Jennie and Weaver Lakes Loop
MVP
iPhone 12 Mini—It’s taking great photos, recording the hike, and playing an awesome audiobook as I hike. I’m not sure how much I’d enjoy this entire backpacking adventure if I didn’t have such an awesome phone that fits so well into my waist pocket.
Camp Review:
Jennie Lake is a pretty alpine lake with lots of established camping spots on the northern shore. Weaver Lake is pretty much the same... it’s like 10% prettier.
The water at both lakes felt warm and wonderful after the respective hikes.
The campsites at Jennie Lake were plentiful and spaced decently apart from other campsites.
The hike had decent shade, but a hat is nice for most of the trail.
The trail was clean, though a little dusty at times.
There were so few mosquitos at both lakes that I didn’t use any repellents and didn’t get bit.
What I Learned:
I finally saw what a bear scat looks like in-person. I found it less than half a mile from the Fox Meadow parking lot, and the scary part was that the scat looked pretty fresh (less than a day old I’d reckon). It was also found in the middle of the hiking trail.
For a backpacking trip, leaving my house on Saturday morning makes a ton of sense. It allows me to get really good sleep on Friday night, then get to the trail head around 3pm, which is the hottest part of the day, but it only cools down from that point.
I’m not sure if I need hiking poles if my research shows that the hiking trail is pretty mellow. I didn’t use it at all, so it just ended up being a 1lb of gear that I bought for sentimental reasons.
I wore a new long sleeve hiking shirt where I pulled the sleeve to my elbow. It surprisingly kept me cooler than the button up poly shirt. I liked it a lot.
Bringing along an extra pair of underwear to change into at night was really nice.
I bought a smaller bear vault, which I used for this trip. While losing 8 oz was nice, it was a bit tight in packing everything into it and this was only a 1 night trip (with 2 extra meals).
This is the inaugural trip with a new Zpacks backpack and I’m very disappointed by it. It is so uncomfortable that I’m going to try returning it when I get back home.
Instead of carrying 2 liters of water, carried 1.4 liters instead (to save weight and space). It worked out really well. I did need a refill on the second day of hiking as it was over 6 miles. If I use one bottle with LiquidIV, I think I can stretch that to 8 miles.
I really like carrying my ipad, as it allows me to journal at night, and I can charge my iPhone off of it.
I wasn’t sure if I should put on the rain fly on the tent (so I could see the stars), but ended putting it on. It turned out to be the right decision, as it drizzled a couple of times in the night.
This was my first time hiking an extended time above 7000+ ft so I was worried about altitude sickness, but besides a small headache that I had on the first day (which I think I got because I got overheated), I was totally fine.
What Happened?
18.8 miles, ~10 hrs 20 min, ~3156 ft of ascent (over two days)
I got to the Fox Meadow trailhead at 3pm and started hiking towards Jennie Lake. At the trailhead, I met two gents who had just hiked back from a day hike to Weaver Lake. They stated that Weaver was way prettier, so I thought maybe I’d go to Weaver instead, but they also let me know that Weaver was super busy. Hearing this, I locked on to Jennie and started hiking.
Less than 1/2 a mile from the trailhead, I came across scat that was in the middle of the trail. I recognized it as bear scat, which gave me a bit of a scare given that it looked pretty fresh (less than 24 hrs old, I’d reckon). This probably made me whistle a few extra times while hiking.
In the weather.gov forecast, it was supposed to be a high of 80 degrees, but I found it to be about 87 degrees when I started hiking. It did cool down to about 78 degrees when I got to Jennie Lake, but I am very glad that the new hiking shirt worked out well, and my reliable running shorts kept me relatively cool.
The hike itself had pretty views, but I didn’t find it to be jaw-dropping or anything. Actually, after Poop Out Pass, the view turns into sparse trees in a granite shelf, and since I’m a big fan of granite, it did become much prettier. If there was less dust and particles in the air the view may have been grander, but given the high temperature that probably wasn’t going to happen.
When I got to Jennie Lake, I found the first spot I found to be unbelievably good, but it was unoccupied because there was a sign stating that I could not utilize the established spot. So I packed my backpack back up and kept hiking a bit more until I found another very good spot. After setting up the tent—although it was way past dinner time—I went swimming in the lake as I felt that I was close to overheating.
Compared to the lakes I took dips in at Desolation Wilderness, I found Jennie Lake to be much warmer, which helped make the swim a pleasant one. As I always try to do, I found a rock jutting out of the lake a hundred or so feet away, swam there, then jumped off of it, which felt great.
I really felt like eating spaghetti, but when I opened the bear vault, I smelled curry powder of the homemade dehydrated meal. So, thats what I ended up eating, which I found to be just delicious. I put a little more water than was optimal, but it didn’t matter at all.
I cleaned up around the camp, put the bear vault 100 ft away from me and other campers, and got into my tent around 8:30 or so. I hiked 5.9 miles in 3 hrs and 48 mins with 1533 ft of ascent on the first day. My pack was around 25 lbs. My legs didn’t feel tired at all, although, after the swim, they did feel a little wobbly.
I woke up a few times in the middle of the night, but got back to sleep relatively quickly. I did wake up at 4am because it started drizzling, which made me quickly zip up the side of my tent that I had open. I was going to go collect my drying towel and shirt (and my entire backpack) out of the rain, but it stopped. As I was about to fall asleep around 4:30am, it started drizzling again, so I got the aforementioned items and put it inside my spacious (for one person) tent.
I got up at 6:30am, ate my strawberry oat breakfast next to the lake, brushed my teeth, packed up everything and started hiking by 7:15am. I was hoping that the temperature would fall a bit at night, but when I started it was 65 degrees, which meant that I started sweating immediately.
I hiked to JO Pass and admired the views to the south. I was especially entranced by Mount Silliman, which has a really unique look that I liked. It might be a peak that I try to grab sometime. At the pass, I met two hikers who was finishing a two night trip. They parked at Rowell Meadow Trailhead, then hiked to Lost Lake, where they said they had lots of success catching trout (so much so that they released a bunch they caught). After a night there, they hiked over Silliman Pass and camped at Jennie Lake, and after their second night backpacking, they were heading back to their car. This route looks amazing, so this is a backpacking trail I think I’m going to attempt in the future as well.
The hike to Weaver Lake was long. I had calculated about 8 miles to Weaver from Jennie, but it actually took 10 miles. The distance I definitely felt w/my legs, although I did get my second wind after crossing and resting past Boulder Creek. This uphill was tough, but I made good time (for me).
When I got to Weaver Lake, I found it... slightly prettier than Jennie Lake, but not by much. The water was shallow, but was swimmable, and so, like usual, swam to a rock jutting out in the middle of the lake, jumped off of it, and swam back. I then had lunch (the spaghetti), but found it to be less delicious than I had remembered it. I conversed with a couple who had rubber banded w/me on the way here and found that they were my neighbors at Jennie Lake, and that they were impressed by the efficiency of my gear. It’s too bad I got to Jennie Lake so late the night before. If I had more time and had found out that their plans were the same as mine, I might have made trail friends.
Anyways, after lunch, the hike back to the Fox Meadow Trailhead was a quick one as it was all downhill. The only thing of consequence were the horses that I rubber banded with, and the bear scat that I still saw. When I got to my car, I was filled with joy, and I headed home. I had hiked 12.9 miles, in about 6 hrs and 30 min with 1623 ft of ascent on the second day, which is the longest hike I’ve done with my pack. The only physical issue I had was that at Weaver Lake, I cut a small portion of my feet while swimming/walking back to shore. It didn’t hurt too bad and didn’t impact me on the hike back, but I really, really ought to bring sandals for swimming.
