did you get any photos to go with your great trip?
We are keen to head up to Bench Canyon via the Hemlock Crossing route, from Clover Meadows, or one of the trailheads down there. And, between what you and Wandering Daisy have said about camping by Ritter Lakes, we must try to get there too. It was quite an effort to find a camp by Lake Catherine. You can see how we were perched out tents on stony ledges in photo # 5 of our Bench Canyon TR:
[viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18508#p137327] Thanks again for this view of the Ritter Range you have conjured up for us, Ian.

[cgundersen]

Arcturus: seconding Ian's comment about photos, I was also curious where the vertigo kicked in and what your original route plan was? I'm also envious that you were rambling through that area 50 years ago......magical times in the early 70s, and equally magical to return. Once you get past 1000 island, the crowds definitely diminish! Cameron

[Arcturus93576]

Just saw this. I do have some wonderful pics, but not on this device.

The route from Hemlock Crossing to Bench Canyon is a great route. The first four miles along the river is a good scenic trail (I think its four miles - could be a little less). You come to the fork in the river where you go left to access Bench Canyon, which fork area is a large flat area near a beautiful waterfall (we camped there). There is a faint intermittent use trail heading up the left fork toward Bench Canyon (but also easy cross country), which ends in a steep headwall. You can get up this rise on either the right or left. We came down the steep slot on the left as you look upstream, which is not difficult. There also seems to be a route on the right which sounds better from descriptions that I have read, but trickier route finding.

The Bench Canyon area is beautiful, and worth the effort. The backside view of the Ritter Range is great.

The hike further up toward the Ritter Lakes is difficult and a lot of gain. The best camping that I saw in that area was along the rocky cleft or slot heading over to the Ritter Lakes from where the stream starts to drop precipitously about 300 yards downstream from Lake Catherine. You initially can only see a small grassy area at the start, but as you walk up the cleft, it broadens into a nice grassy area for camping. The Ritter Lakes are about 200 yards further, and are visible from the edge of the grassy area. I did not walk over there, so cannot comment on sites over there.

You can scramble up the easy rocks around the cleft where you camp for tremendous views.

[Arcturus93576]

I had a short episode as I was approaching the Lower Twin Lake. I was fine the next day which ended at Bench Canyon. I woke up with severe vertigo. I was expecting it to go away quickly as it had done 40 hours earlier, but it did not. I was unable to walk coherently, and motion made me severely nauseous. I had the good fortune to be hiking with my doctor friend, who knew the Epley maneuver to remedy it. It took multiple repeats with episodes of severe wretching to end the vertigo. I was wiped out for the rest of the day. But I was fine for the rest of the trip (four more days to Reds Meadows).

The original plan was Blue Lake and the pass into Yosemite, down the Merced and up to Vogelsang, over to Leyll Creek and over Donahue Pass and Island Pass to Thousand Island Lake, and back to Agnew Meadow where we started. Others in my group were slow, and we were already behind on this itinerary when I got sick. I had already done all of the rest of the route except Blue Lake and the pass (I have been over Isberg and down the Merced). But the group had not, which was unfortunate.

[cgundersen]

Definitely handy having a physician along on this trip! Hope this situation does not crop up on future trips! Cameron

[robertseeburger]

Just to add another person who had some difficulty with the navigation from Catherine Lake to Twin Island Lake.
It is complicated..even highlighted as such in Roper book.
I got off route also.. not a big deal..was able to make a correction..but this route is indeed complicated.
I also would love to see pictures of the route from Twin Island Lakes down the SJ to Hemlock..

[vagabondmountainman]

Thanks for the great report. I did this section last July. It's one of my favorite sections of the high Sierra.

I tried to do it around the second week of August this year, but turned back at N. Glacier on the 1000 island lakeside both due to more steep icy snow than I wanted to tackle at the moment and an opportune lightning storm that gave me an easy excuse to head back down to 1000 island lake. I would have liked to have gone back up the next day but the rain forecast from hurricane Hillary made it an easy decision to call the trip early.

I have taken both the route you describe (Roper's route) and the area you haven't explored farther to the right. I've done the farther right route twice up and down to/from Twin Island lakes from N. Glacier, and have done Ropers route once. Both have their merits . The route you took/ Ropers route gives you a better view of the cascading waterfall all the way down, but it's a lot of work navigating down the slabs and occasionally having to gain and lose elevation to get around things. But you eventually get to cross the beautiful grassy canyon full of wildflowers to get over to Twin Island lakes. This is also kind of a pain going down and then back up as well though. I prefer the route that goes much further to the right up high. Especially if you choose to visit the northern lake. Once you get down the initial couple hundred feet of descent,( i think around the area of the first huge pool from the waterfall but can't remember exactly) there's a somewhat obvious route that goes to the right directly towards the closer/ more northern of the two twin island lakes. To get there this way is a maze of granite slabs but almost all Class 2 with occasional easy class 3 short slabs. The advantage is it's much quicker and there is almost no elevation gain or loss during the way as you contour around to the lake. You work your way directly over toward Twin Island lakes, and when you get close there are a couple different grassy ramps that you can take can take to get to the Northern of the two Twin Island lakes depending on where you want to go. There is a pretty easy ramp that goes down to the north side of the northern lake where there are a couple of nice campsites and amazing scenery. But from there if you want to get to the southern lake there is a bit of climbing up and around the granite slabs to get around the lake. There's another grassy ramp/ and rocky maze route that goes through the rocks about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way along the shore of the northern lake towards the southern lake. This took me to a fairly easy route along the rock down to the outlet between the two lakes and across to the southern lake. Very different scenery from the Southern lake.

This entire route involves a lot of exploring and occasional backtracking do you get to the lakes but if you're lucky you will find a really easy path on the first try. If not it's kind of a fun wilderness maze that you have all to yourself with beautiful scenery and there are no difficult or dangerous moves along the way you just have to be careful if it's raining because the rocks are slick and a majority of the way is on granite slabs with occasional Talus. Taking the route that goes further to the right saved me a considerable amount of time and elevation changes both on the way down to twin island lakes and on the way back up. One other tip. If you stay more north as you are progressing up or down towards Twin island lakes you will need to cross much more tallus then if you go a little bit more to the South on the traverse across the way. As I said it's all kind of a maze but I found it to be quicker and more enjoyable than the traditional route with no safety issues or exposure other than carefully choosing your path on the slippery slabs if its raining.

I have some pictures on a hard drive somewhere, but not exactly sure where and I also don't know how to upload/ post them to the site. I will try to figure that out in the future.