Thousand Island Lake
This is actually Garnet Lake; I just think of this trip as the Thousand Island Lake trip.
Camp Review
We found a backpacking camping spot near Clark Lakes that was a 5 star campsite. It was so nice that we stayed both nights here.
There was enough spots for 5+ tents, which meant that we used one of the spaces as a dining area and were able to spread out a bit.
A ridge to the east protected us from the wind, which made the site quiet and warmer than expected.
The soil was nice and healthy to the west, which made digging easy.
There may have been a camper on the second night to the east of us (next to the lake), but we did not hear them or see their tents.
Water access was easy since the campsite was just a 100m away from the lake.
We did not see much wildlife at the campsite—just a chip monk looking for scraps.
I was hammock camping and was able to easily find a few trees that would have worked to hang the hammock on. The actual tent sites were well defined, flat, and numerous. Because it dropped to lower than 40 F at night, there weren’t too many mosquitos. Louie and I still got bit though.
Hike Review
On the first day, we hiked the Rush Creek Trail and Spooky Meadow Trail.
On the second day, we hiked the Spooky Meadow Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, Thousand Island Lake Trail, John Muir Trail, Garnet Lake Cutoff Trail, River Trail, then back to Spooky Meadow Trail.
On the last day, we hiked the Clark Lakes Trail and Rush Creek Trail.
All trails that we hiked were single track trails that was usually dirt or rock. There were stretches where the trail was all loose scree on a steep slope and those were not fun.
Out of all these trails, the short John Muir Trail stretch was the prettiest, with all these gorgeous lakes within such a short span. The worst trail was the Garnet Lake Cutoff Trail, which was steep and hard to follow. I was wishing for more switchbacks at one point.
There was some snow on the Garnet Lake Cutoff Trail, which was a treat—Louie even glissaded!
What I Learned
I learned how to fly fish—the Tenkara way, anyways. I actually had a lot of fun casting the ultra flexible and light rod and trying to entice the fish to bite at the fly. It was extra fun learning it together with Louie, as sharing the excitement was half the fun. While in the town of June Lake, a local told us that the fish up there aren’t lured well by the fly, but that they bite at everything that looks like a worm. I’ll be trying worm bait next time!
I tried out the under quilt for the hammock and it worked okay. I still felt cold on my back, but this was expected given that the under quilt was rated for 40 degrees and it was colder than that at night.
Because I only backpacked twice this year, I thought myself out of shape. While I wasn’t my badass self from last year, I still did just fine on the trail.
I went on this trip while my ankle was still healing from a strain. I had to limp a bit before my ankle warmed up, but once it did, I really felt pretty good hiking on it. Though, when I got back, I did see a light bruise on the inside of the ankle, which told me that I probably took it a bit further than I should have. It took about 4 days for the ankle to return to a similar pain-free level before the hike and so I learned that I probably should avoid going backpacking on an injured ankle (but at the same time, I learned that my ankle can do a lot even when injured!).
One thing I regretted not bringing was my trekking poles. That would have been nice for the steep down slopes.
I learned what a squirrel sounded like! Steve taught both Louie and I what they sounded like and we were able to identify them throughout the trip. I had previously thought that the sound was caused by birds.
Steve brought his gun as we were hoping for a surf and turf meal. Unfortunately, we did not see much game and he ended up not hunting anything. We believe that the reason for the lack of game was the elevation. The only thing that was huntable in abundance were diminutive chipmunks, from which we could harvest the smallest portion of meat. Given what we learned, I doubt we’ll hunt if we’re backpacking around 10k ft again.
Media Consumed
Happy Place—finished!
Sense and Sensibility
Friends
Steve and Louie joined me for this backpacking trip. It was my second backpacking trip with other adults and had a great time. I was way less miserable than I would have been if I were to have hiked it by myself, as there were steep inclines that would have filled with me lots of negative thoughts—but because I was there with both Steve and Louie, it wasn’t so bad. I do think if I were to have gone alone that I would have gone faster and farther, but I would have had a lot less fun.
What Happened?
~24 miles, 17 hrs, 6000 ft of ascent (over three days)
Thousand Island Lake is by estimation, a top 5 lake in California. One of the reasons that made me think that were the constant pictures of it I saw on reddit and Instagram, coupled with the fact that the reservations were close to impossible to get last year. In 2023, however, I was able to nab a spot by logging on to the recreation.gov site at 7am exactly six months before the date I wanted to start backpacking it—even then I could not book the more popular trailheads to start from and had to start at the less popular Rush Creek. Rush Creek is less popular (I believe) due to the difficulty of the trail. Nevertheless, with two spots reserved, I told Louie about a cancellation spot I saw a few months back (which they booked) and my backpacking team of three was formed.
To be environmentally and budget conscious, we decided to carpool. I picked Louie up from Palo Alto right around 7am, then picked up Steve near Gene’s place around 8am, then drove straight to the Rush Creek trailhead by driving through Tioga Pass. The drive was a fun one with laughs and conversations about topics from religion to climbing. There were two moments that I remember vividly—one being Steve chuckling as Louie and I were geeking out at all the climbs and climbers we saw while driving through Tioga Pass; the second being Steve showing concern as I hobbled around Tioga Gas Mart as my ankle still wasn’t right after spraining it a few weeks ago while bouldering. With the second, I told Steve that the worst case scenario was that I would hike until I couldn’t take the pain, at which point, I would turn back and camp out in my truck until we met up on Sunday and I’d drive everyone back (thankfully, I didn’t have to abort, and we didn’t have to go to plan B).
We started the hike around 2pm, which I was dreading due it being the hottest part of the day (my least favorite time to hike as I am predisposed to overheat). While seeing Horsetail Falls got me excited for the winter (I want to ice climb that this winter), it was short lived as the trail just kept on giving inclines upon inclines. We kept at it though and made it to around the five mile mark, where the trail mellowed out and the weather cooled down. It was around this time where I spotted a nice chubby marmot after learning its call from Steve. It was a bit too far away for Steve to take a shot, but we did learn how marmots like to hang out at the top of rock outcroppings. We found this five star campsite at Clark Lakes and setup camp as the sun handed over its domain to the stars. After dinner, we all retired to our own hammock/tents. I ended up staying awake to finish my audiobook, but I believe both Steve and Louie went to bed almost immediately.
The next morning, we woke up lazily and only really got out of our beds once the sun graced us with its brilliance. We needed every bit of the sun, as the temperature dropped below 40 degrees. Steve decided to warm up his bones by hunting for game at a nearby favorable habitat, while Louie and I did a bit of bouldering while exploring and learning how to fish.
The bouldering was terribly exciting as our slippery shoes did it’s thing slipping on serpentine-like rock—which meant that we either had to just stick to climbing the easier stuff with jug or great feeling crimps. That got a little frustrating, so I ended up going up one bouldering route by taking my right shoe and sock off and climbing one foot barefoot, as then I could find purchase on a sloping (but sticky) hold for my big toe. Our adventuring culminated with us soloing this easy but 10-15 meter tall slab, which we both sent twice (once from the left side and once from the right).
After that, we then fished with the Tenkara rod, which started off as not so exciting (the water was super clear and we could not see any fish), but then got terribly exciting. Both Louie and I got a curious fish to come within a centimeter of the fly, which they ended up not biting! We were, however, able to figure out the intricacies of casting and getting the fish interested in the lure.
At lunch, all three of us met up for dehydrated meals and we headed off to Thousand Island Lake after agreeing that we should just stay put at the awesome campsite at Clark Lake. During the hike, we found other amazing camp spots and generally just enjoyed the milder hiking that this day seemed to offer. We soon came up on the Thousand Island outlet, which was a beaut. We were enamored by the green grass and the crystal clear waters, which seemed to recall the Sound of Music to us. But after confirming that the hills were definitely alive, we moved on to Thousand Island Lake, where we took a breather on a little peninsula that jutted out into the lake. Here, Louie sketched Banner Peak while Steve and I snacked and refilled our water supply.
After our well deserved respite, we continued on our loop to Garnet Lake, where we learned that while the reputation of beauty of Thousand Island Lake is well-deserved, it didn’t mean that the surrounding lakes were duds. In fact, I personally thought that Garnet Lake was a bit more to my taste and all three of were enamored with Ruby Lake until we saw the amount of insects floating in its waters. After picking up our jaws from Garnet Lake, we realized how late the day was getting and hurried back via the treacherous Garnet Lake Cutoff Trail and River Trail. At the intersection of the two, we dealt with a water crossing where the wisest of us ended up being the novice.
When we saw the water crossing, we saw that there was no bridge nor a clear rock hopping path. Instead, we recognized that we would probably have to get our feet wet and that we had to be extremely careful not to fall into the water. Steve went first and while he was able to balance well on the rocks that were dry and available, he ended up dunking one of his feet into the water at one point. I went second, and I immediately gave up any pretension of making it across dry and dunked both feet into the water. It was actually easier, as I didn’t have to worry about possibly losing balance in a precarious position. Instead I could just steadily walk across the water and get to the other side. Louie, who had never done any water crossings in their life, went last and put both Steve and I to shame by taking off their shoes/socks and walking across barefoot. When they finished crossing, they used my offered towel to dry their feet and were able to hike the rest of the way with dry feet. I actually didn’t suffer too much, as my wool socks insulate whether its wet or dry and my trail runners tend to dry decently quickly.
After a pretty quiet walk back to our campsite (we were all pretty tired and one of Louie’s knees had a nagging pain), we ate our dinners in good humor and again retired to our hammock/tents soon after. For me, the difference was that I too went to sleep pretty quickly and ended up sleeping on and off for almost 11 hours!
Here you can observe Steve in his natural habitat—the smallest beach in the world.
On the last day, we woke up pretty much at the same time as the day before and got ready to hike out. We packed up everything and started our hike down. The hike ended up taking a lot longer than I’d liked due to some issues path finding (I led us off the trail at one point) and generally slower hiking. The constant down hill I think also affected my uninjured ankle (as it had to take my weight on every jump down) and Louie’s knee pain came back. But in spite of it all, we made it down to the car in decent health. We immediately drove to the town of June Lake, where Louie and I indulged in a supreme pizza, while Steve somehow gulped down an enormous burrito the size of a marmot. We all then stumbled into the car and I drove us home.
