Minaret Point: The Beginning of Thousand Island Lake Loop

The lakes along Thousand Island Lake Loop, supposedly crown jewels of JMT was the proving ground for my backpacking gear. My backpack now weighs 30 pounds after adding food, water and bear canister. Certainly not an ultra-light pack. But I figured you just need to slow down by 5 to 10 percent for each additional 10 pounds. The physics of p=fv says so: for the constant power, you should slow down proportionally to the increase in weight. assuming a person weighs 100 to 200 lbs, the increase of 10 pounds is 5-10% of the total weight. Therefore, you should slow down by that amount.

If you are a type 2 hiker who gets a kick out of getting there fast, then the weight that you carry matters. I don't need to be there fast; I only need to get there for the novelty effect. Just hiking a few miles to get to a new place is enough to get my juice flow to suppress the exertion-hypersensitivity.

The road to Mammoth Lakes through South Lake Tahoe and Gardnerville was a familiar one. It was the same route that I took last year. I got to Mammoth Lakes Welcome Center at 3 PM and picked up the permit and a bear canister. I then plugged in the car and went over to Grocery Outlet a block away to buy a couple of bottles of water. They didn't have one liter water bottle, so I bought ginger ale and tonic water instead. I drank them instead of water throughout the next day.

The road from Minaret Point to Agnew Meadows was closed, the ranger at the Welcome Center told me. I had to start my hike from Minaret Point instead of driving down to the trail head at Agnew Meadows. It's downhill going out, which meant additional 3 miles of uphill coming back. After 10 miles on High Trail, that'll be a murder.

There was no point going up to Minaret Point early. There wouldn't be cell connection there and I'd be out of things to do. I spent the rest of the afternoon in Mammoth Lakes and surfed the internet. I then went up to Minaret Point, soaked in the view of Minarets, fixed instant ramen for supper and then went to bed.