On Thursday we drove from Oakland to the Rush Creek Trailhead (after picking up the permit at Mono Lake) and hit the trail at 10:30 am. Thursday's sun-drenched climb from Silver Lake to Waugh Lake was well worth the effort, as it put us within a short hike to Island Pass and our next night's destination, Thousand Island Lake. At Waugh Lake we camped on the north side, about 75 yards up from the short where there was a slight breeze to help fend off the mosquitoes (3).
On Friday we made our way to the PCT/JMT and over Island Pass with clear blue skies. We arrived midday to Thousand Island Lake and camped for 2 nights on the south shore, with a great breeze to ward off the bugs (3) and give us a stellar view of the lake and the Ritter Range. We were alone the first night on that side of the lake. On Saturday, we saw it get crowded across the lake with rather loud parties and barking dogs. On the south side we had a small group camp across a cove who had the gall to start a fire, despite notices everywhere prohibiting wood fires.
On Saturday we day-hiked cross-country to Garnet Lake and lunched at the beach (beach!) before hiking over to Altha Lake. We avoided hiking down snow by taking a cross country route over granite, saving us time and slippage. Altha Lake is beautiful, but was about to be overwhelmed by a large family group (12?) of backpackers with inner tubes in for the long weekend. From Altha, we hiked down to the River Trail and crossed the swift Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River. I was glad to not be carrying a back across that current. We took the River Trail and PCT back to Thousand Island Lake for a 2nd night.
On Sunday, we short-hiked to Summit Lake via the saddle between Summit and Clark Lakes. It was beautiful and quiet at Summit (no fish) and the views of the range west and the valley south from above Summit were amazing.
Monday we hiked out via Clark Lakes and Spooky Meadows for a quick downhill 5-miles and headed straight for the June Lake Brewing Company for cold beers.
A great trip!
