8/14: My adventure began with the drive up to Edison Lake on the Kaiser Pass Road. Construction on it started in 1920 and was completed in 1922; it was built in order to move supplies up for the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project. At one point, there were plans to continue this road over Piute Pass (I can’t even imagine!) and connect it with the Eastern Sierra, thus why there is a Hwy 168 in both Fresno County on the West side with the eastern terminus around Edison Lake, and one on the East side, the western terminus of which currently ends at Lake Sabrina in Inyo County. The East side’s Hwy 168 continues east over Westgard Pass and ends in the unincorporated community of Oasis along Hwy 266, just before the boundary of Nevada. I spent the night in a campground adjacent to VVR.
8/15: I departed on the ferry at 9 AM, along with several JMT hikers and groups of fishermen getting a ride to the end of the lake. After docking at the end, I walked along the JMT for a few miles before turning east onto the Mono Creek trail. Susan and I arrived nearly at the same time to camp near the junction with the Second Recess trail, and set up for the night.
8/16: Today we hunkered down for long hiking day in order to get a layover reward day.
We left camp around 7:30 AM and continued up Mono Creek to the junction of the Laurel Lake trail. It’s a bit over 3 miles to Laurel Lake, the first mile or so going up a very steep sidewinder switchbacked trail along Laurel Creek. The view of the hanging valley of Second Recess across the canyon provided a nice distraction from the climb. Once up, the terrain leveled a bit and we had a lovely walk through forest and meadows, then some more uphill to the lake, where the faint trail ends. It was now time to head cross country and over 2 back-to-back passes on the Sierra High Route: Bighorn and Shout of Relief. A couple of years ago I had passed through here and over the passes; there’s a beautiful lake basin on the other side and I had wanted to return and spend a layover day exploring it, thus this trip. Getting up Bighorn involves a steep grassy hillside with good footholds (which I might have started referring to as the Stairmaster from hell....), interspersed with some bits of talus. Lots of flowers growing up here, and we also saw a red elderberry, which was really neat. Bighorn Pass then looks down over Rosy Finch Lake. Heading to the Northeast, Shout of Relief Pass is about another 2/3 of a mile, the walk involves going up and down grassy slopes and talus in order to avoid cliffs above the lake and below and adjacent peak; the name of the game on this one is that you will gain and then lose elevation along the way. And yes, there were shouts of relief upon arriving at the pass! From here we headed down to Tully Lake, which was to be our home for the next 2 nights. We had it all to ourselves the entire time, other than one hiker passing through on night one.
8/17: We slept in a little bit this morning, and then headed for the lake basin. It was really beautiful, lots of lakes and tarns, and I already want to go back and camp in there. Also, flowers and lots of birds. Since Susan knows her birds, I finally learned which one is the Rosy Finch. We saw one party of 4 camped back there, on a layover day themselves, along with 2 dogs. The dogs looked very happy traipsing around the grassy area next to the lake. Once up high enough on some of the ridges we also got great views down the Fish Creek drainage and were able to see the JMT on the other side as it switchbacked up out of Tully Hole on its way to Virginia Lake. Funny to think of a major and busy trail right there, when we had all of this solitude. It was very windy on this day, with periodic gusts of probably 25-30 mph. When we returned to camp, the inside of Susan’s tent looked like the Dust Bowl. Wind had blown enough dirt in there that it lay thickly on top of everything, settling into the seams of her down quilt too. I’ve never seen anything like it.
8/18: We walked down along Fish Creek, enjoying the creek with the beautiful rock walls surrounding it. We saw no one along this stretch of a few miles. We crossed the creek at Tully Hole and entered the busy world of the JMT. As it always is for me, it was a little bit of a shock to suddenly see so many people. There were lots of passing by hellos; we did stop and talk with a German couple for a few minutes. It is fun to see people that come from all over the world to hike this iconic trail. Several miles later, we left the JMT, walked about 10 minutes to our final camp at Papoose Lake, where we again saw no one for the rest of the day.
8/19: We parted ways just around dawn this morning, bound for our respective homes. During my 12 mile walk to the trailhead I saw absolutely no one the entire time. Once over Goodale Pass, there was frost in Graveyard Meadows and the air felt cool and crisp, a reminder that fall is on the way. Nearer to Edison Lake I walked through the burn area from 2020 – I think this was a spot burn that leapt off from the main Creek Fire. It was sad to see; I had walked through this section a few years ago pre burn when it was a beautiful forest. I saw bear and mountain lion tracks in the dusty trail, but no actual animals. After a mostly uneventful drive down my “favorite” 20-mile section of road, I stopped in Shaver Lake for a burger, and headed home.
- Recess Peak
- Laurel Lake
- Moonrise at Tully Lake
- Izaak Walton Lake
- Gentian
- Sunrise Lake of the Lone Indian
- Frost in Graveyard Meadow
