High Sierra Topix

I'm trying to set up a trip for later this year and I was curious if anyone has ever done this. Alltrails only has routes to Thousand Island lake which I think is also possibly doable in a day if you use the river trail (?) and I've hiked Ediza Lake in a single day before but the elevation gain isn't as severe. I know there's quite a high 10k pass once you turn off the shadow lake trail to Garnet if you take that route, and the trail that goes from river directly to the Garnet outlet is a bit...past my experience level, so I was just curious what anyone's experience might be with the river to shadow creek to JMT route for that and back. I wish Alltrails had it listed but I haven't been able to find anything other than my own custom map which shows about 15 miles and 2800 elevation gain. Any advice helps!

It really depends on your fitness level, how much headlamp time you're willing to put in and what ratio of walking to photography/fishing/lounging you want. You can get to pretty much anywhere in the Sierra in a day if you're fit & determined.

c9h13no3 wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 10:18 am It really depends on your fitness level, how much headlamp time you're willing to put in and what ratio of walking to photography/fishing/lounging you want. You can get to pretty much anywhere in the Sierra in a day if you're fit & determined.

When I did Ediza, we started at 7am and got back to the car around 2pm, stopping just for photos at shadow lake and a few times at the waterfalls on the way to Ediza. How much longer you think the detour over to Garnet would add on top of that (taking Ediza out of the equation of course)?

onerinconhill wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 10:20 am

c9h13no3 wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 10:18 am It really depends on your fitness level, how much headlamp time you're willing to put in and what ratio of walking to photography/fishing/lounging you want. You can get to pretty much anywhere in the Sierra in a day if you're fit & determined.

When I did Ediza, we started at 7am and got back to the car around 2pm, stopping just for photos at shadow lake and a few times at the waterfalls on the way to Ediza. How much longer you think the detour over to Garnet would add on top of that (taking Ediza out of the equation of course)?

I'd guess an extra 2-3 hours. I think the Sierra club rule of thumb was 2 miles per hour, plus an hour for each 1000 feet of elevation gain or something like that. On trail anyways. Garnet is 15 miles/3.5K elevation gain by that route as an out & back. So call it 7.5 hrs for the miles & 3.5 hrs for the elevation gain. YMMV.

Not sure why you're opposed to taking the river trail at least 1 direction, it is pretty fast.

c9h13no3 wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 10:25 am

onerinconhill wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 10:20 am

c9h13no3 wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 10:18 am It really depends on your fitness level, how much headlamp time you're willing to put in and what ratio of walking to photography/fishing/lounging you want. You can get to pretty much anywhere in the Sierra in a day if you're fit & determined.

When I did Ediza, we started at 7am and got back to the car around 2pm, stopping just for photos at shadow lake and a few times at the waterfalls on the way to Ediza. How much longer you think the detour over to Garnet would add on top of that (taking Ediza out of the equation of course)?

I'd guess an extra 2-3 hours. I think the Sierra club rule of thumb was 2 miles per hour, plus an hour for each 1000 feet of elevation gain or something like that. On trail anyways. Garnet is 15 miles/3.5K elevation gain by that route as an out & back. So call it 7.5 hrs for the miles & 3.5 hrs for the elevation gain. YMMV.

Not sure why you're opposed to taking the river trail at least 1 direction, it is pretty fast.

I'd have to take the river trail to Thousand Island though, right? I don't think I'd be able to do that in a day. I'm not opposed to just going to Thousand Island via the river trail and back if you think that's more doable for a day hike.

onerinconhill wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 11:03 am I'd have to take the river trail to Thousand Island though, right? I don't think I'd be able to do that in a day. I'm not opposed to just going to Thousand Island via the river trail and back if you think that's more doable for a day hike.

Do yourself a favor, and check out the map on Caltopo.com. You can plot out your routes, check travel times, and see maps of the area. It has answers to all these questions.

c9h13no3 wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 11:31 am

onerinconhill wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 11:03 am I'd have to take the river trail to Thousand Island though, right? I don't think I'd be able to do that in a day. I'm not opposed to just going to Thousand Island via the river trail and back if you think that's more doable for a day hike.

Do yourself a favor, and check out the map on Caltopo.com. You can plot out your routes, check travel times, and see maps of the area. It has answers to all these questions.

I've been using the Alltrails map planner instead (similar with an overlay) but I'm just curious if anyone here has experience with Thousand Island in a day via the River trail and the difficulty (doesn't seem very steep of an incline the whole way).

Be sure to check on the transportation rules. You cannot drive your car to the trailhead after 7AM or come out until after some set time (not sure what it is). If you miss this window to drive to the trailhead, the required shuttle bus can delay up to an hour, because you have to park in one parking lot, then take a shuttle to the entrance and I am not sure if then you have to transfer to another bus. Best to just be sure to go early. But check on this year's regulations. They may have changed.

River trail can be difficult to follow and the last bit up to Garnet Lake is steep. When I came down it, I missed the trail but then just found my way down off-trail, but I have done a lot of off trail. I think it would be best to go to Shadow Lake and take the JMT. It may take a bit longer, but it is a no-brainer trail. There should be plenty of daylight to get there even if you take it slow.

Wandering Daisy wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 12:21 pm Be sure to check on the transportation rules. You cannot drive your car to the trailhead after 7AM or come out until after some set time (not sure what it is). If you miss this window to drive to the trailhead, the required shuttle bus can delay up to an hour, because you have to park in one parking lot, then take a shuttle to the entrance and I am not sure if then you have to transfer to another bus. Best to just be sure to go early. But check on this year's regulations.

Shuttle isn't that bad, single bus, no change required. The worst is when it fills up in the summer and passes your stop on the way out. Mornings aren't usually too bad (at least the two times I've taken it).

But yeah, these days I just go early.

I realize that the mileages on Tom Harrison maps are not always spot on but if one believes them, then it is 6.1 miles one-way to the Garnet Lake outlet from Agnew Meadows via the River Trail or perhaps a bit shorter depending on where the parking lot is (not shown on map and I haven't hiked out of there since 1973) and the elevation gain one way (accounting for some small losses en route) is about 1700'. This is a round trip of 12.2 mi with about 2000' of gain. Note that Harrison puts the one-way distance to Garnet via the Shadow L route as 7.6 mi for a round trip distance of 15.2 mi.