High Sierra Topix

In mid August, a friend of mine and I took a trip to one of my top 5 favorite areas of of the Sierra Nevada: Thousand Island Lake and the Banner-Ritter formation. Our objective was to summit Banner, but we failed because we got kind of cliffed out in the rain and decided to turn back. Given the 2 hour thunderstorm that followed, it turned out to be the absolute right call but I hope someday we will go back.

It started with a new discovery - Peak 2 Refuel freeze dried meals. I follow a low carb / mostly keto lifestyle and Peak offers some delicious options. While I usually limit myself to 20-30g net carbs per day, while backpacking I can handle 60-80 and stay in ketosis. Peak has several options that fit the bill - the beef stroganoff, beef pasta marinara and biscuits & sausage gravy are 3 of my favs. The day started with some deer on the way up the Rush Creek trailhead. This was my first time heading to Thousand Island Lake from the Rush Creek TH, having always come through Agnew Meadows before, but despite the quick climb I liked how quickly you access some lake views like this one of Gem Lake, Waugh Lake and Weber Lake, the last one from our first night’s camp. On Day 2 we made our way around Waugh Lake and on up to Island Pass where we got our first views of Banner Peak and veered off trail toward the west end of Thousand Island Lake. We were scouting around the west end and decided to go out on a peninsula to catch some views before we looked for our campsite. We ended up camping out here. I was a little apprehensive because it violates the 300 foot perimeter rule but there were a couple of clear campsites and the rain was coming quickly. We pitched our tents before the worst of the downpour planning to relocate to a permanent site after but the rain never really relented so we stuck with these sites.

On day 3 we planned to summit Banner from the N/NW and headed up to Glacier Pass. The path to Glacier Pass was straightforward and we were treated to some nice views of Lake Catherine. The pictures don’t show very well but we were getting intermittent drizzle on the way up, which made the granite pretty slick. Also a little unnerving was the rivers we could hear flowing under the rocks from the steady rain. Unfortunately, we ended up semi-cliffed out near Banner’s west shoulder. This view is nice and clear but there were dark clouds in all other directions and there was a river of water running down the snowfield that sounded quite impressive as we surveilled Banner-Ritter Pass. Ultimately, we decided to turn around but were still smiling. I am not sure if we were going the right way or not (or at least “a way”), but given the storm to come it was the right call. On the way back to Glacier Pass, we took a slightly shorter path to the East of a knob near the pass which gave us a different perspective of Thousand Island Lake. I was being a bit lazy with my pace and looked back toward Banner and was greeted by a couple of thunderclaps that quickened our pace.

We were not back at camp for 5 minutes before we were greeted with a good 2 hours of steady rain. But the reward was a beautiful double rainbow out near island pass and some nice shots of the sunset on the clouds beyond what I think was Mt Davis on the left of the frame. Day 4 dawned nice and clear and we had perfect weather the rest of the trip. We made our way up Garnet Pass and were treated to some beautiful views of Garnet Lake, another “gem” of the area . We made camp at Badger Lakes on the west side where there was a beautiful camp with a nice flat rock for a kitchen. Day 5 was an easy hike out to the meadow trail and back to the Rush Creek Trailhead. About midway, somewhere above Agnew Lake, we encountered what is arguably the most useless sign in the Sierra. I am not sure what information it was meant to impart as I think it was well past Agnew Pass - it may have been the marker for the Ansel Adams Wilderness Area. It was followed with a rapid descent to Agnew Lake with a nice view back up toward the Gem Lake dam. We just didn’t get this kind of view of the dam on the way up the Rush Creek Trail. I can only imagine what it was like laying track to to build a structure like this in the early 1900’s, let alone the dam itself.
We wrapped up the day with a drive through Yosemite NP and down the west side. This was a 3 hour detour to get back to Phoenix going through the park first, but the real reason was we were dying to get some great Mexican food. I can’t get within 200 miles of Porterville without stopping at La Cocina de Doña Maggie. I love finding the local restaurants. If you are craving Posole or even better - the molida roja or adobada tacos, I highly recommend! Looking back, it was a fun trip though a day shorter than planned. I think if I had my choice now I would have said we should camp by Garnet Lake another night and we could have tried Ritter instead of Banner. To be fair, my friend Eric was recommending this but I was a little defeated at not submitting Banner and when we came over Garnet Pass and looked across the valley to Whitebark Pass, I just didn't have it in me. Next time - need a bit more training to be ready to power through.

Thanks for reading!

I absolutely love that area, have been up from Silver Lake before, and enjoyed experiencing it again through your TR. I've been out on that peninsula you camped on in 1000 Island Lake and it is a magical place. I love the meadows on the way to North Glacier Pass. Also the location of the Rettenbacher grave--most picturesque grave site I have ever seen. Badger Lakes were not my favorite but they are in an extremely convenient location. Sounds like a wonderful trip, despite the rain.

Epic rainbow :-D

Sounds like a nice trip and your timing was good. I was in upper Rush Creek on August 5-6 and it was continuous pouring rain!
-Phil

I climbed Banner from the lake below and traversed over to the "glacier" lower down. There was a bit of scrambling on big talus blocks but no cliffs to deal with. It does add a lot of talus walking, but I climbed early season and it was all snow and ice (used crampons).

Your photos are wonderful! Was Waugh Lake filled? I heard that they had emptied it for some dam repairs.