2008 TR: Twin Island Lk from Isberg TH in early season

[Wandering Daisy]

I did a “search” and evidently have not posted a report on this trip. Given Pietro’s report on essentially the same route (at least to the creek from Bench Canyon), I thought this old report would highlight what it is like in early season wet conditions and before the fires and windstorm. I found an old trail that leads from the inlet to Twin Island Lake to the bench below Ritter Lakes. I used this trail when I did Roper’s High Route in 2010. From this bench one can ascend to the southernmost of the Ritter Lakes and then back to Catherine Lake outlet.

North Fork San Joaquin River
June 10-14, 2008

The drive up the Minarets Road is very scenic in itself. Monday night I camped next to Granite Creek near the Isberg trailhead.

Day1: Isberg TH to bench above Hemlock Crossing
9 miles, 2000 feet gain

I started up the trail at 8AM and reached “The Nitch” in an hour. Soon I was stopped by an impossible river crossing! All I could do was continue up the trail. Luckily, the next crossing about a quarter mile upstream proved possible with a knee-deep wide cold wading. After backtracking to the Hemlock Crossing trail I shortly was walking on patchy snow and wading a few more creeks. When I saw fresh bear-prints I started talking to the bears and making noise! After crossing Chetwood Creek, the trail headed up to a fine viewpoint.

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The trail then traverses into a beautiful sequoia forest. As snow covered more of the trail I lost it and ended up too far north requiring a steeper descent through thick forest and soon I spotted the trail and bushwhacked towards it. My error cost me an hour, making for a longer than planned day. After wading through a swamp, I found a nice campsite with a fine view on a dry bench above Hemlock Crossing. Luckily, there were no bugs so far. I set up the tent at about 4:30 and then took photos.

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Day 2: Above Hemlock Crossing to the Headwall at 10,000 feet
5.5 miles, 2500 feet gain

A quick descent a few hundred feet the next morning brought me to the Hemlock Crossing Bridge. Here there were HUGE fresh bear-prints – going my direction! Again I started hooting, babbling and pounding my trekking poles, trying to sound like several people! After a few miles I entered Stevenson Meadow, prime bear habitat. Soon there were mother and cub bear prints too. All my noise must have worked, because I did not see any bears. The trail steadily ascended, with a new waterfall each bend.

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The trial took a sharp turn east at the confluence of the creek from Bench Canyon. I began to feel more comfortable as things became more alpine. There was surprisingly much less snow up here than in the forest. The dark rock and southern exposure of the canyon helped. I reached my destination at the head of the main canyon at about 10,000 feet elevation and set up camp and spent the late afternoon finding the start of the use trail to Twin Island Lake.

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[Wandering Daisy]

Day 3: Day hike Twin Island Lake and bench below Ritter Lakes
And Move to confluence of Bench Canyon Creek

I spent the morning hiked to the inlet to Twin Island Lake with views of the upper drainage. The trail to the bench containing Twin Island Lake was faint. The grass and flowers were just beginning to come to life so the scene was starker than when I had been here in mid-summer a few years ago.

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Then about 11AM I traversed onto a more distinct use-trail to the bench below Mt. Ritter. Whereas the Twin Lakes rock is rusted red, the rock in the Ritter Basin is dark black giving each basin a special character. I found a wire cable, at least 200 feet long (perhaps more because each end was covered with snow) in the Ritter Basin. I believe there used to be some historical mining activity up here. This may be the reason the use-trail is more distinct. At one time there must have been a stock trail.

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Back at camp by 2:00 I packed up and headed back so that I could camp in a different location! Along the way I took some more time to photograph the river.

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Before reaching the confluence of Bench Canyon creek, the at the last location where the trail is near the river, I found a perfect glacial polished flat rock and set up my tent. I love camping on rock – it is so smooth and clean. I could walk around barefoot and the view was great. I took a real bath (brrr!), washed clothes and spent a pleasant evening.

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[Wandering Daisy]

Day 4: Bench Canyon Creek Confluence to Granite Creek near the Nitch

The next day I planned on hiking out to Chetwood Creek and camp on the canyon rim. The location “looked” good on the map. When I arrived, it was horrible! So I continued to Cora Creek – again a horrible swamp with mosquitoes. Tiredly, I trekked on to the crossing of Granite Creek near the Nitch. Here I was forced to camp (thankfully nice spot, but very buggy) because the river was too high to cross in my tired state. I hunkered in the tent while mosquitoes buzzed. It turned out to be a long 9-hour day.

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Day 5: Short hike back to trailhead

Next morning, I got up at dawn to have a peaceful breakfast and pack up without mosquitoes. I headed out by 7:30, the river now being about a foot lower. I was back to the car by 9AM, surprised to see quite a few weekend car-campers not really enjoying themselves since the mosquitoes are now quite horrible at the 7,000-8,000 foot elevation. I met one other person on the trip. Once on the Hemlock Crossing trail, I saw no other human footprints so probably was the first one up the trail.

[Harlen]

Nice TR, from an access we've yet to use. Pretty time of year, bring on the deet. We didn't realize that Hemlock Crossing was so scenic, thanks for the new post, the Harlens.

p.s.

Day 3 9AM, a patch of mules ears (?) on hike to Twin Is Lk

That's Corn lily.

[Wandering Daisy]

It is a long drive to the trailhead. Unfortunately, the fires in subsequent years have made the scenery less scenic on this drive and until you get to Hemlock Crossing when backpacking. We used to climb on the granite domes along the road. I wonder if these too have been impacted by the fires.

If your destination is the drainage above Twin Island Lake, this is a relatively easy approach. And as described in Pietro's report - also another approach to Bench Canyon. If instead you just want to get to Ritter Lakes, I think going in from the east side, either Agnew Meadow or Rush Creek would be easier.

I was really surprised to see from Pietro's report that the creeks that I had such trouble crossing were dry this summer! I may have just been there at peak flow.

Here are two photos of the San Joaquin

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[Harlen]

WD, we think your photos from 2008 are really fine! Did you use a fancier camera back then; take more time on your images?

These are not only great pictures, but they have shown us the beauty along the way in to Ritter Lakes/Bench Canyon from the trail to Hemlock Crossing. Now Lizzie and I really want to get in that way next summer. We really loved the view of the Ritter Range from the west, and now see that the route in from Clover Meadows has that same view from the southwest.

It would be really fine to make a great circle of it by crossing Foerster Pass, and a BC route over to Harriet Lake, and on to Isberg Pass. Off-limits by just a bit for the dogs, but it could be just a few hours in and out YNP. Any other circles in the other direction? There's a pretty wild route along the west side of the Ritter Range, but that might be beyond the 4 of us. I got out the map, and yes, that looks hellacious! I see another circular option from Blue Lake to Rockbound Lake, and then to skirt along the broad east side of Long Mt., and drop down to Mcgee, and then Isberg Lakes, and the trail back to Clover??? What do you know about Long Mountain Nancy?

Again, thanks for the inspiration, Ian and Lizzie.

[Wandering Daisy]

Actually a less fancy camera than I now have! It is just a photogenic area, and early season, 2008, no smoke from fires, the air was crystal clear.

You need recent information on the extent of wildfire damage and deadfall from 2011 windstorm before thinking about going off trail from Blue Lakes back to Clover TR. Although the trails may be cleared of deadfall, off-trail would not be. All bets are off until you get that figured out. I have been over Iseberg Pass to Saddler Lake and McClure Lake then off-trail to Post Peak Pass, but not down the main trail to Cora Lake, so cannot comment on this trail. McClure Lake has a dam and was nearly empty when I was there. Not sure if Cora has a dam. If so, the lakes can be lowered in drought years. From what I have seen it does not seem to be a very scenic trail.

The route via Rockbound and Long Creek looks better on the map, but never been there, and I doubt the "trail" shown on the map is maintained- probably effectively cross-country. I would worry about downed timber on that route.

You also could spend time exploring the valley north and upstream of the lower Twin Island Lake and climb Rogers or Electra. Then just go out the same route via Hemlock Crossing.

[wildhiker]

...
I see another circular option from Blue Lake to Rockbound Lake, and then to skirt along the broad east side of Long Mt., and drop down to Mcgee, and then Isberg Lakes, and the trail back to Clover??? What do you know about Long Mountain Nancy?

We did a circle trip in 2010 from the Granite Creek trailhead, up past Cora Lakes to Sadler Lake, over Isberg Pass, then cross-country through the little lake basins under Isberg Peak to Harriet Lake, over Blue Lake Pass to Blue Lake, over the pass between Bench Canyon (below Blue Lake) and Long Creek (below Rockbound Lake), down along Long Creek to about the 9200 foot level, when we started climbing diagonally up the slope to the south until we quickly hit a well-worn packer trail - the one that shows on the MapBuilder layer in Caltopo. This trail apparently runs south down to Chetwood Creek and eventually Granite Creek, but we left it at the pass between Sadler Peak and the knob at 9734, and then headed cross-country over to Lost Lake. From Lost Lake, we headed south through thick featureless forest until we hit the Hemlock Crossing trail, and then took it back to Granite Creek. The point is that yes, you can go from Blue Lake or Bench Canyon into the Long Creek drainage, and before the Creek fire, you could fairly easily keep going back to Granite Creek. If you turn on the fire history layer in Caltopo, you can see that the Creek fire burned up to about 9000 foot on the south side of Sadler Peak. If the Forest Service has not cleared the downed trees off the packer trail that heads down to Chetwood Creek, I'm sure it would be a very unpleasant mess to use that to get out. The cross-country route we took over to Lost Lake and then the Hemlock Crossing trail would be out of the question. But the Sadler Lake (Isberg Pass) trail is basically not affected by the fire north of Cora Lake, and assuming that the Forest Service has cleared this trail through the fire area (it is a main trail), then you just need to get from Long Creek over to the Sadler Lake area to make your loop that stays out of the park. I don't know about getting over Long Mountain, but an old-timer that I knew (now deceased) who backpacked in the Sierra from the 1930s to the 1980s and probably covered more miles than anyone on this forum (with possible exception of RoguePhotonic), did go cross-country from that pass between Sadler Peak and the knob at 9734 southwest down to the East Fork Granite Creek, hitting the trail at about the 9000 foot level. It's a short jaunt from there up to Sadler Lake - a beautiful lake well worth visiting - and then a quick run down the trail back to Granite Creek (assuming the deadfall has been cleared).
-Phil

[maverick]

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=21972&p=169060&hil ... nf#p169060

[Harlen]

Wandering Daisy wrote:

You need recent information on the extent of wildfire damage and deadfall from 2011 windstorm before thinking about going off trail from Blue Lakes back to Clover TR. Although the trails may be cleared of deadfall, off-trail would not be. All bets are off until you get that figured out. I have been over Isberg Pass to Saddler Lake and McClure Lake then off-trail to Post Peak Pass, but not down the main trail to Cora Lake, so cannot comment on this trail.

After hearing that the Creek Fire burned up as high as the 9,000' contour of Sadler Peak, I guess you're right. I heard it had burned up to around Cora Lakes, but I didn't really study it since I wasn't heading that way this summer. Looking at the map, and trying to stay as high as possible, I looked at the possibility of heading due south from lower Blue Lk, to Rockbound Lk, and then trying to traverse south around Long Mt. It would also avoid those problems lower down.

Phil, thanks for such a detailed account of both your trip up there, and your old friend's. I got the map out finally, and was able to follow the routes along. Both probably make more sense than trying to stay high up on Long Mt to get over to visit McGee and Sadler Lakes, and the other nice looking lakes in that Granite Creek Basin. I see a compromise about a mile and a half down the SW Ridge of Long Mt, right where it bends due south, the saddle just under the point marked 10,724 looks like a place to cross. Thanks again for the thoughtful advice Phil, and Nancy, for the advice, and for the fine TR.