Sierra Trip

[Brad Fisher]

I take a few of my employees on a trip each year out west backpacking. This year we started at Agnew Meadows outside Mammoth Lakes and ended at June Lake area. Not a lot of miles, but 4 excellent days in the backcountry.

Mt Ritter and Mt Banner

Lake Catherine

Thousand Island Lake

View from Peak beside Carsons Peak looking back at Ritter, Banner, Minarets

[Frank Deland]

Did you hike between Thousand Is. and Garnet Lakes to North Glacier Pass? What was the terrain like? Open? Wooded? Talus? Did you pass Carson Peak along the trail from Agnew Lake (Snooky Meadow)?

My daughter and I branched off from the JMT and hiked along the trail to Lake Minaret, camping on the opposite side of the Minarets from Lake Catherine. Another beautiful hike in the same general area.
Evening on the north shore of Garnet Lake:
Banner Peak (I think) from Garnet Lake in the AM:
Views along the trail to Lake Minaret:
Campsite looking away from and then toward the Lake:
Shore of Lake Minaret:

[Brad Fisher]

Day 1: Parked at Agnew meadows and hiked to Shadow Lake. Camped overlooking Shadow lake. Did some side hiking.

Day 2: Took JMT to Thousand Island Lake. Passed Garnet Lake, Ruby Lake?. It was the JMT so the trail was pretty easy going. We then explored around the lake after setting up camp. We did take a quick dip in Garnet Lake to wash off the dust. It was quick.

Day 3: Left camp setup and took an early morning hike up to Lake Catherine. Around Thousand Island and then off trail up to Lake Catherine. Terrain was mixed: faint trail, boulder hopping, etc. We then back tracked to Thousand Island Lake and hiked back to camp around the other side of Thousand Island. We then packed and head over on spooky meadows trail past Clark Lakes, etc. We setup camp beside a no name lake. Had two camp options: 1) in a bowl with protection and 2) on a nice clearly with excellent views.

Day 4: 3:30am start. We left camp setup and hike a fairly strenuous off trail path to the peak beside Carsons Peak (probably a 15 min hike from Carsons). We were going for a sunrise view and ran out of time to make Carson. Really cool watching the sunrise and drinking a hot cup of coffee/tea. The hike was interesting because the first was real steep from the lake up to a plateau (45-60 min hike). The next hour was across the plateau with a little elevation gain. The terrain felt almost sandy (beach like) which was really cool. We then back tracked to camp and hiked out spooky meadows to June Lake area. We had a car parked for the trip back to the starting trail head.

Since I'm an East Coast (NC) guy, I always use Neil Satterfield from Sierra Mountain Guides to lead our trips. He is an excellent guide and we have used him 4 times and will again next year. I feel confident I could lead a trip in the area, but Neil does all the coordination (permits, etc) and knows all the good off trail spots.

Looks like you and your daughter had an excellent trip also.

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