As usual my TR is very late, but it might still be interesting to a few.
The "goal" was to do a tiny piece of the Sierra High Route and see Blue Lake, in Bench Canyon, just over the border from Yosemite into Ansel Adams Wilderness. We didn't do that, but we had a terrific trip, which was really our goal anyway...
Started out with a few days in Tuolumne with my family (and other animals), during which we ran into Markskor and exchanged a few stories (but not nearly enough... let's do it again, Mark!).
- Family in Tuolumne Meadows
As noted elsewhere, we were expecting Bearikades to be delivered to the Tuolumne PO but they didn't come so Wild Ideas hand-delivered them; thanks again, Wild Ideas! Anyway, we got packed up and set out for Vogelsang HSC as our first-day destination on 18 July. The trail to Vogelsang was absolutely beautiful, reminding me of nothing so much as the gorgeous trail from Shadow Lake to Ediza, with a whole variety of dense forest, open granite, and beautiful meadows. Rafferty Creek played a nice accompaniment all the way.
- One of Rafferty Creek's many moods.
The camping area around Fletcher Lake was incredibly windy, but we managed to spend a reasonable night there, and next morning headed past the skeletal outlines of the HSC (opening *very* late this year) for Vogelsang Pass. We were prepared to avoid the pass and head down Fletcher Creek if there was too much snow, but we found the pass perfectly passable, though the trail was, indeed, completely covered with snow.
- On the way to Vogelsang Pass (left middle-ground).
We were planning to spend the night at Bernice Lake, but after all the wind last night we opted for a more sheltered campsite well down in Lewis Creek Canyon.
- Packer campsite on Lewis Creek.
Next day we'd planned to go to Doyle Donehoo's "Waterfall Camp" but we were feeling frisky so we figured we'd go all the way down to the Lyell Fork crossing and hopefully up the other side to give us a better shot at Blue Lake Pass the next day. Views from the high trail were fantastic!
- Looking toward Washburn and Merced Lakes from High Trail.
We decided that Lyell Fork was way too dangerous to wade. Again, we were fully prepared to turn around and do a different trip, but after an hour or so of looking we found a suitably large and stable log to cross on. However, the trail up the other side looked pretty obscure under snow, we were tired, and it was getting late, so we camped on the south side of Lyell Fork.
- Broad log over Lyell Fork.
In the light of morning the continuation of the high trail didn't look nearly so obscure, and in fact we took little time to get up the switchbacks that lead to the high bench above Triple Peak Fork. Two of our party had a plane to catch, so they were planning to head down toward the Valley when we headed for the pass, but we obviously missed what was supposed to be the rock-lined use trail leading to the kidney-shaped lake about 9880 feet, so we bid adieu to them where the trail joined up with Foerster Creek.
Backtracking along Foerster Creek led us easily to the beautiful little lake.
- Lake 9880.
We decided to hike north up the creek that flows into that lake (following Wandering Daisy's suggestion) and camp up on the large bench between Foerster Peak and peak 11210. The hiking was very easy, and we found a pleasant campsite among the whitebarks about 10,500 feet.
- Campsite in the whitebarks. Foerster Peak on the left, peak 11450 on the right, Blue Lake Pass between.
Note in editing: Oops! Caption is for a different picture! This picture has the Clark Range in the background. Sorry about that...
We dropped our packs and headed up for an inspection of Blue Lake Pass and quickly decided that with the snow bands across it, it looked a bit too gnarly for our level of experience and conditioning. Too bad, but we were having a great time anyway and didn't really feel like we needed to make that particular goal.
- Blue Lake Pass (Foerster Pass) up close. Hmmm...
To be continued.
and spent the rest of the day hiking down to where the trail crosses the Merced Peak Fork on a bridge. The season’s high water made us worry about the Triple-Peak Fork ford, but it turned out to be a wide, beautiful wade that we converted into a swim and a wash. 
